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More Than Skin Deep
Dedication keeps a car’s exterior shining on
I bought a new Mini recently—cool! But then I set a cardboard box on the front fender for a few moments, picked it up, and was appalled to see tiny scratches in what had been my new car's pristine, deep-blue paint. Bummer!
My old car's paint wasn't so easily scuffed, I grumbled to Mike Pennington of Meguiar's, a Southern California-based maker of car-care products—which prompted a quick tutorial on the proper care of a modern car's paint.
The first thing to understand is that paints have changed. Cars built since the 1980s undergo multistage paint jobs consisting of a primer, a color coat, and—something relatively new—a clear coat, which gives a deep, lustrous finish and keeps the color coat from oxidizing.
The downside? The clear coat scratches easily, so you have to be careful to avoid scratches or swirl marks.
Here's how:
Wash it-a lot. Airborne critters, from gnats to 747s, leave fallout on car paint. Then there's dust, tree sap, road grime, and acid rain. They don't look very nice, and they etch or bond to the clear coat if left on too long. A once-weekly wash ritual is a good practice.
Wash it right. Dishwashing soap strips oils and wax from the paint. Instead, use soap made for washing cars. Wash your car when the paint surface is cool and the car is in the shade. Work from top to bottom, front to back, leaving the dirtiest things—the wheels—for last. (In fact, use a separate bucket of water and rags for the wheels.) Be gentle, keep rinsing your sponge to keep it free from dirt, and use only fluffy all-cotton towels, a chamois, or special microfiber towels to dry the finish.
Study it. Look closely for minute scratches or swirls. Just as important, feel the paint with your fingertips. It should be as smooth as glass. If you see scratches or if the surface feels gritty, you'll have to take further action.
Clay it. The latest wrinkle in paint care is cleaning or detailing clay. You simply rub it (along with a lubricant) over the surface of your car, and it does a remarkably good job of removing any contaminants bonded to the paint.
Polish it. "Polish" and "wax" are not synonymous. Polish buffs the clear coat to make it shine and helps remove scratches and swirls. Wax protects the clear coat with a barrier to keep nutrients in and contaminants out. Warning: Use only products labeled "clear-coat safe." Rubbing compounds meant to remove oxidation from old-style car paint are too abrasive.
Protect it. Whether you use a natural carnuba-based wax or a polymer-based sealant, and whether it's in spray-on, liquid, or paste form, follow the maker's directions to the letter. Apply wax or sealant two to four times a year.
I followed Pennington's routine, and the scratches disappeared. And now my car has a good wax job protecting the paint from further damage.
All the products I've mentioned are available at auto parts stores or online. Among my favorite car-care websites are mothers.com, griotsgarage.com, and meguiars.com.
Have a question for Peter Bohr? Write to Overdrive, Westways, PO Box 25222, Santa Ana, CA 92799-5222, or e-mail him at westways@aaa-calif.com.
You are reading the November/December 2007 issue of Westways. Some information contained in this publication is time-sensitive, and the terms of some offers (cruise or vacation packages, for example) or services (provisions for roadside assistance, for example) might have been superseded by subsequent information and might no longer apply.