Steam Cleaning
 

Ok, quick bio. Late last year I bought a beautiful red RX8 2004 (6 speed) I parked it the garage because I live in a state that pours mountain of salt on the roads during the Winter and the snow gets deep enough to make the RX8s clearance a question.

While I had her in the Garage I kept getting this wet musty small. It came from the trunk and I found standing water in the trunk under the plastic thing for holding the Jack (Which I don't have) Why? How? Is the (typical) spoiler leak. Seriously disgusted :cussing: that I didn't notice this when I was looking over the car but... Whatever.

I cleaned up the car with the usual junk but something was not right. No matter how much I cleaned up the center console it seems to ooze sticky goo. Or as the Might Car Mods on Youtube call it "The endless supply of human slime" I pulled out the radio thinking I wanted to either put in a newer one with the all important AUX in connector because I use my smart phone as a jukebox. I figured I would take all the plastic pieces inside the house and give them a wash in the laundry tub to get everything spic and span. Then.... I took out the center console and found everything covered in a pool of sticky sludge. It seemed to be the deepest under the cup holder and it was the source of the "other" weird smell AND the endless supply of oozing goo. I'm not a neat freak but I don't like being sticky and this looked IMPOSSIBLE to clean up. I got a box of Qtips and a variety of chemicals and concluded that this wasn't ever going to work. The goo was coming out from under everything (Screws, sheet metal)

So enter the portable steam cleaner. My wife bought two of these things at a garage sale. They didn't work. (Some moron used tap water and glued them up) Anyhow I fixed them and I wanted to post about it because its Amazing what steam can do. I'm not sure how this works but you blast an area of total goo-age and the steam changes it into unsticky brown water that you can easily wipe up with a paper towel. I won't tell you cleaning up a Big Gulp sized Coke can be done in a snap but it CAN be done which is amazing to me.

Steam also seems to kill stuff that stinks. Like a trunk that was a swimming pool for a while. It also is maybe the only way to clean up an engine and associated parts so it looks like its new. *An update. I took out the silver trim (Everything in the center armrest) and it looks really crappy... The silver paint is worn off in a bunch of areas. I'm thinking of maybe doing a repaint and do it in red to match the car. I hate silver paint anyway. It always looks like "Fake Metal." The goo explosion either went all the way to the back of the armrests or whoever owned this car before me drank a lot of cokes and spilled a good share of them.

So far - Sunshade *Wouldn't stay up. It was held on with tie wraps. Looked for a replacement went OMG at the price and took apart the broken one and made it like new. Trunk had a leak under the spoiler which let water collect on top of the trunk and into the trunk. *Water tight trunk btw. Had to unscrew the jack plastics to drain it. What a stink - the bottom liner had to be pitched. Steam cleaned the trunk and cleaned the corrosion. Was going to sand prime and paint the trunk lid and decided I don't know what I'm doing and let someone who has a sand blaster and a paint booth do it. Had to get new tires. Still have to deal with this dent on the passenger door. Why do I love this car so much?