dings and dents, and scratches get touched up. This is actually a great informative write up you should take the time to read to protect your investments! This is also the reason you should take your cars through a car wash with an underbody spray at least 3 to four times per year.
To your average eye, this regular run of the mill daily driven car appears to be in beautiful shape. The paint looks clean, but you may not know of problems underneath due to previous neglect, and as a way to preserve your money spent on one of the most expensive investments these days, your car, you should, as part of regular maintenance, take the chance to keep it clean. Why ? Let the pictures tell the story.
Looks in gorgeous shape, right ?
Wrong.
Below is a picture of not only my stupid ass acting ghetto in the reflection, but a spot of rust which MAY HAVE BEEN PREVENTED had a ding with a light scrape with the bare metal exposed could have been avoided, which if left unrepaired can rot through the body.
Allright, let's move on..
This is why you take your cars through a car wash with underbody wash three to four or more times per year (ESPECIALLY IN WINTER WITH SALT , PEOPLE!)
You see this shit on the body? That is salt, and by nature, sodium chloride is aciditive by nature. In one gram of sodium chloride, there are approximately 0.3933 grams of sodium, and 0.6067 grams of chlorine. Chemicals used in de-icing salts are mostly found to be sodium chloride (NaCl) or calcium chloride (CaCl2). Both are similar and are effective in de-icing roads. When these chemicals are produced, they are mined/made, crushed to fine granules, then treated with an anti-caking agent. Adding salt lowers the freezing point of the water, which allows the liquid to be stable at lower temperatures and allows the ice to melt. Alternative de-icing chemicals have also been used. Chemicals such as calcium magnesium acetate and potassium formate are being produced. These chemicals have few of the negative chemical effects on the environment commonly associated with NaCl and CaCl2, and you really REALLY don't want your shit covered with this.. otherwise, over years, this happens.
This started as most likely a simple narrow little scratch on the bottom that began oxidizing, things lead to more things, and it ended up like this, ON A CAR NOW 14 years old!
Take a good look at these following two pictures.. Imagine what that is doing to your paint.
This is why we also use wax and sealants on new vehicles, and washing / protecting VIA A layer of wax over your clear coat is essential. This is how cars look so nice over a period of time.. Cars that rust, and have spots of missing clear coat HAVE NOT BEEN TAKEN CARE OF, thus showing the wear .. And lowering resale value.. and with today's economy? You don't want that.
Also, without washing, over time your paint becomes oxidized, here is a half and half shot of polished after being oxidized for X amount of time , versus cleaned paint.. with a buffer.
In some cases oxidation takes place and even takes it down to this type of condition..
Think it can't happen even to newer cars? Here's a relatively newer Honda Accord.. You can see the dull spots where oxidation is so advanced that the clear coat has began peeling! You could not get more than $1000 for this car.
When it should look like this, same model / body style / paint color.
Your average paint job (properly done like they do from the factory) is about 5 to 10 thousand dollars, and this is for just BASIC COLORS! Custom jobs run upwards of 10,000+ .. You do the math. All that paint failing right there is pulling off precious resale value.. and when you want that nice new car, you're gonna end up working your ass off for something you COULD HAVE prevented!
Do yourselves a favor, and keep those vehicles cleaned up! Don't you ever wonder how fire trucks from 20+ years ago sometimes look so pretty and sparkling clean with no wear on the body? They wash them almost every time they pull them out of the garage. They spend a lot of money on their vehicles, and they need them to last, and that's why you should to.
Happy detailing! Keep those cars clean! ;)
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your mom has snow tires.
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