40th Interior Materials (suede? alcantara?)
 

I got me a 40th! Picked it up on Thursday...and have been loving every minute of it..except for 2 things.

1) The exhaust it came with is mind numbingly loud (but easily fixed).

2) The interior has not been well taken care of. The seats are dirty.. and the door inserts are dirtiest on the driver side (I'm guessing he rested his arm on that spot a lot... and never cleaned it)

I've been researching cleaning procedures/tips/tricks. I'm only unclear on what material our seats are made of. Is it suede?..or alcantara?

The interior is the same as other 370z Touring editions, so you should find a lot of good info in the Interior/Exterior care forums.

The only difficult thing is the red color. Gotta be careful with what you use.

apparently just water works well if u are cleaning the alcantra often

the side panels are a pita to keep clean, congrats on your purchase :tup:

After a lot more searching... I'm pretty sure the material is Alcantara.. not suede.

I cleaned the door panels last night (I'll upload pics when I get home) and they look leaps and bounds better. Almost new(?)... I can't be certain, I've never seen the 40th when new.

I used a 3 clean terry cloth rags; 1 for just water, 1 for drying/dabbing, and 1 for the cleaner. For the cleaner I mixed a 1:6 solution of Woolite (for dark clothes) and water. It worked amazingly well, my rags were brown from the dirt...but... NO RED! :happydance:

I still have the seats to do, but overall I'm happy with my results.

:tup: yep your right the material is alcantara anywhere in the vehicle where it looks/feels "suede like" here's a link to there website for maintenance instructions, I have fallowed them for cleaning and it came out great, however I never let it get very dirty in the first place :ugh2:

Alcantara® extraordinary every day

*Update*

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps471b82a5.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps7e20cc6a.jpg

For the alcantara portions I used a 1:6 Woolite solution, and for the leather I used Leatherique.

I cleaned the alcantara and leather on seperate days. This is how I cleaned my interior...

Alcantara:
- 3 terry cloth rags; 1 for drying, 1 for warm water, 1 for woolite solution
- 1:6 Woolite solution (I used woolite for dark clothes... if that matters)
- Spray bottle for woolite
- 2 Buckets with warm water (changed when it got too dirty)

1) I wringed out the warm water rag and began wiping/light scrubbing the alcantara
*rinse rag in bucket 1*
2) Spray woolite solution onto 2nd rag and began light scrubbing the alcantara
*rinse rag in bucket 2*
3) ^ repeat steps until your rag doesn't pick up dirt... but always ending with the water rag... not sure if leaving woolite residue is a good idea
4) I dried the seats with the 3rd rag whenever I felt the seat got to saturated

Leather:
- Leatherique Rejuvenator Oil
- Leatherique Pristine Clean
- Blue painters tape
*Our seats don't need a lot. I bought an 8oz set from eBay for $36*

1) Taped off all the alcantara on the seats
2) Followed instructions that came with Leatherique
- Rubbed Rejuvenator Oil generously onto seats
- Left my car out on in the hot Hawaiian sun for 5hrs *you can use a hair dryer to warm up your cabin as well*
- Wiped oil and dirt off the seats with Pristine clean
- Stare in amazement at how the leather now looks

Wow that looks disgusting

Yours looks amazing after cleaning

Wow great work! I have some issues around the handle of the door with discoloration. However I wonder if its just a little dirty. I'll be sure to try your method.


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Nice work!!! :tup:

Wow. I might just do this today. Great job!

opt for the alpaca skin seat option

:iagree: great job!

Mine was never that dark/dirty on the door handle, but I had the same like new results after cleaning and love it! At first I was really disappointed to have it discolouring so fast since I had bought the Z new, but it cleaned up great! :tup:

The interior of the anni is gorgous but it really doent hold up well under daily driving. I had my doors and seat rewrapped in a better leather and did away with the suade all together. Very hard color to match things with to. You did a fantastic job cleaning tho man. Hope you enjoy the anni as much as the rest of us.

I've been wanting to clean my persimmon door inserts but have been too afraid to try abrasive chemicals! Thanks so much for your pictures and explanation! It should be a DIY :tup:

This should be stickied! Great write up. Going to do this soon!

