Pro Detailer
 

I'm a pro detailer and have been for a few years. If you have any questions on how to get your SVX to look it's best then let me know.

Welcome to the site. Do you own a SVX? We need a good detailer around here. I am not a pro, but can hold my own when it comes to a good shine and detail, but still learning a lot about products and trying them all. :D :D

any tips for cleaning salt stains out of the carpets?

How about cleaning the interion ceiling and visors without damaging the adhesive or foam padding?

show up at Reading this year and you'll clean up (pun intended:rolleyes: )
-Bill

Spray some all purpose cleaner on a rag and gently rub the stained area. Repeat with water. Folex is a good all purpose cleaner and can be found at target of home depot. Same process for cleaning the suede interior.

Darknessofdeath - I would suggest to shampoo carpets. If you don't have an extractor here's how you do it yourself for cheap with a wet/dry vac.

First vacuum the carpets very well.

Next, spray the carpets with a cleaner, I've used Folex which can be found at target or Home Depot. It works very well.

Let the cleaner soak in for 4-5 mins and brush the carpets with a nylon brush, you can pick them up for $2 almost anywhere. The point of this step is to actually remove the stain.

Pour some warm-hot water on the carpets to soak them. Then vacuum up the water with the wet/dry vac and get the carpets as dry as possible. If there is still a stain then repeat.

Then let the carpets dry, keep the windows cracked a little and leave the car in the sun. It's best to do this on a warm day, the carpets should be dry in a couple hours. If it's a cold day then it could take a long time to dry and mold/mildew could start after a few days.

Yep, I put pictures of it in the "general SVX babbel" forums.

Here is a homemade remedy that works most of the time for me:

In a spray bottle, mix up a solution of 1/2 warm water and 1/2 white vinegar.
Spray the stained area with the solution.
Press a dry terrycloth towel over the wet area.
Remove the towel when it's soaked.
Repeat until the stains are gone.


But there is a commercial product called Salt-X which is wonderful. I know boat owners who charter their boat (with carpeted decking) to scuba divers and their gear. They use this stuff on a regular basis.


Local Distributor:
K.C. Trading Ltd.
3665 Jeff Davis Hwy
Suite 103
Stafford, VA 22554
Phone: 540-720-8400
.

Any advice on cleaning the engine area?

First of all you have to be carefull with getting water in the engine bay so do this at your own risk. Having said that I've cleaned 100's of engines without any problems. It's pretty simple:

Spray the engine bay with a degreaser such as simple green, any decent degreaser will be fine. If you use simple green dilute it at least 4:1, don't use it straight. Make sure to get everything.

Spray the engine bay with a hose. I would not use a pressure washer here. This will get out a lot of the dirt and grease very quickly.

Now spray individual areas with the degreaser and clean them with a rag and rinse with the hose when your done.

That's the process for cleaning, if you want it to look nice spray the entire engine bay with a water based dressing such as armor all. DO NOT use a solvent based dressing, most tire dressings are solvent based.

Note: If cleaning an engine with a sound dampener on the underside of the hood make sure not to get it wet. If it gets wet it can fall apart on you.

Haha... it's been a while but I wanna revive this.

I want to eventually clean the engine bay of my SVX as well, and hopefully with a more effective method than the one I used for my old Legacy (toothbrush, sponge, washcloth, tons of water for cleaning oil-stained cleaning tools). So I had some questions.

Could you possibly go into more detail here? I'm totally new to [proper] engine bay cleaning, so when you say "use degreaser on everything" do you really mean everything? Aren't there things that should be covered up, and if so with what?

Then the hose part... I heard this is a really bad idea (you said yourself, using water = bad idea), so again... things that need to be covered? With what? Where should be soaked or sprayed, and where should not?

Thanks.

When I clean my engine bay, I cover the alternator with a plastic bag and use degreasser on everything else. Then I use a weak pressure washer with hot water and spray it down. That does a great job. :) After that, I clean hoses and the other stuff with Mothers - Back to Black and wipe down the plastic parts and spot clean what needs it. Good luck with yours. :)

It is recommended that you cover anything electrical, alternator and stuff like that. Having said that I've cleaned 100's of engines without covering anything and never had a problem, that's the way pretty much all detailing shops do it.

I would suggest you spray anything you want clean with degreaser and rinse with water...so basically everything.

I know people who don't cover the alternator and don't have problems, but I cover mine with a plastic bag because I don't like to spray it directly with a pressure washer. It still get a little wet, but that way I don't spray it too much. I have never had problems by doing it that way. :)