The remnant of winter driving stick to everything inside your car – imagine what’s underneath these floor mats.
When spring finally arrives, don’t undervalue the benefits of a professional interior detailing service for your vehicle. After a long Madison WI winter of salted roads, cleaning the outside of your car, truck or SUV is an obvious choice. Attention to stains, grime and other winter detritus on the inside not only makes for a more pleasant ride, it improves the value of the vehicle. Now’s the time to pay attention to the little things – see AutoColor’s March Special!
Household cleaners are poor choices for modern fabrics and surfaces inside today’s vehicle. Not only are there many new synthetic materials, more common materials are used in new and different ways. Using the wrong cleaning agent opens the doors to costly mistakes.
Can you get a “professional job” at home? Define “professional.” There are different levels of “clean” from “good enough” to showroom clean. A professional team working to detail an average vehicle interior takes as much as six hours to do the job right.
What Pros Bring To Interior Detailing
After a harsh winter interior vehicle detailing can be complicated. Salt residue is easily ground into carpet. It also stains adjacent molding, pedals and trim. Upholstery, padded parts and polished metals are at risk from staining and corrosion. Making it more complicated, use the wrong chemical cleaner or the correct chemical the wrong way and you can ruin these surfaces.
Consider what a professional detailing team brings to the process:
- Cleaning agents, solvents – with years of experience and training on the newest materials, professionals have the latest in solvents, cleaning agents and polishes. The potential for stains is almost endless. Different materials require different cleaners and different approaches.
- Knowledge, education – having the right cleaner isn’t enough. You have to understand how to apply it properly. There are so many surfaces in today’s cars and trucks – plastics, fabrics, leathers, rubber, wood, metals and carpets. Compounding the problem are the many dyes used in fabrics and carpets. What works on one vehicle may damage the next one. What you used on your old car may be a curse to your new one.
- Time – a pro not only knows what to do and how to do it, a trained professional has the time to do it right.
- The right tools – it doesn’t make sense for a homeowner to invest in specialized tools to deep-clean and detail their car’s interior once or twice a year. Even the best shop vacuum or family vacuum won’t get the grime and stains out of a car’s carpet. Having a complete battery of tools to use on your vehicle and the training to use them properly makes a great deal of difference in the results.
No crack or crevice is too small or insignificant to get the attention of an interior detailing professional.
Auto Interior Restoration And Cleaning
Possibly most important, and for sure the hardest to match element in the detailing process is access to a dedicated facility. Sure, you can detail your car’s interior in the garage or sitting in the driveway. But a fully-equipped service center increases the odds of outstanding results.
Just because of the cold Madison resident don’t take as good care of their vehicles in winter as they do in spring, summer and fall. Lack of routine interior protection combined with even more corrosive elements from outside opens the possibility of restoration beyond cleaning.
Interior surfaces don’t have the in-depth protecting your vehicle’s paint or undercarriage surfaces do. Areas for concern include:
- Floor mats – whether you have rubber or carpeted floor mats vacuumed them frequently to remove loose debris. Salty slush tracked in this winter not only stains floor mats, it seeps beneath to stain and damage carpets, too.
- Upholstered areas – anywhere dirt, moisture or debris transfers from people or cargo into your vehicle.
- Headliners, dash and controls –any surface your hands might transfer winter grime or dirt.
- Cargo areas – anywhere winter implements might land – scraper, brushes, dirty rags, etc.
- Leather – leather and leather-look-alike materials are at risk for cracking in extreme cold. A good leather cleaner can help soften the leather and keep it clean.
Road Salt – The Worst Of The Worst Auto Body Threats
A guaranteed curse to Wisconsin drivers, road salt and ice-melting corrosives are in a class of threats all by themselves. Not only do they stain and encrust surfaces. They react with chemical cleaners. There’s potential for serious damage serious damage inside and outside your vehicle.
Tell-tale white stains on floor mats, carpets and upholstery let you know salt or one of its allies is in the fiber of interior. Even where salt isn’t used as heavily as it used to be, its alternatives are just as corrosive. But, they often require different cleaning agents and approaches.
Do-it-yourself defensive tools include:
- Clean water buckets – you don’t want to be rinsing with salt water!
- Carpet and upholstery shampoos and cleaners
- Leather cleaner
- Window cleaner
- Degreaser
- Brushes, cloths and sponges.
- Good vacuum cleaner
Nothing matches the quality of a professional job. But, put in time with these items and it will help protect your investment.
A couple of tips from the pros:
- Make sure scrubbed areas a dry – if you’re scrubbing or shampooing carpets or floor mats be sure they are very dry before using them. Anything tracked in sticks really well to a wet (even slightly moist) surface.
- Apply glass cleaner to cloth not window – applying glass cleaner to the cleaning cloth is a good way to minimize streaking.
Auto Upholstery Repair – An Available Option
The interior of every vehicle takes a beating – your get in, you get out… Upholstery, leather or fabric, wears more with every use. With the extremes in Madison weather, that wear is exaggerated. Sometimes ever a professional detailing effort cannot hide the need for repair. Like anything else, there are do-it-yourself band-aide fixes. But a truly custom, professional job restores the good looks and value of your car, truck or SUV.
You get an owner’s manual outlining how to maintain the mechanical parts but nothing about keeping the inside looking showroom smart. Professionals at AutoColor know how to detail your vehicle inside and outside and are ready to complete repairs when needed.
Take Pride In Your Ride With Professional Interior Detailing
It’s easy to let your car go when the roads are slick and slushy. It is easy, but not a good idea. Now that spring is close it is time to think about protecting your investment with professional service inside and outside. When it’s time for “spring cleaning” inside your vehicle check in with one of AutoColor’s Madison area locations – West on Parmenter Road in Middleton and East on Stoughton Road. Whether you need a professional car wash or paint, glass and body repairs call AutoColor. Put the latest technology and trained technicians to work for exterior and interior detailing services in the Madison WI area.
Contact East Side – Stoughton Road & Buckeye
