What is CarPro Inside?

CarPro Inside is an interior multi-purpose cleaner from CarPro. It’s fully dilutable for any job you may have for it and contains a mix of detergents and surfactants to promote foaming to remove and clean interior surfaces. 

These detergents work to remove dirt, as well as sweat, body oils (such as those from your hands on a steering wheel), sunblock and other lotions. 

It really is a very versatile product.

CarPro Inside-How to Use?

CarPro Inside comes in a 500ml or 1L bottle and is dilutable. 

The great thing about it is that when you buy a bottle, it comes with a foaming trigger sprayer that helps to promote foaming even before you’ve put in the effort of breaking out the brushes. 

CarPro Inside can be used straight for heavy cleaning, or can be diluted 1:1 for light cleaning and can be diluted 1:5 depending on what you might be cleaning with it. 

As always, it’s best to start by shaking the bottle to make sure everything is nice and homogenous, you never know how the chemicals separate when left alone for a while. 

Next would be to spray some on your cleaning tool, whether it be a brush or some type of cloth. 

Once the cleaning tool has some product applied, go to work on the interior section and once you’re satisfied, remove the excess with a microfibre towel and inspect your work. 

Some tricks that I’ve picked up on while researching as well as from people offering tips is 2 things :

Firstly, we spray the product onto the cleaning tool rather than the workpiece as then the cleaning is being done by the tool. Imagine you spray some cleaner onto your seat and only get to a piece after cleaning the rest, now you may have a mark or cleaner area where the product has been lingering.

So always apply the product to your brush and then use the tool to clean the interior item. 

Second is to use white towels when cleaning interiors, This way, after wiping, you can always see if there is more dirt coming off of your seats that you may not be seeing. 

At the moment I’m using pink as my interior towel, but once I buy more things to expand my home detailing set up, I’ll be buying some white towels for this purpose.

What Materials Can CarPro Inside be used On?

CarPro Inside is safe to use on all interior surfaces, however, it’s recommended to dilute it to a safe dilution if using it on sensitive materials such as Alcantara on a seat or steering wheel.
CarPro also recommends testing on an inconspicuous area first, which is what I would recommend too, you don’t always know how products may react and you certainly don’t want a watermark becoming bigger.

Can CarPro Inside be Diluted?

CarPro Inside is fully dilutable to the strength that you require. 

For more delicate surfaces, such as Alcantara you should dilute it 1:4 (1 part CaPro Inside, 4 parts water), and you shouldn’t spray the product directly onto the surface. 

You could use it straight, or even 1:1 for heavier cleaning, and you could always use it 1:3 for a monthly spruce up on the interior. 

Below you can see where I clean the grubbiest part of my car, the steering wheel. 

This is also a great example as my steering wheel is leather (or leather-like) and as a result, it goes shiny with the oils and sweat from my hands as I drive. 

You can see that it doesn’t look too grubby, but there’s a little bit of shine visible as I haven’t given it a good clean in about 4 months or so. In all fairness, I haven’t been driving around a lot, but certainly, enough to warrant a quick clean. 

As mentioned before it has a spray trigger different to the other CarPro bottles as this one is a foaming trigger. It does take a few pumps to get the liquid flowing through the trigger (more than you might think, which is normally about 5-6), at first I thought the foaming trigger was quite weak or didn’t deploy a lot of product, but eventually, it started working smoothly and nicely. 

I suspect this is due to the way the product is aerated the trigger needs more “priming” than normal. 

I spray the product onto my interior cleaning brush, this is a soft bristle shoe brush, so it won’t damage the leather, but there are quite a few options available for interiors. 

Another tip I have picked up is to use synthetic fibre rather than natural fibres such as horsehair, this is because synthetic doesn’t heat up adding temperature to the product, whereas natural fibres do.

I then proceed to apply the brush to the area I would like to clean, whether this is a steering wheel or seat. 

I thoroughly work the product into the area, you can be it foaming further as it cleans. 

I’m always careful with the direction of rubbing, going around the steering wheel if you go perpendicular to the steering wheel, you risk showering your interior in foaming CarPro Inside which although it won’t be terrible, it just adds work to your day. 

