With cold weather slamming big parts of the country, prepping your car is one of the most important projects you can complete.
Did you know that a car’s interior is a huge value and buying factor when you list your car for sale? Actually, the majority of buyers put more weight into the condition of the interior over any other singular factor. A clear interior will have a serious impact on your car’s overall value, so caring for it isn’t an option, not to mention, who’s want to cruise or commute in a dingy claptrap? But the winter can seriously get in the way of your plans to maintain your interior, since the extreme cold (and hot, but it’s February) can leave your interior vulnerable. Here’s what you can do now.
First, go shopping, that’s the fun part, easily the funnest part of this whole ordeal. We recommend Lithium products. We reached out them for some tips, and we’re all about saving some money, so we shamelessly asked them for a discount, and they gave us our own code, MOT20. We’re not saying you should also use their code to save 20-percent, but if you use MOT20 to save 20-percent, well, it is what it is, so definitely use MOT20 unless you like paying full price.
After you’ve got your products, it’s time to clean. Putting protectant, shine, conditioning, what have you, on top of grime is just…protecting the dirt. So get it out. I actually use the reverse port of a shop vac and open all the doors to blow grime away, which is my personal favorite trick I picked up from my detailing guy. After that, vacuum, wipe down surfaces with a damp, very soft rag (mind your clothes too people, don’t scratch your leather with your jacket zipper or kneel into seat motor). Then use Hyper Cleanse to get the rest.
Not that you’ve got it nice and clean, you wan to keep it that way. Use the rule of synthetic products on synthetic materials, and natural products on natural materials to condition your interior. I’m failing to think of a car that doesn’t have a mix of materials, so it’s not a one-size fixes all situation. If you have leather seats like mine, you probably stress about those in particular, so Leather Love is a good one to apply at this point. There's also Hide Rehab for the harder cases.
You can get all these products, plus more and brushes, in their interior kit. Check it out.
