Spring Cleaning

[lothos]

I did the plugs and wires and a fuel filter on a friends Jeep, and she shampood my interior carpets. I'd like to get the rest of the interior done, and was wondering about tips or recomended products for cleaning a Cadillac. I've never had leather before, and I don't know what to use to spot clean it or condition it.

What do you guys use for the leather, dash, wood trim, exterior, and rims? What about for the rubber weather strips on the doors and trunk? Anything else, any general tips, things like that??

I've seen a special paint polish for black cars, anyone used it?

I've heard that Armor All isn't that great for the dash etc.

So, what do you guys use?

[JasonA]

I personally don't use Armor All on anything. It's full of silicones and petroleum. It's not good for your tires, dash, leather, vinyl...anything really. All it does is add an artificial shine that deteriorates the material over time. For the leather, use a leather cleaner, like Lexol. I've had good success with that. I personally don't follow that up with the conditioner, but you certainly can. It added too much of a greasy feeling to mine, so I cleaned it back off. For the rubber or tires, use anything not containing petroleum distillates or solvents. Unless it specifically says on the product that it does NOT contain those substances, it probably does.

[JimD]

What do you guys use for the leather

My leather is cleaned with a very mild detergent (Woolite) and conditioned with mink oil.

I would not apply to leather any product that I would not use on my own skin.

What about for the rubber weather strips on the doors and trunk?

Silicone sprayed onto a cloth and liberally applied to the rubber. Wiper blades also.

[lothos]

My leather is cleaned with a very mild detergent (Woolite) and conditioned with mink oil.

I would not apply to leather any product that I would not use on my own skin.

good advice, thanks

Silicone sprayed onto a cloth and liberally applied to the rubber. Wiper blades also.

What kind of silicone? Would that work for rubber on tires as well? What else could I use it for?

[winterset]

To clean the leather, melt a bar of dove in a bowl of water for 2 days, & use the mush of soap on a sponge & dry with a clean towel. to polish & protect the leather, use plain pledge furniture polish. (even the pledge directions say it's to be used on wood or leather). it'll leave the seats clean & supple.

To clean the interior headliner & other cloth areas without using much water, spray resolve carpet cleaner on the surface, rub it in with your hand, then use a white towel, and rub it. you'll see the towel turn brown as the dirt transfers to the white towel. use a clean section of the towel on each area you're working on. when you're done woth the area, it should feel dry.

even though you had the carpets shampooed, if there are still some spots around the seats & in crevices that need to get touched up, this works great on the carpet as well. The trick is to rap the towel around your nuckles & rub the dirt & cleaner out with friction.

I also use the resolve to clean the seatbelts, but with a little water, & I extend the belts overnight to dry.

I use a white damp towel with paint thinner to clean the scuffs off the interior plastic around the doors, & to get tar off the paint finish outside & to clean the black plastic rocker pannel under the doors. I also use it on all the weather stripping. & on the whitewalls. & to get some brake debree out of the chrome wheels.

That's all my secrets.

[catmendo]

<a href="http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navc...y+uses+of+wd+40" target="_blank">http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navc...y+uses+of+wd+40</a>

study up on this guys ... non toxic ... based on fish oil ...

tires, road tar, leather, fishing lures etc. ...

i first started to swear by it, for drying out my XKE jag distributors

if you went through a puddle or less on a rainy day they would die

and be dead on the side of the road ... one spray inside the dist. cap

and you were back on the road a minute later ...

a WWII airplane mech. got me into foreign cars and taught me about

the WD 40 fix ... if i was still into jags ,i would just put silicone on the

meeting surfaces of a jag dist. cap and be good to go ...

i have also read, where baby wipes were better than armor all and

they make your car smell better than a baby's bottom ... big grin ...

Lane

[lothos]

i have also read, where baby wipes were better than armor all and

they make your car smell better than a baby's bottom ... big grin ...

I vaguely remember a post on here about using baby oil for keeping the material on the doors nice and crack-free.

[lothos]

That's all my secrets.

That was quite the insightful post, thank you.

I have a brown spot on my light colored leather seat from a coffee spill, it's about the size of a quarter or half dollar. Will the dove work on that or should I use something stronger on that spot?

EDIT: Will the dove and Pledge work on the top of my dash and the doors as well?

[Texas Jim]

I vaguely remember a post on here about using baby oil for keeping the material on the doors nice and crack-free.

I have used Johnson & Johnson Baby Oil on vinyl tops for the last 30 years. Have never had one dry out and start cracking. Some of the cars I kept for 20 years and they were NOT in a garage.

[BodybyFisher]

That's all my secrets.

That was quite the insightful post, thank you.