Once the cleaning is complete, I use a microfibre towel to remove the excess. 

I found the surface to be a little bit sticky after, so I then sprayed a little water onto the surface and used a new clean towel to remove any leftover product. 

The surface of the steering wheel was then smooth, non-sticky and nice and clean again, as pictured below.

Now you may be thinking, “Shaun, come on… cleaning a surface like leather, or smooth plastic is easy… What about a tricky surface like material? “

Well, CarPro is perfectly good for that too.  

I have a patch of material used on the door cards that I often use to rest my elbow and arm on, it’s a dark colour and as a result, it can often look light as my arm rubs along it.

So I took the cleaner to it (straight again) and carefully cleaned the area. 

The trick to material surfaces is not using too much of the product, you want to clean the area but not soak it through. There is also another consideration which I will mention, but that wasn’t a factor on this piece. 

As on the steering wheel, my first step was a “before” picture to show the work. 

You can see that the material is faded slightly on the corners, and there is something on the plastic just above it, I’m not sure what this is. 

As before, I applied some product to my cleaning brush and brushed away at the surface, ensuring some good foam. I only used maybe 1 or 2 squirts as I didn’t wasn’t to soak the surface, or soak through to the foam underneath. 

Once complete, I wiped off any excess product and again misted some water over the surface to remove any CarPro Inside residue. 

I then whipped this up with a fresh and dry microfibre towel. 

The results left me very happy with the product. 

There is maybe a little more to be done, but I’ve got the highest contact piece of the armrest clean, as a build-up on material will just make your life harder in the long run.

The main consideration when cleaning material surfaces is to first give your interior a good vacuum.

The next is to make sure the surface is as clean as you feel it could be. 

The main issue that people may face using cleaners or water(and this is how water spots are formed)is that the surface of the material is covered in some dirt, not enough for you to see clearly, but it’s there. 

Once you get into your car after some rain and water “lifts” the dirt. After drying, that dirt settles back down on your seat causing a dirty “ring”-this is a water spot. 

The best way forward is to slowly clean the entire seat, using a damp microfibre cloth to absorb any residual product and not soaking the seats through. 

You could also use an extractor, but I don’t have one, and I’m not sure how many detailing hobbyists would. 

But, it is possible to clean the seat using some water along with some CarPro Inside and elbow grease.

What kind of Finish does CarPro Inside leave?

As CarPro Inside is a cleaner, and not a dressing or coating, the appearance is a clean one. Plastics, leathers, rubbers and other interior materials will have a matte finish after cleaning. Typically the shininess that people see on their leather and especially steering wheels is caused by a build-up of body oils and sweat, CarPro Inside takes this away and brings back the natural finish, which is a matte one. 

As a product it works very well, the smell is not unpleasant. The trigger foams well, and the cleaning great, and it’s dilutable. 

CarPro Inside is not even limited to car interiors, I’ve used it with fairly good success to spot clean part of a carpet I own, and for anyone who has tried to clean Adidas Primeknit sneakers, especially with “Boost”, I managed to clean them too using the same, product and brush combination, wiped with a microfibre towel. 

The product comes in 500ml, 1ltr and 1 Gal sizes, although I think the 500ml or 1 ltr will be perfect for any home user. 

Despite the many uses I’ve found for it when needed, I  have at least ¾ if my 500ml bottle left. 

CarPro Inside Where To Buy?

If you want to try CarPro Inside- please consider purchasing it through the DriveDetailed Amazon Link HERE

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About the Author – Shaun H

Shaun is an IT Specialist and car enthusiast who currently lives in Cape Town, South Africa. His loves for cars started at a young age, and despite cars in his past having personal touches (read: modifications), his love has mostly been to keep then clean, neat and in as good a condition as possible while still enjoying them on a road-trip, a mountain pass or even the drive to work.

His current car is a blue Fiesta ST, named Blue, which he takes care of meticulously.

This is also the car which, after purchasing, caused him to get back into the detailing game in order to get the ST dialled in.

You can follow Shaun on Instagram @ shaun_st180