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If you have ever had to have any paintwork done on your car you will know that it is not cheap. Even having a single scratch removed can sometimes lead to an entire panel needing to be resprayed and then the areas surrounding this blended. What appears to be nothing more than a minor nick can lead to great expense. In fact, on some occasions if your car is quite old the cost of repainting areas could actually cost more than the total value of your car. There are numerous ways in which your paintwork can become damaged or faded over time. The following is a list of factors which can leave you needing to visit a spray shop.
What You Need to Protect Your Paintwork From
Chips
Loose materials such as stones and gravel can cause damage to your paint. Some road surfaces can be worse than others and it can be very frustrating to receive a paint chip. These will not only look unsightly be can degrade over time causing further damage to the surrounding area. Water and contaminants can get in which can potentially lead to rusting.
Salty Air
If you live near to the coast you will have the added problem of salt in the air. In areas such as this the lustre of your paintwork can be greatly diminished and the airborne salt can slowly damage your paintwork over time. If you have scratched or damaged the paintwork anywhere this problem can be increased considerably as the salt water gets underneath the paint.
Sunlight
Over exposure to the sun’s rays can cause your car’s paint job to fade over time. This discolouration will make your beautiful car look shabby and uncared for and some colours are more prone to this than others. Not only that but the heat caused by the sun can cause your car to absorb more dirt and grime from the air as the microscopic pores in its surface expand.
Droppings
If you have had the misfortune of living in an area which experiences a lot of bird droppings you will know the frustrations they can cause. If you do not clean up any bird droppings quickly, they can cause quite extensive damage to your car’s paintwork. They will be much harder to remove after they have dried in place and you could even end up scratching your paintwork when cleaning the mess up.
Sap
It is not always possible to park your car away from trees. Many of us will have experienced returning to our car and finding that the sap from the trees you are parked alongside has dripped all over your vehicle. This sap can be difficult to remove and when left untreated under direct sunlight can attach itself even more firmly making the cleaning process much harder.
How to Protect Your Paintwork
Many of these factors are impossible to avoid and so you need to help protect your paintwork to mitigate these problems when they arise. The easiest way to do this is to apply more layers of sealant which will sit on top of the paint and create further protection. This can be done through various means. You can regularly wax your car or have car paint protection applied. The latter will consist of multiple layers of a ceramic coating for a more permanent solution or a polymer sealant as a temporary measure.
However, you choose to go about it, you should seriously consider having some form of protective layer over the top of the paintwork to help preserve its condition and prevent the factors which cause it to degrade be less of an issue. The costs incurred will be minor compared to the cost of respraying your car so you would be crazy to not consider it especially if your car is valuable and warrants the expenditure.
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