Paint Care 101
For many drivers, our cars are a source of great pride. Many of us may feel like we spend more time in our cars than we do in our homes! Keeping our vehicles clean and looking good, then, is an easy way to protect our investments and inspire confidence.
A car owner can easily go down the paint care rabbit hole with clay bars, regular detailing, steam cleaning, and more, but no matter what level of depth you’d like to go to in keeping your vehicle clean, the basics are always the same.
Paint care 101 will cover most of your needs in keeping your vehicle looking great. Here’s what you need to know to get started:
- Remember: wash, clean, polish, wax. We agree with Edmunds that the four most important steps to remember are washing, cleaning, polishing, and waxing. At regular intervals, wash your car (avoid dish soap!), apply cleaner as necessary, and polish your paint with any common polishing product. To protect your finish, most experts recommend waxing at least every three months. If you do your diligence and give your paint a solid coat of wax, you’ll find that rain beads off, and touch-up cleaning jobs are much easier.
- Microfiber towels are your friend! Gone are the days of using old t-shirts and well-used kitchen rags on your vehicle’s paint. For not much money, you can pick up a pack of microfiber towels from your local auto parts store. These great towels are soft on your finish and can be used for drying and polishing—and if they’re clean, they won’t scratch your paint.
- Not all car washes are created equal. As Cars.com notes, some car washes—like those that use brushes—can actually damage your paint. Think about it: do you really want high-speed brushes hitting your paint right after they just washed mud off of the car in front of you? Touchless washes or self-service car wash bays are likely your best bet here.
- The best thing you can do is set a routine and stick to it. Even if it’s only once a month, making sure to care for your paint at regular intervals is one of the best things you can do to keep it in good shape. Especially in the winter, it can be easier to say you’ll just wait until it warms up, but salt, dirt, road grime, bugs, bird droppings, and more will degrade your paint if left for long periods of time. Taking just a little bit of time every few weeks to care for your paint will pay dividends when it still looks new 10 years from now!
Again, if you want to take more in-depth steps to take care of your paint, you’re free to do so. However, it’s tough to go wrong with these basics steps if you’re a typical car owner that cares about how your paint looks.
Need an auto body professional? Call Great Plains Auto Body at 402.334.7100.
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photo credit: Beads! via photopin (license)
