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Good Stuff

koda2000

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I recently purchased a 2000 Mountaineer, that had received little-to-no love for at least the past few years. As such, it needed extensive interior cleaning. In the past I've used a product called Tuff Stuff to clean carpet and upholstery spots, and it's worked pretty well. The carpet in this vehicle looked as if cola had been spilled everywhere. The stains were especially bad around and under the front and rear seats. I honestly thought I'd need to replace the carpeting, but I figured I might as well try cleaning it first.

I went to AutoZone to buy cleaning supplies and while looking for Tuff Stuff, I noticed that Tuff Stuff now makes another type of cleaner with a stain remover. it was about the same price as their other product (around $5.00) so I figured I might as well try it.

This product is nothing short of amazing. It took out everything stain I tried it on. Grease, cola, coffee and quite a few stains of unknown origin. The only stains it didn't have any effect on appeared to be nail polish and some paint spots. I'm going to have to take the seats loose to get at some of the crud, but that's easy enough to do and will be well worth the effort. I give this product a big thumbs up.

The leather seats in this vehicle also need a good cleaning and I've found the best cleaner to use, to get them looking as good as they can possibly look, is Scrubbing Bubbles Bathroom Cleaner (I know sounds crazy, and I wouldn't use it on a regular basis, but it really does the job). Do a small area at a time, spray it on, work it in with a small brush and immediately wipe it off with a clean terry towel and let dry. Follow it up with a good leather conditioner (like Lexol Cream Leather Conditioner) and your leather will look and feel as good as it's ever gonna look. Another big thumbs up.
 



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Thanks for the heads up on this stuff. I might have to try some since I have two kids that spill stuff all the time.
 






Me too I keep Tuff Stuff bet never seen the w/ stain remover my Explorer has rust in the carpet from someone haulin junk in it. And urs can't have been mistreated as bad as mine was looks like someone beat it with a ball bat on both front fenders and the liftgate and they even melted the shiftboot how do u melt a 4 inch hole in a rubber shiftboot! I used to smoke but never burnt my seats or my shifter!!! People do crazy things in their rides
 






i don't know how/if it'll work on rust, but it worked really well on most everything i encountered. on really stubborn stains i understand you can try hydrogen peroxide diluted with water and rinse w/water afterward. i forget the ratio... Goggle it.
 












Another exceptional product I use is Invisible Glass window cleaner. It is, by far, the best glass cleaner I've ever found. I prefer to use the spray bottle rather than the aerosol, and I spray it on 3-4 paper towels (rather than the glass) saturating them, then clean the window, dry the glass with a handful of additional paper towels and, if really dirty - repeat. I find the trick to using any glass cleaner is to keep the glass wet until you can dry it all at once, and never do it when the glass is warm/hot.
 






A trick I learned from a friend who detailed cars for a living is on the windshield clean it good really good then apply a coat of wax u can drive in light rain wothout touching your wipers it beads and rolls off I do it all the time now, and now that I got a black paint job again I'll have to keep liquid wax, only way to truly clean a black vehicle is to use liquid wax after u wash it otherwise black is gonna spot. Learned that when I worked at a detail shop couple of years ago
 






I am willing to try anything to get the black off the carpet in my Explorer, I got it this way so I have no idea what it really is, but hopefully this will work for me, thanks for the heads up.
 






I've found that simple green works amazingly to clean anything off of anything. I used about 2 gallons of simple green and a tooth brush to clean the engine bay of my Z which had never been detailed and its an 85... works really well on auto carpet spray it on heavily and rub it in with your hand or a stiff brush and vaccuum it out after sitting for about 5 minutes. Seafoam deep creep works really well on cleaning carpet too although unless you want to slightly bleach the color I wouldn't suggest it. As for keeping your glass steak free, clean it with windex or whatever you prefer and paper towels once then spray it down and them dry it with news paper or phone book pages works flawlessly every time
 






I've found that simple green works amazingly to clean anything off of anything. I used about 2 gallons of simple green and a tooth brush to clean the engine bay of my Z which had never been detailed and its an 85... works really well on auto carpet spray it on heavily and rub it in with your hand or a stiff brush and vaccuum it out after sitting for about 5 minutes. Seafoam deep creep works really well on cleaning carpet too although unless you want to slightly bleach the color I wouldn't suggest it. As for keeping your glass steak free, clean it with windex or whatever you prefer and paper towels once then spray it down and them dry it with news paper or phone book pages works flawlessly every time

Newspaper? Phonebook? What are these things of which you speak?
 












Does it have to be newspaper or phonebook??? That ink they use gets on everything, how bout bible I got several done fell apart and that ink won't come off for nothin lol ;p
Bonus! Get with ur local paper printer the rolls they use still have a ton of paper left when they unload them to load a new roll most of em will give or sell it really cheap cause they gonna toss it anyway.
 






LOL I've never tried a bible. Don't have any in the house anymore. As for the newspaper, I've deen doing that when washing cars for as long as I can remember and never had a problem wirh the ink staining anything or leaving residue anywhere. Iit was a trick my grandfather showed me when I was a little kid and he used to make me wash all the cars once a week for $50 lol
 






I second Invisible Glass as glass cleaner. That stuff is incredible and literally makes your glass disappear. I'm a little wary on Tuff Stuff since it seems waaay too strong. It's taken the color out of the stuff I use it on, so I just use other household cleaners that seem to work just as well.
 






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