While this primer is aimed at helping car owners take care of their cars after new paint jobs, any vehicle owner can benefit from these tips. If you’ve invested in having your car painted or simply want to preserve your car’s paint, these suggestions will help you maintain the value and appearance of your vehicle for many years.

Taking Care Of Your Car’s Paint Job

Obviously, the first thing that you and other people notice about vehicles is the condition of their paint. If you invested in a high-quality paint job or a new car, you can make sure that it stays fresh and shiny for the life of your vehicle by following these suggestions.

Keep Your Car Clean

As you drive your car in wind and rain, your paint job will get assaulted by plenty of contaminants. These include dirt, gravel, and pollutants. One of the best things you can do to preserve the finish is simply to keep your car clean. While you can simply use water and car detergent at home, you may want to invest in a commercial power wash every few months.

If you have a home pressure washer or pressure-washing attachment on your hose, don’t stand too close to the vehicle. Otherwise, you can accidentally damage the paint yourself. If you’re not sure if you should use your pressure washer on your car, you might be better off just getting the car professionally cleaned. It doesn’t cost that much more and can help preserve your paint job.

Make Sure You Use The Right Wax To Polish Your Car

If you bought a new car, you might research the kind of paint that the manufacturer uses. If you just got your car painted, you can always ask the painters what kind of paint they use and if they have any suggestions for wax products. If you can’t get suggestions, you can do some research online on the ways that different wax products react to various brands and kinds of paint.

Sadly, some wax products that you can find on the market use abrasive agents to help clean the car. Also, the formula for some commercial wax products just doesn’t react well with certain kinds of paint. The problem is that these abrasives or chemicals can eventually dull or even scratch your car’s finish. On the other hand, the right wax will preserve your paint.

How Often Should You Wax Your Car?

Most experts suggest waxing your car at least three or four times a year. They say the minimum is twice a year, usually in the fall and spring. You want to get your car ready to handle more severe weather conditions in the spring or summer. Of course, the environmental conditions that you drive in may prompt you to wax somewhat more often.

One good way to tell if you need to wax your car is to drop a little water on the hood of your vehicle. If the water that you dropped beads up, you probably don’t need to wax yet. However, if the water does not bead up, you need a hand waxing job performed promptly. If you don’t care to wax your car by hand yourself, you can always invest in a commercial wash and wax job.

Caring For Your New Paint Job

It’s most important to make sure you have your car waxed after a new paint job. The paint may still be soft for a while, and the wax can protect your investment in a new paint job by creating a barrier between the paint and the external environment.

Experts say that rain alone shouldn’t really hurt your new paint job. The problem is that rain will be mixed with dirt and even pollutants, and these may be acidic or abrasive, so that’s why you need to take extra care to protect a fresh paint job.

On the other hand, you shouldn’t wash your car right after you have a new paint job. It’s a good idea to wait at least two weeks. While you should probably wait at least two weeks after your paint job to wash your car, you probably should not wait longer than one month. New paint products cure faster than the old ones did, but it’s still a good idea to give the paint several days to completely harden.

Fixing Paint Scratches

Did you just get a new paint job and then pick up a new scratch or two? That’s frustrating, but these things do happen. You can drive carefully, but you can’t always control lose pebble on the road or the actions of other people.

You can get touch-up paint that will let you fill in small scratches. Also, it’s better to attend small scratches as promptly as possible. This keeps your car looking nice, will prevent rust on the body, and will also keep small scratches from turning into larger ones.

If you’re not sure which touch-up paint that you should use, you can always ask our experts at Art’s for suggestions. If you just bought a new car, you may be able to buy touch-up paint from the manufacturer as well.

Touch-up paint is only for minor scratches. This means that if the scratch is large, the area may have to be sanded again and primed, so you might be better off asking a professional paint shop to do the job right.

Why Is It So Important To Maintain Your New Paint Job?

Of course, most people hope to maintain their new paint job because they want their vehicle to look nice. Perhaps it’s more important to keep paint fresh because the paint helps protect the body of the car from rust and other threats. Finally, keeping up your paint job is one of the best things that you can do to preserve the value of your car. If you don’t neglect proper care of your paint job, you may never need to pay for another one for the lifetime of your car.