Blog

As the summer months are among us it is a time to enjoy the glorious outdoors and make the most of the great weather by treating your car to a fantastic showroom finish! Whether it’s a drive to the beach, a family holiday, or a road trip with friends, the heat inevitably brings everyone outdoors and it is important that your car is looking great in the sunshine! A range of simple techniques and Supagard aftercare products will allow you to achieve amazing results leaving everyone in awe of your new car finish.

Part 1 - Shampoo

Shampooing doesn’t just make your car look better, it’s important for the life of the exterior. Dirt from the road can easily build up, is very bad for your paintwork and causes rust and corrosion so it’s important to get rid of it as soon as possible.

When it comes to washing the car, there was a time when we all just grabbed washing up liquid which is designed to eat away grease and food. While it works well for dishes, the same attributes that break down the grease will strip your car wax and can actually lead to corrosion as it also contains salt - so don’t ever be tempted to use it on your car!

Always use a specially formulated car shampoo as this will

• clean the car’s surface,
• enhance the gloss, and
• leave the car wax, paint protectant or paint sealant intact.

Method:

Firstly, soak the car with either a hose or a bucket of clean water.

In order to guarantee a swirl-free finish, we highly recommend using a ridgeback sponge and the Two-Bucket Washing Method. As the name implies, you use two separate buckets to wash your car. One bucket holds the soapy car wash solution (2 capfuls of pH Neutral Shampoo to one bucket of warm water) and the other holds clean, clear rinse water so you can rinse your sponge after each pass over your car. This keeps those dirt particles you just picked up on the surface from going back into the clean car wash solution and being picked up again by the sponge.

If possible, use a hose to rinse off any remaining shampoo and dry the car off using either a chamois leather or microfibre cloth to remove any remaining water and avoid leaving marks on the paintwork.

Top Tip:

Avoid washing the car in direct sunlight as this will dry off the water and leave marks on the paintwork which can be difficult to remove. In summer, however, this can sometimes be difficult. If unavoidable, clean and dry the car panel by panel to eliminate the chance of swirl marks forming. Start from the top and make sure that you wash the whole car, including the wheels and around the bottom of the car where most dirt accumulates.

This is also the perfect time to apply a protective coat of Paintseal Cream to leave a glossy showroom finish so your car looks its best over the Summer months.

All products required for this method are linked below:

pH Neutral Shampoo.    Ridgeback Sponges

Chamois Leather.          Microfibre Cloth

Paintseal Cream            Shampoo/Paintseal