Wash your car Wash your car regularly - I'd recommend to do this at least once a month. Things like bugs, bird's dropping, or limestone dripping damage the paint leaving permanent stains if not washed off in time. When the car is clean, all the moisture dries up quickly, but when it's dirty, the moisture accumulates in dirty areas causing corrosion. At least once in a while use pressure wash - it removes the dirt from difficult to reach areas (I do this at a coin car wash station). Wash off all the places where the dirt and salt could be accumulated; for example, behind moldings, inside wheel arches, under the bumpers etc. It's particularly helpful after winter - to wash out all the salt accumulations that speed up the corrosion process.
How to wax your car Wax your car regularly. Wax helps to protect the paint, minimizing harm of chemicals and protecting the paint from fading; plus the car looks shiny. It takes only about 30 minutes to wax a whole car and high quality car wax stays on the car for three - four months. So far, I haven't seen a single product that stays for life time as you may have heard in some commercials - nothing lasts forever. In order to maintain protective coat any product needs to be reapplied periodically.
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How to wax a car
Undercoating and rustproofing your vehicle  Brake proportioning valve | If you live in an area with high humidity, or where the salt use is common in winter months, undercoating and rustproofing you car can be very helpful. Look at the picture, this is a part of the brake system located underneath the car, it's completely rusted as you can see. This is only five years old vehicle from a high humidity, coastal area. Sometimes later one of these brake lines can burst and the car will have no brakes.
Properly done undercoating and rustproofing can protect important components of the car from corrosion. |
How to repair stone chips  The stone chips if not repaired in time will cause corrosion like in this photo. That's why it's good idea to repair stone chips as soon as they appear. |  This one is not corroded yet, so we'll try to repair it. The car is clean and dry and we have all we need - the matching spray paint ordered from a dealer and a toothpick. If you have a touch-up paint with the brush you can use it instead, although I found that with a sharp toothpick you can do more accurate job. |  After shaking the spray paint very well (for a few minutes) spray very small amount into the cap |
 Now, slightly deep the end of the toothpick into the paint in the cap. Very carefully, I'm trying to barely fill up the damage with the paint without letting it to come out. |
 Now it looks much better and it won't be corroded later. |
How to remove deep scratches  Similarly the deep scratches can be repaired in a similar fashion.
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 Again, I got the matching paint and using a sharp toothpick I'm trying to barely fill up the scratch.
Now it looks better. |
How to remove residue marks (paint) left by other objects  This mark on the bumper was made in the underground parking. If you look very closely it's actually white paint residue over original clearcoat. The clearcoat itself seems to be damaged only slightly. I'll try to remove this mark. |  All I need for this is ultra-fine 1500-grit or 2000-grit waterproof sandpaper (the higher number stands for the finest abrasive), polishing compound containing mild abrasive (I used the Turtle Wax) and a car wax (I used Turtle Wax liquid car wax with Carnauba). |
 Very carefully (I don't want to remove the clearcoat) I sand the marks with wet sandpaper (use only ultra-fine waterproof sandpaper) until all marks are gone. If you have never done it before, try on some small spot to see how it works first.
Now there is no mark, but the clearcoat has lost its shine; I will use polishing compound to restore the shine. |
 I put small amount of the polishing compound onto the damp sponge and rub well until the clearcoat becomes shiny. |
 Last step, I buff the area with the car wax. |
How to remove minor scratches  Look at the image, these scratches on the trunk were made by the bushes.
It's not a big problem, but...
I will remove these scratches in two steps:
First, I use polishing compound to polish the scratches. It contains mild abrasive and removes very thin coat of painting. When you will shop for this kind of product, there are few grades available. You need the one that contains the finest abrasive. |
 I put a little amount of polishing compound onto a damp sponge and buff the scratched area in a circular motion until scratches disappear. But don't overdo it. I'd suggest trying a small area first, to get use to the process. Then I wash off the area completely. |
 Now it's time to use a liquid wax. I squeeze a little amount of wax onto a sponge and spread evenly on the scratched area. I wait a little allowing product to haze, then, using a soft towel, I buff the wax. |
 Now you see the result.
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