One of the biggest misconceptions about owning an automotive is that washing your car is a personal preference. At a glance, it is absolutely up to the individual when, how and even if they ever want to clean the outside of their car, however failure to keep up with the dirty and grime that grinds into the surface can lead to one serious car casualty; rust. Driving is a dirty game and roads are filled with contaminants that kick up from treading tires and cling to the surface of your car. Washing these contaminants off will preserve the integrity of the paint on your car and prevent your car from the rusting touch of father time.
Aside from galvanized and stainless steel, most all metals rust. The process of rusting is called oxidization and happens due to the evolution of time and oxygen on the surface of iron based metals and alloys. Other metals go through a similar corrosion, but it is not considered rust. Unlucky for cars, they are made from a combined iron alloy and thus are susceptible to the rusting process. Eventually, all things iron will disintegrate under the weight of the rusting process. For car owners, rust is a curse. To the seller, rust is an instant discount on their asking price because it tells a buyer that the vehicle has already begun to decompose and therefore may not have been properly cared for.
The paint on your car is coated with a polymer that will first and foremost protect the paint, but acts as a guard against oxygen on the base surface of your car’s body. As you drive, you accumulate dust and dirt particles that wear down this polymer layer. Even when your car is parked in your driveway it is exposed to such things as tree sap, bird droppings and rain water. Most people don’t realize that rain water is made from a combination of dirt particles and evaporated water. It carries an acidic characteristic that can embed itself into the paint. While it may not be significantly noticeable, it is slowly but surely eating away at that protective polymer. The acidic level in bird droppings is much higher and if it is not washed off, it could end up taking the paint off that particular spot entirely.
All of this is wiped away when you wash your vehicle with automotive specific soap. Other soaps like dish soap are a bad choice for washing your vehicle. They clean everything off a given surface. While this is fine for porcelain plates, if dish soap is used frequently to wash the exterior of a car, it will erase the polymer coating entirely. Another thing to consider is the brushes and towels you use to scrub and dry the surface. Soft, car specific brushes should be used to wash a car and high quality microfiber towels or shammy clothes to dry it. Regular towels and brushes will scratch the paint subtly. A good way to prevent and protect your paint is to gently wax after you wash. It adds a layer of wax to the outside that may not leave a polished sheen, but will prevent road contaminants from clinging to your car.
You can see there is much more at stake then a coat of dust when it comes to the exterior of your vehicle. They say the window of the soul is the face and the same can be said about a car and it’s owner. Those who have little regard or care for their car will show in the form of rust, dust, dirt and grime. Conversely, those anal-retentive, obsessive operators will have a polish on their ride that makes the sun squint. The proof, as it seems, is in the paint.
Tyler Baker; OSM Writer
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