car upholstery cleaning what we have is
a Toyota Camry and it has what the
industry wants to call sport seating
which is a euphemism for cheap-ass
materials and why that is a problem is
because well it's good for them because
it's cheap it's cheap to manufacture
they put all this little texture on it
it's made out of mostly synthetic fibers
and it's a pain in the butt to clean
that's where it becomes problematic for
you as a car owner or me as a detailer
how do you do it well the simple
approach is the old-school approach I'm
going to be demonstrating the VX 5000
steamer but before we get to that
because well really let me set this up a
little bit of context because I speak to
so many beginners I'm forever amazed at
how good a job the industry does in
seducing you beginners to buying stuff
that is completely inappropriate one of
the guys that worked with me that I was
training he had no experience but he had
watched a bunch of videos and he came to
the conclusion that he needs a steamer
it's like dude you don't even have
business cards yet you don't know your
first customer yet and you want to spend
a bunch of money on a steamer why
because the videos are so seductive and
it looks cool because it's got this cool
tool well guess what I survived 25 plus
years professionally without a steamer
and 99% of time just so you know all
those videos that you guys show cleaning
your engines or cleaning door jambs
whatever
yeah the steamers cool but I promise you
I can cut to the chase with my
techniques which a lot of them are
old-school techniques with a little bit
of the auto fetish spin on it oh you see
the new shirts by the way
this is not the color I produced this
was a demo it's too dark so it doesn't
show the black you see the back hunter
yep maybe be a flat sprit looking a
little small but yeah small mammal oh
well
Georgian times Oh old-school techniques
with a little bit of spin on the auto
fetish touch what is the old-school way
well you take your all-purpose cleaner
once again there's another little
variable we need special fabric
upholstery cleaner or we need special
leather cleaner or specialty especial
that well how about you just get some
special all-purpose cleaner it's very
effective on virtually all surfaces
hence the label all-purpose so we've got
a cloth seat now typically or how about
very frequently the seat is not all
constructed with one material you may
have a velour type in the middle area
you may have a very tight weave on the
side bolsters you don't know right here
is this funky whatever accent material
that's a different type of material so
as a detailer or as a car owner you're
dealing with a whole can of worms here
the point is is you can always default
to the basics which is the all-purpose
cleaner and on this video below the
video if it says show more you click on
that and it will drop down and it will
have links to my website and at that
website I will go into great detail pun
intended about the cleaners that I use
the brushes I use and it's very
comprehensive this is a video tutorial
but if you click on those links you can
also help support my cause by shopping
through those links that will open up
into Amazon all-purpose cleaner you pre
vacuum you know why you pre vacuum
because you want to remove the loose
debris or if you're British
it's called debris debris I think the
bread and they say really funky you want
to remove the loose debris you know why
imaginisce
imagine you shoved your hand into a big
pile of dirt and now it's just coated
with loose dry dirt and you suddenly
sprayed it what happens to that dirt
it turns essentially into mud right and
a big muddy gooey mess so if you were to
wipe your hand off and remove the loose
debris or dirt first before you sprayed
guess what doesn't happen you don't
create that muddy mess it's the same
with fabric so you pre vacuum you want
to break it up you can even scrub it
with a brush to break up the dirt and
vacuum it up so you have removed as much
dirt as possible before you introduce
liquid to the moment so you pre vacuum
scrub brushes they're not all created
equal this is what I call the winning
combination it is an ox Oh oxo you can
get it through my links also it's the
winning combination
it's kind of what is it in the three
bears the porridge is just right so not
too stiff not too soft it's just right
because what could happen is you're
scrubbing if it's too stiff it will
start to damage the upholstery and it
will cause it to fray that's not a good
thing so you do have to pick your brush
accordingly it's called the appropriate
response
so you pre vacuum you spray with your
all-purpose cleaner follow the
directions whatever all-purpose cleaner
you pick once again there's going to be
links below this video you spray and
scrub microfiber cloth you mop up okay I
don't know if it's going to show because
it's a bright yellow cloth you see the
skid marks there of dirt now the cloth
that was virgin is now not virgin
anymore it's been soiled that is the
dirt that was there that is now here see
how simple that was but when you have
synthetic materials and this is the
extreme you see this thing that's called
ace
seat belt this sucks this is every
Detailers nightmare because it is
synthetic now why is that relevant
somehow it's relevant and if you have
