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It’s mid April but being stuck indoors makes it feel like it isn’t quite spring yet. Luckily the weather outside is nice and it’s the perfect time to detail your car. An activity you can easily perform while social distancing, cleaning your vehicle inside and out gives you something to do and helps you maintain the value of your car for as long as possible.
While a rag and a soapy bucket are a good place to start, you’ll need some specialized cleansers, protectants, and tools to get the job done right without wrecking your paint or leather.
Freshening Up the Interior
Let’s tackle the interior of the car first and work outwards. Before you get too involved in the details, make sure to remove all the trash, floor mats, and seat cover if you have them.
Next, vacuum of course. A great cordless handheld vacuum gets into the small corners and crevices making the job lighting fast and simple to complete. Black & Decker makes an easy-to-use, rechargeable option that holds a charge for four hours. It even picks up pet hair you might have on the seats and carpet.
303 products makes a fantastic tire and rubber cleaner. This can be used on any of your plastics or rubber surfaces like cup holders, center consoles and your floor mats. This product can also be used to clean your tires. It’s a foaming cleanser. You’ll know that it’s done doing its job when it changes colors, then you clean it right off.
True Car rates the Chemical Guys complete leather care kit as the best leather care products out there. Clean, then condition, allowing the leather to remain soft and avoid cracking, fading, and buildup on your seats. These leather care products can also be used on any of your other leather goods from boots to couches so it’s a worthwhile versatile product to have on hand. The three-piece kit also comes with a brush designed for applying these products onto the leather surface.
What if you don’t have leather seats you ask? No problem! One product can tackle both your carpets and your fabric seats. It’s a protectant effective at sealing out the dirt partials allowing you to go further between deep cleaning by a detailing professional. Application is as simple as spraying it on and open the windows of the car to let it soak in without the fumes. You can use this stain guard on carpets, fabric rugs, and cloth seats.
Spraying (and Wiping) Down the Exterior
Moving to the exterior of the car, there are lots of different surfaces to clean. Wheels, tires, painted body of the car, glass, and so on. Protecting the finish is immensely important so as with the interior you’ll want to use quality products made for the salt and grime build up.
Chemical Guys snow foam car wash is a pH neutral formula that is both extremely effective and safe for your cars painted and unpainted surfaces. It also smells like honey dew melon. A little goes a long way with only one capful needed per a bucket. It’s safe for all car surfaces so you don’t need to worry as you soap up and hose off the car.
Instead of using a harsh rag to wash the car, invest in a microfiber mitt that won’t let you scratch or damage the surfaces of your car. Reusable and washable over and over again, you’ll get your money’s worth quickly.
The trick to perfectly clean glass? Newspaper. Using a glass cleaner like the one from Better Life, spray it onto the windows and use an old wad of newspaper to remove the cleaner. The result is streakless, spotless windows. Do this inside and out for the best results.
If you detail your car often, you might go all in and spend hours hand waxing the car. I on the other hand have a much faster, simpler solution. A spray-on touchless sealant from 303 detailing products. Saves hours for similar results!
Once you’ve cleaned your tires with the rubber and plastic cleaner from 303 detailing products and you’re finished cleaning and waxing the exterior or your car, it’s time to shine up those tires. Nothing does the job like Black Magic Tire Wet. Spray and it will dry quickly, leaving your tires with a shine for three days or longer.
And finally, let’s get you something to clean in between detailed cleanings. Wipes are perfect for tidying up and wiping down. Simple and straightforward to use, Armor All car interior cleaning wipes don’t take up too much room in your trunk or backseat whichever you prefer.
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