How To Clean Car Upholstery

Car upholstery gets badly abused daily as you drive around. The soil from your shoes, spills from coffee, and food crumbs can ruin your car upholstery to a great extent. Even if the exterior of your car looks sparkling clean, a stained seat cover or food crumbs in the back seat can make your car look very uninviting and make it look old and dirty as well. Instead of hiding stains with tissue paper etc, you can keep your car interior as tidy as the exterior by cleaning it on a regular basis. If there are any wet spills, blot it right away with a clean and soft cloth. This will make it easier to remove the stain. If the stain is old and dry, vacuum clean it as much as possible to remove all the loose dirt and debris. To get to know more neat tips on cleaning your car’s upholstery, read on.

Cleaning Car Upholstery

Vacuum Cleaning
Car upholstery can accumulate a lot of dust, food crumbs, and dirt if not cleaned for a long time. It is therefore important for you to regularly vacuum clean your car in order to keep it clean and smelling fresh inside at all times.

Removing Grease Stains
Use a soft leather cleaner to remove grease stain if any. Never use water to clean grease as this can spread the stain. You can also try to remove the stain using a dry clean cloth.

Cleaning Leather Upholstery
A deep leather conditioning solution is best for cleaning any leather upholstery such as leather seat covers or leather mats. To clean upholstery made of leather, take a cotton ball soaked in a leather conditioning formula and rub the stain gently in a circular motion. Leave it for 10-20 minutes. Now, take a clean dry cloth and rub it gently over the stained area. You may also use baking soda to maintain the sparking look of your car’s leather upholstery. However, remember never to scratch leather upholstery to remove stains as this can damage the leather’s finish.

Removing Food Stains
To remove food stains and other large stains, take a clean cloth and blot the stain immediately. You can also use a liquid carpet cleaner to remove any bad food stain.

Removing Coffee Stains
To remove stubborn coffee stains, vinegar or alcohol is the best solution. Take a cotton ball and soak it in vinegar. Now, gently rub the coffee stain with the cotton ball until the stain goes away. Once done with this, take a blow drier to dry the area. You can also use your window spray cleaner to remove coffee spill stains. Nevertheless, read the manufacturer’s instructions before you commence cleaning in order to avoid any chances of discoloration of the fabric. 

• Shaving cream is a good upholstery cleaner.
• To remove molds and mildew, use cleaning products containing citrus oil and hydrogen peroxide. Spray the cleaning product on the stain, allow it to sit for 15-20 minutes, and then gently rub the stained area with a clean cloth. As an alternative, you could create a cleaning mixture by combining ¼ teaspoon of color safe bleach with ¼ cup of 3% hydrogen peroxide. Now, with a clean cloth, gently rub the stain until it is gone. Rinse the area with clear, warm water and dry thoroughly.
• To remove battery acid stains, rub a paste of baking soda and water on the stained area. Leave it for an hour and then wipe it off with a damp cloth.
• To remove gasoline stains, make a mixture of vinegar and mild dish detergent in equal amounts and apply the mix on the stain. While the detergent cleans the stain, the vinegar will remove the odor for good.