If your car hasn't been cleaned in a long time, detailing it will naturally take longer than if it's been detailed or maintained before. The more often you detail and clean it out, the easier every session of cumulative detailing will be.
As you continue to make it a habit to regularly detail and maintain your vehicle, you'll be able to preserve its new car look that will last you for years. It's actually the same deal with a regularly cleaned house or maintained garden. Tending to it bit by bit can make all the difference.
Detailing your car by yourself can save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars compared to having some repair shop or dealership do it for you. It can certainly blossom into an asset of sorts when you trade in or sell your vehicle.
When's the last time you've indulged your car with some detailing?
Tips and Tricks to Detailing
- Shampooing, Polishing, and Vacuuming: Cleaning the inside of your vehicle is trickier than cleaning its outside because at least with the outside you can hose the dirt away and gravity plus soap water will take care of the rest. You have to shampoo your carpet and rugs, spray and polish your leather upholstery and plastic or vinyl dashboard, then put conditioner on your leather seats to keep them soft and pliable. On top of that, you need loads and loads of vacuuming.
- Keeping Your Air Conditioning Healthy: Although detailing starts with taking pride of the car's appearance both inside and out, it also means making sure that everything within it is in working order. Aside from spending endless hours polishing the dashboard and cleaning every nook and cranny of the upholstery, you should also do something about the air-con or A/C, especially if it starts becoming less cool than before.
- Regular DIY A/C Maintenance: In order to ensure that your vehicle reaches and maintains peak performance every time, it's important to get its A/C checked. With that in mind, you can usually fix more A/C problems with canned air, a vacuum cleaner an A/C cleaner brush, and having about an hour or so of your time to kill. Maintain the integrity of your air conditioner by brushing its vents clean, using the canned air to blast the dirt away, and using your vac to vacuum the resulting dust blast.
- Expert Technician Services: If you've cleaned your A/C and it's still not working, then it's not a vent clog that's keeping all that cool air from reaching you. This is where routine checks and regular servicing sessions by a paid A/C professional is called for. You can depend on this pro to check the porosity of the hoses or any leaks from the A/C components. Their checkups and your DIY cleaning can do wonders in extending the life of your air-con when push comes to shove.