Stacey's Mazda RX-7, Interior Cleanup
This document last modified May 21, 2003.
If somebody ever makes a mess out of the inside of your car,
just call your mom. She'll know what to do.
Thank God for Moms!!! Give 'em
a sponge, and they'll make your whole world a brighter
place!
Stacey narrates:
"Mom's been busy. The solution she has is 'Dupont 4105S Wash 'in
Wipe.' The local body shop gave this solution to her. Apparently, it
can't be purchased; it says right on the tin 'not for sale to the
general public. For use in body shops only.' But I'm told I can have
as much as I want. This stuff is incredible. A small amount applied
to terry cloth, with one swipe, the paint came right off the seat.
I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen for myself!
So Mom & I went at the car
interior with the solvent. The section we were working on was the passenger's
seat back vinyl, facing the outside of the car. Jimmy -- it came off! Hot water
was dripping downward and the paint kept dripping off!
I took some hot water (only) and started on the door sill -- washable! Same goes for the passenger
headrest (fabric), door trim, back hatch, and the dash."
I suggested to Stacey that she should grab a wrench and
remove the seats, to facilitate their cleanup, as well as underneath and around
them. Amazingly, this petite little woman, the kind who generally only uses
tools like emery boards, conceded:
"In a prior email you called me a sick chick. Well,
today I brought the car seats home. They are sitting in my living room. So... how
do you like me now? ;)"
(click to see a larger image, then use the back button to return to this page)
"Meet the best behaved dog in the world... just don't
make her angry! She was there while I cleaned
the car seat. It's kinda hard to detail with a boxer in
your face!"
Stacey finished the rest of the interior cleanup over the next few months,
largely on her own.
"I did not use solvent because it was starting to dry out the vinyl and it
started to dis-color. Instead, I used simple green and hot water, elbow grease
and long manicured nails (the tool of choice). :)"
Here are six small pictures of the seats while they were home:
And here's the finished product:
(click to see a larger image)
The rest of the interior:
The only technically difficult part of the interior restoration proved to
be reinstalling the stock stereo system. As often happens in car theft
situations, the thieves broke the stereo surround panel and cut the wiring when
they removed the stereo.
The panel was easy enough to fix: just throw a
few hundred dollars at the local Mazda dealer, and maybe you can
get one of the last few in existence. But restoring the wiring proved to be an
even more formidable task. While examining the cut wires in order to describe
the damage to me... well, I'll just let Stacey tell you:
"There's a blue wire with a yellow stripe and
red bands, and a blue wire with a white strip and red bands, and...
THEN I GOT SPARKS!
I have no idea what else is attached to that aftermarket harness!
So, PLEASE excuse me now... I have to change my underwear. Sparks! Holy S**T!!!"
In the end, her neighbor Darryl came to the rescue and
spliced the wiring back together.
Ummm... without sparks. :)
The rest of the interior restoration consisted primarily of
sourcing used and new parts. For this, Stacey learned quickly that E-bay is her friend. Other notable
contributors to the used parts search include Donnie Peterson at Sun Auto Parts, Rob Windsor and Jim Hull. I
found a few goodies in my parts boxes, too.
New parts included steering column covers, an ignition switch and lock set,
door pull cups and a few other goodies, with a total expenditure for the new interior
parts of $848. That's after a very generous discount from the helpful
folks at Abbotsford Mazda. Kudos to Mike Enns, "the parts guy," for all of his help.
But before the interior restoration
was completed, the car had a date with the body shop....
