stephenmercedes
Active Member
The very nature of this section implies a careful owner, and regular upkeep of their pride & joy. I have recently acquired a 2001 C240, which has had one careful owner, unfortunately, it's had many very un-careful ones too! I have owned cars for almost 40 years now, so am use to cleaning them. This car had been owned by a contractor who often visited building sites, dragging much of their content in & out of the car!
It has leather seats which I'm pretty sure hadn't been vacuumed in 17 years, never mind any leather care. I bought this stuff of Ebay, and it is excellent.
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I applied it neat on the leather then proceeded to use a toothbrush to agitate it into the leather. Immediately, the white creamy liquid turned brown with years of grime, and with each 'brushing', I wiped off with a micro fiber, then back with more liquid, and another brushing. I must have done this about a dozen times, before the white cream remained 'white' on cleaning and conditioning.
Another area that bugged me was the door speaker grills, obviously dirty with muddy boots touching them all the time. This I dealt with using a 'dash trim' spray, doesn't need to be anything expensive, just a good spray, then a tooth brushing, then a wipe with the ubiquitous micro fiber cloth. Just repeat until the cloth shows no further grime and the grill shines! (Don't drench it as you don't want to soak the speaker!)
The 'carpet' trim at the bottom of the doors were treated to a carpet cleaning spray, and again, agitated with a stiff brush, and wiped off. Repeat till cloth is clean and trim looks like new!
This process has taken over a week so far, I keep finding bits to clean, even the door pillars, the seat rails, the boot (!), the glass, the bodywork, etc etc.
Like I said, most here will be cleaning already cherished cars, but it's quite fun to clean one that is in the autumn of it's life, just deserves a bit of TLC...
It has leather seats which I'm pretty sure hadn't been vacuumed in 17 years, never mind any leather care. I bought this stuff of Ebay, and it is excellent.
I applied it neat on the leather then proceeded to use a toothbrush to agitate it into the leather. Immediately, the white creamy liquid turned brown with years of grime, and with each 'brushing', I wiped off with a micro fiber, then back with more liquid, and another brushing. I must have done this about a dozen times, before the white cream remained 'white' on cleaning and conditioning.
Another area that bugged me was the door speaker grills, obviously dirty with muddy boots touching them all the time. This I dealt with using a 'dash trim' spray, doesn't need to be anything expensive, just a good spray, then a tooth brushing, then a wipe with the ubiquitous micro fiber cloth. Just repeat until the cloth shows no further grime and the grill shines! (Don't drench it as you don't want to soak the speaker!)
The 'carpet' trim at the bottom of the doors were treated to a carpet cleaning spray, and again, agitated with a stiff brush, and wiped off. Repeat till cloth is clean and trim looks like new!
This process has taken over a week so far, I keep finding bits to clean, even the door pillars, the seat rails, the boot (!), the glass, the bodywork, etc etc.
Like I said, most here will be cleaning already cherished cars, but it's quite fun to clean one that is in the autumn of it's life, just deserves a bit of TLC...
