1998 Accord - Part 1 (interior and underhood)

James K

James K

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"Hey mom, what do you want for Christmas?"

Little did I know how much trouble those words would get me in to.

"I would like you to clean my car good. Your car always looks so nice."

DAMN!

Here is the background on her car. It is a 1998 Honda Accord sedan with 150K on it. It spent half its life in Madison Wisconsin, the rest down in Tampa Florida. It has not even been washed or vacuumed in over two years. It is nasty filthy dirty.

What you are about to read, is how I brought it back to life. This is only the interior and underhood for now. The exterior will be done either Friday or Monday.

Products used:
Mothers Leather Cleaner
Mothers Leather Conditioner
Adams APC
Adams VRT
Zep APC diliuted 1:1
Stoner Carpet & Upholstery Cleaner
Poor boys Air freshener Vanilla
Meguairs Tire Foam
Soft bristled long handle brush
Handfuls of Cobra Microfibers
Medium stiffness small scrub brush

Here is what I was up against.

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To be continued.........
 
My first area of attack was under the hood. After a good soak with the Zeps APC diluted to 1:1 I used the long handle brush to agitate all the grease and dirt. After rinsing it down, I was not to surprised to see this was going to be one of those shampoo jobs. You know, Rinse & Repeat.

Once I dried everything off with one of my microfibers, I sprayed everything in Meguairs Tire Foam, and closed the hood. After waiting about ten minutes I wiped away all the excess.

Here is the result.

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to be continued...
 
Now it was time to attack that interior! Holy crap! It was awful. The floor mats were liberally sprayed with the Stoners, and then let to soak. After soaking they were scrubbed with a stiff bristle carpet brush. After further soaking and scrubbing, I used a pressure washer to remove the dirty mesh. It took over twenty minutes just to get the water to flow clear.

After that I moved on to the seats. Using the Mothers cleaner and s medium bristle brush, I scrubbed a way at all the leather.

Here are some 50/50 shots.
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After thorough cleaning, they were conditioned using Mother Conditioner

The rest of the interior was cleaned using Adams APC and then treated with Adams VRT.

Here are the finished interior shots.

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Now I get to tackle the exterior in a couple days! Ugh!
 
Looks good so far! Those seats were horrible wow! Loping forward to the final pics!
 
Thanks guys. The outside of this car is not going to be fun either. It is gonna give that M105 a run for it's money! :lol I was gonna use my Adams Swirl and Haze, but think I will need something a little more powerful. The outside of the car does not have ANY shine. It is like a matte finish.
 
Looks incredible. I love the turn around you can get from a light colored interior.

Hopefully your mom shows all her friends and co-workers and you will get a few jobs out of your hard work.

I think alot of us end up detailing family members cars as holiday gifts.
 
what did you cover under the hood before hosing with tire foam?

no water used?

when you said you waited 10 minutes did you run the car?
 
blackz said:
Looks incredible. I love the turn around you can get from a light colored interior.

Hopefully your mom shows all her friends and co-workers and you will get a few jobs out of your hard work.

I think alot of us end up detailing family members cars as holiday gifts.
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That would be real nice. Although I think I would have rather bought her something! LOL

Trumbo_S10 said:
what did you cover under the hood before hosing with tire foam?

no water used?

when you said you waited 10 minutes did you run the car?
Click to expand...

Nothing. I was just careful where I sprayed it. That is why I like the foam. It stays where I put it for the most part. I did not run the car at that point. I did not start the car until after I wiped off the excess. The only water I used was to rinse the degreaser off.
 
M.P. Cobra Fan said:
That would be real nice. Although I think I would have rather bought her something! LOL



Nothing. I was just careful where I sprayed it. That is why I like the foam. It stays where I put it for the most part. I did not run the car at that point. I did not start the car until after I wiped off the excess. The only water I used was to rinse the degreaser off.
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Thank you...I have done some engine wipe downs but not in depth. Thanks for the tips.:props:
 
Now don't you feel ashamed for letting Mom's car go for so long?
:nomore:

I look forward to the exterior, very nice work so far and she will be so pleased. You might ask her if she she had the timing belt done around 100K miles or you might be doing all of this for nothing.
 
Thanks guys!

RTexasF said:
Now don't you feel ashamed for letting Mom's car go for so long?
:nomore:

I look forward to the exterior, very nice work so far and she will be so pleased. You might ask her if she she had the timing belt done around 100K miles or you might be doing all of this for nothing.
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I do feel bad, but I never realized it was THAT bad! With me being in GA most of the time, and the Naples the other parts, and then her in Tampa this is the first big break where I could do this. Now I feel like a bad son. :(

I do make sure that she gets her required mtc. I used to be very big in to Hondas and raced them on road courses. So the car goes back to the dealer and she always asks me "The dealer said I need this" and I will tell her yay or nay. The timing belt got done not too long ago. I was wrong on the mileage on the car though. I though it was 150K it turns out it is only 100K.
 
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