Take More Care of Your Car Leather Fabric by Cleaning it with Caution

Leather is good. Microfibre leather is great. To protect such qualities in your microfibre leather, it's obvious you would have to maintain it. This happens with what you call 'careful cleaning'. 

Washing and cleaning your car's leather fabric is a must when you want that material to stick to you for long. You might have a hard time cleaning it due to the water-resistant nature of the microfibre leather fabrics. However, with techniques that come in handy, you can maintain your leather fabric’s quality. All you might need here is a little bit of caution. We can discuss these points below:

Understand Microfibre Leather before Cleaning It

Microfibre leather is not leather!

Does that even make sense?

It does. Microfibre leather or PU (polyurethane) leather is technically the product falling in the category of synthetic leather. You might be happy to know that animals are not killed in the process of producing microfibre leather so you may treat it as a vegan option. Yet, you achieve that leathery texture in your car’s upholstery by covering it up with this kind of leather. Talk to a PU leather supplier if you’re looking to own this leather and know more about its quality and maintenance.

Because they are made of microfibre fabric, which is coated by polyurethane resin, they are regarded as the best of all synthetic leather out there. You can actually get bags, shoes and other leather accessories made out of them. 

Here’s the catch. Although this careful manufacturing process makes microfibre leather ‘look and feel’ like real, textured leather, it is not, of course, ‘leather’. Instead, it is a different material with special cleaning needs. If you use traditional leather cleaning agents, solvents or other products on microfibre leather, you risk ruining it.

Dust, Dirt, and Debris in Microfibre Leather: You'll need to Be Careful Here  

Who would have a problem just wiping off dirt and debris from car upholstery covered by microfibre leather fabric? We might be missing something here. 

Let’s imagine it in this way. You drag something hard and rough on another rugged surface. Don’t you think you risk increased friction? With friction, comes those ugly scratch marks.

The nightmarish fact is they might, sometimes, be permanent. 

You see leather fabric is grippy and textured, similar to the original leather material. Removing dirt and debris with something such as a microfibre cloth or simply a soft brush still increases the risk of scratch marks. 

We can try another method. 

Let’s use a vacuum cleaner, shall we? You can help yourself getting all of that dust and debris out even from those stubborn corners. You get your car seats clean, yet there are no scratch marks. 

Time to Deal with Softer, Milder (or Common) Stains 

Plainly speaking, these sorts of stains are not stubborn to remove. They do not even get into the polyurethane fabric deeper. 

We are speaking about stains caused by milk, soft drinks, fruit juice, warm or hot beverages like tea - or your occasional beer – that might make you convinced you have ruined the microfibre fabric in your car’s seat. Well, you haven’t. You may relax. 

However, you’ll need to prepare to clean these stains as soon as it’s possible for you. Choose a water-based solvent for these sorts of cleaning projects. Dishwashing soap is good. Consider using liquid detergent soap because the powdered form might be rough on the surface of your polyurethane leather fabric. 

Use a soft microfibre cloth, dip it in the solvent and mop/ wipe off the stains. Repeat the process until you have all the stains removed. Don’t forget to be gentle throughout the process. 

For More Stubborn Marks

Okay, you have been transporting your Acrylic paints for your kid’s art project and the paint tubes squished a little paint on the back seat of your car. 

This is why you should keep things such as these in the boot. 

Anyway…

Chemicals such as paint; alcohol etc. can result in stubborn, ‘difficult to wipe and clean’ stains in your microfibre leather. In this regard, you’ll need advanced solvents. To understand whether a stain is difficult or not, just ask yourself a question: “So, is this stain soluble in water?” If it’s not so, then you are looking at a very tough stain. 

Using solvents such as naphtha or rubbing alcohol can help only if you are aware of how you’re supposed to use them. The technique might be the same – rubbing the stain off with a microfibre cloth. However, these solvents might have toxic chemical natures. You have to safeguard yourself from them with care. 

It’s best to talk to your PU leather supplier to learn more about the right solvents and chemicals you can take up to clean your leather car upholstery. 

To Conclude

Hope this post was of some assistance in helping you clean your leather fabric. But don’t stop here. Learn more about synthetic leather and its maintenance so that you get to make the most effective cleanup of your car’s leather.