There are many ways to protect your car paint. You don’t even know what kinds of small mistakes can lead to damaging your car’s colour and general texture of the surface.
There are many useful ways to protect your car paint as it is not rocket science obviously. First of all, we shall discuss some simple ways of protecting a car’s paint:
12 Ways to Protect Your Car Paint
1. Avoid writing on the car with your finger and do not let your children do it as well:
Maybe you think that not writing on the car with your finger is a recent car paint protection method. This way sounds strange, but it is very effective to protect your car paint.
You shouldn’t ever trace or scratch your fingers on a dusty car as your finger will act like sandpaper grinding on the dirt remains and make them penetrate through the paintwork.
2. Wash and clean your car regularly:
You might think that you already know this method, but in fact, you don’t know entirely how much important it is for your car’s paint especially.
According to some car experts, when you’re actually washing the car, you have to stay away from any dish detergent as it will badly hurt the paint. In any case, you should buy a high-quality car wash/cleaner chemical that you should use with a foam applicator, so it doesn’t hurt the paint and the car overall as well.
When you wash your car, often, the impact of sun rays gets deeply reduced, and it is up to you to do it often so you can sell your car paint from the harsh UV rays.
3. Apply a paint seal/sealant:
You have to use it at least once or twice a year to preserve your car paint. It will protect your car paint by adding a protective sheath over it.
The method is to add a bonding agent with the sealant and mix them together; the measure would be one tablespoon of the agent in half cup of sealant. The amount may vary according to your vehicle’s size and structure, but it is important to keep a standard of 4:1 ratio.
Apply the solution in circular motions one section at a time when it changes texture rub with a towel and wipes it clean in same circular motions.
4. Wax your car to keep up the shine (this is a step of maintenance):
The next day after applying the paint sealant you have to apply wax. You should use it once a month or week as you like, specifically if you use spray or liquid versions.
But paste wax lasts much longer and doesn’t need frequent applications as it requires more hard work then the other formulas of waxes. There are toxic and oxidizing ingredients such as bird droppings, road grime, tree sap, etc. they stick to the paint and cut through.
Wax prevents these things to avoid any damage to the car paint.
5. Synthetic coating for the car paint:
Using synthetic coating is a new car paint protection method. That everyone should know. Just apply a ceramic or polymer coating on the car and it will work wonders for the car paint with a lot of time period.
For at least six months it won’t budge. It is also more effective than car wax.
6. Hand dry the exterior:
When you expose your car to the atmosphere, the effects of weather elements get the car paint worn out. This is why you should take time out to protect your car’s exterior.
After washing your car, you should hand dry it. So the chemicals present in the water do not combine with the sun rays to harm your car paint.
Use a cotton rag to hand dry the parts of your car exposed to the sun. It will take some time, but it will definitely be worth it.
7. Polish your car:
Basically if you want your car exterior to shine and be protected from the sun at the same time you need to buy a good quality car polish and apply it in three essential steps:
- Wash your car
- Hand dry it
- Apply a coat of car polish with a foam applicator
When you apply this car polish on the exterior, it will fight with the harmful chemicals in the atmosphere to help protect it and its paint most importantly. There are many types of car polishes for example,
- Natural car polish made from beeswax etc.
- Paint sealants
- Cleaner waxes such as carnauba wax
- Cleaner sealant
- Finishing wax and sealant
- Hybrids
Every type comes with its own advantages and disadvantages. You have to decide what is best for your car. Choice of polish depends on your type of vehicle, financial capacity and time.
8. Car covers:
This is the easiest and simple way to protect your car’s paint. Use a good quality car cover to wrap it up and limit the sunray effect on it.
Basically, wherever you are going to the park, you can just put on the car cover and save your car paint and engines at the same time.
But obviously, it won’t lower the impact of sun rays it will only last if you constantly every week wash your car and polish it once in six months to maintain its paint.
But there are some aspects to look into while using car covers:
- Never cover a wet car as it produces bacteria and fungus.
- For the same reason, ensure that the car is dry and neat.
- Never keep the car cover under the sun.
- Never keep your car covered for as long as a week or else it will only damage your car rather than protecting it.
9. Regularly check your car fluid levels:
When its hot outside the fluid in your car heats up and gets used up really quickly rather than in cooler and normal conditions and this way the car gets damaged overall including its exterior aka car paint. So keep the fluid levels in check.
10. Use reflectorized sun panels on your front and rear dashes:
It really pays off, in the long run, to use solar panels even if it seems like hard work. These panels reduce the temperature in your car overall.
These also help reduce bleaching effect from the sun that affects your interior and overall cooling means exterior also gets saved.
11. Glazing:
It is a more advanced step if compared to car waxing. It has five steps that are entailed in glazing cars. These include:
- Neutral cleaning
- Clay grinding
- Deep cleaning
- Vibrating and polishing
- Dust-free polishing
So basically it takes 4-5 hours for the procedure to seal the glance once. It is important to mention that the glaze can be sealed for half a year when compared to waxing.
It is recommended that you glaze your car in time for the second time in order to seal the glaze.
12. Plating crystal:
This option of car protection cover is convenient and environment-friendly. It is similar to waxing but requires four simple steps. Cleaning, degreasing, smearing the crystal and wiping the crystal.
The plated crystal has attributes of high oxidation, brightness and hardness etc. which makes car paint to be corrosion-resistant, scratch-resistant and high-temperature resistant etc.
The best way to protect your car paint
Consider paint protection films: if you are really vigilant in keeping your car safe from the UV rays. Invest in a paint protection film kit. Some of them only cover the acrylic headlights, but some of them nowadays cover your whole car.
If you take up to the challenge of using all the above-mentioned methods along with this one (the best) will let your age gracefully and slowly. Your car won’t need a lot of services either if you use these protection films.
Example: Cerakote coatings are the best, and it’s a ceramic thin film thermal barrier coating, designed to be applied on top of pistons, valves and combustion chambers. And the fun fact is that it can tolerate up to 1800 degree Fahrenheit.
So that’s a huge and long-lasting benefit that will help you maintains both the exterior and interior of the car at the same time.
Wrapping Up
Here you go! A complete pack of information on all ways of protecting your car’s paint/exterior and also the best way as mentioned above. From this information, anyone can deeply understand everything, and there will be no queries left on the protection of a vehicle’s paint.
This will help you in your journey of keeping your car look flawless and make everyone’s eyes pop, as this way you can definitely keep your car for way longer then you imagine.
If you would like to sell it in future with this kind of maintenance, then you will get a good price out of it as well. Keep your car happy and keep yourself happy!