Archive for September, 2010
How To Wash Your Used Car To Renew Beauty And Value
When many people buy a used car they are often able to find imperfection or the car is dirty so this is when learning to detail and wash your used car to restore beauty and value is important.
How to Detail and Wash Your Used Car to Restore Beauty and Value
After purchasing a used car many people just park it and learn to live with the imperfections of the body. However by following this simple guide you’ll be able to bring new life to the look of your car and make it look as close to new as possible immediately increasing its value tremendously.
Exterior Soap and Rinse
The first thing to do is thoroughly wash and rinse the car. The basic tools you need include the following:
- A bucket
- Sponge or CarWashing Mit
- Semi firm carwashing brush
- Extrasoft cotton towels or microfiber towels
- Car washing soap NOT dish detergent!
- 0000 steel wool and glass cleaner
While simply washing a car seems to most people to be a very simple project there are actually a number of precautions you need to take. The art and science of the detailing industry comes from methods to thoroughly wash the surface of a car without causing scratches. Unfortunately scratching the surface of a car is extremely easy. All it takes is a single dirt particle under a washing mit to lay a fine scratch on your hood or door. Even an overlystrong stream of water from your hose can cause dirt particles on your car to scratch it. Simple rule of thumb be gentle.
To wash your car correctly follow these steps:
1. Thoroughly rinse the car with a gentle stream of water. Some professional detailers use a hose with the nozzle removed and just allow the water to flow out at its natural rate.
2. In the bucket fill with warm water and car wash soap. Use the amount of soap advised in the instructions on the bottle.
3. Wash the car in sections and immediately remove the soap. If you wash the whole car and then rinse the part of the car you started on will dry with a soapy residue. Instead wash the roof then immediately rinse it. Wash one side rinse. Wash the hood rinse etc. Never allow time for a film to develop or you’ll ultimately lose some of that final glow. If the bucket gets down to 1/3rd of the water left empty it rinse it out and refill with more soap and water.
4. When washing particularly dirty bugencrusted areas don’t give up. Use 0000 steel wool and glass cleaner on any class or metal that has bugs pasted to it. On painted surfaces just keep using warm soapy water and you’ll get all of the grime off be patient!
5. When you’re through rinse the entire car once again and pay close attention to small nooks and crannies where soap can hide. Want a superclean and shiny car? Then repeat steps 3 and 4 one more time.
6. Time to dry your car! Take your soft cotton towel which you’ve been very careful to keep extra clean and free of any dirt particles and fold it into a square. Rub down all surfaces of the exterior of your car to remove every trace of water.
Touch Up Paint Scratches
Used cars have scratched paint. It’s a fact of life. If you’ve been able to find a used car without one consider it a miracle. There are some great products from 3M that help to remove or hide scratches aside from buying touchup paint from your dealer and carefully applying evenly. Scratch removal or coverup products include Finesse It Swirl Mark Remover Perfect It Imperial Hand Glaze. Some are more abrasive than others so read the instructions carefully.
Polish Glass and Lights
If the headlights are older and yellowed you may need to wet down the headlights and use 800 grit sand paper to wet sand the material off the lamp. Make sure to have clean water with a sponge in it handy so that you can squeeze water onto the surface to keep the sandpaper clean and unclogged. Once the foggy color is more white use 1500 grit paper and wet sand some more to sand out the remaining scratches. Finally rinse and then move on to the next step polishing to remove the foggy coloring.
3M makes good plastic polish as well. Apply a small amount to a clean polishing cloth and apply it to the headlight. Some professional detailers believe in circular polishing others believe in straightline. Do whatever appears to work best for you. When you’re finished polishing according to the instructions on the bottle the lamp will be clear and shiny.
Apply Wax to Protect Your Paint
Time to wax! Make sure to research which wax product is best for you. Some will last longer than others while some products are far easier to apply. I always go for ease of use but often those products won’t last quite as long. Using microfiber towels apply polish to your entire car in careful front to back motions on horizontal panels and up and down motions on vertical panels. Rub softly so that you don’t cause any damage to your paint. Make sure to follow the instructions on the wax product carefully to obtain the highest quality shine for your efforts.
Gloss Up Your Wheels
Over time wheels can become faded and dustylooking. There are a number of products created for wheel polishing but the best ones are sprayon products that you apply evenly to the outer surface of the wheel. It applies as a foam and as it dries it renews the shine and color to old faded wheels. Make sure to do this on gravel because when these products drip onto a tar driveway or concrete garage floor they can cause staining.
For more information about quality used cars including vehicle listings vehicle information and even used car credit information visit Harry Coker at www.blueskymotors.net.
About the writer: Ryan Dube is an Electrical Engineer with 15 years of experience in the IT industry. He has been freelance writing for over 10 years for publishers both online and offline and has covered topics including the paranormal finance relationships and more. Read more at www.invisibleincwriters.com.
