7 hour interior. I give up

[Wes Man]

I was recommended to another doctor by one of my regulars. Earlier this week and last, i have been cleaning all there vehicles from his to his moms, his dads and his nannies. well anyway, his wife was so embarrassed that she wouldn`t allow me to look inside her van.I insisted and after she saw me bring her husbands tahoe interior back to life, she figured she would give me a shot. I SHOULD HAVE JUST MINDED MY OWN BUSINESS!!! She has 3 kids under the age of 5. She is a general practitioner but since her husband is a spine doctor, she doesn`t practice and stays home with the kids. Obviously, they spend way to much time in this van.





This is the front pasenger area. As you can see, the carpet is a wreck and the seat is beyond dirty.

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n150/jburks3/Picture055.jpg





This is just behind the front passenger seat. The carpets were hard as a rock. Much have been a combination of juice, crackers, slobber and dirt. Makes a good glue:chuckle:



http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n150/jburks3/Picture054.jpg









This is the carpet in front of the rear seats. I think only one car seat is back here at a time. That is one messy *** kid!



http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n150/jburks3/Picture057.jpg



This is a shot of the cargo area in the very back. Keep in mind this is after vacuum. This entire area was a storage area for half eatin ritz crackers and blow pop sticks.



http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n150/jburks3/Picture056.jpg







This is a quick shot of the center mat in the driveway. you get the idea in the sun. every other mat was as bad or worse as you can see.



http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n150/jburks3/Picture060.jpg



I began by laying the mats in the driveway and doing a very thourough vacuum. i then pre treated the entire mat with folex and a Prochem heavy traffic lane cleaner from jondon.com. I then mixed simple green 1:1 with water and worked it into the mats with a stiff carpet brush. I made sure to induse suds by using alot of SG solution and making small circles with the brush.:hairpull after letting them sit for 15 min or so, i cranked up the pressure washer and gave every mat a very thourough rinse. i hung them to dry while i cleaned the seats and surrounding plastics. afterward, i used my LG and LG solution to clean and extract the rest of the dirt and water. Moving onto the carpets inside, i pretreated the severe spots with Folox and gave the entire surface a mist of Prochem. i then used the same SG solution and scrubbed the bad spots with the stiff carpet brush. i then extracted the entire van with my LG. Followed by the same extraction with super hot water.(you would be surprised how much more you pick up with just hot water):shocked Moving onto the worst part, the seats. i gave up on being gentle and caring for the leather, obviously its not of big importance to the owner. I used the same SG solution as the mats plus a bottle of full strength for a the severe dirty areas. i scrubbed door panels, seats, seat trim, armrest, center console, door jams and nearly everything else till i was satisfied with the results. i followed each little section with a wipe down from a hot water rag. after about 6 hours so far, i got my leather cleaner and did a quick wipe down to remove all residue from SG. I then dusted the vents, cleaned dash, cd etc. the reason i didnt get to fancy with the carpet art was the simple fact that there was just to much carpet.:hairpull



Anyway, so here it is, 7 hours later. the out side took the better half of an hour and i was done.





http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n150/jburks3/Picture064.jpg













http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n150/jburks3/Picture069.jpg













http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n150/jburks3/Picture068.jpg













http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n150/jburks3/Picture065.jpg

[mr.ikon]

thats a mighty big change. but 7 hours on the interior just blows my mind. nice work.

[SpoiledMan]

You earned your dough on that one! Nice work!

[stiffdogg06]

damn that did come out awesome!



Nice job!:woot:

[DantheMan]

Turned out nice, I bet she was happy..



Great work!

[imageautodetail]

Its a shame there werent any floor mats, great job.

[Don GM]

That looks great, especially from what it was before. I`ve steam cleaned some interiors twice over and there are just some stains and wear spots that will always show through, don`t worry about it! I think being as meticulous as we are, we expect a better result than the customers. I know that`s how it should be; but interiors sometimes are impossible to perfect, unlike paint.

[imported_JoshVette]

Nice work. All day one interior wow.



Looks great.:bow

[Wes Man]

I cleaned the main carpets for about 3 hours. that included treating, scrubbing, extracting, and extracting again with hot water. i have learned that interiors are all about patience. you cant rush em.:wall

[twitch]

Very nice restoration! :goodjob



At least you didn`t have dog hair on top of the stains! :wall

[mattgg11]

A question for you pros...



When floor mats are as trashed/dirty as the ones in these pictures, do you ever recommend that your client just go to the dealership and spend $100-$200 on a brand new set of floor mats?



In this case, it seems like buying brand new OEM floor mats would a better alternative to spending hours attempting to bring the old ones back to life.



You did a remarkable job with the interior of this car, but new mats would certainly be preferrable to reviving the old ones, especially considering the time it took you.



Lastly, do you ever recommend to these people to spend a little money and buy a set of all-weather rubber/plastic mats and cargo trays?

[Mark77]

Nice work. But like mattgg11 suggested these people should buy some rubber/plastic floor mats instead. So much easier to clean and protecting so much better. The center one probably lets all the dirt through because it`s in like 5 pieces for 2 seats. I have rubber mats all the time now, although I never would get my interior looking like that.

[AP2TUDE]

Good work.



I would have suggested the plastic floor mats as soon as I delivered the car. Spending a little bit of money on those now will save them tons of time trying to get these cleaned again later.



With things like this it is super important that the client have a reasonable expectation of what you can do, and what you can`t. If you let them know before hand what you expect the outcome to be, and you surpass that, you look that much better. Better to let them know you aren`t perfect, and then prove you are close, than for them to think that you are and prove them totally wrong.

[mckarras]

`Fantastic work there. I wonder why people with small kids buy cars with beige interiors and leather.`

[BuffMe]

Wow, just now saw this thread. You are the man! That is one helluva job on those carpets.