Any suggestions for cleaning the vinyl on the doors, the leather on the seats, the plastic on the side of the console, as well as the steering wheel? Just picked up my 2nd xfire and this one is quite dirty on the interior... I tried a few simple solutions (Meguiars one step leather cleaner, mild soap and water, etc) and it did nothing. Suggestions on restoring the color? Much appreciated!

 

Ouch that is sad someone didn't treat the leather or interior well. I'm eternally impressed with those magic sponges, but had them leave a white residue on the dark lawn furniture. We use Lexol products
How to Clean Leather with Lexol Leather Cleaner and Conditioner purchased locally, read their site info over to start to form an idea of what you want to do.
But to clean up neglected surfaces I know we have a member who is very knowable and works for Adams on this forum. I know many people who use the Maguires NXT series products and are very happy.
If it were mine I'd have a container of clean water and soft cloth ready, a magic sponge and a Lexol cleaner ready. I'd try the sponge in one small area, then wipe with the cloth/clean water, then follow it up with the Lexol leather cleaner last their finish product. I have seen a vanilla steering wheel on another classic yellow that is so trashed I'm not sure it can be restored. I put a white padding on ours then a "Wheel Skin" in black. I really love the vanilla wheel but having it covered/protected in black has been equally nice.

 

Lexol makes excellent cleaners, use them when I run out of Zaino which seems to work ok on light dirt. I'm rather surprised the Meguiars didn't work? They also make an excellent product. Almost wonder if something else is going on. I have some scuff marks on the side of the drivers seat and nothing gets them out because the top layer of leather has been worn away. Probably the only way to address that is with a dye of some sort. I'd pm Mike from Orange and ask him if he can give you some info on the Meguiars product you used, he works for them.
Pat

 

Can you explain this in more detail, please? Are the seats just dirty or is the side of the bolster worn to the point that the color is missing? If so, no "cleaner" in the world will fix that.

That said, you may be experiencing some of the downside of owning such light colored leather upholstery. It's easy to get overly aggressive when cleaning leather, whether with a cleaner in a bottle or with steam. Steam works wonders, by the way, but you do need to use common sense with it so as not to damage the coating over the leather itself.

If the seats are just dirty (and from the sounds of it they're quite dirty) then it's no big shock that our basic one step leather cleaner didn't bring them back to like new condition. It's a very light duty cleaner with excellent conditioning properties, and if used regularly from the get go it does an excellent of preventing dirt build up. But most people, like the previous owner of this car it would seem, can't be bothered with routine maintenance. Of course, they then become really annoyed when they can't clean things up after letting them go for too long. Or in your case, you simply become annoyed that the previous owner was a slacker.

If you have a Costco membership then their house brand all purpose cleaner might be a good choice. It can be diluted with water and should be perfectly safe on the leather. Meguiar's All Purpose Cleaner is a heavily concentrated cleaner from our Detailer Line but it's not generally found in your typical retail outlets - you would need to seek out a specialty detailer supply shop for it. But even diluted as far as 10:1 with water it's has been shown to safely remove some pretty heavy soiling from automotive leather. Smallest size available is one gallon, though.

A small home steamer may be your best bet in the long run. Use either a terry cloth towel with it, or a soft boars hair brush, and take your time with it. Just use common sense and don't overheat the leather or dwell in one area for a long time. Obviously you'll need to apply a leather conditioner after this, but you should be doing that on a regular basis anyway. As should have the previous owner.

 

Thanks for the feedback. The previous owner ate in the car, drove with dirty hands, sweated etc. into the seats but never cleaned it. Therefore any cream colored panel is covered with a film that turns the car a sort of yellow color.

I hired a professional detailer from Waterway to use a commercial cleaning agent on it. short of one 8 inch long, very slender line where the color came off the sharpest point of hte steering wheel they were able to remove 90% of the soiling without damaging the color of the car. Seats are perfect but tehy are closer. After I drive it I wipe down the wheel and the seats/door panels I wipe down weekly. Hopefully this will mitigate further issues!

 

Excellent, as a owner of two tone my self I am grateful my husband keeps it in brand new condition for me.

Get a black Wheel Skin for the steering wheel (from Ebay stores for best price) or use driving gloves. The cream steering wheel is going to pick up dirt again. The company will send samples of the colors, black was the best match and looks even better on.

Caution note- I wrapped mine first with a white fiber material to keep the black leather off of the white wheel.
That made the wheel thicker so when sewing the Wheel Skin on
I got to use all of my swear words in one day