Spring is officially here!
Time to get all that winter salt and grime off the car and cruise with the windows down. Spring is the perfect time to go through and properly clean your vehicles inside and out while the weather is nice. Winters can be brutal on a car’s interior and exterior, so getting everything cleaned as best as possible will help the car looking great for years to come.
Cleaning your car can be tedious and time consuming, but if you know where to focus your time and energy it can make things go a lot smoother. There may also be areas of the car that you may not consider to be a part of the car detailing process, but by taking care of them now, it’ll prevent headaches in the future.
We’ve put together a few tips to help you get your car ready for spring and summer.
5 Spring Cleaning Tips for Your Car
1. Hand Wash and Wax the Exterior
This may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s one of the most important things you can do to your car after a harsh winter.
Cleaning all the excess road salt and/or grime off your car will keep the exterior looking great as the sun shines down on it during the warmer months.
Waxing will help protect your cars paint and clear coat from the hot sun that can start to cause the paint to fade over the years. And can even help protect from minor surface scratches that may occur.
We always recommend hand washing your car, or if you must, going to a touchless car wash. This helps prevent scratching that can occur from automatic car washes, or even minor damage that can occur from power washing.
The main goal here is to clean off all the dirt, salt, and gunk that may have accumulated on the car during the winter months, and then apply a coat of wax to help protect the paint.
2. Don’t Forget to Wash the Undercarriage and the Windows
When washing the exterior of the car, most people will remember to wash the windows with soap and water, but forget to wash them with window cleaner. They’ll also forget to spray the undercarriage.
Washing the windows with soap and water is great, but there is more you can do to help prevent water spots and to ensure that your windows stay clear in rainy weather.
A simple window cleaner like Windex will work wonders on your car’s windows as well as the mirrors (don’t forget the mirrors). It will help clean off water spots and make it way easier to see.
Don’t forget to clean the insides of your windows as well. People don’t realize how poorly their visibility is due to grime accumulating on the inside of the windshield.
In addition to cleaning your windows, be sure to get your hose underneath your car and spray the undercarriage. If you live somewhere that snows, or gets icy, then you know how much salt can accumulate underneath your car, and if you don’t clean the salt off, it will slowly start causing rust to form on the steel frame and other areas underneath you car.
3. Change Your Windshield Wipers
Technically windshield wipers are designed to last 6-12 months on average, so it’s smart to get into the habit of changing them out every spring.
I know most of us just use them until we feel they aren’t performing as well anymore, but wouldn’t it be easier to just replace them instead of waiting for a rain storm to find out that they don’t function very well.
Driving with improper windshield wipers is dangerous not only to you, but to other people on the road. Windshield wipers are relatively inexpensive and are very easy to install.
4. Clean Your Floormats
A winter’s worth of snow, slush, and dirt have accumulated on your floormats and it needs to be taken care of.
If you don’t have rubber floormats for the winter, we highly suggest you make the investment, especially if you live somewhere where it snows. The cloth floor mats can get easily destroyed by salt, snow, and water, while the rubber floormats can simply be washed off come spring and look almost new.
Regardless of what type of floormat you have though, spring is the perfect time to ensure they are as clean as can be. With cloth floormats we suggest taking them all out of the car, hosing them down, and then using a floormat shampoo to help restore them to their original glory. With rubber floormats, you can use a soap and water mixture to clean them off.
Clean floormats are a great way to keep the interior of your car looking and smelling fresh.
5. Clean and Vacuum Your Interior
It’s so easy just to leave a little garbage, or some old clothes in the backseat of your car, but it can accumulate very quickly and before you realize it, there’s no room for another person to sit back there.
Take the time to get all of the junk out of your backseat and trunk this spring, and then vacuum up any dirt or dust that may have settled on the seats.
You can certainly do a deep clean of the seats if you want (especially fabric seats), but by just cleaning out the junk and vacuuming the seats and floors, you’ll notice a huge difference. It can also help keep your car smelling nice.
With the weather getting better it’s important to ensure that your
vehicle is in the best shape it can be. Take a Saturday or Sunday this spring and give it the attention it deserves. You’ll be happy once its done and may not even realize how dirty it actually was.
