You take no chances when it comes to your automobile. You dutifully plan routine maintenance for it and take it in for expert care as soon as something is amiss. Of course, it is not true at all if you are a typical Singaporean motorist who delays five million brake repairs annually. The fact is that car polishing is frequently ignored. The finest car grooming tip just is a delicate hand wash.
The finest care you can offer your automobile is professional maintenance, whether it be regular services, repairs, or expert cleaning inside and out. However, that doesn’t preclude you from giving it some love on your own.
For those times when you do decide to treat your car yourself or in between professional treatments, here are a few tips to keep it looking brand new without damaging the paint or sensitive inside surfaces.
Using vehicle wash soap to clean:
Unfortunately, doing it right is a prerequisite, which most drivers do not do. Even something as straightforward as cleaning your automobile may seriously harm the paint if done incorrectly.
This is why many vehicle owners choose a soft-cloth automated car wash that utilizes fresh, recycled water and soft foam brushes to remove dirt and impurities, as well as the fact that a car should ideally be washed once every week.
Avoid using dish soap on your car if you decide to wash it in the driveway since it might damage the paint and remove wax coats that are meant to preserve it. Instead, use a special vehicle wash soap that won’t damage the paint and is designed for the kinds of contaminants that end up on a car.
While you’re at it, use a multiple-bucket approach. Use two buckets rather than attempting to do everything with one. Three is superior. The soapy solution is put in one bucket. After touching the filthy automobile, the second is utilized to rinse the microfiber wash mitt.
Starting from the top and moving downward:
Along with utilizing the incorrect cleaning agents, individuals often start cleaning at random or with the worst regions of the automobile. A professional, however, is aware that it is imperative to begin at the top and work your way down. Make good use of gravity. In this manner, pollutants that have already been removed from surfaces are not introduced again.
Start by thoroughly rinsing the car, including the windows, hood, trunk lid, and roof. Why is there so much dirt and debris at the car’s base? Wash it off as you descend. Throughout the procedure, keep that concept in mind. Start scrubbing the roof with a sudsy mitt once you’ve washed off any loose debris.
Next, rinse. Rinse after washing one side of the glass. To stop the soap from drying on the surface, keep the washing and rinsing top-down in confined spaces. Additionally, avoid attempting to do so in the sun. Work in a shaded area.
Grease the hinges and latches:
The hood latch is one maintenance item that many drivers overlook until their hood won’t open. Maintain the latch’s cleanliness and sometimes lubricate it with some 3-in-1 oil or other safeguards. Likewise with the trunk latch. By applying a little amount of lubricant to your door hinges and swinging the door open and shut to work it in, you can take care of their hinges.
Your hood hinges’ pivot points are not always visible. A thin mist of white lithium grease applied sometimes, though, will prevent them from freezing up later on if you can reach them.
You might want to take care of any lock cylinders on your automobile while you are at it. Nowadays, the majority of automobiles have remote locks that are turned on by pressing a button on the key fob.
You probably never use the keyhole in your automobile, if it has one at all. So utilize it. To ensure that the key will still spin if you ever need to unlock the door, insert it and sometimes turn the lock cylinder. Sadly, a lot of drivers discover too late that the lock cylinder has “locked up” due to inactivity.
Retouch the paint scuffs:
It might be frustrating to discover a white-looking spot on your glossy black hood. It is simply terrible to see so many of them. Of course, a car of any color might have paint chips.
As you drive, rocks on the road scratch your paint, leaving little craters where the topcoat has peeled off to show the undercoats beneath.
Thankfully, primers used by automakers are quite resilient and frequently stay in place. But you should fix those chips if you want to keep your panels from corroding and looking ugly.
Clear the glass expertly:
Glass is the final thing on the list for cleaning your automobile. When done incorrectly, this is frequently the most common customer complaint. Additionally, as easy as it may seem, executing the work correctly is difficult.
Use an automotive glass cleaner to start. Ammonia, which may produce streaks and fog, is frequently used in household glass cleaning solutions. Additionally, it can ruin glass tinting.
Now, if you feel uncomfortable performing any of these tasks or if you feel like you would benefit from assistance from someone with more knowledge and expertise, by all means, seek out professional car detailing services.
