I’ve been looking to trade in my car and even though I’ve kept her in great shape over the years she still was in need of a makeover. There’s not much I can do about her exterior (other than a good car wash) but there is plenty I can do for her interior. I had pinned this about a month or two ago when I knew I was going to start looking for a new car.
Unfortunately I do not have a before and after photo for you for this pin. It’s not because these tips didn’t work, but rather because I’ve chosen not to include them for privacy reasons.
DIY car detailing (image from original pin)
6 DIY Car Detailing Tips
1. Start from the top down wiping your car out.
2. Get everything out of your car and trunk.
3. Shop vac your car.
4. Use a good fabric cleaner.
5. Wash your car mats in the washing machine.
6. Buy a good air freshener.
I only tried tips 1-3. I didn’t have any fabric cleaner, didn’t trust the car mats in the washing machine tip, and don’t like masking odors with other odors. I’d rather get rid of them entirely.
It’s better to start with step 2, then step 1 and 3. What’s the point of wiping down your car when you still have junk in it?
I compiled everything I had into 3 separate bags.
- Garbage
- To sort through
- Keep
Then I used windex and half a roll of paper towels to wipe everything down. When I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING! Even the areas between the doors that had years of dirt built up. I wish I had taken a picture but I didn’t think of it at the time.
Now for the best trick I picked up. When I saw the original picture for this post, I thought they were vacuuming up baking soda from the seats, not using a wet/dry vacuum. One of my previous pins I tested said to put baking soda on a mattress to eliminate odors. Why couldn’t that work for a car too? I sifted the baking soda over all the chairs and all over the trunk. This was brilliant! Not only did it help freshen the car, but it also helped me keep track of which areas I had vaccuumed and which I still needed to do.
| Grade: | Cost: | Time: | ||||
| A+ |
<$1 for Baking Soda |
Total Time: 1 Hour – 1hr 30 minutes
|
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| Level of Difficulty: | ||||||
| Easy | ||||||
| What I Would Change: | ||||||
| I used baking soda on the seats instead of a wet/dry vacuum and instead of freshening with febreeze. Baking soda is much cheaper, didn’t wet the seats and kept it clean smelled. | ||||||
| Overall Impression: | ||||||
| These were great tips. My entire family was impressed on how clean it was. It’s the cleanest I think we’ve ever seen it… well since we had originally bought it. | ||||||
Tagged: baking soda, car, car detailing, car mats, carseats, chairs, cleaning, cleaning car, DIY, selling car, Spring Cleaning, vacuum
