Interior Cleaner Question - Black Dash white in texture after cleaning

puma1824

puma1824

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I just used Griot's Garage Interior cleaner on my new to me, extremely well kept 1995 BMW M3. The interior is black with a extremely textured matte vinyl dash. The cleaner seemed to work extremely well but at the same time made a lot of the cracks in the texture white. It will most likely be resolved with a dash protectant such as Sonax or 1z. I prefer a natural finish, in fact I avoid any protectant and have always wiped down the dash in my other cars with either a damp microfiber cloth or a cloth sprayed with Griots Garage Interior Cleaner, followed up with a dry one and maintained by wiping down dash with dry MF cloth weekly. This had always maintained my cars interior factory finish. But now that I have this older car, almost 20 year car, I can't resort to that as now I have whitish cracks in the black dash after cleaning with Griots Garage Interior cleaner. I'm thinking Sonax or 1z cockpit (leaning to Sonax due to scent) BUT at the same time the "matte" finish would possibly even be too much "shine" for me as I'm used to non at all. Any thoughts on the best way to proceed?

I'll try to take a pic but not sure if it will show up correctly.

Thanks in advance.
 
puma1824 said:
I just used Griot's Garage Interior cleaner on my new to me, extremely well kept 1995 BMW M3. The interior is black with a extremely textured matte vinyl dash. The cleaner seemed to work extremely well but at the same time made a lot of the cracks in the texture white. It will most likely be resolved with a dash protectant such as Sonax or 1z. I prefer a natural finish, in fact I avoid any protectant and have always wiped down the dash in my other cars with either a damp microfiber cloth or a cloth sprayed with Griots Garage Interior Cleaner, followed up with a dry one and maintained by wiping down dash with dry MF cloth weekly. This had always maintained my cars interior factory finish. But now that I have this older car, almost 20 year car, I can't resort to that as now I have whitish cracks in the black dash after cleaning with Griots Garage Interior cleaner. I'm thinking Sonax or 1z cockpit (leaning to Sonax due to scent) BUT at the same time the "matte" finish would possibly even be too much "shine" for me as I'm used to non at all. Any thoughts on the best way to proceed?

I'll try to take a pic but not sure if it will show up correctly.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Duragloss 321 leaves a very nice finish and lasts a very long time. Smells like coconuts for a while. I used some on the company vehicle a few months back and it is still working.

Dave
 
What may have happen is that the cleaner was a little strong for such delicate material this interior cleaner can be diluted to 1:4 or 1:10 or to the strength you need though as for protection try
303 Areospace protectant or any trim protectant you have on hand and if you want very low shine once you apply your dressing after a minute just wipe it down with a damp microfiber if you want a medium shine then wipe down the dash with a dry microfiber after a minute or so ....hope this help
 
1Z Cockpit Premium does it all! It will clean weekly dust and light soil while leaving a beautiful finish along with a pleasant smell. If you need to remove heavy dirt and stains 1Z Plastic Deep Cleaner will get the job done! As far as pure protectants I would look at Ultima or Wolfgang interior coating.
 
I think we might be looking past the actual problem in talking about dressings. I am wondering if there was a build up of some silicone, or similar, containing product used over the years and the cleaner is attaching to it and leaving a residue. My suggestion would be to try cleaning it again, but use some kind of detail brush that will work the cleaner down into the texture. Like a vent brush or concours brush. It will be time consuming but hopefully it will clean out the residue. I do this to my leather seats once per year with a vent brush and it makes a huge difference over just using a MF towel with the leather cleaner.
 
wdmaccord said:
I think we might be looking past the actual problem in talking about dressings. I am wondering if there was a build up of some silicone, or similar, containing product used over the years and the cleaner is attaching to it and leaving a residue. My suggestion would be to try cleaning it again, but use some kind of detail brush that will work the cleaner down into the texture. Like a vent brush or concours brush. It will be time consuming but hopefully it will clean out the residue. I do this to my leather seats once per year with a vent brush and it makes a huge difference over just using a MF towel with the leather cleaner.
Click to expand...

I will give this a try before resorting to "covering" up with a dressing.

Hopefully I didn't damage the dash with too harsh/too strong a cleaner, as another person (jamesboyy) had posted. I'd like to think it wasn't as this residue didn't show up on all of the dash and other panels I used the cleaner. I'll be so bummed if I damaged something as this car is in almost concours conditions considering it's 20 years old (manufacturer date 7/94).

I'll try and get pics up soon.

Thanks for everyone's input so far.
 
spiralout462 said:
1Z Cockpit Premium does it all! It will clean weekly dust and light soil while leaving a beautiful finish along with a pleasant smell. If you need to remove heavy dirt and stains 1Z Plastic Deep Cleaner will get the job done! As far as pure protectants I would look at Ultima or Wolfgang interior coating.
Click to expand...

:dblthumb2::dblthumb2::dblthumb2:

This is my go to combo on interiors

HUMP

CAROLINA AUTO IMAGE
 
Ok I tried using a brush and water but it didn't seem to work. Applied some Sonax Dash Cleaner it seems to get a little better but still has some residue. Now I'm thinking maybe the Griotts cleaner was too strong and possibly removed some die? I'm a little worried I ruined my interior :(

Please note I think the flash on my phone made it look worse than it is, I'll try in tomorrow using natural light

Pics:

Water / Brush cleaning:
attachment.php

Sonax Treatment:
attachment.php
 
Is anything coming off on your microfiber?

Find a less noticeable spot to test various things on. Do not test on the entire dash.
 
allenk4 said:
Is anything coming off on your microfiber?

Find a less noticeable spot to test various things on. Do not test on the entire dash.
Click to expand...

Nothing coming off other than dirt I assume.
 
From the photo the dash actually looks dry to me, like the cleaner was too strong.

On a small spot try applying a vinyl treatment such as Ultima Interior Guard Plus or CarPro Pearl and see if this brings back that rich look.
 
I agree with Bobby, it just looks like an old dry dash that needs some dressing. As Bobby suggested, UIGP or Wolfgang Cockpit Trim Sealant would be a great choice.

Just try it on a small spot first as allenk4 suggested.
 
BobbyG said:
From the photo the dash actually looks dry to me, like the cleaner was too strong.

On a small spot try applying a vinyl treatment such as Ultima Interior Guard Plus or CarPro Pearl and see if this brings back that rich look.
Click to expand...

So maybe I did damage the dash slightly with the interior cleaner. Unfortunately for me, the cleaner was tested on another area which had no issue, so in turn I assumed it was ok on the dash.

I'll look into UIGP and Pearl. Do you know which has the most matte finish? Do these products work better than Sonax Dash Cleaner Matte I used?

Thanks again.
 
it does look dry... try a leather conditioner.

Worst case, go by some winyl/plastic paint and remove your dash and paint it.. that stuff works really well and much less expensive then replacing that dash.

On a positive note.. it wasn't a customer's car!
 
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