Interior cleaning on a 1990's Mercedes

[zckid]

Hello everyone!

One of my friends asked me to clean the interior of his car, his beauty, I’d say, a lovely Mercedes from the 1990’s. It was cleaned it in December last.

We were supposed to steam clean it. Very early the following day I started. I put on the steamer, vacuumed the whole interior, and did some scrubbing. And surprise, surprise. The steamer was leaking, no steam coming out and part of the car was wet already. I put my belief in Almighty that I might do it without the steamer. So I persevered.

The sunroof area

The headliner

A little 50-50

Almost done, will require a little more agitating

The pillars, same for others

What is removed…?

The arm rest

A little section cleaned to show the difference

The console area

A not so 50-50 at the top

Close-up: in action

Getting the original color

OMG!

More than 5 liters of juice: the headliner, arm rest and console area combined

More

The seats

Close-ups

Pure sand, from the white sandy beaches of our sunny island

From top to bottom
Cleaned, cleaning, not yet cleaned

From this

Restored to dirt-free original color

This is pure seat nectar rops:

 

[zckid]

Moving onto the carpets

The driver’s seat area

I thought I would be best to remove the carpet completely

And look

Cleaning every nook and cranny

The rear seats areas

Feeling happy & blessed

More

Finished

Hello

Still more to add to this collection

Doors not ignored

And from the always smiling vac

Benz smoothies

Not good to see… just to show dirt is not our friend but our intimate enemy

Before

Now

The boot lid

It was already dark, I had one more thing to do.


The console area scratches

Close-up

I thought it would be so cruel, so unfair to let this ride go with these. I polished it, +75% of the scratches were removed.

I only got the finished pics of the same 3 months later

and the beauty leaving

I was finishing with a

courtesy of the Mrs. rops:

Thanks for reading, your thoughts and comments are most welcome

Happy detailing weekend

cheers

Zaid

 

[BobbyG]

That interior looked like it hadn't been cleaned in quite some time. I was noticing the color of the wash water and it looks like you took years of dirt and grime from it....

Great save and one happy customer I presume? rops:

 

[Becciasm]

Amazing turnaround. What tools did you use to complete the detail, since your steamer was malfunctioning?

 

[jamesboyy]

You hardly see 90's mercedes anymore though you really save this one keep up the good work

 

[lowdown89]

I had a 84 300d and knowing how much of a pain it was to clean carpet like in the center console, my hats off to you.. That was a whole bunch of dirty water!

 

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Beautiful thread and documentation Zaid! Well done!

 

[zckid]

Amazing turnaround. What tools did you use to complete the detail, since your steamer was malfunctioning?

Thanks a lot Becciasm


Here are the tools

To be frank, very simple tools:

A coat brush (can be used as a leather brush)
a tooth brush
some microfiber towels
a soft detailing brush

a bottle of Bilt Hamber surfex HD diluted 1: 15+ (same as Megs APC or Opt Power Clean)

Hot water

My dry Numatic vacuum (turned into a wet vac by removing the dust bag .... it was risky :iagree: ) it still works well thanks God.


For polishing

Menz 203s
Lake Country white hand held pad

:xyxthumbs:

 

[zckid]

That interior looked like it hadn't been cleaned in quite some time. I was noticing the color of the wash water and it looks like you took years of dirt and grime from it....

Great save and one happy customer I presume? rops:

You are right Bobby. I must say years of dirt and stains.

and yes my friend was very happy, He was so keen for it to be done with a steamer, so I tried my level best and as a last step, I wet all the surfaces with a mf towel soaked in hot water, I vacuumed everything to ensure no dirt or stains are left behind.

You hardly see 90's mercedes anymore though you really save this one keep up the good work

Thanks a lot James :dblthumb2:

I had a 84 300d and knowing how much of a pain it was to clean carpet like in the center console, my hats off to you.. That was a whole bunch of dirty water!

Thanks a lot buddy, it really needed a lot of scrubbing.

Beautiful thread and documentation Zaid! Well done!

Thanks a lot bro :dblthumb2:

Actually, I felt it was very difficult to document because when I finished, it was already dark, and as a result, I had very few of the finishing pics.


Now I'm just :hungry: to :buffing: that baby. rops:

 

[Becciasm]

Thanks a lot Becciasm


Here are the tools

To be frank, very simple tools:

A coat brush (can be used as a leather brush)
a tooth brush
some microfiber towels
a soft detailing brush

a bottle of Bilt Hamber surfex HD diluted 1: 15+ (same as Megs APC or Opt Power Clean)

Hot water

My dry Numatic vacuum (turned into a wet vac by removing the dust bag .... it was risky :iagree: ) it still works well thanks God.


For polishing

Menz 203s
Lake Country white hand held pad

:xyxthumbs:

Perfect. I appreciate the feedback. Very impressed with the outcome