Cleaning Car Upholstery:
Easier than you have been told

Life happens.

And life is also happening inside your car in the form of basic dust, to massive accidental spills and eventually everyone of us grows tired of driving around in a dirty car.

Just as most of us eventually realize that cleaning the car upholstery will become a necessary evil.

But I have really good news!

Cleaning your car interior is actually much easier than you could possibly imagine.

I won't misrepresent the moment and tell you it's going to be a cake walk, but I can promise you that even with the most basic of products and a few tools, you will be able to produce results that will put a huge smile across your face!

Cleaning Car Upholstery Basics

Let's begin with the very basics of cleaning your car upholstery:

• You will need a vacuum (and yes, I recommend a dedicated detailing vacuum)
• You will need at least one type of scrub brush
• You will need some type of "cleaner"
• You will need some microfiber cloths 

Anything past this  will only improve your results, but for right now in this red-hot moment let's keep things as simple as possible so you can get closer to your desired results now, not a year from now.

Car Upholstery Shampoo

While you could actually do a lot with basic tap water when it comes to cleaning the interior of your car, you really should start with a good upholstery shampoo.

I am going to reduce this down to a single type of product that can be used on virtually ALL materials you will be cleaning inside your car.

These products known as ready-to-use cleaners will keep your life ultra simple as a beginner.

Each of these products will  work to clean all types of interior materials:

• Fabric
• Cloth
• Velour
• Rubber
• Plastic
• Leather (yes, even car leather!)

Adam's Carpet and Upholstery Cleaner on Amazon

• I recently just tested this upholstery shampoo and it blew me away!
• I was amazed that a retail/enthusiast grade upholstery shampoo was able to perform at the same level as any of my professional grade upholstery shampoos.
• You will not be disappointed!

Griot's Garage Interior Cleaner on Amazon

• Another really good product I was impressed by
• Delivers truly professional results
• Simple as simple gets

Darren's Tips: Unlike many of the concentrate car upholstery shampoos (we will get to these) these two products are ready to use and come with their own spray dispensers so you get to immediately "have fun"  when these products arrive to you.

You can use both products on every type of material inside your car. And despite what the labeling may say about using on car leather, I can assure you they are both safe. 

The industry wants you buying a dedicated cleaner for every type of material found in cars which means they would rather sell you 2 or 3 products, not just one!

Car Upholstery Cleaner Concentrates

While the ready-to-use formulations above will work for anyone regardless of your needs, the following car interior cleaners are concentrates and you will be able to not only custom dilute them, but will get more for your money if you plan on doing more cleaning than basic car interior cleaning.

Darren's Note: If you have a larger type of vehicle (minivan, full-size truck) and your vehicle is also especially dirty, you would really want to get one of the concentrates as you will be going through more product when cleaning your car upholstery than the ready-to-use products provide.

3D Upholstery Shampoo Concentrate on Amazon

• Clean everything in your car's interior.
• Professional grade auto upholstery cleaner.
• Cloth, fabric, leather, vinyl, plastic, etc., etc.
• One of my top picks for a professional car upholstery cleaner that is also a concentrate.
• Very economical.

Darren's Note: If you opt for this concentrate you will need to get a separate sprayer bottle so you can blend and dispense from. I use this as per manufacturer's labeling which is a 16:1 dilution ration (1 part concentrate with 16 equal parts water)

Kirkland Microfiber Cloths on Amazon

• I use micro-fiber cloths for EVERYTHING I do when it comes to detailing
• You can sped some serious money on high-grade micro-fiber cloths, but for cleaning car upholstery or car  interior detailing, you don't have to overthink your choice in micro-fiber cloths
• If you are still using any other cloths to detail your car or specifically to clean up as you are shampooing your car upholstery, you need to ditch those outdated cloths!
• Micro-fiber cloths are the softest, most absorbent, and lint free cloths you can use. Once you try them and adjust to the difference in the way they feel when cleaning car upholstery I promise you will never go back to any other cloth

Auto Upholstery Cleaning Tools

Pick and choose from my top picks when it comes to the "tools" required for professional results when cleaning car upholstery for professional grade results.

Car Upholstery Cleaning Brush Set on Amazon

• My favorite upholstery cleaning brush set
• One is super safe and gentle made from soft horse hair (car leather, dash board, door panels, etc.)
  
• One is made with stiffer synthetic bristles for heavier duty cleaning on more durable materials (carpeting, floor mats, fabric seating, plastic door plates, etc.)
• Economical way to be set up with the two main brushes you will need for cleaning car upholstery

Don't Forget to Clean Car Vents

Since you will be cleaning car upholstery and no doubt will have done a fabulous job, we don't want to forget to dust and clean the dash vents in your car.

The dash vent brushes below will be the perfect addition to your other car upholstery cleaning tools.

Detailing Vent Brush on Amazon

• My favorite ultra-fine detail brush set
• Ultra delicate synthetic fibers (You can get synthetic or natural fine bristle detail brushes. I find that the synthetic bristles shed much less than the natural detail brushes)
• Perfect for dusting dry dust from intricate and delicate dash gauges, vents, and controls

How to Clean Your Car Upholstery

Now that I have laid out some professional grade upholstery cleaners and tools,you should follow these basic steps for maximum results:

• Vacuum areas to be cleaned first; this will easily suck up any loose debris and dirt before you get the area wet with upholstery cleaner. You can even scrub the dry area first to break up dirt as you vacuum for even better results when you use the upholstery shampoo. See this detail vacuum link for the perfect detailing vacuum.
  
• Spray area to be shampooed with a few light sprays of upholstery cleaner, scrub aggressively with plastic scrub brush, mop up area vigorously with cleaning cloths. Repeat as often as necessary to achieve desired results.
• As a rule, people tend to over-saturate the area the first time around thinking that the more upholstery shampoo they use, the quicker and cleaner the area will get; lighter and repeated applications are better than thinking you can get it all in one heavy application.
  
• You must also be realistic when cleaning car upholstery; excessively soiled fabric and carpeting may in fact not come completely clean if you have neglected required cleaning and maintenance long enough.

Darren's Added Tips for Success When Cleaning Your Car's Interior

Most of you reading this have likely chosen a car upholstery cleaner off the shelves of your local retailer and have had discouraging results. With that said, let me end this page with some additional bullet points that will help in your understanding and also help be a voice of reason to your cleaning car upholstery efforts:

• Both a quality product and technique is going to be the winning combination.
• Follow product label instructions regardless of product chosen.
• The lighter the interior of your car is, the more difficult it will be to clean.
• Many people do not realize just how dirty their car's interior has gotten and fail to put it into respective. I often see car upholstery fabrics and carpeting so dirty that if it was put into their house, there is no way they would try to clean it, they would simply replace it due to the fact of it being so incredibly dirty. Because it is in their car, many people think they are going to be able to clean it back to near original condition. No car upholstery shampoo in the world is going to be able to clean away years of neglect and/or abuse.
• With that said, just as many people are pleasantly surprise at the results they are able to achieve with the right upholstery cleaner, tools, and techniques when cleaning car upholstery.
  

Cleaning Car Upholstery Summary

If you I have made it this far let me congratulate you!

You are now part of a select minority of people who have taken the time to educate themselves learning the same tips and tricks professionals like myself do to get professional level results.

If you have car leather and would like to see what I recommend for all your car leather cleaning needs, you can follow this link to car leather cleaner.

I wish you much success in your car interior cleaning and detailing efforts!

Sincerely

Darren Priest