A coat of wax. Leather conditioner. Armorall for the tires. That’s about as far as I ever went with detailing my sweet 1969 Camaro. It was a long time ago, and products and processes have come a long way since then.
How did my car get all those scratches? How did those scratches get inside? How do I get rid of all the swirls in the paint? Now you can discover the answers to those questions (and more) with detailing secrets from people who make cars look their best for a living.
Thar she blows
Consider buying — if you don’t have one already — a leaf blower or an air compressor. They make fabulous car-drying devices and are especially good for getting water out of the cracks and crevices (side mirrors, door handles, emblems and so on) that drip and dry with dirty water, leaving evidence on your clean car. It beats wiping them down, too, which might scratch your vehicle’s freshly washed surface.
Line the inside of your wheel wells
This sounds as though you might have to take off the tires or something, but that’s not necessary. Many cars have wheel-well linings that are made of plastic and easily findable for $20 to a couple hundred dollars on platforms like Amazon. They’re also easy to install.
They do one thing quite well: Keep the wheel wells clean. Car guys tend to say they’re more effective than any product you would clean or treat your wheel wells with directly. You might want to stay away from linings that are described as felt, polyester or synthetic fibers on the top material. The road gunk and mud these materials trap can be more difficult to remove than the residue you’d see on untreated wheel wells in the first place.
Fix up small scratches
Instead of paying for repairs, try using WD-40 to lighten small scratches. If you want to paint over them, prep the area with the touch-up paint, a wax-and-grease removing product, a Scotch-Brite pad to “scuff” the area (a little touch-up paint won’t necessarily want to stick to a smooth, waxed surface) and a syringe to ensure the touch-up paint goes into the intended scratch.
Don’t wax your ride too often
If your car is a daily driver (it’s not just a collector’s item that sits in your garage and comes out once or twice a year), wash your car once every two weeks. You can also wash it once a week, maybe even twice if you really want to.
But you should only apply traditional wax or wax-infused soap four times a year maximum. Your vehicle will look incredible after a waxing, but waxing too often doesn’t do your car any favors. Waxing too often may create more hassle by introducing hard-to-remove wax buildup, product layering and hazing to your car’s look.
Remove tree sap safely
Those who don’t regularly garage their cars are liable to see their vehicles covered in tree sap, especially during the warmer months of the year. Sap can bake itself into the paint surface, so first line of attack: Remove tree sap as quickly as possible. Rubbing alcohol is the best tree sap-removing surface, no matter how dry, fresh, big or small the sap is. It even removes the big globs, although a plastic razor blade might be needed to help remove those.
You can remove those pesky price stickers
Did you get those impossible-to-remove stickers and adhesives on your car’s windows? Get them off with a good dose of bug-and-tar remover. This product won’t hurt your paint or windows, and it’ll make a sticker come right off.
Apply your wax with an electric polisher
Hand-polishing your car sounds more virtuous, but it is a quick way to tire yourself out and put less-than-the-best shine on your ride. Manual polishes tend to be inconsistent. Not to mention that the longer the polish takes, the more likely you’ll take shortcuts, especially in the hard-to-reach places. Oh, you can do a decent job by hand. But a quality polish will help you deliver a quality polish, and it doesn’t take that long to get the hang of it.
Microfiber towels
Here’s your new car-cleaning best friend: microfiber towels. Use them in place of rags and especially towels. For best results, hand wash and hand dry them with laundry detergent and then store them in a closed container to keep outside debris and contamination to a minimum. Do this, and you’ll maximize your microfiber supplies and keep your car free of any lint and debris that towels and rags can carry.
Do wash mitts matter? They do!
Pro detailers tend to use chenille wash pads (the ones that look like fuzzy, ribbed socks or pillows) because nothing holds quite as much soap suds as a good chenille wash pad. In the worst case for any rag or towel used in this fashion, towel “lint” can rub off on your car and damage your paint job. Such rags or towels do hold a lot of soap and dirt, but mitts like chenille do just as good a job holding soap and dirt without the damage to your paint job.
Combat vehicle odor the natural way
Got car odor? Sprinkle coffee grounds onto the carpet and medium interior surfaces, let sit overnight, and vacuum it all out in the morning. This coffee trick does an excellent job of covering and neutralizing pesky car odors. Do this once every month for best results.
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