Buying a car involves a lengthy decision making process involving an array of influencing factors; colour is one of the most important among them. The colour renders a personality to your car— black is cool, silver is stylish without being ostentatious, red is sensual and white cars are conservative!
But just a few years on the road and the car loses its original colour and showroom shine—the white that once made the swan feel proud is now shabby grey; the luscious red has lost all its luster, the elegant black no longer looks glamorous and the radiant silver now looks worn away.
But you can turn the clock and set things right—-what you need is knowledge about proper car paint care. The article below tells you what affects your car paint and shine, how to avoid problems and how to restore back the lost luster of your pretty car.
Resist the environmental damage
Vehicles come with a range of finishes— matt coating, acrylic, enamel, etc. Regardless of the type of finish, the exteriors of all vehicles are subject to environmental wear and tear. To protect the paint of the car from the invasion of these environmental factors you should go through a preventive maintenance regimen.
For example, how do you deal with the ultra violet rays that come along with sun exposure that eventually diminishes the gloss on your vehicle finish? Because metal retains heat, it causes permanent stains. You have to use protective coatings and sealants to neutralize the effects of ultra violet rays.
The next factor is chemical abuse that results from air pollutants transformed into sulfuric or nitric acids. These acids, can be deposited onto your vehicle in either a wet or dry state and slowly eat up the paint. To resist this kind of damage, you need to go for frequent washing.
Your car often becomes the victim of the road salts triggering off the chemical reactions that can accelerate the pitting and rusting of the car’s surfaces. Many out-of-sight areas including the undercarriage are especially prone to assault of the road salts.
You have to resort to a specialized undercarriage rinse in combination with rust inhibiting agents to deal with these kinds of damage.
Nothing can replace the benefits of regular washing
It is important to have a car wash at least once a month. The moistures can not accumulate on the car body, when it is clean; the moistures gain hold in the dirty areas and lead to corrosion.
Go for a pressure wash from time to time to dislodge the dirt especially from the areas like behind the moldings, inside wheel arches, under the bumpers etc.
After-winter is the best time for pressure wash as it drives out all the salt accumulations that speed up the corrosion process.
Follow the washing with waxing for the enhancement of visual appearance of a finish
Wax your car regularly for the maximum protection of the paint and minimizing harm of chemicals. This gives the paint protection from fading and keeps the car looks shiny.
It should only take 30 minutes to wax a whole car.
Use high quality car wax and rest assured for three – four months.
Repair the chips and scratches
For the prominent chips, you have to order matching spray paint from the manufacturers and apply the paint with the help of a toothpick. You can also fill up the scratches the same way.
Use Polishing compounds for repairing the minor scratches and chips.
Invest some time for trying the above mentioned cleaning steps—you will feel proud to move around in your gorgeous car for years.
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{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
that’s very informative..thanks for the nice blog! i owned my subaru for more than four years and its silver color had appeared at its w0rst appearance..im kinda planning to paint mine so a big thanks! i had a friend who accidentally painted his suspension system affecting his subaru ball joints, just wondering if that could damage the entire suspension system.
I can find nothing on the web about how to start repairing a stone chip. I have never done it before.
My question is how do I identify what colour my car is? Its a 2005 Corsa. and it is silver but that is not enough.
I have a list of paint code supplied by Vauxhall but I can’t find any numbers like them on stickers & plates around the car.
Pete, u`ll find the sticker with the paint code-number probably sticked in the throat of the driver door, or on the inside of the door itself usually.. if not then it`s probably on a small plate under your hood.. hope u can find it.. or u can always refer to the Vauxhall site and look at the catalogue, sometimes they have the paint codes in there.. i know most Japanese car makesr do…
Theer is a finish you can buy that once applied makes dirt easy to wash off what is it?
regards
john
There is a finish you apply to the paint work. Once applied dirt washes of with ease. what is it called?
what cause oxidation on older car paint
Hi Lucy,
Oxidation on paint is the same as oxidation on anything else – air contact that corrodes. If you’re talking about that ‘faded’ look that some old cars get, this tends to be more due to the elements.
John Shearne,
There are a few after market finishers and waxes that will provide this. Turtle Wax is my preference.
