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Ford shares 7 ways you’re ruining your car's paint

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Ford shares 7 ways you’re ruining your car's paint

Having damages on the car’s paint will not only make it look ugly and old, it will also depreciate its resale value. Worse, not everyone is well informed of the real causes of these damages. That's why Ford Motor Company shared this list of things that ruin your car's paint that car owners might be totally unaware of.

Luckily, you can easily prevent these elements causing permanent damage to your car’s paint job by making sure to be proactive about cleaning away any spills, splatters and muck promptly and properly,” said Richard Burt, Chief Engineer, Vehicle Operations Manufacturing Engineering, Paint, Ford Asia Pacific.

Burt has worked for Ford Paint since 1994 and leads the team that engineers the paint used on Ford vehicles in Asia Pacific. On the list below, he shared tips on how to avoid and remove these stains safely and how you can manage to treat them for longevity.

Splattered Bugs

Bugs may be tiny but they can do actual damage due to their acidic nature. If not properly cleaned off, they can cut through the paint resulting to permanent damages.

Tip: Don't let the splattered bugs on your car stay for too long. It will just take a bug and tar remover, a soft wash cloth, and some elbow grease to wash them off if you act right away.

Spilled Fuel

Making sure that they get their money's worth of fuel, people often resolve on filling the tank to the brim. This may result to overflow which, if not quickly wiped away, can seep into the top coating of the paint. This makes the top coat lose its luster, leaving a stain that's difficult to remove.

Tip: Just quickly wipe off spilled fuel with a fine microfiber cloth. You can also add a little instant detailer as well.

Bird Droppings

Just like splattered bugs, bird droppings are acidic and grainy, and most of all ugly. If left lingering on the car for too long, it can stain, dull, scratch, and take the gloss off of your paint.

Tip: Spray a bit of wash solution onto the stain and use a soft microfiber cloth to gently wipe away. Also, use a lifting motion to avoid dragging the grainy substance across the paint.

Stone Chips

We encounter this every day. Loose stones and pebbles are kicked up from the road and peck at your car. Not only can it chip the top coat, it can also go all the way down to its lower layers.

Tip: Treat stone chips as soon as possible to avoid rusting. Ford’s 3-wet paint technology uses high-solid paint chemistry, which means you get a better, denser and stronger bond between elements in the paint, resulting in a harder, stronger and more scratch-, chip- and etch-resistant surface.

Fingerprints

We’ve all done this – scribbling funny messages across a dusty car. Especially when you have kids in your home, it's pretty unavoidable. Little did we know, these innocent acts of jest can scratch the car's paint. Dragging the dust across the paint is like using a sandpaper on the car.

Tip: The best way to avoid it is just not doing it. If it happens to you, you can use a little bit of a polish to remove the small scratches. Just remember to wash your car first before polishing.

Ash

Murky air can leave a thin layer of ash and soot on the car, which people may wash just by water. However, mixing these with water can create powerful alkali that can ruin the car's finish.

Tip: If you have to leave your car outside, keep it covered. To remove ash and soot, use a car duster to rub them off gently.

Dirty Washing Accessories

Working with dirty washing gear and accessories can definitely cause permanent damage to your car. The softest and finest microfiber cloth can easily be soiled once it hit the ground. This may leave wiry swirls and scratches to your car.

Tip: Do not use any cleaning cloth after it touches the ground. It's better to get a new one because it's still cheaper to have spare cleaning cloths than repainting the whole car.

Ford ensures that their paint system are at par with the standard, which makes their vehicles stronger, harder, and have more resilient finish. They have a wide range of tests to check the paint's chip- and scratch-resistance to make sure of its quality and durability.

These include Mar Resistance Test that measures gloss retention; Weathering Florida Accelerated Test that assesses resistance to environmental exposure; and the Stone Chip Resistance Test, which measures how well the paint can withstand continuous stone and pebble impact.

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