Car Upholstery Cleaner:
Why you're getting poor results

The reason most people get poor results with their choice in car upholstery cleaners is due to one big problem:

"The Idiot Factor"

There are two sides to this idiot factor:

• Manufacturers that build the idiot factor into their product for liability issues.
• Consumers being idiots because we don't know any better.

The Harsh Reality

The harsh reality is not so much that we are all idiots as consumers, but more that we are unrealistic as consumers. There seems to be a theme in society today and that is of neglect; we neglect maintenance today, then pay a bigger price for our neglect tomorrow. Most people will neglect cleaning car upholstery from the start. We then rush t the retailer and pick up some handy dandy car upholstery cleaner and expect it to take care of the neglect we have given our car for the past few years.

A Better Way

There is a better way to go about this:

By keeping up on your cars upholstery and interior from the beginning, it never gets out of hand, which means you will not have any unrealistic expectations from any of these car upholstery cleaners.

Let's break down the process into specifics that are easy to understand, and easy to do.

Basic Upholstery Cleaning and Maintenance

Areas of Concern

When it comes to cleaning and maintaining your cars upholstery, there are three areas you nee to be concerned with; get these areas right, and your cars interior will look as fresh and clean to the extent you apply some effective effort.

• Cloth seating
• Leather seating
• Floor mats
• Carpeting
• Dash/Gauges/Vents
• Headliner

Cloth Seating

• Brush with stiff plastic scrub brush to loosen dirt.
• Vacuum aggressively to remove dry and loose dirt.
• Use crevice tool on vacuum for tight to reach areas.
• Spray area with your choice in car upholstery cleaner.
• Scrub with plastic scrub brush to loosen dirt.
• Wipe up aggressively with terry cloth rag.
• Use light applications of cleaner and repeat as necessary.

Leather Seating

• You can use a designated leather cleaner or upholstery cleaner.
• Car leather is much less fragile than we have been lead to believe, so using an upholstery cleaner will be fine on any modern day leathers.
• Spray area to be cleaned with cleaner.
• Wipe aggressively with terry cloth rag to mop up dirt with cleaner.
• If leather is heavily soiled, use plastic scrub brush or a plastic pot scrubber pad from the kitchen, to break down dirt prior to mopping up with rag.
• Once again, leather is much more durable than we have been lead to believe as consumers, so this will not be damaging to leather; unless of course you use the pressure of a gorilla and don't apply a little common sense here.
• Repeat as necessary until you have desired results.

Floor Mats

• Will be your biggest area of dirt collection.
• Vacuum first, then brush with plastic scrub brush to break up and loosen dirt, then vacuum again.
• Spray mats with upholstery cleaner and scrub aggressively with brush.
• Mop up aggressively with terry cloth rag.
• Do this repeatedly until desired results are obtained, using light shampoo applications rather than one heavy application.
• Vacuum again when dry for optimum results.

Carpeting

• Follow same steps as outlined above with floor mats.
• For those hard to reach areas, use a tooth brush instead of full sized scrub brush.

Dash/Gauges/Vent

• Get yourself one of the following:
  Make-up brush
  Artists paint brush
  Regular pant brush
• Use within dash vents and all gauges and tight to reach areas where dust collects.
• Q-tips and upholstery cleaner will only make a bigger mess and be very time consuming.
• Dust in conjunction with the vacuum and you will suck up dust at the same time.

Headliners

Headliners get a special note: Headliners will either be velour or vinyl. The same cleaner can be used on both, you just have to be more careful when cleaning velour.

• Velour Headliners
  Often, these will get very dusty from having the windows down. Simply wiping with dry rag and vacuuming will go a long way for clean. If necessary, spray cleaner lightly and rub semi-aggressively with rag to mop up dirt. You can use a softer scrub brush and tooth brush if necessary.
• Vinyl Headliners
  Simply spray and wipe down aggressively. If more cleaning is needed, use scrub brush along with cleaner to break down dirt.

An added note regarding velour headliners; do not saturate headliner with cleaner. Use light applications and repeat if necessary. On older model cars over 10 years old, there is a chance the car upholstery cleaner can loosen glue of headliner and cause it to sag.

Miscellaneous Areas of Concern

For areas like the steering wheel, shifter knob, plastic door sills, etc., using your car upholstery cleaner along with a plastic pot scrubber sponge like a Scotch-Brite or Mr. Clean Miracle Eraser pad, will prove to be very effective for breaking down the dirt.

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