Car Cleaning Tips - Vol.250
Keeping your car clean is essential if you want to ensure that it stays fresh and pleasant to drive. While many people head to a professional cleaning or valet service to get the job done, there are plenty of things that you can do by yourself that will ensure your vehicle stays spick and span. Plus you get to save a little bit of money too.
Carpets
Carpets can be a little difficult to clean, but if you have an air compressor and a brush they become a doddle. Simply use the canister of compressed air to blow bits of debris from the floor and the edges of the carpet into a small pile in the center of the mat. From there it's just a simply case of brush or vacuuming the pile and the carpet is clean. Bear in mind that a hard brush is also useful to really dig into the carpet and uproot some more stubborn patches of dirt.
Tires
Search out a non-acidic tire cleaner to give your tires that extra little bit of sparkle. This is especially the case if you have alloys or any paint on any part of the wheel, as an acidic cleaning agent can cause a number of issues, such as pits and paint stripping.
Hand washing
While it is obviously very tempting to simply take the car into a car wash and let the machine do all of the work, the simple fact of the matter is that the job won't get done to the proper standards and certainly won't find all of the problem areas that a hand wash will.
Washing your car by hand allows you to get into every nook and cranny, paying special attention to problem areas that need a little more than a bit of water and a sponge. Be sure to use a proper car wash solution to get the job done though. If you use a standard detergent it can strip any wax finish that the car has, leaving it more exposed to the elements.
One more tip ? be sure to dry your car after the wash. If you simply leave the car wet the water will evaporate and leave behind specks of dirt and other minerals. To avoid this simply use a standard squeegee to wipe all of the excess water off the car and ensure that it retains that new wash shine.
Polish the paint
Polishing the car's paint job will ensure that it maintains a stunning shine while smoothing the surface of the paint itself. This results in the car looking newer than it actually is and, if you're wise about our polish purchasing, you can find polishes that contain wax that offers extra protection to the car's body work. For best results use an oscillating polishing machine, as these are much easier to operate that the rotating variants and leave you with a little bit more room for error.
Glass
Cleaning the windows of the car should be left as the very last thing you do out of all of these tips, as the glass will likely end up collecting sediment and muck that will just come back if you clean it and then move on to working on the body work again.
Ideally you want to find a glass cleaner that doesn't contain ammonia, which can be a little hard to get your hands on. The reason for this is that ammonia can cause some damage to the interior of the car, particularly the upholstery. Use a microfiber cloth to get rid of any and all cleaning and water residue and you will come away with a gorgeous and clean car.