I aquried a 02 se with cream interior yesterday. The previous owner had kids though and the interior shows. Most of the interior was kept clean thanks to the floormats wich look like **** now. The leather seats are also in good condition with 2 minor flaws wich is a crayon mark on rear seat and a *pen* mark on passenger seat both less that 1.5" long. I was wondering if using something like the rug doctor and hoover steam cleaner can further damage the carpet and leather

So my questions are

- How safe is it to use a commercial steam cleaned on the inside of the maxima?

- Will the chemicals that you dilute with the water discolor the carpet?

- Can i use it on the leather seats? Once again i worried about the discoloration the most

- Can i use Goo Gone on sertain area's such as the crayon spot and will it damage the leather?

the floor mats im planning on going over with a vac and scrubbing them and sparying it off with garden hose most likely if the steam cleaner wont help them. I tried searching however didnt find anything that helps my particular situation.

Also can people who actually tried it answer since i dont really want to risk messing up the interior.

Thank you in advance for help,
Mike

 

I really don't think using a steam cleaner on the inside for the carpets will have any negative affects, just make sure to let it air out long enough. So long as your not using anything like bleach or acids, color distortion wont be a problem. Just pick up a good all purpose cleaner, or just some carpet shampoo. As for the leather seats, mix some of the all purpose with a little bit of water, and pour a little bit on a rag and try to scrub the marks off, if that doesnt work, try a real little bit of Lacquer thinner on the rag and go over the two marks a couple of times. I guess goo gone would work just the same as the thinner, just don't overkill the seats with too much.

 

What i actually did was use TUFF STUFF on the carpet and scubber the living crap out of the stains. then i used a Hoover Steam vac to use the rinse function to spray it with water and suck all the water/ tuff stuff out of the capet. worked like a charm. As for the seats i used a biodegradable oragne cleaner wich also worked magic on the crayon and a pen park on the front seat. The crayon was a beezy becuase i had to use a large white towel and gradually wipe the crayon with different parts of the towel as not to smudge it. Im and idiot for not taking before pictures but ill be glad to post after pictures if someone is interested. Btw for the floor mats, i used meguiers car wash detergent smudge a little into the mats and scrub it with a pretty firm brush, then spray it down with a garden hose, repeat 2 times, squeging the water out after each process with a floor mop w/o the sponge attachment. those came out brand new . Very happy with the results

 

For the carpets, get some hot water, and mix it 50/50 with OxyClean powdered detergent. Scrub with a stiff brush. For tough spots, go to Wal-mart and buy a bottle of "spot Shot", which will take up any stain known to man, and is color safe. Then, extract with some sort of steam cleaner.

Once the mats are mostly dry, spray them down with some Castle brand Velour cleaner, and comb the mats with a regular sponge or bath towel to fluff them up and pull remaining surface dirt.

 

after all above posted.

Get Rug doctor wet vaccum cleaner w hand tool @ local grocery store buy cleaners of your choice supplied for the vac. Works great on carpet and seats. leave the car with crack open windows overnight for carpet to dry. Too bad I haven't taken any pics before and after.

 

I used bissle carpet and surface cleaner on my seats when i broguht my max...they were dirty...I understand its a pen and a crayon..but the top of the can has one fo those bruses built into it as you spray...you dont have to get bissle...autozone sells two other brands ..one i think is turtlewax..could eb wrong...they are with the cleaning stuff....they are called "interior cleaners" i suggest trying that on the spots first before going through all the trouble of steaming...

ps. this will work on some rug spots to

 

tuff stuff FTW.

 

For the leather you can use those Mr.Clean Magic eraser pads to remove the pen, crayon, dirt, or just about anything out of the leather. It just about brings it back to it's original condition or color at least. I tried it a few times on a few spots on my leather and it works miracles. I want to do all of the leather in the interior but It can be a pita as you would have to keep switching eraser pads so you do not rub the dirt in another spot. Just use a damp eraser pad on the ink and crayon markings and see if that works. Let us know the outcome.

Peace