How to Properly Clean Your Car
Your life is incredibly busy. You have to go to work, cook meals, grocery shop, make time to exercise, adhere to a budget and so much more. Plenty of things get put on the backburner or just completely forgotten as a result, and one of these oft-forgotten items is cleaning your car.
There are a lot of ways to clean your car and even more reasons why you need to, from protecting the paint job to hopefully sparing you from discovering the common types of Albuquerque car accident claims. The following will explain these reasons in further depth and help you learn how and when to clean your car to keep it looking brand-new.
Understanding the Why
As mentioned, there are many reasons to wash your car and the biggest one is maintenance. As you drive, the car will get covered in all sorts of nastiness, such as bugs and dust. These contaminants look pretty bad and are therefore reason enough for those invested in vehicle appearance to get their car washed regularly.
For busy people who may struggle to find the time however, a much deeper reason is required: maintenance. Leaving this mess on the car not only makes it look bad but can actually cause damage to the vehicle over time. Tree sap and bird poop can damage the vehicle paint job, dust can get inside the vehicle’s AC system or engine and rocks and salt can slowly ruin the tires and undercarriage of the car.
If left unchecked, yor car will suffer massive damages and require expensive repairs or even full-on replacement in serious cases. Luckily, a trip to the car wash every so often is the solution to this problem.
Go to a Car Wash
The local car wash is the best solution for most people when it comes to cleaning your car, especially if you live in areas where more cleaning is required due to salty air, seasonal pollen or salt-treated roads.
Each car wash is different, offering different options and even methods of cleaning. To get the best clean, you either need to visit a touchless car wash or a well-maintained one with clean clothes and brushes. Which you prefer will ultimately be up to you, but bear in mind that while touchless car washes won’t cause damage with brushes or dirt, they may not get some areas as well as one with brushes.
Also remember that many options available are mainly cosmetic, but some may be vital. For example, an applied layer of wax may be unnecessary, but an undercarriage clean might be just what you need as winter ends.
Before you get in line and ready your debit or credit card, do some research. Online reviews of your local car wash can warn you about a wide variety of things, from whether the wash will clean your car the way you need it to to payment issues to even warnings about washes that have incredibly hard water that leaves water spots once dry. Never use a car wash without looking at online reviews or you may find yourself regretting the trip.
Wash at Home
Washing your car at home is probably the last thing you want to spend your weekend on, but it's an important chore even if you regularly hit the car wash. Car washes will always miss some key spots and those spots need to be deep cleaned to prevent them from getting damaged.
Offroaders may also need to spend more time with the hand wash then automatic car wash because of how difficult it is to remove dried or tightly-packed mud. Just make sure you use the right soap or you risk damaging the car’s paint job, defeating the purpose of the at-home wash.
Remember the Interior
Cleaning the interior of your car is just as important as cleaning the outside because that is where you will spend much of your time. The issue is that, unless the inside is a disaster, it’s incredibly easy to forget to do it. However, remembering to clean your car's interior and learning how to do so correctly are insanely important for both the health of your car and yourself.
Removing the floor mats is the first step as their main goal was to catch excess mud and grime to keep it off of the vehicle's floor. Clean each mat thoroughly and watch for any damage. A mat that is too damaged is best tossed and replaced as it can cause future issues if put back in place.
Once the mats are cleaned, start vacuuming the rest of the car. The dashboard may need to be dusted separately because of the small nooks and crannies that are buttons and cup holders. Screens and windows also need attention, whether that be to wash away stubborn fingerprints or grime built up over time.
The final step is to clean the seats with a suitable upholstery cleaner. Don’t forget to watch for damage during this entire process; replacing or repairing damaged items early always prevents problems later.
Create an Interior Checklist
Once the car is completely cleaned, you need to decide what goes back into it. It’s easy to remember to put the floor mats back and to place the spare tire and tool box in the trunk, but what else do you add? Hand sanitizer to help keep you from getting sick is a good idea, as is a tissue box and trash bag.
If you get car sick, maye keeping a few extra bags or even buckets around will make you feel more at ease. Before you put every item back into your car, make a list of the stuff that needs to be there.
Anything on this list stays when you get out of the car and anything not on it needs to be taken out when you leave. Whether that means the items travel with you or meet their end at a trash can is up to your discretion.
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