Wet Vacuum Detailing

OK, on a recently purchased 2005 Prius I (245,000 miles) i decided to to a wet vacuum detail on the interior upholstery. Twelve years of neglect and a family with 3 young kids left this 2005 Prius sticky, marked up, and with all kinds of debris holed up in crevices many never knew existed in a Prius, such as under seats, behind glove compartment, inside wall of center console, under seat railings, etc. As i recall, I found a chicken wing bone, cereal, earrings, lots of bread crumbs everywhere, marbles, one little green army soldier, crayons and loose change. I can only imagine it was never detailed prior to my purchase. Did you know that there is an extra hidden drawer on the front lower side of the center console, that opens to the front? I didn't know until it tore away at it.


Overall, it took ~3-4hrs starting late AM as i wanted to make the most of the sun drying affects. I started using rubber coated gloves but that quickly went away as the gloves just ended up saturated; probably the better solution are laytex full waterproof of sorts. I mainly used a bucket of warm water and professional-grade solution of rug cleaner, that i got from Lowe's. I was extra generous with spreading the water on the upholstery and interior carpeting. I started with removing the front and rear bench seats, then center console to include breaking that down. I had high pressure washed the upholstery from the HV Battery back to include the wheel well upholstery items; i used a similar water solution & hand brush. Where possible on tough areas i used some "Awesome" degreasing spray solvent to really break down some dark and dingy areas, particularly the back seat bench and floor upholstery. That Awesome-stuff really works great, but you must ensure you get it out or you leave behind some degreaser for car visitors to pick up. It seemed like the family's kids just dropped a jug of milk and left it there 12 years ago--- just pure nasty. I initially gave up on the bench and was contemplating mail ordering for a new one and or tan seat covers, but the Awesome really took the bulk of that black stain out.

 

Unfortunately I cannot find the before picture of the rear bench seat. It had 2 large black crusty stains that were still crunchy. Here is the after picture.

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I was not too happy half way through as things were getting hot, sweaty, sticky! Glad I pushed through the doubt as the car is so much more bearable now in touch, smell and sight. People should get citations for such car neglect as I have witnessed.

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I will definitely look into the wheel skins. Thanks

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