I have a brown spot on my light colored leather seat from a coffee spill, it's about the size of a quarter or half dollar. Will the dove work on that or should I use something stronger on that spot?

EDIT: Will the dove and Pledge work on the top of my dash and the doors as well?

I have seen winterset's car in person, its beautiful, I was embarrised of my 96's condition when I saw his 96, I was especially impressed how good he got the black belt line down the sides BLACK, mine is a nice dried wax white.. Recently I have been using tire dressing on that black belt line and it seems to be staying black, getting wax on it is wrong.

I rent one of those steam cleaners from the grocery store with a hand held attachment, the carpets come out perfect! They I spray them with scotchgard.. I need to do my seats soon, they are overdue and as someone else noted I use Lexol, but I am liking the idea of the DOVE and Pledge.

[lothos]

Are the doors and top of the dash the same material? Will the dove and pledge work on that as well, or is something else needed for it?

And what kind of silicone? Any specific brand name?

[BodybyFisher]

I was just watching ESPN, and they advertised this, Turtle Wax ICE, for interiors, based on the ad it sounds exactly what we need, what do you think

Turtle Wax Ice Interior

I am thinking about this for my black side belts

Turtle Wax ICE

[lothos]

To clean the leather, melt a bar of dove in a bowl of water for 2 days, & use the mush of soap on a sponge & dry with a clean towel. to polish & protect the leather, use plain pledge furniture polish. (even the pledge directions say it's to be used on wood or leather). it'll leave the seats clean & supple.

To clean the interior headliner & other cloth areas without using much water, spray resolve carpet cleaner on the surface, rub it in with your hand, then use a white towel, and rub it. you'll see the towel turn brown as the dirt transfers to the white towel. use a clean section of the towel on each area you're working on. when you're done woth the area, it should feel dry.

even though you had the carpets shampooed, if there are still some spots around the seats & in crevices that need to get touched up, this works great on the carpet as well. The trick is to rap the towel around your nuckles & rub the dirt & cleaner out with friction.

I also use the resolve to clean the seatbelts, but with a little water, & I extend the belts overnight to dry.

I use a white damp towel with paint thinner to clean the scuffs off the interior plastic around the doors, & to get tar off the paint finish outside & to clean the black plastic rocker pannel under the doors. I also use it on all the weather stripping. & on the whitewalls. & to get some brake debree out of the chrome wheels.

That's all my secrets.

I've got some Dove melting in a pail with some water, going to try that out this week. Going to pick up some Pledge for the wood and leather. Should look really nice when I get done.

Still haven't decided on a polish for the paint yet.

[Delta]

Had an 86 Bowrider boat, when I first bought it, spent hours and hours, compounding, buffing etc, got most of the color back, within 3-4 weeks, haze was back. I went back to my old standby, BABY OIL, boat looked like brand new, but dont put it where you put your feet, or you'll slip, and also, the little bugs love it..

[lothos]

I spent a couple hours today with my melted dove soap, and a sponge I picked up from WalMart. Scrubbed the seats, rinsed out the sponge and rinsed the seats with the sponge, and then toweled dry. It got out a lot of the dirty spots. I picked up some orange Pledge as well, and that really brought out a shine in the wood trim. The interior looks really good.

I also vacuumed the interior, cleaned the inside and outside of all windows and mirrors, and cleaned the rims. There was some Armor All wheel cleaner in the garage that I used, with a toothbrush, and the rims look pretty nice.

I still have some scuff marks in the harder plastic trim by the doors. I'll try some paint thinner on it like Winterset suggested.

Also going to try some Silicon spray for the rubber seals and stuff.

[winterset]

If the paint thinner doesn't work, you might have to use a little goo gone. But be very careful with this stuff as it can melt the plastic, so what will happen is the texture (fine bumps) on the trim will get smooth. try it on a inconspecious place to get the effort you should apply. then use very little on a white towel. I noticed a little wear of the bumps looks alot better than a big black scuffmark I had to use it on my drivers side bottom kick panel (color of the interior). when done, what's left on the towel should be black. If you see the color of the car, you started rubbing off the bumps. (AGAIN BE VERY CAREFUL WITH GOO GONE) - it's a last resort

[hdryder05]

I've never looked forward to weekend cleaning in my life. All these new tips/secrets are awesome! Can't wait to try a few. Is there a picture post anywhere to post the results? Kevin

[BigTyler]

winterset.... you are the BEST!!

[lothos]

I've never looked forward to weekend cleaning in my life. All these new tips/secrets are awesome! Can't wait to try a few. Is there a picture post anywhere to post the results? Kevin

You can upload photos to photobucket or flickr and link them here.