You’ve just had your car repaired by fast panels and are wondering how to keep it looking fresh. Here’s a few top tips on how to keep your paint in good order.
Once your car has been painted, it’s a good idea to allow the paint to cure for 12 hours or so. The technician would have advised you of this. In reality it takes days for paint to fully cure however the day after the repair it will be absolutely safe to wash. A lot of swirl marks and scratches can actually come from washing your car. Most people still use the old dirty bucket and yellow sponge from the $2 shop. This is not a fantastic idea as the dirt from your car will be pushed into your paint and scratch it as you pass over the panel with the sponge. A much better solution is a microfiber wash mitt. These trap dirt in their base and do less damage than a sponge.
Detailing a car can be a bit of a rabbit hole and there are all sorts of lengths you can go to in order to make sure you are doing as best a job as possible. There is a two-bucket method which is good but for what we are looking to do here its not essential. Use a good soap from a reputable brand. Do not use dish washing liquid. You want a PH neutral soap so that it doesn’t damage or break down the paint. We recommend washing the car once a week for an average use car and pay attention to bird and particularly bat droppings as these are very acidic and eat away at the paint very quickly.
Here are some things that we see quite often that are very bad for your paint.
1. Self-service car wash brushes. These scratch your paint very badly every time they contact your car. They are frequently on the ground and covered in dirt. The thick brush fibers dig into your paint like tiny razor blades. Not ideal. If you want to go to a self-service car wash. Take a microfiber wash mitt. A lot of them have signs up saying this isn’t allowed however I’m sure they won’t fine you and as long as you are there feeding gold coins in, we don’t see the issue.
2. Trying to remove scuff marks on bumpers or panels with kitchen scourers. These only mark the rest of the paint around it and generally cant be removed unless you are a detailer. If you do get a mark on your car, send us a picture. There are easy ways to remove paint transfer that we will talk you through free of charge. For example if you happened to make a tiny bit of contact with a yellow parking pole, chances are the pole has left some yellow paint on the bumper. A little bit of petrol from your garden shed on a rag should remove this.
3. Beware of the aerosol spray can. You’ve scratched your bumper, had a quote to have it fixed professionally and thought, I can do that myself. A spray can made to my paint code can be bought from super cheap auto or the like for what $20? Why pay more to have a professional do it… Well. Here’s why. When you get a scratch or dent to your bumper, its not just the paint that is needed. Our job is made up of about 80% preparation. You have to know how to sand the panel back, where the panel may need plastic welding, re shaping, body filler, how much primer and how to properly prepare the surface to accept the new coat of paint. You may be thinking at this point, well. Its only $20. Its worth a try. The problem is, that if you end up getting overspray onto an unpainted plastic grill, its very hard to remove, if you paint too much of the panel and it goes onto the next panel, its possible you could be creating more work for us when we do come to save the day. On top of that it makes it hard for us to see where the damage actually is. Its much better to have us look at the damage before anyone else has had a go at it. This way we can understand and assess much better what the car needs to get it back to how it was when you bought it. We would also need to remove all of the paint
4. Dealership supplied touch up bottles. These seem to be less popular in 2022 however we do still come across it. You’ve had your car for a few years, and it has a few nicks and bruises here and there. You go to your local dealer and buy a touch up bottle. They give you a little bottle that resembles a nail varnish bottle. It is an exact match. Even has your paint code on it. You put it straight to work on the one spot that bothered you enough to go in and buy it on this fine Australian Saturday morning. You brush a little on and you are impressed. You realise there is heaps in this bottle and at some stage you or your significant other may very well have done more damage to the beautiful body of your car. So panel by panel you begin finding small scratches and start touching them up. Before you know it you’ve done A LOT of touch up work. You could almost get a job as a technician for Fast Panels. Then you stand back and your work is not quite as seamless as you’d hoped. It looks more like your 2 year old did it than you. Touch up bottles in their selves aren’t the issue. It’s the way its applied. They are sold with a relatively large brush that really isn’t fit for purpose. Secondly, a lot of things we see touched up just didn’t need it. Tiny blemished that would have polished out. We regularly go around cars removing all of this unnecessary paint only to find one scratch that really only needs a light sand and polish. The rest would have come out with a hand polish.
To summarize, if you don’t really know what you are doing, it’s better leaving it to the professionals. But a great way to start is just picking the phone up to us and asking. We are more than happy to give you our opinion and advice free of charge. We are all car lovers at fast panels and happy to share the passion with others.
Other helpful resources for you:
Top 5 things not to do after a paint job
Selling or trading in your car? Here’s a few things you ought to know.
Great workmanship, looks amazing
Thankyou Jay
You are always welcome Helen 🙂