My first car! :)

[Kuplamies]

Welcome to the org

Greetings from Finland

[andrea_cw]

Ooh, I have a question: What should I use to clean my seats? I'm not sure if they're leather or leatherette...

[Fl_bug]

If they have very small holes in them, they're leatherette aka Vinyl.

I prefer vinyl to leather because vinyl is tougher and doesn't crack over time like leather.

Any autoparts store (O'Rileys, Napa, Autozone, ect) will have a huge supply of conditioner and shampoo for leather. Personally, it all works the same to me and I dont prefer one over the other.

Maybe someone can chime in on what their favorite is. In the meantime, go to amazon.com and search leather shampoo. You can get a head start from home on seeing what the different brands are and even read some reviews from people that buy it.

Good luck!

[topless kitty]

Originally Posted by andrea_cw

Ooh, I have a question: What should I use to clean my seats? I'm not sure if they're leather or leatherette...

to CLEAN them, i suggest woolite. yes, the stuff you use on your unmentionables!

take a microfiber cloth, run it under water until soaking wet, pour a nickle or so sized amount of woolite on the soaking microfiber, then wring it out until it's just slightly damp. then run it over your seats, dash, console, basically everything hard inside the car. it's gentle, effective, and smells good!

you can also get a small 4oz or so travel sized spray bottle, like what you put hairspray in, and fill it with water and woolite, about a 6:1 ratio. it's good to keep in the glovebox with a microfiber for touchups, like if you drip coffee on your console or something.

[huck731]

welcome to the family. probably the biggest, mulitculteral, and somewhat most disfunctional functioning family. jk about the last part. have fun with sally and keep her clean. a pretty orange nb like that looks sexy. I really want an orange one (preferably the orang color concepty) but i had to settle for a black one seeing as when i got my nb, i needed a car by that weekend.

[andrea_cw]

Originally Posted by topless kitty

to CLEAN them, i suggest woolite. yes, the stuff you use on your unmentionables!

take a microfiber cloth, run it under water until soaking wet, pour a nickle or so sized amount of woolite on the soaking microfiber, then wring it out until it's just slightly damp. then run it over your seats, dash, console, basically everything hard inside the car. it's gentle, effective, and smells good!

you can also get a small 4oz or so travel sized spray bottle, like what you put hairspray in, and fill it with water and woolite, about a 6:1 ratio. it's good to keep in the glovebox with a microfiber for touchups, like if you drip coffee on your console or something.

I think i'm going to try that. What do you use to clean your dash? I used an Armor All wipe to get some finger prints off of it yesterday, and today it looks streaky. I'm scared to use anything on her now without asking on here first!

[topless kitty]

Originally Posted by andrea_cw

I think i'm going to try that. What do you use to clean your dash? I used an Armor All wipe to get some finger prints off of it yesterday, and today it looks streaky. I'm scared to use anything on her now without asking on here first!

eek, get it off! use woolite on anything hard in the car. dash, console, door panels, whatever. it's a good mild cleaner. armorall will do more harm than good, it'll leave a gross film and dust will stick to it, yucky. clean it off well with woolite, and pick up a california dashboard duster, around $6 at walmart or target. i keep mine in the pocket behind the passenger seat, grab it any time the dash looks dusty. in a pinch a dry microfiber will do the job too.

[The Cheat]

+1 on the dash duster.

when i had beetles, i tended to use tide laundry soap (sensitive skin formula) mixed with water for general purpose cleaning. worked out for me as i'm highly allergic to certain fragrances, so i had some on hand at all times. i used it EVERYWHERE too (including the seats).

another cleaner i REALLY like (and swear by) is purple power, mixed 128:1. that stuff will get ANY stain out. when i bought one of my bugs used, it had been smoked in (at the time, i had quit). sprayed the headliner with it, used a wet/dry vac, and it sucked out all this nasty gooey brownness. made the headliner look newish again.

as far as oil changes, if you run synthetic, 10k is plenty fine, been running that interval for years, and i reccommend all my customers do so as well for optimum performance and reliabilty.

congrats, you got one sweet ride for your birthday!

