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5 Ways to extend the life of your car paint

Has your car lost its shine? Has your car been looking a little bland? Well, with all the weathering and dust that’s on Indian roads these days, your car paint has deteriorated significantly over the course of the year. Not only do we have to take care of things ‘under the hood’ but the major chunk of the car rests on the surface of its body — the exterior Paint. Taking care of your car paint adds to the beauty of your car. The paint protects the body of the car from corrosion by the rain and minute particles of dust, gravel, etc.

So here are 5 ways to protect your car paint across the seasons. We’ve also made a video list to help you take better care of your car’s paint.

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In summers, the weather is hot and dry in most parts of India (especially North India — Delhi). The heat is intolerable during the afternoon and we don’t realize that the heat is taking a toll on the body paint of the car that is exposed to the sun. The U.V. rays from the sun lead to premature fading and oxidation of car paint, that doesn’t only demean the car’s looks, but also makes the inner metal body vulnerable to corrosion.

1. WASH YOUR CAR FREQUENTLY

Get your car washed every day. By washing the car frequently, dirt and debris that’s settled on the car body get removed. Why? If settled for a longer duration, the dirt gets baked into the paint by the sun. This makes removing the dirt difficult and ultimately causes the paint to fade. So, simply pressure spray your car with water and watch all that dirt wash away…

So, don’t resist yourself from spending your weekends washing your car, as there’s no harm in washing your sweet ride.

2. WIPE YOUR CAR WITH A MICRO FIBRE CLOTH

When you’re done with the wash. Use a microfiber cloth to wipe the car. The water that’s left after the wash leave mini patches of mineral salts on the car body that keeps accumulating over time. These mineral patches also promote the premature fading of paint and should be avoided.

Simply, Hand dry the car after washing with the cloth. You can also use an electric dryer/blower to keep your car clean.

3. PARKING THE CAR IN SHADE

It is probably the simplest method to protect your car paint in the Summers. Keeping the car in the shade is recommended at all times.

Find a parking spot that’s covered and keeps the car away from the sun. You can park your car under a tree (Not recommended during Rains), in a shed or in the basement is available.

4. USING A CAR BODY COVER

Made up of synthetic U.V protective fabric, the body cover not only protects your vehicle from the sun but also screens it from dust, rain and chemical pollutants.

It’s also recommended if you don’t have a parking spot in the shade. The Car body covers are portable and easy to use.

5. WAXING YOUR CAR

Waxing your car regularly doesn’t only give the body a comprehensive shine, but also makes the paint job glossy and buffs the surface to a smooth finish.

The wax creates an extra protective layer on the paint job that acts as the line of defence against U.V radiation, dust particles and chemicals.

That’s pretty much it. If you follow these 5 steps then you can extend the life of your car paint and extend its shine. You can also do your best to keep away from dusty roads.

How to Paint Rims Black with DupliColor Wheel Paint

It’s amazing what a little Dupli color touch up paint can do! But why not learn how to paint rims black? Here’s a few simple steps to create that new hyper black look for your car wheels. Waxes and sealants are considered old technologies for car paint protection, as they are proven to have a low melting point.

Step #1: What is the Condition of Your Rims? 

Your paint is only as good as the surface it is on. Therefore, it’s very important to make sure you assess the condition of your rims, then correct any issues before using your DupliColor spray paint. Generally, most issues occur from ill-treated rust or wheel imperfections.

Rust on Rims

Painting over rust is a huge mistake! Rust will continue to bloom through coatings that are ill-equipped to inhibit growth. This includes your sleek new black rim finish.

Use a product like Dupli-Color Rust Fix, which is a product designed to kill your wheel rust, converting it into a sand-able surface. Once sanded, your rust problem should be solved as long as your wheel is painted with a sealer. 

Advice: For about $8, Rust Fix can treat any rust issues that you may have. Before you use the product, sand or scrape off any heavy rust areas. If there are any large imperfections, use a metal filler to create a smooth surface. Then, use the spray paint!

Another product that kills rust on the spot is Permatex Rust Treatment. With a chemically induced PH change, the rust on your rims will blacken and turn into a sand-able surface.

Step #2: Sand & Prime the Surface

Once you’ve corrected the issues, it’s time to make sure the surface is 100% consistent and ready for coatings. To do so, it is strongly recommended to sand the rims. The goal of sanding is to make sure a new surface profile is created. A new profile will give the primer and finish a substrate to bite onto. If your rims are glossy, they need to be deglossed! Sanding or chemically deglossing are the most effective ways to prepare the rims for a wheel coating. Here is a sanding chart to help you choose the right grit for the job:

Advice: Unless you have some serious imperfections or surface contaminants, a grit of 220-600 will do gently dull the metal substrate. 

Time to Prime!

If you are getting ready to apply that sharp-looking black rim paint, STOP! Don’t think about using that car touch up paint over bare metal! Sure, the coating might hold for a few weeks – even a few months. However, you’ll have to touch up your rims again. Why not maximize the efficiency of your black wheel paint? To do so, it is strongly recommend to prime the surface with a rust-preventative, metal adhesion primer.

Before you spray, always make sure you have proper ventilation and are spraying away from fire or flammable objects. Use tape and masking paper to keep over spray from dusting other surfaces. 

