How To Easily Clean Car Cloth Seats Like A Pro

Hey guys, Sandro here from Car Craft Auto Detailing in Melbourne. Due to popular demand, today's video is a follow-up on the how to clean car leather seats, this time looking at the process of cleaning car fabric seats. I actually did my very best to try and find the dirtiest and filthiest car seat possible that was still structurally intact, to try and display the results that are possible and achievable. Now hopefully you can see just how bad this seat really is, with all sorts of food and drink staining, mud and grease, as well as a few marks that I'm not entirely sure what they are, or if I really want to know. Just like in the previous video, I want to cover this process using just basic and affordable products and tools. But this time, I also want to show the process using a carpet and fabric extractor. And I'll be dividing the seat in half, so you can see more clearly the results that are achieved. Believe it or not, I'm actually going to be using very similar products, tools and methods to the leather cleaning, while cleaning these fabric seats. But as fabric seats are a little different to leather and vinyl, I'm going to be adjusting those techniques and tools to better suit this material. To begin with, the seat was given a thorough vacuum, and then I'm just going to start by doing a section of the seat using a basic brushing method with my small detailing brush. On a side note, I've been testing this brush quite a lot, which you may have seen in a couple of my past videos. And I have to say that this little brush by SGCB is becoming my absolute favourite upholstery brush. So just like cleaning leather and vinyl seats, add the cleaner directly to the brush, which in this case is once again, one part CarPro inside, mixed with one part water. And then begin working a small section of the seat using small overlapping motions. The thing to keep in mind is that you're trying to firstly break down that top layer of surface grime, and then lift it from the cloth seat, encapsulating it into the cleaning liquid and foam. Use only light to moderate pressure, let the brush and cleaner do the work, and avoid hammering down with too much pressure, as it will push both the cleaner and the grime further down into the seat. When wiping with your microfibre cloth, it's extremely important, even more so with fabric seats, that you don't wipe back and forth, but rather use singular strokes, turning your cloth as you wipe, and using a clean section of your cloth for each wipe. The last thing you want to do on cloth seats is spread that dirt around even deeper and further, as although to some extent it is unavoidable, you certainly don't want to contribute to making it even worse, as it'll only make your life harder and the job even longer. Now the main difference with cloth seats, compared to leather and vinyl, is their more porous surface. So it's important to understand that the dirt, grime and stains aren't just sitting on top of the seats, but have to some extent penetrated within. And just as important is understanding that the cleaning products and methods you use will also further penetrate the surface of the fabric, pushing both the chemicals and the existing grime further in. So in essence, cleaning cloth seats is all about managing your introduction of liquids, as you need them to help efficiently clean the fabric. But you don't want to add more liquids than you can remove, as if they penetrate too far, it becomes extremely difficult to extract them out, especially without the right equipment. And once the seat completely dries, you may see the stains resurface, if the liquid and grime isn't adequately extracted out. In this method, you need to look at your microfiber cloth as your extractor. And once you've collected the initial grime and the cleaning product, a great technique is to lightly spray some hot or warm water over the section, and then use a second clean microfiber cloth to push down with some pressure and hold it for a second or two, to extract or absorb out as much of the remaining liquid as possible. The warm water will help to both dilute the cleaning chemical and further aid in extracting out any deeper stains and grime, bringing them to the surface and absorbing them into your cloth. It's just as important to understand that each time you add liquid, whether it's your cleaning solution or water, you need to remove it with your cloth before you add more or you will oversaturate the seat. But at the same time, you shouldn't be afraid to get the seat wet. And one mistake most detailers make when first starting out, is that they're afraid to use adequate liquid that is necessary to sufficiently clean the seat. So as mentioned before, it's a balance of using enough, but not too much, and always extracting it out before you add more. After you've cleaned the first section, just inspect your results. And if you're happy that you have removed the existing grime and extracted out the majority of the liquid, just move on to the next section and repeat the process. However, on badly stained and dirty seats, they may require further attempts and perhaps also using a