Hi…
If you wax your car once in 3-4 months and you wash your car once a month will washing rinse off the wax coating?
Hi Rudy,
A good car wax should actually work deep in – meaning that it should help the car be both water and dirt repellent. HOW you wash the car is important though. If you put it through a high power jet wash, it may remove the wax more quickly than a softer wash. A decent wax coating though should not only make your car sparkle but give the external paintwork longevity. A bit of washing shouldn’t therefore affect it. This is also good for resale values.
Pete Egan,
Do a Google search for “Stone chip and scratch repair” (with the quotes) and you should find lengthy article on the subject.
John Shearne,
I hope nobody minds me naming names, but the market leader is a product called Supagard 100+ which is a 3 year sealant, followed by JewelUltra Diamondbrite which is a 6 year sealant. AutoGlym also do a product called LifeShine which is a similar sort of thing.
You get them applied at the dealers, but if you have missed the opportunity, some valet centres are authorized to apply them.
They are very good and do work, while helping to keep your car look new — which means they pay for themselves despite quite a high price tag. They aren’t to everybody’s taste but are good if you want to do very little maintenance, and spend your Sundays doing something else.
Nice tip there Danny.
My red car has turned very dull and in places,a very faded pink.I KNOW there is a good layer of red underneath because i scraped some pink off with a stanley blade!!
I just dont know (other than t-cut,which isnt having much effect) what’s the best way forward material wise to get to the good red.
Hi Jason,
Not sure what could have caused this – but it sounds like some sort of environmental factor has caused damage to the top layer(s) of paint. Many cars have a good number of layers of paint. Something has clearly wrecked some of the layers on your red car…
Try this:
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_161604_langId_-1_categoryId_165527
Then try a buff of the body if that doesn’t work… Failing that you might need to go to an expert restorer!
Thanks for the link,will give it a go.After looking around,buffing with a circular buffer seems the best way forwards.
The car is an ‘85 Capri so the red has definately suffered from the environment!
I can endorse Danny’s info. I have a black Freelander which I had treated with the Diamondbrite over 2 years ago when the car was already 18 months old. The car still looks so good that somebody was practically begging me to sell it to him a few months ago! All I do is wash it (manually) and rinse it with the Diamondbrite Conserver stuff once a month. Bloody good product….
I’d love to try it but I think I’d better get the scuffs and paintwork sorted before I apply the Diamondbrite…
im wondering if its just the lacqeur that has reacted….i’ll post some pics asap if possible.
I’m going to buy a 2009 Prius and was going to get black or silver, but I just saw a red one and loved it. Will I be more in trouble with the red paint oxidizing more than the other colors? Thanks for your advice!
Hi Lynn,
Given modern production methods, you shouldn’t really see any difference in oxidation of your car whichever colour you pick. I will say though that scratches appear far more noticeable on a black car than they do others – I know this from experience as my car is black!
Dark colours apparently used to oxidise quicker due to not having a clear layer added. No doubt though you’re not getting a matt colour but something extremely modern, either a metallic or ‘deep’ red that’ll be made of multiple layers. Just keep it out of the sun and clear of bird droppings and you should have a great looking car for years.
Hi,
I have white area forming on the roof of my medium blue 15-year-old Corolla. How can I tell whether this is the primer or whether it is oxidation?
Thanks!
hi i was just wondering if u need more coats of white paint then any other colour when ur painting a car? wev applied 3 coats of white on the prima and it came out rough so we sanded it back a little with fine as paper and u can see the grey come through from the prima…? frustrating
Hi Kriska,
Make sure that you’ve applied a good amount of primer – maybe 5 coats – before going on to apply the actual colour.
Try sanding every coat that you apply to even it out.
When you’re satisfied with the look, apply your lacquer layer evenly.
These are really nice car paint tips. Sometimes, i mean most of the time, i get too busy to think about my car’s paint and all that.
Re: the red paint turning pink. This is oxidisation, I had the same thing on my first car, an old Ford Fiesta. You will waste lots of time and effort if you try to use t cut, or any other polish, by hand. You need to either wetsand the paint back and repolish it, or get it porter cable polished. Worked for me