Sometimes You Don’t Know Exactly How Dirty Something is Until you Clean it ~ Saving $$ DIY

Plus the fact that I can’t remember the last time it had been done and I have kids in and out of that rig all the time. Kids vs Vehicles...the kids normally win when it comes to destroying the interior. I’m just glad we got this vehicle when they were a little older and not puking all over the place and spilling milk bottles. AAAAHHH the smell of rotting milk left in a cup in the car on a 100F day. Now those are the days I miss. Ya Frickin’ Right!!

Anyway, the reason for this post is to not show you all how dirty my vehicle was or an instructional piece on how to detail a vehicle. I’m always looking for a way to show people how to save a little money by doing things themselves, or finding alternative uses for random items. This is going to be a little combo of those two things.

If you have even seen some of my posts, you know I do almost everything by myself. Ya, it takes my time but it doesn’t cost me near the amount of money it would to hire someone to do it. Like cleaning the inside of my Ford Excursion, AKA The King of SUV’s. It’s a huge rig and I would be willing to bet that a place would charge upwards of $300 to clean it the way I do. My Dad pays a guy $150 for his Ford Taurus and the Excursion is just slightly bigger than that. Not only did I save money by doing it myself but I also saved money by only using 1 cleaner...that is right 1. No need for a cleaner for the windows, one for the doors and dash, one for the leather seats. The one and done cleaner has been found. Lol

After loading up My Cousin with some Old Wire Reels

I decided to head into the shop at work, where it is nice and warm and I can clean the beast out. I had all intentions of just cleaning the windows inside and out, vacuuming the carpets and wiping down the dash.

Boy was I wrong!!!

I ended up scrubbing the leather seats, pulling the spare tire out of the back and scrubbing down any and all of the plastic molding pieces throughout the whole vehicle. This is when I found the 1 cleaner that cleans it all. I knew it would work great for the windows, but what about the dash and other molding pieces??? This Heavy Duty Foaming Glass Surface Cleaner worked AWESOME!!!

Little coffee splashes around the cup holders...gone in a single swipe. Windows??? Just look at this pic. Half of it is cleaned and the other not. Notice how blurry the left side is???

The inside of the windshield had a layer on it that you could draw pictures with your fingers. So NASTY!! Not only that but it also makes seeing while driving at night pretty tough. So there is a bit of a safety concern also. Don’t just clean the outside of your windows...clean the inside too.

Then I figured why not spray the leather sets down and wipe them clean?? At first I just used some paper towels and scrubbed a bit. When I noticed how dirty the paper towel got I decided to take it a step further. I’m going to really scrub these seats down!!

I found a brush that had some pretty soft bristles and respayed the seat and scrubbed it really good. With a few circles of the paper towel and this is what came off.

Now that is flat out nasty!!! This foaming window cleaner stuff and a little scrubby brush really helped to free up the dirt in these seats and bring them back to life. They look so much better it is amazing.

Here is a before and after of the middle seat. I washed and scrubbed one seat.

I had no idea these seats were that dirty. It’s kind of disgusting!! Now think what it would have cost me to have someone clean my leather seats??? They would probably have to use some specially formulated cleaner, then follow it up with some poisonous conditioning spray and leather softener. LOL.

Here is the third row seat, Before and After

I tell you what, I might not go to the gym or exercise much, actually I don’t exercise at all. This was an arm workout like you wouldn’t believe. I wonder how much surface area was cleaned during the 2 hours and a half hours I spent washing this Big Rig?

Wax on...Wax off
I had a take a time out after doing the front, I was feeling the burn...and thinking, “I have a lot more to do!!!”

After working up a good sweat and getting things put back into the Excursion I looked at how much cleaner and paper towels I used. I know I used a ton of paper towels because keeping fresh paper towels keeps you from smearing the dirt around.

Here is the Count

Remember this vehicle is Bigand very Dirty, so your normal size car should take about 1/4 of the amount of cleaning supplies and 1/4 the amount of time that I used. I believe any type of foaming glass cleaner would work great, it doesn’t have to be this specific brand.

I am really happy that I took the time to do it right and give the Excursion a thorough cleaning on the inside. Now if we could just maintain it that would be a miracle. Mama Splatts was really happy to see her rig all shined up on the inside. She did text me a couple times wonder how much longer it was going to take. Ha ha ha.

Until Next Time...

Steem On
And

Get your Clean On