Keeping Your Paint Alive Through the Aussie Seasons

Never, ever wash a car in direct Aussie sun. The water dries too fast, leaves spots, and the chemicals can bake onto the surface before you can rinse them.

Blast the car down with just water first. You want to get as much loose dirt and grit off as possible before you touch the paint with a mitt.

I always do wheels first. They're the dirtiest part. If you do them last, you'll splash dirty brake dust water onto your clean paint.

If you've got a pressure washer, chuck some foam on. Let it dwell for 5 minutes to soften up the bug guts and dust.

Use your APC and a brush to clean around the badges, fuel door, and window trims while the foam is sitting.

Two-bucket method. Dunk the mitt in soap, wash a panel, rinse the mitt in the plain water bucket, repeat. Start from the top and work down.

Rinse the soap off, then spray the iron remover over the whole car. It'll turn purple when it reacts with metal particles. Rinse it off thoroughly after 3-5 minutes.

While the car is still wet, use a clay bar with plenty of lubricant (soapy water works fine). Glide it over the paint until it feels smooth. This pulls out the 'grit' you can't see.

Get all that clay residue and loosened dirt off the car. Use a decent stream of water.

Lay your microfiber towel flat across the bonnet and pull it towards you. Don't rub like you're drying your hair; let the towel soak up the water.

Now the car is clean, have a look at the paint. See any scratches or swirl marks? If it's really bad, you might need a light polish, but we'll focus on protection for now.

Wipe the panels down with a 15% Isopropyl Alcohol mix. This removes any leftover soaps or oils so your sealant can actually stick to the paint.

Apply your sealant. If using a spray, do one panel at a time. Spray on, wipe with one microfiber, buff off with a second dry one.

Don't forget the bits you don't see. Clean the door shuts and apply a bit of spray wax. It stops the red dust from sticking there.

Use a dedicated trim restorer on any faded black plastics. The sun kills these, and they'll turn grey if you don't feed them some UV protection.

Clean the outside glass, then apply a rain repellent like Rain-X or a ceramic glass coating. Makes a huge difference in those autumn storms.

Apply your tyre dressing. Less is more here. Wipe off any excess so it doesn't spray down the side of the car when you drive off.

Just a quick wipe of the plastics under the hood with a damp cloth. It makes the car look brand new when you open it up.

Check for any high spots (streaks) from the sealant. If you find one, just wipe it with a damp cloth and buff dry.