How would you clean Automobile Interior Carpet Cleaning? What cleaning products do you use? Why doesn't just regular steam cleaning remove most spots?
Auto interior carpet is horrible carpet. You're best to get something strong, that will whip up a good foam. Scrub it with a good stiff nylon brush and extract. My mom owned a car detail shop about 5-6 years ago. All I had was a shampoo, and brush and a wet/dry vac. It worked really well. Look up the company Simoniz they make a good dry-foam shampoo that we used.
When I was in Aspen I had a company called Aspen Details. I started this company whenI was 24 and ran it with one one employee for four years until I sold it for a whole lot more than I paid for everything. We detailed Range Rovers, Porsches, etc. I bought a single vac, dual heated portable which I still have for my personal car. I learned a lot by jumping in and made a lot of money. I used a great degreaser (Sams Club) and a citrus solvent for my shampoo with amazing results. I got $500.00 on average for a Porsche and upwards of $$900.00 to $1000.00 for the Range Rovers, G500s, Navigators, etc. I had a 5 x 8 trailer I took with me for portable detailing that included all of my equipment. I did well but I worked my tail off. It took me an average 4 hours for a car like a Audi A4 or up to 6 to 7 hours for a Range Rover.
low moisture on all seats / headliner or else you will run into trouble. Try a nice dry foam shampoo and run should be ok , but as with cleaning carpet , pre vac is essential . Get too aggressive and brown out will occur so have some acetic acid or something for brown out ready . James
We have been detailing for the past five years. While I go on the road with the truckmount, my wife and a helper will work on 2 cars per day plus area rugs and any other inplant work. Each car takes over 3 hours depending on the package. We use Matrix finish first as a prespray and a Ninja, we lightly scrub and extract then groom. All vinyl gets wiped down with teflon based protectant and all windows are done inside and out, for deluxe packages we do hardshell paste wax on exterior and do the tires too. Regular spotters for whatever, citrus gel, rust remover, some strong Ammonia based for tough stains. Cars all come out brand new, but no way are we going to get $1000 for doing them, however, we earn regular customers for all other services and the car cleaning is our "loss leader". We make $100 to $170 for a detailing job. It doesnt seem like they are bringing in much at first but its over $1000/week added to our sales. Thats a good $50000/yr added to the yearly sales! So, its worth it and we take great pride in our reputation as the greatest detailers in the area that are affordable!
i am agree, car's carpet is very taff to clean , its not a regular carpet and you have always use a brush, but even with brush is hard to clean. The seats is very easy just a regular upholstery, using auto tool its fine. Set the truckmount at 300psi using auto tool because the jet is inside the vacuum you need a more psi. The roof use a dry master tool and will be OK.Use a less chemical or dilute more. Stop the chemical at the truckmount, even with hot water without chemicals the roof will be clean very well. Perfect cleaning for car takes 2-3 hours I don't clean cars because its very hard and takes a lot of time. I cleaned my friend's cars and they ware very happy I will posted pictures of my next car
I detail cars on the side and I can tell you from experience that auto carpet is much harder to clean than regular carpet. Not only can the texture be odd, but it is a pita to get to all the crevices and angles. Think about it also, the drivers area is an extremely high traffic area with a tremendous concentration of parking lot oils, dust and who knows what else concentrated in a rather small area. Combine that with trying to get under the pedals, seats, etc.... you get the idea. The trick as others have said is to use either low moisture or a dry foam type product. I find it best to lightly spray a degreaser or pre spray and agitate with a brush as others have suggested. I them HWE using many dry passes. Stubborn stains get an extra whopping as I apply citrissolv directly to them, mist the degreaser, them HWE. As others have noted, browning out can be a problem as the carpet dries. Thats why its best to use as low moisture as possible and do many dry passes. I them take a thick cotton towel and go over the carpet when it is dry to the touch. A higher PH prespray is fine for auto carpet if you do a color test first. I usually use a detail specific product made just for auto interiors called Lighting Fast by Chemical Guys. It works great. Sorry to ramble, Matt
I reread my post , and didnt make everything clear - on the carpet you can blast it with whatever you want - its the seats and headliner you want to be cautious with - dry foam , vlm only - and have acetic acid ready ( I usually go over with a cotton towel , buffing it in and recheck all upholstery after dry for brownout .
Most car upholstery is,if i'm not mistaken, usually a polyester blend which makes it pretty durable. In my experience, I use a hand held pump sprayer with an enzyme pre-spray, mist it lightly, brush it in and HWE using my upholstery tool. Like the posts above mention, you can use some pretty strong chemicals on the actual carpet. Since the carpet is a synthetic, if you have spots that come back, it really is not actually browning but rather wicking caused by incomplete extraction and slow drying. Neil
I don't "detail", but I clean auto carpets and upholstery all the time with my drimaster and some Pro-Zyme. It works great. And whatever doesn't come out gets post sprayed with USR. Works like a charm.
If you think of auto carpets as getting the use level of walk off mats in high traffic buildings combined with a moderately clean restaurant carpet you get the picture. You don't get browning you generally get wicking of tire/oil/shoe sole/polish and spills like coffee. It is not uncommon to spill a whole drink while driving and then have no time to blot it so there is potential to have lots of wicking. Ideally auto carpet should be cleaned monthly, since it isn't you have to treat it like a heavy bleeder/wicker and do what you do to prevent this. If you soak it it will wick! I usually use a pump up sprayer with prespray, agitate extract with a Shopvac or my Mytee M 12 and use clean water to rinse. Towel with cotton towels and a fan/airmover. You need lots of drying. If you can get it dry fast you can dodge the wicking or get a chance to see it and deal with it before you leave the job. Your hands will be sore after a car cleaning. Combining an auto detail with the carpet and seats seems to make the most sense. I like the idea of combining as a loss leader to get home carpet and tile jobs.
Hey Guys, Here in Mexico, In South Baja, Cars are really dirty cause of the Dust we have in the different towns, People dont do a Detail until is really an emergency, here I do cars that have been with out a Inside detail for years. My way of doing it, first a really deep Vacuum pass, I pre-spray the Seats & the carpet using a mix of Degreasers & little bit of shampoo. Then in a small bucket, I hand brush lightly all yhe area, first the seats then the carpet. Next step, is Using the Portable Machine with really nice Hott Water, get everything out, in some cases, I need to do this procedure twice, so I can leave a nicer job. I clean the seat belts too, here not to many peolpe care, but is better to offer it. I do Interior & Exterior Details, here in Mexico I charge from $100.dls a regular detail, & in some cases like an Suv, a nice detail for $250dls. I like my job, & Im good at it, My details are from 6hrs, up to 10hrs, Just Me & my helper. Most of the time even thoug some coustomers dont pay me to do the outside of a car, I end up giving away a free regular car wash, so I deliver a clean job. Soo far, It has giving me more referals, by doing it like this!! I like & use products from Prochems, Spray Detailers like Pig Spit, Good quality Leather creams, etc.. The best way for your car carpet, to be clean, Hand Brush it, & Extraction with Portable!!