^^^THIS BEFORE AND AFTER is CRAZY!!!!!!! Very impressive!

sub'd to try

awesome, thanks !

NICE, wow I can't believe the previous owner let that happen. At first I didn't notice how black it looked WTf....

Wow!!!! Thats amazing. Did you remove the door inserts or just clean it all while it was in the car?

I cleaned it attached to the car. It would have been too much of a pain to remove the door panels...but I guess you could do it that way too.

Awesome ******* job !! I'm gonna do it my self now. Bass gonna buy the sheet new from Nissan lol

I had my seat repaired in October and while that was being done, the door panel was cleaned with a product called Whip-It (as seen on TV). The solution was mixed at an 8:1 ratio and then applied to the arm rest area. He said that the dirt came right off and then he dried it with a heat gun to speed up the process. I have attached an after picture for your viewing pleasure...

Oh, cool! I will have to check that (Whip-It) out when I get home...work has YouTube blocked :p

Hmm... having one of those "duh" moments.... why in the heck didn't I think of using a heat gun/hair dryer to hasten the drying process!? That's brilliant!

Bringing this back from the dead... tried these exact steps today (using woolite) and it worked like magic. I didn't have the same amount of nastiness all over the surface as the OP did but my alcantara was definitely black near the door handle from repeated opening/closing of the door. Using only one "cycle" of scrubbing with water, woolite solution and then water again to rinse it cleaned everything perfectly. Instead of using a heat gun or hair dryer I used a dry cloth to get out any excess moisture and then left the doors open to sit in the sun for ~10 mins. Awesome write up thanks!

Before:
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...d/IMAG0052.jpg
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...d/IMAG0051.jpg

After:
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...d/IMAG0053.jpg
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...d/IMAG0054.jpg

I also did mine over the offseason but no before photos to share…… I could take after but they were not as bad as either of your to begin with :ugh2:

Basically my point is people don't be scared to clean the Alcantara!

i use this to protect it after cleaning- http://www.detailersdomain.com/Leath...or_p_1022.html

Lol I've gotta admit that's exactly why I waited so long and it got so dirty... I was scared that I'd mess up the alcantara. Looking at it you'd think it's delicate but after scrubbing for a while turns out it's actually pretty durable and easy to clean. :tup:

:tup::tiphat:


"Don't be scared it's only pussy alcantara"

Doing it now!
Great thread!!

What about the seats ? One spot is getting really dark due to wallet and stuff ...

Just finished using OP's method and it worked awesome. Thanks for the tips.

R.K.

Just got some alcantra cleaner, brand name is Sonax, haven't used it yet. My handles are also dark in color so I need to get it clean again.

FYI noobs ( Alcantara) . Alcantara.IT has a PDF instructing on how to clean their fabric. I suggest you review it. It is very simple. I used to have their products in my cars back int he late 90s and early 2K's so not talking shite.

I just tried what OP said......I saw red fibers all over my rags :ugh:

I really, really hope I didn't just **** it up

did you use the woolite for dark colors? the only time that i ever saw red on the clothes is when i used regular woolite

I did but, There was no color transfer....I scrubbed too hard and my driver's door panel is pretty worn now.

It went from soft and smooth to rough now on the rest of it.....I done goofed.

I know a guy selling his 40th here locally, I asked to trade door panels + cash with him, If that fall through I'll take it to the best upholstery shop in Houston - The one the exotics use. They said they can color match it and just redo the whole thing.

40th Interior Materials (suede? alcantara?)
 

There shouldn't be any (rough) scrubbing involved. It's more of repeat soft rubbing using two or three pieces of soft rags.
1. Use one rag to moisten the dirty section with woolite mixed w warm water.
2. Use the second (clean) rag to dry it off nice & gently
3.. Repeat step one and two

Figure I'd post my findings in this thread, maybe it will help someone in some way for future reference. It's not even real Alcantara, It's a plastic fiber to look like Alcantara. Real Alcantara looks "smoother" for a lack of a better word. This is why woolite works real well, it was designed to clean your clothes made of plastic fibers! Just like our interior. Save your cash and just use Woolite! :)

http://www.the370z.com/detailing-was...magnified.html

Interior shop said they can redo it for $140.