Over time, it is normal to see wear and tear on your vehicle, especially its paint job. Weather, bird droppings, scratches, dirt, and more are normal problems in a car’s lifespan. Without keeping up with the maintenance of your car’s paint, your car will age faster than you would like. Having a bad paint job can also cause more depreciation, so that you do not get as much money for your car when it is time to resell.
Why is the Paint Important?
The paint on your car protects the metal finish, stopping it from rusting. When the paint job begins to fade, especially from bird dropping or bugs that leave acids that eat away the paint, the metal becomes vulnerable to the elements, especially water. When water gets on the metal, it rusts. The rust not only look bad, it can also corrode and weaken the metal, causing further damage.
Keep your Car Clean
One of the best things you can do to maintain your car’s paint job is to keep your car clean. Dirt, bird droppings, bugs, and other similar environmental factors harm the paint job. By keeping it clean, you can reduce the significance of the damage caused by these events.
Do you Need to Wax?
Waxing your car is an important way to keep your car’s paint job looking great. Waxing your car puts a thin, invisible layer of material that helps many of the damaging substances, including UV rays, from harming your car’s paint job. Waxing also helps to slow down any corrosion. You do not have to wax it every time you clean it, as a high-quality car wax can last for many months.
Why you Need UV Protection
UV rays from the sun fades a paint job overtime and oxidizes the finish. Newer paints have a greater resistant to the damage caused by UV rays, but it will still fade and have problems over time. By parking a car in a garage, under a carport or using a canvas bootie can continue to protect the car from the damaging UV protection and making your paint job last longer.
Repair Minor Scratches
Another danger to your car’s paint job is scratches and chips. When this happens, you should try to repair these damages before they allow the metal to rust. For small scratches and patches, you can use a touch-up paint pen that matches the paint of your car.
Unexpected Problems
Some of the dangers to a paint job are expected, such as dirt, grime, bird droppings, rocks, bugs, and other cars. However, there are some dangers to your paintjob that you might not realize. One such danger is gasoline. Therefore, when you fill up your gas tank and some drops of gasoline fall onto your car, you should clean it up right away.
Another danger is tree sap and fingerprints. Additionally, dragging the dirt along the car by writing in it can act like sandpaper, leading to more permanent marks. Coffee, soda and other drinks can also cause problems, so if you spill a drink on the paint job, you should clean your car right away. Even water from the sprinklers can cause spots on your car that are hard to remove.
Keeping your car clean, waxed, and protected can help your car’s paint job last much longer. Another way to protect your paint is to use vehicle wraps, which protect the paint job from the elements and any other problems. They also can let you customize your paintjob to anything you want. However you protect and maintain your car’s paint job, by doing so you will increase the lifespan of your car and have a higher resale value.