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car hacks
3 ways to make your car seats sparkle
Follows these tips to make cloth, leather and vinyl car seats look like new.
FILTHY CAR SEATS? Here are some tips to get them looking like new whether they are cloth, leather or vinyl.
For cloth seats
Vacuum the seats to remove debris. Combine one part white vinegar with three parts warm water and add half a tablespoon of liquid soap. If you have a spray bottle put the mixture in this, if not just put it in a bucket.
Spray the stains with the mixture or dip a cloth in the mixture and dab the stain. Leave to sit for thirty minutes, if you can. Take a brush, a toothbrush will do, and gently rub away the stain.
It is best not to fully wash cloth seats unless you have the time to let them air out and dry. If you want to go the whole hog, use the same mixture and clean the seats on a warm sunny day.
For leather seats
Take a damp cloth or sponge and rub some mild hand soap into it – leather is not fully water resistant so you do not want to use a wet cloth and you do not want to put a big blob of soap on leather hence why you rub the soap into the cloth first.
Wipe down the seats and any leather trim. Take a second clean damp cloth and run over the seats again to remove any soap residue.
Follow this step with a wipe down using a dry cloth. Give your leather some TLC – take a dry cloth and rub in a small amount of olive oil and then wipe over your seats – this conditions the leather.
For vinyl seats
Dissolve four tablespoons of baking soda in one litre of warm water and dip a sponge or cloth into the mixture. Ring this out so your sponge or cloth is just damp not soaking.
Wipe down seats and other plastics in your car and watch the stains disappear. Window / glass cleaner also works well to clean vinyl seats, just spray on and wipe down.
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