How much money have you ended up spending in car repair shops and servicing? We’re sure the amount is huge! Well, in this case, what if we tell you that the cost can be reduced severely and be brought down to a couple of bucks!
Do-it-yourself car detailing is one such method. This is no longer a difficult task. It will end up taking some of your free time, but give you the best possible results. From exterior detailing to the interior, every little task can be performed at home itself.
Are you looking for some car detailing tips? In this article, 20 different do-it-yourself car detailing tips have been focused upon. From doing a DIY car wash to clearing out pet hair from your car seats, this article has it all!
Read on to learn more about the same!
Benefits of DIY car detailing
The various benefits of DIY car detailing are as follows:
- Relatively inexpensive
- Can be done at your own convenience
- Comfort of home
- Tools are readily available at home
- Involves the use of no harmful chemicals
- No risks or potential of fatalities
- A learning experience
Things you will need for a DIY car detailing day
If you’re worried about falling short on required tools and materials, we’re here to help you out. Do-it-yourself car detailing may need things like:
- An abundant amount of water
- A cleaning spray for windows
- Dry pieces of cloth
- A vacuum cleaner
- Cleaning brushes
- Suitable suds that protect car paint
- Oil and grease
- Gloves for generating static electricity
- Air freshening sprays and elements
Most of these eqipments can be found at places like regular car stores or at the market.
Top 20 Do-It-Yourself Car Detailing Tips
Car detailing includes the processes of car cleaning, polishing, and washing.
Car detailing involves manual labor. While detailing your car, you are required to wash it, wax it, brush it, clean the interior carpets, oil the hinges, and much more. This can be done at the comfort of your households.
Listed below are 20 different detailing tips for your vehicle. These detailing tips are easy to do and can be employed at home.
Tip 1: Wash your car
Washing your car comes under an exterior detailing tip.When you wash your car, it’s really important to clean the grime off of your windows very carefully. This can be done by making use of a clean towel and some glass cleaning spray.
This process may take up some of your time. However, you must make sure that you keep cleaning till the grime has been completely removed from your window edges.
If a glass cleaner is not available, another good idea is to try to use some soapy water and a brush for the same.
Tip 2: Rinse before you wash your car to avoid damage to the car paint
This is one of the most important car detailing tips. Using the right suds is important for your car.
If you use soap water for your car wash, you may end up grinding the dirt into the car’s painted surface. Most of the professional car detailers rinse the car first and then move to the other processes to protect the car’s paint. To be a master at car detailing, you need to follow the same technique.
Tip 3: Remove all possible dust as you move forward
One of the most crucial car cleaning rules is related to never starting off with the car carpet. This is a common mistake made by beginners at car cleaning and car detailing. Detailing your car demands you to think through the process.
If you remove the carpet’s dirt first, you are most likely to get it dusty again by the end of the car detailing procedure. Is is thus important to begin at the top and work your way down the process.
Before you get to the interior detailing, clean the car windows, corners, and crannies by using a vacuum to remove the dust. The minor edges can be brushed out with the help of a detailing brush.
Tip 4: Best way to clean your car’s interior- Cleaning the car seats
One of the most important steps in interior car detailing is cleaning the car seat. If the seats in your car are made of leather, try using a leather cleaning kit for this purpose. A leather cleaning kit is likely to consist of a conditioner that can be rubbed onto any stain before cleaning it by using a brush.
You can then remove this from your car seat by using a clean microfiber towel.
This technique is useful even for when you need to remove stuck pet hair on your car’s seat. Every time you leave a stain in your car, try using the leather care products immediately to avoid permanent damage.
Tip 5: Use colorings made of plastic or vinyl for your car’s exterior details
If any parts of your car have faded or have lost the perfect finish of their color, you need to use vinyl or plastic color sprays that can be helpful in bringing them back. The vinyl colorings are readily available at all car stores and markets.
You need to apply the colorings coats at regular intervals of 5-10 minutes. It is important to remember that you need to leave the colored surface for 24 hours before using it again.
Tip 6: Best mirror finishing-Getting a mirror finish with synthetic wax
There are two main types of synthetic wax that can be used to get a proper mirror finish. One such wax is the Carnauba Wax. This can be used when you need to attain a glossy finish and warm texture for your car windows.
Another wax is the Meguiar’s Ultimate Liquid Wax. A foam applicator can be used to wax the windows in this case. This is likely to leave behind a certain amount of haze that can later be cleared off with the help of microfiber towels. This is a cleaner that causes lesser damage to the glass.
Even though this wax is costly, one of the greatest advantages here is that it does not consist of the white film on the plastic trim.
Tip 7: Wet Paintwork? Use a microfiber towel to dry it up!
Another important detail or step to focus on is the painting.
Airdrying after a smooth work of paint can leave behind tiny specs of water on the car’s surface. To wipe these off from the car’s surface is even tougher than removing dust or dirt from your car.
Using a microfiber towel cleaner is the best way recommended in this case. You must gently rub this towel over your car’s surface. Start from the top and gradually move below for effective results.
Tip 8: Best possible investment- Investing in a dual action polisher unit
Polishing is a crucial step involved in professional car detailing. It adds a shine to your vehicle’s exterior that is highly noticeable by all, provided a good job is done. For this, you must invest some money in a dual action polisher unit.
A dual action polisher unit can make all polish related jobs simple and smooth. It ensures a complete finish that is long-lasting and mostly resistant to damages.
It covers the tiniest of a detail and leaves behind no errors for the naked eye to catch.
