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How To Clean Car Upholstery
By Jenna Litchfield
Car upholstery seems to be the most hardest thing to clean on a car, you cannot attack it with a sponge and hose like how you can on the outside of the car, its much more difficult.
Upholstery in a car can get dirty by all sorts of things, usually cigarette smoke stains and smells, dirt, grease and grime, FOOD and the daily wear and tear of driving the car.
However the easy solution would be not getting your upholstery dirty in the first place some good ways of not getting your seat upholstery dirty is getting car seat covers, these are great ways to keep your car clean as you can pull them off and wash them if they get dirty! Also car mats for underneath your feet, you can purchase these from your local car part and accessory dealer.
There are also many different types of car upholstery that you can get, from leather and vinyl to suede and felt.
With leather and vinyl you need to have regular maintenance up kept on your car upholstery with cleaning moisturizing and protecting your upholstery in order to keep its beautiful appearance up.
You can usually clean this type of upholstery with vinyl or leather cleaners and protectors available from your local car accessory and parts dealer and in doing so you will extend the life of your cars upholstery by years.
However for the other types of upholstery foam and spray cleansers are the best to use, of course providing you use a bit of elbow grease all stains and marks should come out of your cars upholstery very easily.
How to use alternative methods to cleaning car upholstery:
If you have recently spilt coffee or anything of liquid form on your upholstery that could stain, quickly dilute it with water then blot with rags or paper towels to soak up the liquid, some say to soak the effected upholstery with glass cleaner! As it does not leave a soapy residue behind in the upholstery.
However another alternative to using cleansers on upholstery stains is rubbing paint thinner on stubborn stains with a cotton cloth then covering them with salt then vacuuming it up however it is also suggested that you test a corner of your upholstery first before hand in case it can take the color out of your upholstery!
Hairspray is good for ink stains in the upholstery, carsickness stains can be neutralized (as they are acidic) with baking soda and water, and blood can be removed with laundry starch and water.
If you ever get lipstick stains on your upholstery try cleaning with non-gel toothpaste then wiping with a damp cloth.
Water, vinegar and dishwashing liquid can remove gasoline stains on your cars upholstery the vinegar removes the smell of the gasoline while the dishwashing liquid removes the stain on the upholstery.
WD-40 is said to be a brilliant crayon stain remover on car upholstery as well after you scrape most of it off.
Let the WD-40 soak in, scrub with a small brush then wipe with paper towels, then re spray the area and apply dishwashing liquid on the area and work it in with the brush and wipe away with a damp sponge.
Vinyl upholstery can also be cleaned with baking soda on a damp cloth, then rinse the upholstery with dishwashing detergent and water.
Baking soda is gentler on vinyl upholstery then oil based cleaners as they can make the vinyl upholstery harden over time.
So happy cleaning, and remember prevention is better then cleaning up the mess afterwards.
If your upholstery gets real bad the expensive alternative is to replace the cars whole interior.
See Also:
More information on cleaning your cars upholstery
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