Tip to wash your car properly
We often see cars with the body paint work being damaged with scratches and fine lines. One of the main reason is we do not wash down our cars properly.
We know that after we have driven our cars for a day or two, the cars will pick up dust and sand on top of the bodies. Sometimes, there are tree gum or birds’ excretion too if we park under the tree for shade. If we do not wash them down immediately, the dirt tends to dry and stick tightly to the paint.
Most people will do a few things when they wash their cars.
- They may use a feather brush to brush off the dust and dirt before they wash it.
- They may use a piece of damp cloth to wipe and rub off the heavy stain.
- They may have a bucket of water and a piece of cloth to clean the car. They simply dip the cloth in the water, squeeze dry and wipe clean the whole car.
- They may add car shampoo in the bucket of water too hoping to have the car cleaned.
What happen in doing so is it will make the body paint of the whole car full of wrinkles line. This will not only tarnish the look of the paint work, it will also permit the sun heat to penetrate deep into the paint and cause further damage through time. Every soon the finishing paint work will look dull and sully.
As I mentioned earlier that cars will collect dust, sand and dirt of all kinds when we drive. And so when we use and piece of damp cloth to wipe or rub on it, it amounts to using a piece of refined sand paper to polish your car. The tiny sand will just be kept moving under the wet or damp cloth causing damage to the paint.
It may help a little with the use of shampoo but it still creates problem. Just imagine you are washing your hair in a basin of water, the dirt from you hair may come off only to be circulated in the water and hold back to your hair.
One simple way to avoid such damage is to hose your entire car down with water in the first wash. Take away all the dust, sand and dirt before you apply shampoo or any other cleaning agents. Do not exert pressure or rub off any heavy stain at this stage. If dirt does not come off immediately, leave it for a while. Let water does the cleaning magic in braking down the adhesion. Continue to hose other parts of the car and come back to water the part again later.
In some cases where water is precious and you can not afford to hose down your car, you still need buckets of water to wash down the dirt. But what you should do is not to squeeze dry the piece of cloth after you has dipped in the water. Instead you should pull up the cloth with water to wipe the car. You may still need several buckets of water to do the job. But it will consume only about half of the hosting water.
Again, do not rub off the dirt too hard, but wipe off lightly with cloth and plenty of water. Remember, the tiny sand all over the car can grate the paint if there is pressure on them.
Once the first wash to get away the dust, sand, and dirt are done, you may continue to do the rest of the washing you normally do. Put a thin coat of car wax to protect the paint after washing. This way, you will enjoy a good shiny car with bright and sparking factory paint for years until you have the next car.