Welcome back to Detail Garage!
Today we have this Tesla Model S in the shop.
The owner brought the car over to us because Spring is coming, and he wants to take the car out.
Since it's been winter, we've had a lot of rain storms in Southern California.
The owner has been walking around getting mud, muck, road salt, and debris stuck in the carpets.
The carpets are looking a little worse for the wear,
so he wants the interior cleaned up so when he take the car out, it'll be nice and fresh.
Today we're gonna show you how to clean up your floor mats and carpets using a couple products,
and we'll also be showing you one special product to help protect your floor mats
to keep them from getting so stained in the first place.
So we have the carpet out of the car.
I've taken the floor mat out to inspect it and to do any work I need to on the bench.
You can do this in your garage or on the floor of your workshop,
but to get it off the floor of the workshop where's there's more dirt,
I put it up here on the bench where it's nice and clean.
Looking at the floor mat, you can see it's pretty dirty.
We've got all kinds of embedded grime and filth stuck inside the carpet.
It's been ground down by the driver's heel.
There's dirt, dust, tree parts, things from the ground, tape, hair, and more stuck in the carpet.
Just to take out all the large particles, I'm gonna use a brush and vacuum cleaner
to knock it out from deep within the fabric, then vacuum it to get the loose debris.
To get started, I'm gonna use a stiff bristle brush.
I like to use these brushes on tires and undercarriage parts to scrub out the rubber and plastic,
but I keep one just for interiors.
This is a great brush to use for jobs like this, where I need to get
a large swath of carpet brushed out very quickly.
It helps me flick out these large particles.
I can even help stand up some of this carpet that's not so matted down.
You can see where the driver puts his heel: it's pretty matted down and smushed.
Nothing we do is going to bring that back, but we can take care of the dirt and filth
stuck in the carpet.
I'm also going to vacuum the carpet.
A lot of people like to use their shop vacs with the crevice tool.
Obviously, if I need to cover a large area like all the carpet in the car,
this isn't the right tool!
This is good to use in between seats, or smaller crevices in door panels or center console.
Instead, to clean off the carpet, I'm gonna use the larger fan blade tool.
This will help me cover a large area like the seats and carpet very quickly.
I'm using a regular shop vac to vacuum out the carpet.
There we go!
I've got the carpet all vacuumed out, and it's looking a whole lot better.
Just with a vacuum and flicking out the large particles of dirt and debris,
the carpet is looking clean.
We have some lighter stains and a spot that looks like dried gum
or something crusty that the driver tracked in on their feet.
To clean the carpet, I'm going to try using Lightning Fast.
Lightning Fast is an all-purpose cleaner that's especially suited for fabrics.
It's safe to use on any fabric upholstery, carpets, or removable floor mats in your car.
Lightning Fast is a little bit stronger, and it's a great stain remover.
You can dilute it up to 20:1; it comes very concentrated.
I've already diluted this one about 10:1 to help me get a lighter duty cleaning on this floor mat.
I'll just spray a light mist of Lightning Fast Stain Extractor over the whole carpet.
Even if I'm not busting a lot of heavy stains, this is a great all-purpose cleaner
specially suited for floor mats, carpets, and upholstery.
To actually scrub out all this embedded grime, stains, and crusty stuff,
I'm going to use the Nifty Brush Heavy Duty Carpet And Interior Brush.
It has very stiff bristles, and the compact design gives me a lot of leverage
to scrub out all this grime and filth from deep within the carpet.
I'm scrubbing straight back and forth...
...and this spot right here, I gotta really work hard to break down whatever that is.
There we go!
Alright.
Continue on, I'll concentrate a lot of the scrubbing on the main body of the floor mat.
This is where the driver's feet typically go..
They generally go past the pedals, or behind the pedals on the floor mat,
because there's no reason to go behind the pedals.
But directly in front of it, and right here where it's worn down,
you tend to get concentrated dirt and filth stuck in the carpets.
You can really give that more elbow grease as you work.
Once I have the whole carpet agitated and fluffed up,
I've knocked out all this grime,
I'll come in with a microfiber towel.
I'm using the towel to blot up and soak up any of this excess cleaner
and any of the dirt and filth that I've agitated up to the surface through the scrubbing action.
And as you can see as I wipe, you sorta get some foaming action from the cleaner.
That's what I want to see: I want to see that it's worked, and we're pulling any grime and dirt
directly to the surface of the carpet, and now you see all the filth we pulled out.
The towel started that color!
Now that I have the carpet nice and clean, it's looking fresher and deep-black with even
color throughout the fabric,
which is how it should look!
Now I want to protect this surface so that it makes it harder for any tracked-in water,
grease, or grime to stain the fabric.
I'm gonna protect it with Fabric Guard.
Fabric Guard is an all-purpose fabric water repellent.
It helps seal up the fabric fibers so spilled liquids have a harder time
sinking in to stain it right away,
and that gives you a little bit of time to wipe it up, or take out the mat and flick
out the water droplets.
This is a great process to do right before the winter months
when you're tracking in water to begin with.
You can do it all year round to prevent accidental spills from staining your carpet.
Using Fabric Guard is very simple:
just mist a light coat over the whole surface.
You don't have to saturate it very heavily, or work it in with any brushes or cure it under a UV lamp.
Just spray a light coat on, and let it dry.
I'm gonna let this coat cure for about 10 minutes, and let it air dry.
I'll do one more coat to ensure even coverage and get a thicker layer of protection over
this floor mat.
I'll check back in a few minutes, then add another coat of Fabric Guard.
The carpet is feeling dry to the touch, so our first coat of Fabric Guard has cured to the surface.
Now I'm gonna add one more coat just to get more durable and more even protection over
the whole floor mat.
Just like before, I'm gonna let this sit and cure for a few minutes and make sure it's dry to the touch,
then I'll reinstall it in the car and check my work.
Our last coat of Fabric Guard is nice and dry to the touch.
As you can see, with just a little bit of Lightning Fast, elbow grease with a brush, and Fabric Guard,
the carpet looks fresh and good as new!
You can do this on any part of your car that is upholstered.
You can do this on the carpets, floor mats, cloth seats, door panels, arm rests, any part like that.
You can do the same process to remove body oils, dirt, grime, salt,
or any debris you track in on your feet or body.
You can make it look nice and fresh and ready for the springtime.
If you have any other questions about doing any interior cleaning,
check out all our videos on our YouTube channel,
we have over 900 videos showing you how to do just about anything.
You got a nice car, let's keep it clean with Chemical Guys!