How to Protect Your Vehicle’s Paint

You’ve spent good money on a new paint job for your vehicle, and you worked with your auto body shop to color match the original paint or gain exactly the look you wanted. Now it’s up to you to protect your vehicle’s paint. It’s not hard, but a review of the basics — including new technological advances — will help you.

What to Watch Out For

Even if you’ve paid for the protective sealer features of a clear coat finish there are still environmental factors that cause harm to your vehicle’s paint job. Here’s a few of the most prominent.

• Sunlight: You know you have to watch out for too much direct sunlight on your own skin. What you might not know is that the body of your vehicle reacts in much the same way.

• Salty air: Here in Rohnert Park you’re less than an hour from the Pacific, and that means less than hour from salt air. Combine this with a sunny, windy day and you’re vehicle can easily overdose on too much salt.

• Shady trees mean bird droppings: Perhaps there is nothing worse than parking under the shade of a tree only to discover upon your return that a flock of birds have been treating your vehicle and it’s new paint job as a toilet.

How To Protect Your Vehicle’s Paint

There are remedies to the above hazards, and you’d be wise to utilize them whenever possible.

• Park inside: Whether this be in your own garage or an enclosed parking structure, or under a car cover, this should be your first line of defense against sunlight, salt and bird droppings.

• Wax your car: This may sound like too simple of a solution, but if you can’t park inside it’s the next best option.