[salsa-man]

Originally Posted by topless kitty

eek, get it off! use woolite on anything hard in the car. dash, console, door panels, whatever. it's a good mild cleaner. armorall will do more harm than good, it'll leave a gross film and dust will stick to it, yucky. clean it off well with woolite, and pick up a california dashboard duster, around $6 at walmart or target. i keep mine in the pocket behind the passenger seat, grab it any time the dash looks dusty. in a pinch a dry microfiber will do the job too.

+2 on the duster. And stay AWAY from Armor All. That stuff will DESTROY vinyl and plastics over time.

Welcome to the org! And thanks for the teaser pics of your new baby. Now....we must have more pics and we must have them asap.

[huck731]

Originally Posted by salsa-man

And stay AWAY from Armor All. That stuff will DESTROY vinyl and plastics over time.

I learned this the hard way, i put that "ice" interior polish on my dash, and it was a dusty mess the next day. now i almost never do anything to my nb without consulting the org. exept for when i do "top secret" mods to my car.

cant wait to see more pictures

[Fl_bug]

[hijack]I bought a dash duster, but I found it to be cheezy.... I need to buy a new one. Which one do you guys recommend? [/hijack]

Hey, did you get the light to go off on the top yet?

[andrea_cw]

Originally Posted by Fl_bug

Hey, did you get the light to go off on the top yet?

Yes! Waiting for the ding did the trick.



Thanks for everyone's cleaning tips!! I'm definately going to try to try some of them out this weekend...and the Armorall is staying FAAAAR AWAY from Sally from now on. haha

[topless kitty]

Originally Posted by andrea_cw

Yes! Waiting for the ding did the trick.

i had a sneaking suspicion

[miffmole]

Originally Posted by Fl_bug

[hijack]I bought a dash duster, but I found it to be cheezy.... I need to buy a new one. Which one do you guys recommend? [/hijack]

A Swiffer duster works fine for me...the handle on mine telescopes out where I can do the whole dash from the driver's seat in about 30 seconds.
Swiffer Dusters Product Information and Dusters Coupons

[andrea_cw]

^I had actually thought of that. That's what I plan on trying if I can't find the other duster!



On another note, I got my license today, and therefore drove Sally by myself for the first time! However, it was just a five minute drive to drop her off at the mechanic to get a full look-over...I miss her already. lol

[huck731]

as do we all when we ship our beloved nb's out to get work done, when i recently had my water pump go bad, she was right in the shop of the vw dealership that i was sitting, but i don't think i could go 20 minutes without getting up to look at her through the window. ( i also felt like i was cheating on her when i was looking at the blush edition nb convertable and the 2010 gti in the show room, lol)

[andrea_cw]

^So true! lol


I got Sally back last night. She needs a new headlight, and something else, I can't remember. This is kind of aggravating, considering the dealership I bought her from sent her to the VW dealership before we bought her. They were *supposed* to have fixed everything that needed fixed. Anyways, she's going back when our mechanic gets the parts.

[andrea_cw]

Update!

I cleaned my seats, dash, and pretty much most of the inside with woolite today and it worked really well. I also got the California duster and stuck it in the backseat pocket. (Thanks TK and everyone else who gave tips!)

Apparently Sally's previous owner (my mom thinks the Carfax said it was previously a rental, though) wasn't too into cleanliness...the part behind the backseat where the top folds down was FILTHY, and I found a lighter, pen, and gumball stuck back there. Gross, gross, GROSS!

Anyways, though, she's all clean and fresh now. I cleaned all the windows inside and out, as well as the chrome trim, too. The snow took care of the dirt on the top, so now I just have to wait for a day above freezing so I can wash the rest of the car.

[KhushbuMalik]

Hi,

Welcome! You are looking soooooo good along with your car!


BTW, I am Khushbu Malik here. I am too a young gal like you! Enjoy driving!



Regards,
Khushbu Malik
Buick Steering