How To Safely Wash Your Car

Buying a car is a considerable outlay. As such, it’s important to wash the car properly. By doing so, it will help to protect the value of your car.

Depending on the car manufacturer, it can result in soft paint, or hard paint on the car. The softer the paint, the easier it will be to inflict scratches and swirls within it. In order to mitigate the chance of doing this, carrying out a safe wash on the car is necessary.

Do Not Use An Automatic Car Wash

Automatic car washes may seem like an excellent option for those that are short of time, but they’re really not. Not only are the brushes used in them highly abrasive and therefore damaging to the paint, but the chemicals used are less than ideal as well.

The majority of automatic car washes use what is known in the trade as a traffic film remover. When used correctly by a professional, these aren’t an issue. However, at automatic car washes, they are put through the system and are often not rinsed off properly. This can cause premature degradation to the clear coat on the car. It can also tarnish any chrome that is on the car as well.

Instead, a much safer option is to shop ik sprayers to clean the car yourself and follow these steps:

Use A Pre Wash

There are various kinds of pre-wash products on the market. These are citrus pre-wash products and also snow foams.

Citrus pre-wash products are relatively new to the detailing scene, but are a great option for those that do not have a pressure washer. The reason for this is that they come in trigger sprayers and can be easily applied to the paint work.

However, they perform extremely well and can help to dissolve a large amount of grime and dirt from the car.

Snow foam is a fantastic way to carry out a pre-wash on the car. To use snow foam, you need a pressure washer as well as a snow foam lance. It effectively covers the car in a blanket of foam that has the appearance of snow. By letting it sit on the car for up to 5 minutes, it will break down a large portion of the dirt and debris that is on the vehicle.

After the 5 minutes has passed, rinsing off the snow foam will help to push further dirt and debris off the paint work, without scratching it. This is important especially in the winter months since salt and grit can inflict a large amount of scratches on the car if not removed properly.

There are several different snow foams on the market. Some of these are pH neutral. The benefit of these is that they won’t cause any degradation to any waxes or sealants that you have on the car. However, if the car is exceptionally dirty, it may require several applications of snow foam before it starts to break down the dirt.

Another option is to use an alkaline snow foam. This is a bit more potent, and repeated use can cause the wax to degrade prematurely, so it’s not for everyone. Regardless of the choice, there are many snow foams on the market that can carry out this task with ease.

One technique many car detailers are now doing is to spray on a citrus pre-wash and let it dwell for a few minutes, and then covering the car in a blanket of snow foam. Doing so really helps to remove stubborn dirt from the car.

Avoid Using A Sponge

A sponge should never be used to clean a car. There are numerous reasons why this is the case. The first is that sponges are actually very abrasive. That’s why they’re often used to clean dishes. Due to this, using it on the paint work can cause marring, scratches and swirls in the paint work.

Another reason not to use a sponge is that when it is wiped over the car, the dirt sits on the top of it, making it hard to get out. Even dunking it in a bucket of car soap is not enough to remove it.

Instead, a car wash mitt should be used. These often have microfibre noodles on them. The benefit of this is that it safely removes dirt from the paint by encapsulating the dirt in it.

Since they are also extremely soft, it also severely minimizes the chances of putting scratches into the paint work.

 Use The Correct Volume Of Car Shampoo

When putting car shampoo into the bucket to mix with water, it’s important to use the dilution ratio mentioned on the bottle. This is the most effective mix of shampoo that the manufacturer has developed. Not only will this save money, but it will also give the best clean.

It will also ensue that there is a high amount of lubrication between the wash mitt and the paint work. Not having a high level of lubrication can also cause scratches and swirls.

These are just some simple steps to help carry out a safe wash on the car, and should always be followed every time the car is cleaned.