How to Protect Your Car’s Exterior
Properly cleaning and detailing your car will protect your paint finish and keep your car looking its best. While you can save yourself a lot of time by investing in a cover, especially a fitted cover like this BMW X3 car cover, there’s no getting around the need to scrub off bugs, dirt, and salt from the road. Here’s a simple guide to protecting your car’s exterior with a basic maintenance routine:
Basic Supplies
Before you get started, you’ll need some basic cleaning supplies that will make your job much easier: shammy (chamois), applicator pads, towels, aerosol tire spray, exhaust cleaner spray, window cleaner spray, soap, sponges, and two buckets.
Washing the Car
Wet the Car down in order to loosen the dirt and debris. Before you soap up, use a bug and tar remover spray on your hood, grill, and even behind your wheel arches. This will make it much easier to remove bugs, as they tend to stick to your car, especially in warmer climates.
For your pre-wash, use a sponge with an abrasive netting, fill up a bucket with water and soap, and wipe down your car to remove all of the dirt before using a more delicate mop or sponge for the soaping process where you’ll really make your car shine.
Use two buckets for the soaping process, with one bucket for soap and another bucket to rinse your dirty mop head. Never put your cleaning mop on the ground because you could pick up rocks and other debris that will ruin your car’s paint job if you rub them on it.
Wheel Cleaner
Don’t use your soapy water from the car on your wheels since you’ll just get your water dirty. Get a fresh bucket of rinse water and a wheel cleaner spray that you can use to remove the dirt on the wheels. Spray it on the wheels and wipe them off with a different mop or sponge.
You can also use your wheel cleaner on your exhaust pipes since they can build up quite a bit of residue and you don’t want to add that residue to your soapy bucket.
Clay Bar Kit
A clay bar is the essential step between washing and waxing since a clay bar removes all of the fine debris from your car before you rub the wax in. You’ll begin by spraying a quick detailer product on your car while it’s still wet from rinsing. Then tear off a chunk of clay bar and rub it into the size of a small pancake. Rub the clay bar lightly along the car and then rework it so that you always have a clean side on your car.
Dry your car with a shammy (chamois) when you’re done since towels tend to pick up debris and could damage your paint job. A shammy will also absorb water faster and help you move to the next step.
Glass Cleaning
Use ammonia free glass cleaners if your car has tinted windows, since the ammonia could eat away at the tinted finish.
Polish and Wax
The final step in caring for your luxury car’s exterior is polishing and waxing. You’ll want to rub on the polish in a north and south or east and west direction rather than a circular motion. Rub it in until it’s a thin layer on your car’s paint. Once it’s shiny, you will then buffer it off with a cloth.