non-scratch pad to achieve the desired results. Another important thing to take note of is the grime and stain itself. It's vital to try and distinguish a surface stain as opposed to a stain that is resurfacing from the seat. To remove a stain that is sitting on top of the seat, such as grease, working it with your brush or a scrub pad is best to break it down and remove it. Whereas a stain such as a drink spill that keeps on resurfacing as you clean, is best treated by adding warm water and then extracting it out with your cloth. As continuously scrubbing will not remove such a stain, as it needs to be soaked up or extracted out. The key to cleaning both fabric and leather and vinyl seats that are in a bad state is to simply work small sections. Inspect and assess the stains themselves and let your results guide you through what is needed to get them clean. The biggest mistake you can make is to try and clean half the seat at once, which in many cases just moves the dirt and grime around. And once the seat dries, it'll look more or less the same or in some cases even worse. Once you understand these basic methods, more so than anything else, it's all about your attention to detail, using adequate lighting and your own standard of work. Some stains will require multiple passes and extraction to remove them, and you also have to accept that other and more severe stains may not always be possible to be entirely removed. But at the same time, you should be able to massively reduce their appearance in almost every case. With the tape line removed, I hope you can see just what a difference in the amazing results that this very basic cleaning method has achieved. And as you can also see, it wasn't extremely difficult, nor did it take hours of time-consuming work. But it was rather all about using the right tools and techniques, with a little knowledge and understanding, and your own standard of quality work. As mentioned before, I'm going to complete the second half of this seat using my Pneumatic George extractor. I have reviewed Pneumatic George in my best interior tools video, if you do want a little more information on it. Now the process itself when using an extractor is pretty much the same, but you're just changing your tools and equipment and adjusting your technique to coincide and make the most out of them. Overall, once you get the hang of using an extractor, you will find that it has the ability to clean and extract a little better than working manually. And it should also be quite a bit faster, at least when you're faced with a bad set of seats such as this one. I'm going to use my slightly larger Vikan interior brush, spray the cleaner a little more liberally directly onto the seat, and I'm going to work a much larger area, about a quarter of the seat at a time. My main goal here is to break down that top layer of grime with the brush and cleaner, so that the extractor can focus on pulling out the dirt and grime further in. The extra liquid and cleaner will also help speed up the process and increase its cleaning action. And with the extractor, I can safely make use of this quicker approach without having to be as cautious as if I was manually cleaning the seat. However, the same rules still apply in that I want to first extract the cleaner I just applied before adding any extra liquid to ensure I don't oversaturate the seat. I've just got hot water in the extractor, similar to the spray bottle I was using before. And once I've sucked up or extracted the cleaner and the top layer of grime, I'm going to spray additional hot water over the section directly from the extractor and simultaneously suck it up. In general, I'll go over a section once while spraying the water and then twice without spraying any additional water or cleaning liquids. In cases where the water itself just isn't effective enough, I'll add a capful of all-purpose cleaner to it to increase its cleaning ability. And if some surface stains still persist, I'll use my non-scratch pad to address them and then just repeat the process. As you can hopefully see, this process is extremely effective and once you're all set up, it's also quite quick. The extractor basically gives you the ability to work with increased liquids, which is really what makes the whole process faster and more effective. But at the same time, you can see that just like cleaning the seats manually, there'll always be certain stains in areas that do require extra attention and additional passes and cleaning. It's important to really do your best to extract as much of the liquid as possible once the seat is clean, as it'll greatly aid in minimizing the drying time and avoid stains resurfacing due to increased moisture. In the end, both these processes will generally get the job done to a high standard if the correct techniques and understanding is employed. Always try to let the seat completely dry before sitting in it. And once dry, using a coating such as CarPro Fabric can be an extremely effective way of protecting it and making it far easier to clean in the future. As always, I hope this video was helpful to some of you guys out there. 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