Auto Smarts - Cleaning Up Stains In your Interior

Have a family car? If you do, then you would most likely have problems keeping your vehicle interior stain free. All it takes is one road trip and all the money you spent having your interiors detailed flies out the window. If you have young kids, the stains would come from a lot of sources – milk, juices, catsup, grease, bubblegum- you would not even know which most of the time. All you can see is that dark spot right smack in the middle of your backseats – and then some more on your carpet, and of course squirts and spots on the ceiling.

If you have grown tired of getting your car detailed, you might have developed the habit of waiting – for the mats to be really stained and then you just throw it in the garbage and buy new ones. Or maybe putting in cheap car seat covers and letting those get stained then dumping them and buying a new set. Honestly, it sometimes feels like the best idea; just ride it through and when you just could not take the sight of the satins, replace what can be replaced.

But if you are still quite hopeful, you can ask car service centers or dealerships if they can sell you cleaning agents specially manufactured for car rugs. If they carry the product, you can just purchase that and use it according to the directions – very regularly so that the stains do not sit for too long, making them tougher to remove.

If the stains have hardened, you can use a spatula to remove what part of it can still be scraped off. Afterwards, you can try a mixture of soap and water to remove the stain. Leave the mixture to settle on the stain and blot out after about a quarter of an hour.

Here’s a trick; use one part hydrogen peroxide to twelve parts water and spray on the stain. Let it soak for ten minutes and then rinse off the solution with one part white distilled vinegar to 3 parts water. Pat dry with a towel and then dry off completely with a blow dryer.

If you have stains that are oil based (like crayons) you will need a solvent cleaner. You can find this in car shops; make sure that you read and follow the directions carefully. Again, if the stains are on the mats, it might be cheaper and less tedious than cleaning to just buy a new set.

If the stains are manageable, you can follow the tips mentioned above. If the marks are on the carpet or ceiling themselves, you will need to make sure that you dry them very well with a hair dryer. Not drying your interior completely would cause your car to have an undesirable smell, which means you will need to do extra work in deodorizing it.

Last tip, if you are going to use a cleaning solution for the first time, try applying it to a small area which is hidden so that if the carpet discolors, you wouldn’t have to re upholster the whole thing.

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Tags: auto, cleaning, family, free, interior, keeping, kids, problems, road, smarts, stain, stains, trip, vehicle, window

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