Cleaning/Protecting the interior (S1)

[Esprit]

Ok,

The interior of my Si is pretty damn near mint, everything looks as it should, but I want to keep it that way.

Now ordinarily you'd just buy yourself some fabric cleaner, leather cleaner/protector and some silicone-type plastic shiner/protector and be done with it... but in the Elise we've got all of this lovely anodised aluminium on the sills and lovely matte textured plastic in the door inserts and dash top to think about... Personally I think if I were to use a standard plastic interior spra on this it'll try to shine it up and look naff.... what does everyone else out there use? Successes? Failures? Things to avoid like the plague?

Just had me curious is all.

[Davey S1]

Brillo pads and lots of elbow grease

[steff]

You clean the interior?!

[Andy T]

Generally I just clean the Aluminium with some soapy water. I wouldn't attempt to use anything stronger on it as it might attack the finish. Fot the alcantara on the dash I just give it a hoover with one of those brush attachment things! But really just a quick dust with a cloth seems to do the trick without resorting to any nasty chemicals. Allthough Auto Gleam do a nice window glass cleaner that works a treat on the windscreen.

Then as soon as you take the roof off for a blast you get lots of dust over everything again!

My advice for if you want a clean car is leave it in the garage!

Andy

[GCCK]

Baby wipes!

And a nailbrush wrapped in a baby wipe for cleaning the ribbed aluminium plate in front of the seats.

Baby not compulsory!

[Esprit]

Andy T said:

Generally I just clean the Aluminium with some soapy water. I wouldn't attempt to use anything stronger on it as it might attack the finish. Fot the alcantara on the dash I just give it a hoover with one of those brush attachment things! But really just a quick dust with a cloth seems to do the trick without resorting to any nasty chemicals. Allthough Auto Gleam do a nice window glass cleaner that works a treat on the windscreen. Then as soon as you take the roof off for a blast you get lots of dust over everything again! My advice for if you want a clean car is leave it in the garage! Andy

Yeah, mine only really needs a dust.... and given that my car doesn't spend day in-day out in the sun, cracking's not too much of a worry.

As for the tip about nail brush and baby wipes, that's brilliant I might try it.

I've also been told that glass cleaner works wonders on anodised aluminium for removing greasy smudges... the rest should just wash off with a bit of warm water.