How To Maintain Your Car After Detailing

A detail resets your car. What happens over the following months decides whether that reset holds or quietly disappears. Almost all of it comes down to how the car gets washed.

The First Fortnight

If protection or a coating was applied, it needs time to fully harden. During that window, treat the car gently.

• Leave the first wash for as long as Alofa advises when he hands the car back. It varies by what was applied.
• Keep it out of automatic washes entirely, brushes or not.
• Get bird droppings and sap off promptly with a spray and a clean microfibre rather than leaving them to bake.
• Avoid harsh degreasers and traffic film removers on the paint.

Wash It The Right Way

Nearly every swirl mark in car paint was put there during washing. The method matters more than the products.

Two Buckets

One bucket of soapy water, one of clean rinse water. The mitt goes into the rinse bucket after every panel to release the grit it just picked up, then back into the soap. One bucket means you are reloading the mitt with the same grit you just pulled off the car and dragging it across the next panel.

Rinse Hard First

The more loose grit you can float off before touching the car, the less there is to move around. Rinse thoroughly, top down.

Top Down And Panel By Panel

Roof, glass, upper panels, then lower panels last. The bottom of the car is by far the dirtiest, and doing it first contaminates the mitt for everything after.

Dry Properly

Do not let it air dry, especially in Brisbane sun, because mineral deposits in the water dry onto the panel and become water spots. Use a large clean drying towel with no pressure, or a blower. Never a chamois dragged over dry paint.

Keep The Interior Where It Is

• Use a sunshade. Brisbane heat and UV are what dry and crack leather and fade plastics.
• Vacuum regularly, because grit ground into carpet by shoes is what wears it.
• Deal with spills straight away rather than after they have set.
• Keep harsh cleaners away from screens and instrument panels.

Book The Maintenance Rather Than The Rescue

Even washed perfectly, protection wears and contamination builds. A maintenance detail on a regular cycle brings the car back before it has drifted far, which is quicker and cheaper than a full reset.

That is what the maintenance memberships are for. Ask Alofa what cycle suits your car, or read more about car detailing in Brisbane.