i want to clean the interior carpet and leather seats. what products would you recommend? I'm not on a budget, but i'm not looking for exotic cleaners that are flown in, handcuffed to a messenger.

i have the gray interior.

 

for the carpet I would use Oxi Clean, Ive used it before and it does wonders

 

would you recommend any special vacuums?

i want to really steam clean the carpet. I once saw a local car wash guy detailing the inside of a lexus LS with a bucket of what appeared like a shampoo and water solution and a big wash mit. He just soaked everything in the interior with this thing making everything soapy. He went over everything except the electronics. I'm a little worried about doing that, unless you guys recommend doing so. I didn't see how he got rid of the soap since my car finished before he did.

 

For your leather it really depends on the extent of dirtyness. Lexol makes a solid product. A cleaner in an orange bottle and conditioner in a brown bottle. Cost about $9 to $10 for each bottle and is available at most auto part stores or your local ACE hardware or True Value. It's all Ph balanced and an excellent choice to use that won't put you in the poor house. It's not good at deep cleaning (severly let go seats). If its quite dirty I would then use a mild soap and warm water on a rag. Work it in and then dry it off and follow it up with some Lexol conditioner. Stay away from some of the real cheap crap out there as it will leave residue, shinyness, etc. etc.. Zymol also makes a nice leather cleaner.

Your carpet you can use most household carpet cleaners with no problem. 409 makes one that is pretty cheap ($4 for a can). You first vacum the interior, then spray it on, work it in lightly with a sponge, let it dry, and then vacum. Should be more then enough to clean your carpet. You car mats themselves you can do the same thing. I'd first test a spot to make sure you get no discoloration. Chances are about 99% you won't have any problem.

 

For leather, see thread: http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=57851

 

I just used that oxy stuff today.
works good but then again i have blk carpet.

 

Just got back from paintballing today..
The challenge of cleaning up after that is always interesting, regardless of how many towels I put everywhere...

Seriously though, I use a variety of cleaners on the carpet, but every so often I'll deep clean them with a big extractor machine. Otherwise, I always top them with scotch guard when I've finished cleaning and drying my floormats, and try to keep them vacuumed regularly. Yet I have black matts also...

Leather must be kept protected, and it's what the previous owner didn't do, so my leather is slightly less hard than a rock, considering it used to be harder - I'm happy with the slow recovery progress I've made with it...

Anyways,