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Vehicle Body Maintenance

There are many steps to take to maintain the body of your car. You cannot ignore your car, not even a little, if you want to keep it in the best condition possible. You can have a car for more than 15 years with its original paint job, and looking brand spanking new if you take these simple steps.

• Wash your car:
You have got to wash your car regularly, at least once a month—most likely more often than that. This will protect your car from the slight damages that can be caused by things bugs, bird droppings, or limestone dripping. Such things will do harm to the paint of your car—leaving permanent stains if you do not wash them off in time.

Avoid corrosion:
A clean car will dry quickly, but moisture on a dirty car accumulates and causes causing corrosion. At least once in a while you should use pressure wash. Pressure washing will remove the dirt from the areas that are harder to reach.

Wash off all the places where the dirt and salt might be hiding. Check behind moldings, inside wheel arches, under the bumpers etc. Usually I go to a coin-wash type facility for a pressure wash.

It is particularly helpful after the winter season to wash out all the salt that has accumulates—salt will definitely speed up the corrosion process.

• Polish and wax your car:
I would recommend for car body vehicle maintenance that you wax your car once every three to four months, the more often the better, obviously.

You will want to polish and wax after washing. The wax will protect the paint from harm that can be caused by chemicals, and it will protect the paint of your car from fading.

It takes about thirty minutes total to wax a whole car. If you use a high quality car wax it will remain on the car for three to four months, but remember, no matter what the ads may claim, nothing lasts forever. Maintain a protective seal for your car by polishing and waxing. This is an important part of maintaining your outer vehicle.

• Rust-proofing your vehicle:
Rust-proofing is a good method of vehicle maintenance for many reasons.

* First, it protects a car body from rust

* Second, it protects electrical connectors and wires from moisture that can rust and damage the car.

* Third, it protects the brake lines from corrosion. Thus, rust-proofing is a very essential part of auto maintenance for your personal safety. A very rusty brake line can develop quickly (within the first five years even). A rusty brake line can burst suddenly and the car will have no brakes.

• Remove stone chips:
Stone chips will cause corrosion to the body of your car if they are not repaired in time. If you have a stone chip in the body of your car that has not yet begun to corrode, you can attempt to repair it.

You will need:
The car must be clean and dry
You must have the matching spray paint ordered from a dealer
And you will need a toothpick.

* Shake the paint can and spray very small amount into the cap.

* Next, dip the end of the toothpick into the cap.

* Then, carefully, try to barely to fill up the damage without letting the paint come out.

Now it looks much better and it will not be corroded later.

• Remove marks left by other objects:
To maintain the body of your vehicle you will want to remove residue marks (usually paint) left by other objects (usually other cars).

For example: say we have a mark that was made at some point while a car was in underground parking. Say it appears to be white paint residue over the original clearcoat, and the clearcoat itself seems to be damaged only slightly. Here is how to attempt to remove it:

You will need ultra-fine 1500-grit or 2000-grit waterproof sandpaper (the higher the number the finer the abrasive).

* First, extremely carefully sand the marks with wet sandpaper—avoiding any damage to your clearcoat and using only waterproof sandpaper. Sand until the marks are gone.

* Second, now that there is no mark, you will see that the clearcoat has lost its shine, thus you should use a polishing compound to restore the shine by putting a small amount of the polishing compound onto a damp sponge and rub well until the clearcoat is shiny again.

* Third and lastly, buff the area with car wax.

• How to remove scratches:

a) How to remove deep scratches:

Deep scratches can be re-painted. Again you will need the matching spray paint, which you can order at your dealership.

* First wash the scratched area thoroughly and let it dry completely.

* Second, shake the spray paint for at least 2-3 minutes. Then, as before, spray a little bit of paint into the cap. Do not spray directly on the scratch—this will not look good

* Third apply the paint over the scratch very carefully using a wooden toothpick, covering only the scratch. Be sure to keep the paint from dripping. Just dip the end of the toothpick into the paint. If the paint drips down, wipe it off immediately with the clean tissue.

b) How to remove minor scratches:

For this example, we will imagine that there were minor scratches made on the vehicle by tree branches. You can remove the scratches in two simple steps:

*First, use a polishing compound to polish the scratches. The compound contains a very mild abrasive and will remove a very thin coat of painting. When you shop for your polishing compound, there will be a few grades of polishing compound available. You will need the one with the finest abrasive.

* Second, put a small amount of the polishing compound onto a damp sponge and buff over the scratched area in a circular motion. The minor scratches should then just disappear. But be sure that you do not overdo it! If you remove too much of the outer layer of paint it can cause more problems, or create noticeable fading.

*Third, use a liquid wax. Squeeze a small amount of wax onto a sponge and spread the wax evenly over the area that had been scratched. Then wait a little while and allowing product to haze.

* Fourth, using a soft towel, buff the wax.

If it is this important to keep the body of your car in the best possible condition—imagine the details required to keep the rest of your car in top-shape, good as new condition. Have your vehicle checked up regularly as you would your child, i.e., whenever your vehicle needs it. If rust and corrosion can do so much damage to the outside of your car, imagine what can happen if you neglect the vital, inner parts of your vehicle.