The car’s interior is one of the best parts to take care of when you want a comfortable and clean environment that is both great to look at and cozy to be in.
This is why you need to make sure that the trims, which are important parts of your car’s interior, are cleaned regularly. Cleaning your car’s interior plastic trim will keep them looking new and will decrease the chances of them developing a dirty or faded look.
So, how do you clean your car’s interior plastic trim?
Here is how to clean car interior plastic trim
Vacuum the surface of the trims so that you will remove any of the surface dirt on them. From there, you can use a microfiber cloth to wipe off any of the dirt that didn’t get sucked out. If you want to give the trims a good wash, have a drying towel in hand. Finally, use a plastic polish on the plastic.
It is important to note that you need to make sure that your car’s interior is also just as clean and as fresh as the exterior.
Strangers may not be privy to the appearance of your car’s interior, but you need to maintain the car’s interior aesthetics properly for yourself and your passengers and to make sure that your interior trims do not suffer from wear and tear quickly enough.
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How to clean car interior plastic trim?
Your car’s interior plastic trims are going to be some of the most underrated parts of your car because you might realize how valuable they are to the overall look and value of your vehicle.
The better your car’s interior trim looks, the more aesthetically pleasing and comfortable the car is. And, of course, if you are able to keep your trims looking new as long as you can, you will be able to hold on to the car’s value.
As such, it is important that you also make sure that you clean the car’s interior plastic trims so that you won’t be able to suffer through a dirty and dull-looking vehicle.
On top of that, having clean plastic trims will improve the chances of the trims staving off the effects of wear and tear, as you may be able to allow them to stay looking new as long as possible. This will help the car hold onto its value in the long run.
And you also have to know that the trims are susceptible to dirty for a lot of reasons. Muddy shoes, dirty fingers, and excess moisture can all lead to dirt that can pile up on the surface of your trims to make them lose their appearance.
So, how do you clean the car’s interior plastic trim?
Here are some things that you need to know so that you can clean the interior trims well enough on your own:
What you will need
Before we get started on the actual cleaning, here are some of the things that you will need if you want to clean your car’s interior trims:
- Clean microfiber towels. Clean microfiber towels are your go-to tools when wiping off dirt on the surface of your car’s plastic trims.
- Vacuum cleaner. You don’t have to use a large vacuum cleaner. Instead, you can rely on a smaller handheld vacuum cleaner to clean the surface of your trims.
- Brush. While not necessary, the brush is there to help your reach the places that your microfiber towels won’t be able to reach.
- Automotive drying towel. The purpose of the automotive drying towel is to wipe off any excess moisture if you intend to wash the surface of your car’s interior trims.
- Interior cleaner. The interior cleaner is there to make sure you are using a good product to clean the surface of your trims.
- Plastic protectant. The second product that you might want to use is a plastic protectant, which applies a protective layer on the surface of your trims to protect them from dirt and the effects of UV exposure.
- Polish. Finally, the polish is there to give your car’s interior plastic trim a shine so that it will look as good as new.
The procedure
Once you already have all of the tools and products that you need, here is what you should do to clean your car’s interior plastic trims:
1. Vacuum the surface of the different car trims. While you’re at it, you should also vacuum the ceiling, dashboard, and floor mats because these parts can also be dirty and dusty. If the other parts of your car’s interior are dirty, the dirt and dust that they may be carrying can make their way to the trims.
2. Use your microfiber cloth to gently wipe the surface of your car’s interior plastic trims. There might be dust and dirt that have clung on the trims and are difficult to remove.
3. If there are small crevices or areas that are hard to reach, use a brush or even a toothbrush to clean those areas.
4. If there is any visible dirt that may be quite stubborn, you can go get a small bucket of water, dip your microfiber cloth in it, and use the towel to wipe off the dirt. This can be handy if there are sticky areas on the surface of your car’s interior trim. You can also use a car interior cleaner here.
5. For those that washed the car’s interior trim, this is where the drying towel comes into play. Use your drying towel to pat those areas dry because excess moisture can lead to mold or damage.
6. Use your protectant and make sure that you follow the instructions on the product carefully. Most protectants come with their own microfiber towel. Apply a layer of protectant on the surface of the plastic trims to protect them from the effects of wear and tear.
7. Apply polish on the surface of the plastic trims after the protectant has dried up. Use your microfiber cloth to apply the polish. The purpose of the polish is to give your car’s interior trims the shine that it needs to look good and fresh.
After all that, your car’s interior plastic trims are now clean and as good as new. You can repeat the process when you want to clean your car’s interior trims in a few months. However, as long as you take care of your interior trims, you don’t have to clean them as often.
Here is a great video to demonstrate how to clean your interior
What is the cheapest way to clean car interior plastic trim?
As you can see from our procedure above, it may be a bit expensive for some people to use the conventional way of cleaning the interior plastic trims, especially if you factor in the prices of the different products that we mentioned.
However, there is no need to worry about spending good money just to clean the car’s interior plastic trim. That’s because you don’t have to rely on products and other similar things to keep your car’s interior plastic trims. So, what is the cheapest way to clean car interior plastic trims?
If you want to go cheap, you probably don’t have to use a vacuum cleaner because microfiber towels can already do the job of a vacuum cleaner well enough. The only problem is that microfiber towels don’t work as fast as vacuum cleaners, and that means that you may need to use more time to wipe the surface of your car’s plastic trims.
You can also ditch the interior car cleaner and just use water if you can. However, as you will know later on, there are some household items that can be quite effective at cleaning your car’s interior plastic trim.
Can you clean the interior of the car with household products?
The good news is that it is possible to use household products to clean your car’s interior plastic trims. And we will be talking about the different household products that can serve as a substitute for the expensive automotive products stated above.
First, you can use a vinegar solution as your cleaning agent for cleaning the surface of the car’s plastic trim. Mix equal parts of water with equal parts of white vinegar. You can even add mild dishwashing soap to the equation. When using this vinegar solution, it is necessary that you keep a bucket of water and another microfiber towel to wipe the solution off of the surface of the trims after cleaning them.
After wiping the surface with water, make sure that you wipe the excess moisture off with an automotive drying towel.
The second product that you can use for your car’s interior plastic trim is olive oil. You can use olive oil instead of polish to give your car’s interior trim the shine and protective layer that they need. If you don’t have olive oil, you can also use cooked linseed oil for the polish and protective layer on the surface of your car’s plastic trims.
After that, wipe the excess oil off the plastic trims using a dry microfiber towel or a dry automotive drying towel. This is why we recommend that you have multiple microfiber towels on hand when cleaning your car’s interior plastic trim.
Sources
How To Clean Textured Plastic Car Interior Surfaces (Safely)
