It’s that time of year again, where road salt slowly eats away at your vehicle. Lack of vehicle preparation and maintenance causes rust to attack their car. With a few simple steps, you can keep your vehicle in excellent condition all season long.
Prepare Your Car
All year-long, no matter what the weather is like, it’s important to prepare your vehicle for success when harsh weather arrives. The most important way to do this is by repairing scratches and dents as soon as you notice them. Scratches are an open wound on your vehicle’s skin and when salt is applied to a scratch on a vehicle, it instantly attacks it and begins corroding the exposed bare metal. Fix scratches as soon as possible, ensuring you have none on your vehicle when winter arrives. Repair dents as well, the deformed sheet metal weaken the paint surface, making it more susceptible to damage from road salt and grime.
Protect Your Paint
Even if your vehicle’s exterior is in great shape, set it up for success by applying a protective layer over your paint. This can take on many different forms, including waxes, paint coatings, and paint sealants. Whatever method you use, apply it during the late fall, before road salt is put down. Otherwise, you will have to perform a major detail job on your car to ensure the protectants properly adhere to the surface of your car.
Give your vehicle a thorough wash before you begin applying a protectant. Make sure to pay special attention to the front bumper and grille, the back of your side-view mirrors, and the areas around your tires. These surfaces all tend to accumulate tough dirt and grime that could cause scratches on your vehicle’s finish if they’re not removed before a protectant is applied. Dry your vehicle and make sure the surface is cool before you apply the protectant.
Paint coatings offer the most durable protection and will last the longest. They typically require claying, compounding, and polishing the surface of your vehicle before you can apply the coating. Paint sealants, on the other hand, don’t require as much prep work and can provide up to six months of protection, enough to last all winter long. Another option is to use a wax. Waxes don’t last nearly as long as sealants or coatings and need some touch-up throughout the winter (use a spray wax.)However, if you need to get the job done quickly, wax can’t be beaten.
Maintain Your Vehicle
In order to keep your vehicle looking great, you have to maintain it all winter long. This means giving your vehicle a good wash on a sunny day to remove all the ice and grime that has accumulated thus far, as well as re-applying a protectant.
Use high-pressure water to clean the undercarriage of your vehicle. These parts can corrode over time if ignored. Give them a thorough cleaning to ensure they will remain solid and reliable for years to come.
Scrape Ice Carefully
Removing accumulated snow and ice from your vehicle is another important step in protecting it from rust during the winter. If these precipitants have a chance to sit on your vehicle’s surface, any damage already being done by other contaminants will be exacerbated. Water causes rust, clear away ice and water frozen from to keep it looking great.
Be extremely careful when removing snow and ice from your vehicle. Using a scraper to do this job will almost certainly lead to fine scratches on the surface of the paint, setting you up for corrosion and rust once you hit the road. Make sure to use a soft-bristled brush to remove loose snow from your vehicle’s exterior. With a soft-bristled brush, you will be able to remove larger quantities of snow than you could with a scraper, while still protecting the finish on your vehicle. In situations where you have ice built up on your vehicle, you still must not give in to the temptation and remove it with a scraper. The greater force required to move ice will put you at risk of causing deep scratches or even dents on your vehicle. Instead, turn your vehicle on and allow it to warm up for several minutes. Lift up on a loose edge of the ice to see if the heat has broken the ice’s bond with the vehicle’s surface. If it has, you can carefully break off chunks of the ice until it is all removed.
Finish Strong
When winter is finally over, it’s important to give your vehicle a thorough wash and detailing to get rid of the road salt until next winter. Once you’ve completed this step, it’s time to enjoy the fruits of your labor by standing back to admire your beautiful car.
