Stains

[The Famous Lee]

Ok so the interior of my explorer is horrid. I think it's supposed to be tan... I'm using armor all on the dash and panels, but the carpet is one step past lookin like it needs to be replaced what kind of cleaner should I use?

[Grand Marquis GT]

DON'T USE ARMOR ALL.

Use a good cleaner, and protect it with Aerospace 303 protectant. Armor all = bad.

[The Famous Lee]

why is armor all bad?

[Heretic]

Armor all leaves a residue, kinda oily like. That's what keeps the shine, but it also severely attracts dust and dirt and will be nasty in not too long. I've also heard it can dry rot plastics and vinyls, post haste.

[hemihotrod402]

I've also heard it can dry rot plastics and vinyls, post haste.

It singlehandedly destroyed what was left of my dash pad, granted there wasn't much left, but now there are chunks missing from the speaker grilles.

[gadget73]

the dash in my Mark VII is greasy and cracked from many years of armorall use. One vinyl guy I talked to explained that its the silicone oils in the AA that destroy stuff. He actually suggested Pledge, but anything without silicone oils is fine. The Aerospace 303 is good, and it has some UV protection as well.

Anyway, for the carpet pretty much any carpet cleaner and a scrub brush ought to help. If you really want it clean, yank the seats and pull the carpet out of the car so you can clean it with the hose and get it to dry completely. I actually used a pressure washer on mine after scrubbing carpet cleaner into it.

[91grandmarquis]

For the carpet... rent a rug doctor and go to town... We use it on the boats carpet all the time and it gets some gnarly ass stains out.

[Merc3517]

I used pumice free fast orange hand cleaner for stains in my carpet, floor mats, and seats. I didn't see anything negative from using it and it does work pretty well. It doesn't work miracles and the rug doctor idea above is definitely not bad and maybe superior but this worked for me. It makes the car smell like oranges for a few days as well. I used a hand and fingernail scrub brush I bought at autozone and a plastic bristle tooth brush like brush I got in a pack of misc wire brushes. You will have some trial and error doing this but I can say do small areas a little at a time. You can't do a whole seat at once you have to go little by little. The reason you shouldn't use fast orange with pumice is because the gritty pumice becomes extracted from the substance and ends up everywhere and also if you are going to try this do a little area out of sight to test for color fastness and such.

[sly]

I may have to try that in my Mark VI to get the gas fume smell out of it.

[chitownvic]

Armor all leaves a residue, kinda oily like. That's what keeps the shine, but it also severely attracts dust and dirt and will be nasty in not too long. I've also heard it can dry rot plastics and vinyls, post haste.

Use Pledge on your dash, its awesome

[Merc3517]

I should add that when I did mine with the hand cleaner I would apply a little first by hand kinda think but not too thick and then scrubbed it in. I also found it best to keep a wet towel and after you scrub rub it with the wet towel to kinda rinse it.

[torquelover]

If you can't get the carpet looking good, you can get it redyed. There are guys around here that stop at the dealers every week or so to do just that to the new trade-ins the detail guys couldn't get totally clean. I don't know how long it lasts, though.