Tip 9: Brush out the air vents
Another important step that has to be included in this guide is the brushing out of air vents. A normal vacuum with a brush may not be useful in this case. Instead, one needs to get an artist’s paint brush in this case.
One must take the brush and apply a bit of furniture polish on top of the bristles. One must then work the brush in such a way that it clears the dust off of the air vent corners too.
Tip 10: Best way to clean your carpets- Clean your car carpet by using static electricity
A car carpet absorbs a huge amount of dust and dirt. This grime is continuously added to the mattress over a long period of time. Hence,cleaning a car carpet with a vacuum brush is of no use. The dust is likely to stay as it is despite the continuous work.
Static electricity can be used to remove the dust effectively. If you use latex gloves for the same, static electricity will be generated. You can rub your fingers across the surface of the carpet for this purpose.
Tip 11: Replacing the carpet in your car
If your car’s carpet is too hard to clean and is simply a disaster, taking a step forward and buying a new carpet may be the best possible option.
One can take help from professional detailers to customise the car carpet as per their car’s interior detailing, model, color, and size.
Tip 12: Best way to clean your car-Pluck the embedded dirt
Exterior car detailing throws a great amount of focus on plucking the embedded dirt on a vehicle’s surface. A car washusing water helps till a certain extent. However, a clay bar can be used for effective and improved results.
For this, one will need a clay bar kit. You can get a clay bar kit at any car store. This kit will contain a lubricant and little bits of synthetic clay.
Take the clay piece and divide into 3-4 halves. Take one half and keep rubbing it on the car’s surface till is turns grey. You may then throw the piece away and get a new one. Keep repeating the process till your car gets a finishing similar to that of glass.
Tip 13: Best way to clear out air vents-Use compressed air to deodorize car air vents
Cars lose the good smell in some years. This happens when dirt and grime gets stuck in the air vents to create a foul odor. This may be a huge source of discomfort for many.
Have you managed to use all possible air fresheners to resolve this issue, but still couldn’t? Well, we have got you covered.
You can now switch to the use of compressed air. A can of compressed air allows the air vents to breathe. This removes the odor and makes your vehicle smell nice.
Tip 14: Use the right soap for cleaning your car
Using the right soap and water temperatures for a car wash is an essential step in auto detailing the exterior of your vehicle. Many do-it-yourself car detailers opt for dishwashing detergents to clean their cars.
Diswashing detergents are not the right choice for a proper car wash. This commonly used auto detailing technique for car cleaning damages the car paint and makes the exterior look dull.
It is best to purchase soaps made specially for cleaning your car.
Tip 15: Get rid of squeaky car doors
One of the many car detailing tips deals with the elimination of sound-creating car doors. This squeakiness is the result of rusty hinges. Greasing or oiling these hinges of your car doors can help in resolving the problem.
You must check on the hinges time and again. You can also make use of silicon spray to deal with this issue.
Tip 16: Get quality tools
While detailing your car, you must make sure that you use good tools and equipments. These tools are not only needed for car detailing, but car cleaning too. They will help in renewing both the interior and exterior portions of your vehicle.
Some of these tools are synthetic wax for windows, a vacuum for cleaning carpets, vacuum brushes for clearing air vents, microfiber towels for polishing, a cleaner spray for glass windows, oil or grease for hinges, and more.
Tip 17: Destink your car’s interior
If you’ve ever smoked in your car and the stench continued to stay even after days, here’s what you can do as a part of interior detailing.
You must buy a non-smoke can of spray. This can be sprayed lightly on your car’s interior including the dashboard, steering wheel, seats, and more. The car must then remain shut for about a day.
The next day, the stinking smell of smoke will go away.
Tip 18: Lubricating the bonnet hinges
In the above paragraphs, door hinges have already been discussed. Similar to those, use oil and grease to remove the rust from these hinges too.
You can also make use of a detailing brush to clear the hinges of any dirt or grime. You can keep on rotating the hinges to the left and right till the oil reaches the insides of it.
You must not apply excess of lubricants on the nuts. One needs to wipe any excess material immediately. This is important to prevent the collection of debris.
You can make use of a clean and dry cloth to wipe the additional lubricants.
Tip 19: Refinish the wheel
Does your car’s wheel have tears or marks of damage? This needs to be catered to in detail. It can be a potential risk to your life.
You can make up for this at home itself. Removing the corrosion, applying paint, and refinishing your car’s wheel can take a minimum of 24 hours. Most of the time, you are only waiting for the paint to dry up.
You must attach the wheel only if it has dried up completely.
Tip 20: Clear out the litter from beneath your car seats
Last but not the least, for proper detailing of your car, whether exterior or interior dealing, is never complete without cleaning what’s usually not visible to all.
Check beneath your car seats and look for any possible junk that may be sitting there since ages. If any, now is the right time for you to toss it in the bin!
Once you’re done throwing out the garbage, rinse below your car seats. As you rinse, spray some water on the edges. Keep in mind the rinse rules mentioned above to avoid damage. You can then wipe the area with a dry piece of cloth.
Please ensure that the car flooring is entirely dry before you lay down the mattress.
Summing up
Do-it-yourself car detailing is an effective method of saving money. It comes with many other advantages too.
If you would like to make use of these benefits and save money, listed above are 20 descriptive car detailing tips that we advise you to refer to.
Remember,this is a process of paying attention to the slightest of a detail present in one’s car. Through this method, professional detailers remove dents, grime, and defaults like those present in the tires.They refinish the paint, adopt different paint protecting methods of car washing, clean the vents as well as the carpets, and much more.
Just like that, you too need to follow the same practices and be the best car detailer or cleaner at home.