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Interior products / howto

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by jeebus, Oct 30, 2009.

  1. jeebus

    jeebus New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 30, 2009
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    Location:
    TX
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    III
    I'm looking for help with interior cleaning/conditioning products.

    First: wipes. These make a lot of sense to me: something quick and simple that's always in the car, and every once in a while you do a quick 30-second brush-up over everything to keep the car perpetually in an almost-new state.

    But what to get? There seem to be
    - leather cleaner
    - leather conditioner
    - leather cleaner+conditioner combined
    - dash/plastic cleaner
    - dash/plastic conditioner
    - dash/plastic cleaner+conditioner combined
    I can understand how in principle cleaning and conditioning/protecting are two separate things, but I don't really want 4 different sets of wipes. Are the combo products okay or would I be setting myself up for problems with them? Also do the wipes need to be compatible in some way with the main non-wipe products I might be using (like 303 or Zaino etc)?

    I plan to avoid armorall, but might use something from meguiar's or lexol. Meguiar's seems to have a couple cleaner+conditioner combo products, lexol seems to have their leather cleaner and leather conditioner separate and a vinylex cleaner/conditioner combo.

    What's a good balance between generic and special-purpose for the wipes? Any recommendations / warnings?


    And on to my second main topic: non-wipe products. Here I've seen lots of recommendations for
    - 303 for a dash/plastic protectant
    - Zaino Z9 leather cleaner
    - Zaino Z10 leather conditioner
    - maybe duragloss 441/221 leather cleaner/conditioner
    Is 303 just a protectant or is it a cleaner too? If I had 303, Z9, Z10, would I have all my bases covered?


    Also how diligent do I need to be about keeping the chemicals separate from each other? I mean can I use one rag for everything, or would I be smearing traces of leather conditioner on the plastic etc? Then just wash the rag/rags in the washing machine afterward?


    As you can see from my questions, I'm a bit green at all this. So all advise is appreciated :) . Thanks.
     
  2. blueumbrella

    blueumbrella Member of Prius Regeneration

    Joined:
    May 24, 2009
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    Location:
    Seattle
    Vehicle:
    2009 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    WOW! I get by with a wet cloth and occasionally a little Dawn.
     
  3. hotbrass

    hotbrass New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 3, 2009
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    Location:
    Cowtown
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    IV
    Nice list.
     
  4. KJF

    KJF Member

    Joined:
    Jun 2, 2009
    75
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    0
    Location:
    Small town - north central Idaho
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    II
    Along these lines, I am looking for advice on treating light scuffs on the various plastics in the interior.

    I have some light scuffing on the "plastic" of the dash and the "plastic" door insides and the "plastic" on the door sill where I get in/out and sometimes drag my feet and on the "plastic" sides on the floating console.

    I have dark grey interior.

    I used soft pencil lead to darken some of the light areas of the scuff that catch one's eye (this helped). I tried to hide scuffs with interior detailing spray (this did not seem to help). I tried quick wax spray (this did not seem to help).

    Any suggestions would be most welcome.
     
  5. stream

    stream Senior Member

    Joined:
    May 12, 2008
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    Location:
    Long Island, NY
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    V