How To Minimize The Fuel Consumption In Cars
Following are the tips for fuel economy in your car
- Ensure that your car is well maintained and air filter of your car is clean oil is being changed on regular basis there is adequate air pressure in the tiers and specially ensure to have a routine check up of your cars radiator for water shortages etc. Tires with low level of air can considerably deteriorate the fuel economy of your car.
- Pre plan your destination route to avoid traffic Jams as staying in long ques of vehicles would burn unnecessary fuel of your car.
- Try to accelerate smoothly and try to minimize the use of brakes to avoid frequent gear shifts to utilize the maximum power being generated by the engine.
- Only utilize cruise controls if conditions of traffic allow as this will balance the gear shifting and helps to maintain a balanced speed of your car.
- Never carry more than required weight on your car remove all extra items lying inside the trunk of your car.
- Do not modify the engines of your vehicle or install extra equipment to improve performance of your car as it will lead to loss of energy.
- Donot install wider tires on your vehicle as it will increase the mass of your vehicle and more fuel will be consumed by the vehicle
- Donot use extra light racks on the roof of your car despite they look very nice but cause disturbance in the aerodynamics of your car and could result in reduced fuel efficiency
- Always use fuel of good quality as fuel of inferior quality could not produce the required energy resultantly more fuel will be used by your vehicle
About the writer: Faisal Abbas is the CEO and co founder of http://www.carpoint.pk which is one of the top market place for sale and purchase of used cars in Pakistan
How To Decide On Buying A Used Car For Your Family
If you have been looking for sometime to purchase a car but are unsure of what type of car to buy then your best bet is to buy a used one. You will want to do some research and establish the right car that will be for you and this will probably depend on a number of choices or preferences of your own: a car SUV pickup truck or minivan and will be dependent on whether you have a parter and family and how big that family is. You will find that cars will run more mileage on one tank of gas but you will not find that larger vehicles will do the same so you may need to compromise on the choice of car that you choose.
When you are looking at the market and different dealerships you will see that there is a huge choice of different trucks SUVs and minivan manufacturers who have conducted extensive research on the issues surrounding gas economy. They have been looking at a number of ways to improve and change models over the years to enable you to get more miles to the gallon. Some makers have moved to making a new type of car that will have a different type of gas formula ethanol and gasoline. When these two are mixed together it provides the vehicle with a FlexibleFuel factor that will help you when you are thinking of a cost effective used car. Certain guidelines have been put in place which means that any manufacturer who makes one of these cars will need to conform to certain standards thus you will know that you are buying a quality used car.
If you are considering buying a car from one of the larger manufacturers then these companies tend to make sure that parts are manufactured and distributed to dealerships and garages so that if something does need fixing then the parts are easily available. This will also mean that such larger auto manufactures will be the first to offer adapters for more fuel efficiency for some of their older models which will mean that you should be able to adapt and modify your car a lot cheaper.
When we are looking at minivans for you purchasing one we should observe the difference is the actual design in terms of being aerodynamic it needs to be built by a manufacturer who is thinking about the future and how their minivan is going to be used in 5 or 10 years from now. You should be able to tell if a minivan is aerodynamically designed by seeing what its fuel economy is like but how can you tell this with just looking at it? Well when you look at the front of the van you should see that the front area of the van will slope over the body of the van the back will bend downwards and you will see that the van will be sleek in entering the wind.
However if these parts which you will need to convert the vehicle from regular gas to the mixture mentioned above will cost less to you than an increased gas price in the long run then you are probably best to buy the parts and convert. A very simple way of improving gas mileage is by avoiding attaching large accessories to the tyres on your car as well as large extra roll bars to the external parts of your vehicle.
When you are looking to decide on buying a used car you should also be checking out other things such as the mileage the vehicle has done in the time since it was first bought. You will be able to compare whether or not it is a good buy for you and whether the deal is right for you. You wont want to buy a used car that is cheap with lots of miles on the clock and neither do you want to buy one that has a low mileage. The first may have been used as a sales car and the latter will probably have been used to commute around town which wont have been good for the engine.
If you have decided that purchasing your used vehicle is going to be a car and you are not overly bothered about the interior size of your car then you should go for the choice of buying a smaller car. By purchasing a smaller car it will mean that your fuel consumption per mile will be lower and your insurance group will be at a lower price too.
When you are buying a used car you should also take care and ensure the previous owner has taken good care of the car and that they have took preventative and proactive steps to improve the maintenance and running of the car. You should at the very least buy a Carfax report to see the history of the car and to make sure it hasnt been in any collisions or that there wont be any nasty surprises that come about.
About the writer: Stuart is a car enthusiast who likes to provide tips on buying a used car at his blog used car buying tips. He also shares his views on getting a good deal on your used car and where you can find other pieces of relevant information.