New Project

Vote 4 Pedro

Hi All,
We just changed to wife's car to a Toyota Yaris 2004 1.3 Automatic.(I need an Auto)

The previous owner did not keep it anywhere near clean and the seats are very dirty, the plastics are rank, it smells of dog and I doubt it every got a proper wash in it's life but I got it at a resonable price taking this into account.
So I thought I'll take it into town (Galway) and get a full valet to start us of on the right foot, then just keep up to it.
I've been to 3 valet company's in the city and not impressed with the service and methods offered,
Today I called in to the main place and was given the sales spiel, I'd get the following :-

Exterior Hand Wash with Lambs Wool
Chamois Dry
Exterior Tar Removal
Hydro Wax and Buff
Hand Wax and Machine Buff
Alloys cleaned, polished and sealed
Tyres dressed
Vacuum, wash and dry floor mats
Vacuum carpets
Vacuum upholstery/leather seats
Vacuum Boot
Door ledges and sills cleaned
Vinyl and plastic trims polished
Windows cleaned inside and out
Upholstery, roof lining, seats and seatbelts, carpets (incl. boot) shampooed and steam cleaned
Leather care cleaning and conditioning

for €150, sounds fair enough and I was ready to book it in he then said "leave it in for 2 hours and I'll do all that for you" It was not a team of lads just the one fella on the car.
2 hours to do all that, yeah right so I left it and I'll do it myself, I really like and enjoy keeping my Audi clean/obsessively clean so doing the Toyota will be fine and I know it's an older car but I want to do it right but my problem is I have nothing to do the seats with, I have no spray extraction machine, everything else is fine and I'll get it up on stands, get the wheels off, strip the car out this weekend and power wash the carpet, I don't mind keeping it off the road for a few days to do it right.
It's the seats and the smell of the previous owners dog that really needs the time and attention.
Would this be up to the job as the budget is not there to buy a professional machine. was thinking of getting a Numatic George GVE370 All-In-One Multi-Purpose Bagged Vacuum Cleaner.
Any advise offered will be much appreciated.
Thanks.
I put up a few pictures of the job as I go along.

*Kol*

The 4home stores rent out a carpet cleaning system. I guess it would work on seats too. You could give the house a going over too if you have carpet!! There are probably other places you could rent something similar.

Curran

The Numatic George GVE370 is a brilliant machine - might take do attempts to get the seats clean if they are as bad as you are making out, but it will do the job!

Vote 4 Pedro

Got the interior striped out today, to get the carpet and boot liner power washed, they looked fairly clean tbh. but the muck out of them was unreal.
Cleaned the car inside whilst it was empty, might take a few days the get the carpets dry but I'm glade I've made a start on it.

Vote 4 Pedro

Got the Wheels done now, I had to buy new tyres as the ones on it were dated 2004, they would be to old to pass the NCT.
There a bit scuffed but not to bad and they will have to do, the wife won't give too hoots anyway.

Vote 4 Pedro

Got it finished for now, I still have the seats and the cloth on the door cards to do later when I get a George, Just done them with APC and they will have to do for now. I had to take it apart a bit more than I thought I'd have to because they were a few bits broken or missing that needed replacing.















I used mostly OAC products for cleaning and Meguiar's ultimate cut to get the scratches out.
It has a few marks on that won't come out, It would need painting to make it any better and I'm not doing that because for it's age it's good enough and also it's only a cheap little car and most importantly the wife's happy enough with it now, I'll still get the Numatic George and finish the seats when money allows.
I was able to get the replacement parts I needed from a local breakers yard who had just taken in a Yaris of the same year and they were mostly trim panels, nothing major, I gave it a full service along with new brakes and wipers getting all that from Mick's Garage.
Anyway I got a cancellation appointment for the NCT on Friday and it passed so it's on the road now.
Da End.

LollipopJimmy

Serious work and serious dedication. Well done

Vote 4 Pedro

LollipopJimmy wrote: »

Serious work and serious dedication. Well done

Thanks,
It had been "parked up" for over two years and was a little rank to say the least, you'd of thought it was a green car as it was nearly all covered in algee and that damp smell was yuck.

zurbfoundation

very thorough - looks great now

Dord

Wow, great job!

toastedpickles

Holy jaysis! :eek:

Fair play for getting that stuck in!

Pov06

I did the exact same to my own Yaris 1.0.

Stripped the whole inside and washed everything - carpet, chairs, dashboard, door cards.

The interior looked brand new after that

zurbfoundation

im guessing if you remove the seats, its an easy enough job to get the carpet out? never done it before

Pov06

zurbfoundation wrote: »

im guessing if you remove the seats, its an easy enough job to get the carpet out? never done it before

Seats, centre section where the gear knob is and plastic trim around the carpet near the doors.

Vote 4 Pedro

zurbfoundation wrote: »

im guessing if you remove the seats, its an easy enough job to get the carpet out? never done it before

It's a very easy job (depending on the car) to do if you can leave the car off the road for two days or so, time to dry the carpet out.
It's well worth doing as your sure it's clean afterwards and you get the bits out that you normally can't get from all the awkward little places.
Be careful when lifting the seats out not to catch the dash and scratch it.
Take your time and you'll be fine.

zurbfoundation

thanks guys - might do it - my old Carina E is getting back on road at weekend - interior is obviously old but clean and no marks, tears etc - no kids, animals or smokers in it during its life so it could scrub up very well with a bit of effort