Dupli-Color offers the following primers:

Dupli-Color: Adhesion Promoter: You may have experienced coatings that did not “grab” onto the surface you are painting. Adhesion Promoter is a primer that strongly latches on to wheel surfaces that may be slick like, promoting a bond coat. Use this product if dulling the surface is hard to do. Dupli-Color: Primer Sealer: After sanding your wheels to a smooth finish, Dupli-Color offers a general-purpose primer that will promote adhesion, fill-in hairline cracks, and create a consistent surface for your finish coat. Dupli-Color: Rust Fix: Dupli-Color Rust Fix is a product designed to kill your wheel rust, converting it into a sand-able surface.

Advice: For about $6-10, you can buy Dupli-Color primers from big box stores, like Walmart, or retail auto stores. To help the coverage of your finish and to make the finish more aestically pleasing, use a Gray metal primer.

Step #3: Finish the Job by Applying a Black Wheel Coating to Your Rims

With a rust-free, primed surface your rims should be ready for the finish coat paint job. Get ready to do at least two coats of the top coat. Most products recommend at least two coats to create a paint film to product specification. 

Before you can do anything, you need to buy the product. Dupli-Color offers the following paint for your wheels:

  • Dupli-Color Premium Gloss Black Enamel: An excellent high-solids enamel that will cover great and dry to touch within 30 minutes. Be ready to spend about $6-10 for each can and it will take one can to do two coats, per rim. Get the Gloss Black Color #DA1600 to achieve that hyper gloss black look! 
  • Dupli-Color Wheel Coating: Finish your wheels with a track-tested Satin Black Enamel #HWP104 to make a sharp look, while getting optimal durability. This is Duplicolor’s premier wheel paint. 
  • Dupli-Color Shadow Chrome Black-Out Kit: Create an awesome black chrome finish by using Dupli-Color Shadow. This black-out chrome effect is created with a two-part system. One part is a translucent black base to create the desired shadow look, then a second clear gloss finish adds durability and dimension. This kit will cost about $15-20. You may need to have a few kits to complete a set of four wheels. 

A New High Performance Auto Forum

With spring almost in the air , the idea was to round up the various four-seat convertibles available at the $30,000 edge of the luxury-price threshold and see what one gets for that kind of dough. Throughout several days of testing our people kept asking one another which car was better. The Mustang is more skittish, but handles big dips better, especially the kind that bottom the Camaro’s front end. The Camaro’s front suspension geometry may also be less troubled by the tight radius. It was a match of the Mustang’s superior steering precision vs the Camaro’s tighter chassis. There’s no shortage in aluminium polish products out there to try out.

He would have loved the 700-ft slalom in which the fat-tired, stiffy sprung Camaro went through the cones at almost the same speed as the smaller, more loosely suspended Mustang. By throwing a couple of different-weight chunks from some predecessor of the Empire State Building, he proved that an aluminum cylinder head and a cast iron cylinder head would both fall at the same rate. Our handling tests were reminiscent of Galileo’s gravity experiments. This might also prove that four disc brakes are better than two discs and two drums.

The Mustang locked the rear brakes at the initiation of braking and then locked the fronts as the car slowed to a stop. It has larger tires and a better proportioning of braking force, which provided slightly shorter stopping distances. With the test gear still hooked up, the brakes were exercised. The Mustang, of course, gives the driver a choice of 5-speed or automatic, and it’s great fun to play with the round, black knob between the seats, though getting off the line right requires the right combination of clutch slipping, tire slipping and throttle mashing. There is a clear difference in technique, however, because of the Camaro’s automatic transmission and the Mustang’s 5-speed. Despite the similarity of results, the Mustang and Camaro drivers will be able to spend entire days making runs at a dragstrip without determining a clear winner, which should make for lots of happy drag racers and spectators. These two have been polished by 20 years of competition between them on city streets and race tracks of every size and shape.

Top speed was the first test and the closeness of the results would persist through tests of acceleration, handling and subjective evaluations. The Mustang also was the better commuter car of the two, with its more powerful than ever 302 and revised bodywork. On the frost bulges of Michigan’s back roads, the Mustang, we discovered, provided a noticeably better ride. Our testing was completed at Ford’s Romeo proving ground north of Detroit with a fresh engine.

It died 100 yards short of the groundhog. That was the end of that engine that had been through many hard miles of magazine and Ford testing. The needle was somewhere very close to the 5900-rpm redline, he said, when the funny noises began. The message was duly relayed to our driver, who has something of a penchant for the big numbers himself. As it happened, our prototype Mustang GT was manned by Product Development Engineer Arch Cothran when it arrived at TRC. The Ford was geared taller with the 5-speed and was running only 4200 rpm in 5th gear. On the back straight he had occasion to play groundhog-evasion at about 145 mph.

While our mighty Engineering Editor was whistling around the 7.5-mile bowl every 3.0 minutes, he was able casually to push the button of the 2-way radio and tell us the water temperature was normal, as was the oil pressure. As impressive is the stability of both cars at those speeds. A hundred and forty-eight miles in an hour. The Mustang remains tight all the way up. The Chevy V-8 is tuned to produce that particularly American burble emitted by every V-8 that was ever given a set of dual pipes and glass packs.

The Mustang is quieter at most cruising speeds but makes more noise at wide-open throttle. It’s more stable under braking and those King Kong Goodyears have more traction. Only the timing lights in front of us could testify that the Camaro was more enjoyable to drive. The whoosh became WHOOSH as the Camaro approached as fast as something in Col Kadafi’s worst nightmare, then disappeared. Click the image above to the view in high-res. Not to mention that all three were black — What a great picture. As far as we know, this is the only time and place the Detriot musclecar threesome have been caught on camera together. Antoine was pulling out of the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego, two bogies pulled up — the Dodge Challenger SRT8 and the Ford Mustang

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Kyle_Patterson/167920

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1515121