experience you'll know the difference
because synthetic materials suck in
trying to clean them somehow when they
get dirty it's like they don't get dirty
they actually just get get stained it's
just different from like a natural
material like cloth I would prefer to
clean cloth all day long over like
polyester or other synthetic materials
seat belts are synthetic it's a stronger
material it's a very tight weave it's
there's no nap to it there's no little
fiber sticking up because those fibers
are what's your ability to clean is the
top of the fibers and that's what will
produce better results so these tight
weave sports seats they're miserable but
that's where a steamer can come in and
as a rule that is about the only time
Darrin as an auto fetish uses a steamer
because virtually every other job I can
cut to the chase quicker with what I
call old-school plus Auto fetish method
when it comes to synthetic sport
material seating that's where I bust out
my steamer what you have to remember
with a steamer you've got this thing
called warm-up time for the VX 5000
that's usually about 15 to 20 minutes
okay I can get a lot of work done in 15
to 20 minutes that's where you've got to
decide so just know that if you're a
beginner I do not recommend the steamer
is your first choice in tools if you're
on a limited budget if you have an
unlimited budget by all means go
shopping so let me get the steamer
here is my VX 5000 here's the control
panel we've got the heating element the
steam and honestly I don't remember what
that is
that's funny so I need to push that and
engage this light tells me that and also
this gauge tells me that's ready to be
used actually the green light needs to
come on but let me see if it will
you see how when I turn it on the
pressure immediately drops that exactly
for each community it has different
attachments now this is not a
comprehensive tutorial on the VIX 5,000
it's with this cart like the machine
itself costs about 750 bucks and no you
can't buy it on Amazon the cart was like
250 bucks so this is a thousand bucks
right here yes does it make me money yes
absolutely but this is my world not
necessarily your world it comes with
different attachments different types of
like this is a single nozzle this is a
triple nozzle there's different types of
brushes so once again this is not a
comprehensive video about that I'm
losing light the sun's going down so I'm
going to bust out the steamer at this
point but I'm going to pretreat the area
with my all-purpose cleaner I'm going to
get it I don't know let's just call it
wet but I'm not going to saturate it
excessively I just want to get enough
cleaner on it
do a little scrubbing pre-treating it so
that I can come in and extract it by
injecting steam high temperature steam
that steamer I think heats up the water
to 400 degrees and then shoot out steam
so it uses very little actual water and
it uses heat and the moisture of the
steam to activate or to amplify the
effectiveness of the cleaner and help
extract the dirt from the surface or
from the material
now if there's some heavy-duty soiling
I'm actually going to use my super
degreaser and treat those independently
and what I can actually do is spray
these heavily soiled areas scrub them
independently and maybe I'll bust that
old toothbrush into it once again being
mindful not to abrade the upholstery and
start to break it apart and then I scrub
it like this and that's another way to
kind of pre spot the worse of the areas
or the actual what maybe you would call
the stains of the area and really the
seed already looks better just by doing
that so let me bust up the steamer
because this is such high heat you have
to be cautious of not only your hands it
will burn your hand it will blister your
hand it will also melt materials because
it's that hot so you have to apply
caution what I do is I use a microfiber
cloth and I wrap it and you can get very
strategic if you want there's two
settings on the handle and it just is
based on volume of steam so the first
knob puts out a certain amount of steam
if I engage both knobs it puts out more
so I'm going to do both a knob I saw and
now I just go over it like this
see on my shirt that picture up and then
I just wish here is I see MIT and you
kind of have to multitask when you're
doing this did you don't want to heat up
the area too excessive but you want it
to be effective you don't want to burn
your hand and you don't want to melt the
material but this cloth act is two
things that act as a buffer you diminish
the game but it also mops up the dirt as
you ingest the heated steam into it that
is how I use the steamer on these types
of materials now this is clean enough
we're running out of light you get the
point what I would do now is I would
take a different microfiber cloth let's
pretend for a moment that this is a
different microfiber cloth what I would
do is I'd go through and I would just
essentially remove the last remaining
bit of dirt and expedite the drawing
process because I'm going to soak up
with this microfiber any excess moisture
that may be present but there's not much
because it uses mostly steam rather than
volumes of water get it so there's my
little tip of how I personally use or
professionally use the B x-5000 steamer
till next time