Car interior cleaning: Detailing and disinfecting your cars interior.

Due to the recent world events, we believe that cleanliness has become more important and more prominant than ever. Car interiors can become a breeding ground for viruses and bacteria, so keeping the inside of your car clean is a great way to help keep the Rona and many other micro-nasties at bay.

MORE THAN AN INTERESTING NAME

We've come up with a comprehensive deep cleaning procedure for your interior, including finishing off with our new Far Cough anti bacterial spray, to not only kill any remaining and bacteria, but to also leave a shield of protection behind that keeps working long after you've finished your detail. Far Cough is very legit formula for this task, using a quaternary ammonium compound, namely benzalkonium chloride as the safe and very effective active ingredient. This is also recommended by Australia's regulatory body; Theraputic Goods Association of Australia (TGA), as mentioned here on their website: 

"COVID-19 is an enveloped virus, which means it has an outer membrane. Enveloped viruses are relatively easy to kill compared to non-enveloped viruses, as the outer layer is easily damaged by most environmental disinfectants, provided the disinfectant is used in accordance with label directions. Disinfectants containing ≥ 70% alcohol, quaternary ammonium compounds (such as benzalkonium chloride) or diluted household bleach (including products containing sodium hypochlorite) are suitable for use." 
Link to this full article here: https://www.tga.gov.au/appropriate-use-disinfectants-information-consumers-health-professionals-and-healthcare-facilities 

As a 70% alcohol blend, let alone household bleach are unsafe for car interiors, we blend Far Cough with the quaternary ammonium compound (Quats) at a rate of 1000 parts per million (PPM), where most good quality household disinfectants are using a quarter less than this around 600 to 800 PPM. Unlike household disinfectants we have also formulated and tested ours to be safe for all interior surfaces, as well as to leave that beautiful matte, non-greasy finish that's anti static. All this comes from us being a bunch of car fanatics and wanting something really purpose made to use in our cars.

PLEASE DON'T USE ALCOHOL
Quite alarmingly, we have seen quite a few people recommending the use of alcohol based products for car interiors in recent times, whether they be liquids or the cloth wipes. This is something you should not do, as they could permanently affect more sensitive finishes, if not immediately after the initial use, or from the longer use as the continual applications can slowly break down and permanently damage the more sensitive surfaces like leather, vinyl, polycarbonate, soft plastics, touchscreens, fabric and stitching.

USING IT IN A CAR CARE SYSTEM

So moving back to your cars interior and how to deep clean it. There are "hot spots" inside your car that are the areas that are frequently touched more than other areas - places like the steering wheel, gear selector, door handles, indicator stalks, air conditioning buttons etc, and these are the areas that are needed to be concentrated on.  
It's a two step system we use, first we begin with our respective cleaners, as they all use cleaning soaps/ surfactants and one of the best ways to destroy the virus is with soap. Without getting into the science of it, soap breaks down and pulls apart viruses, then the remaining bits of harmless virus are rinsed or wiped away. It is extremely important to note, that for this effect to take place, the product needs to be agitated for 20 seconds to effectively kill the virus. Our deep cleaning, pH neutral all purpose cleaner Orange Agent, contains surfactants that when used with the correct technique, will kill viruses on surfaces in your car. Two other interior products: Vinyl Care and Leather Love, both also contain a suitable surfactant that can deactivate/ kill the virus, giving you a few decent options for inside your car.

The second part of the system is to double up the effect with the use the Far Cough over the same areas to deactivate and kill any remaining micro-nasties, as well as leaving a surface they cannot grow and live on easily after it has been applied. Brett has made up a full guide and video on using this system in the link below:

NOW IN STORES

Far Cough is now available in our supporting resellers nationwide, with Autobarn, Repco and Supercheap Auto all having it on their shelves for a fantastic $9.99 for the big 770ml bottle. You may assume that it’s a cheap product? No, it’s typical of the quality, premium products our family makes, so for us to get it on the shelf at this price, means it’s a product that we won't make profit from. Our mindset for Far Cough has always been to supply a high quality, custom made Australian product, that's both affordable and will help car fanatics and their families stay a little bit safer in a crazy 2020. Our resellers have graciously also agreed to this and they too, have a very low margin, so we ask if you do grab a bottle, to give them a little bit of extra support, only if you're in a position to be able to do this, as we know a lot of Aussies are going through some very tough times right now.

OTHER NEWS - CAN'T GET NO SANISFACTION... 

We have also been continuing with our project of giving away our World Health Organisation approved hand sanitiser formula, to local community groups who need it. It has become a victim of its own success, as more people asked for it than we could supply, so we quickly used up all our ingredients! So rather than wait potentially months, for more to arrive, we set about working out how we could make the harder to acquire ingredients ourselves. So, we now have a fully-fledged alcohol company operation, in our manufacturing shed here! Now this is not what you think, as fun as it would be to make our own sweet brews (maybe down the track), we have invested in some commercial stills, to create our own food grade alcohol that's of 96% purity when done. This is what we need to create our Sanisfactionhand sanitiser, so we can keep making it and giving it away in bigger quantities, to local groups and charities. Currently, we can only make about 30 to 40 litres of ethanol per day, but we have set some of this aside, to blend our beautiful Sanisfaction formula sanitiser, to make it available in a 250ml bottle for car fanatics. This will only be available on our website. The profit from this, will help contribute towards the larger costs of making our free sanitiser, that we will be continuing to give away. As we can only hand batch this product in small quantities, it won't be found or made available through our resellers. Also, it won't always be available, as we do expect the smaller batches to sell out often, as we ebb and flow with the making and creating of it.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. I hope you, your family and friends are able to stay safe, healthy and postitve with all that has been happening. If you have any questions about interior detailing and the disinfecting of it, please feel free to hit up our team with a call to 1800 351 308 or email info@bowdensown.com.au 

Love your car,
Dan Bowden