How To Clean Vintage Car Interiors - Chemical Guys

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Car interiors are difficult to clean. In addition to the metal, plastic, glass, and rubber of exteriors, car interiors also contain carpet, upholstery, leather, vinyl, indicator lenses, nav screens, headliner fabric, and a myriad of other sensitive materials. Vintage cars can be even more sensitive to aggressive cleaners. Old materials like mohair, cardboard, and bakelite can make cleaning difficult. While exteriors can often be cleaned with one soap and water, interiors need different chemicals and methods for the right results.

This 1965 Volkswagen Notchback presented an interesting challenge to the crew. From the painted metal and plastic dashboard, to glass gauge clusters, chrome and plastic steering wheel parts, vinyl seat trim, and fabric upholstery, there were many types of surfaces to clean. Watch as Greg uses one product to care for all of them properly, and without "overcleaning" any patina away from the vintage interior.




Today in the Detail Garage we have 1965 Volkswagen Notchback. If you follow our channel, we were using this vehicle during a live Google Broadcast test. We're considering live video so you can see what it's like to detail a car, the timeframe that it takes, and to show you real-life detailing.

We did a live video where we polished the car, but I wanted to make another video talking about interior detailing. Specifically: detailing an older car. This is a great car for this because it's hard to find an older car like this in such good condition. The whole inside of the car has been redone, so we'll go inside and show you some tips and tricks on how to make it look better.

I want to clean up the interior of this Volkswagen. We popped back the sunroof to get more light into the vehicle to see what else we could clean on the inside. We vacuumed it out, but I want to clean the dash and the seats-- but I don't want to make it too clean. A lot of detailers talk about "patina."

If you're in to show cars or custom car detailing, patina makes cars look older and gives them more character. That doesn't mean patina cars can't be detailed. This car has patina, and that's what gives it character. There are some imperfections like rust on the wiper blade arms. The car looks clean, but it looks old at the same time. We want to keep that "old" looking character.

One thing we want to keep on a patina car is the interior. This interior was actually redone, so the carpet is actually brand new and these seats were redone. These have a tweed center portion and synthetic leather outside. I want clean it up, but I don't want to make it look too clean.

If this were a brand new car, I'd use Leather Cleaner on the seats, then a cloth cleaner and extractor on the center section, then clean everything else with NONSENSE and maybe repaint panels. On this car, I want make everything look clean, but NOT new. That's kind of a weird thing to think about, but when you're detailing, it's something we need to consider. I'm going to use just a microfiber towel and some InnerClean.

InnerClean is an interior quick detail spray. It won't clean too much, but it'll take off all the fingerprints, dust, body oils, and it's gonna make everything look nice. Plus I can use it on all the interior parts. I'll spray it directly on my microfiber towel, then wipe everything down. I chose InnerClean for this job because this dashboard has some vinyl, or some type of synthetic plastic, and down here it's painted. With InnerClean, I can go from painted surfaces, to plastic, and glass.

We're getting pieces of dirt! Older cars that sit around and don't get driven all the time, we want to make sure they're clean! I'll flip my towel to a clean side, spray a little more, and I can clean the steering wheel as well. We're not trying to clean out this off-white color, I kind of like that.

The thing about older cars is some of the materials are very sensitive. If you clean certain classic and un-restored cars in original condition with too strong a chemical, you can often stain the plastic, the color, stain the fabric, there's so many ways you can hurt the interior because they've already been degraded by time. I'm using InnerClean because it's safe on all these types of interiors.

I want to clean these seats with InnerClean as well. I tested one of the seats with Leather Cleaner, but it completely restored that section and took away the patina look! It was making it too clean! If you want to clean the interior, but not make it too clean, you can use InnerClean. Look at this dirt that's coming off here on the towel. That's all dirt, and body oils. InnerClean is not removing dyes or colors, and it's keeping that original look.

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