3. Older / hard to remove stains
Our final stage is for a real deep clean, best suited for older and harder to remove stains usually in more neglected vehicles. This stage is what you'll find most professional detailers doing on any cars that need some real intensive love.
For this method you'll need a combination of our car care products - Fabra Cadabra, an interior Plush Brush or Foursome Brush set, and the Orange Agent all purpose cleaner.
You'll also need a shampoo extractor vacuum machine, that you can hire from many supermarkets or big hardware stores. Or you can buy one, just tell your minister of finance how it’s also awesome for small spills and mishaps in the house, ranging from couch and carpet stain removal, even for restoring an entire lounge suite. A great machine that's well worth getting is the well priced little Bissell Spot Clean unit, you can get it from many automotive or electrical stores and it's ideal for most enthusiasts. Being super small and portable it's a very handy machine, with Brett in our office personally using one in his mobile detailing business for a number of years and as he says "it's paid for itself 10 times over".
We also use the Numatic George extractor vaccum. It's a lot larger and a more professional machine (with a price tag to match), having a bigger water capacity, higher output motor, plus a super long hose. It's a great choice for the professional or really crazy keen enthusiast (like me).
Both these machines and others can be used with Orange Agent in their shampoo solution tank. Orange Agent is by far the most versatile product in our Aussie car care line up. Just for a refresher, Orange Agent is a pH neutral all purpose cleaner that’s safe for paint, metal, chrome, engine bays, vinyl and even your car’s leather interior. Orange Agent is also a great and cost effective additive to use in the shampoo vacuums. Unlike most other cleaners used in these machines and other APC's (All Purpose Cleaners) it's not alkaline. The pH balanced formula becomes a great thing as it won't become active to bleach or whiten fabrics or carpets (like alkaline cleaning agents will) if you happen to sit in the car with wet pants, or have heavy sweat or have rain get into the car.
For both machines, use a mixture ratio of 50:1, so if you put in 10L of water, use 200ml of Orange Agent. The Bissell tank is 1-1.1L, so put in 1L of water, then top it with 20ml of Orange Agent. Numatic George has a tank capacity of 15L, so 300ml is all you need. It's a good idea to use warmer water if you have more grease or oil based stains as well.
Work on larger sections at a time, like a whole seat base or backrest. Start by pre-treating any heavier staining by spraying Fabra Cadabra direct into them and give them a light agitation with our Plush Brush or Foursome brushes.
Hold the machine's handle above the stain or area you’re wanting to clean. Pull the trigger for the Orange Agent shampoo solution to begin coming out of the brush area. Pre treat the whole area with a light spray of product, then with your finger still on the trigger, use an up and down scrubbing motion to clean the area. Turn the handle 90 degrees to go in a side to side motion (so against the grain of the surface), still with the trigger held down. Once you’re happy that the area is clean (DO NOT saturate the surface), go back over the area in the same way, this time without the trigger held down, to suck up as much liquid as possible.
The dirty water tank is quite small in the Bissell, so be prepared to empty it often if you’re doing more than just a small area. When you hear the sound of the machine change to a higher pitch noise, it’s time to empty it out. It operates off a float device inside the dirty solution tank. Once it’s empty, give the tank a gentle shake so that the float inside settles back to the bottom of the tank.
Once you’ve finished the job, it’s always a good idea to let the area dry as well as it possibly can. This might mean leaving the car windows down, or the doors open for a few hours outside in the sun, or using a small pedestal fan facing the damp area. Once the area is dry, you can use our Pong-Go odour eliminator spray to really finish the job off nicely.