Anyway picked up a not too bad Mercedes Sprinter Van from an Auction recently. For a 3 year old van it is in very bad state internally although mechanically it is very sound. I don't think it has ever been cleaned on the inside. It got a good build up of grime on all panels and cloth seat. I am tempted to use a hot steam cleaner to clean the inside of the van. Is this a good idea? Will I damage the plastic (or is in Vinal) panels! Any other solution? Or Tried product that I can buy off the shelf to give the inside of the van a new lease of life.
THat £2.99 Foam Upholstery Cleaner that comes in an aerosol tin at your local motor factors. Smells like cats piss but it'll shift absolutely anything. Use it with a small scrubing brush such as a nail brush to get it riught into the grain.
For Cab: give it a good vacuum then get a scrubbing brush, hot bucket of water mixed with bleach and a pair of marigolds. Give the entire flooring, door panels and anything else plastic a good scubbing with the scrubbing brush soaked with bleach mixture.
I once had to clean out a luton box van which looked like it had curry spilt into every pocket, dashboard and cup holder as well as under seats etc and had been left in the heat for a couple of months. It was so deep in gunk the door pockets were half full. The above procedure cleared it out, little bit of effort involved.
The seats can be cleaned using car upholstery cleaner. Hold the applicator a couple of inches from the surface of the seats and spray. This stuff usually only works in its foamy state so experiment with shaking the can/applicator and varying the distance from the seats. The foamier it is the better. Get the good old faithful scrubbing brush again (make sure you have rinsed off the bleach) and scrub your heart away, the foam turns a really foul looking brown and all sorts of horrible smells rise to the surface. Remove grubby foam without spreading it back into upholstery. Keep doing until desired result has been achieved.
Leave vehicle to dry out and then use dashboard cleaner on plastic surfaces and a "back to black" treatment sparingly on the floor mats.
If the loadspace is in a really bad way remove the plylining, give loadspace a good steamclean and then re-ply. If plylining is blood stained/badly stained/got puddles of staining it is possible someone has been transporting raw meat (very common occurance), strip out plylining and burn, steam clean and disinfect interior several times, double check all nooks and crannies otherwise you will be driving round in a van stinking of decomposing flesh infested with maggotts and flys.
Reminds me of the time mum came home early from shopping to find a stripped down engine from an AJS 250cc motorbike in the bath and covered with GUNK. Balistic was not the word, as she had only cleaned the bathroom that morning.
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