Sap, Sun and Droppings conspire to attack your Richmond car’s finish

Who doesn't love summer time in Richmond?

But this is also the time of year when sap, sun
and droppings attack your car's finish.

It’s a beautiful summer day in Richmond, IL, so you take the car to Richmond Carwash and give it a thorough cleaning. Or maybe you go for an entire detailing. On the other hand, you grab a bucket, sponge, brush and appropriate cleaners, drag the hose out to the driveway and wash the car yourself.

Before you know it, the car is clean and shiny, almost like the day when it was new, right? But what does Murphy’s Law say about washing your car?

Inevitably, if you wash your car, you can count on rain. It almost seems like, as soon as you give the car a good bath, the rain clouds start plotting and changing course to head straight for your Richmond home or wherever else you park your car.

Let’s imagine that Murphy takes a pass when it comes to applying the Law of clean-car-precipitation onto your vehicle. You have the car washed but it doesn’t rain. You’ve won, right? Not so fast.

There are other assailants waiting in the wings for their chance to accost your car’s newly cleaned finish.

Sap: Sap wants to make a sap out of you for taking the time, effort and/or money to clean your vehicle. Of course, sap is ready to attack whether your car is recently cleaned or not. Park under trees and the flora will coat your vehicle in a sticky coat as though you dipped it in a bowl of syrup. And then bugs, dirt and leaves will get stuck to the mess.

Sun: The sun is incessant. We like the sun. It helps to improve our disposition. Everyone likes a nice, sunny summer day. But there is a hidden assailant waiting for a chance to drain the life out of your car’s finish. That assailant goes by the name of Ultra-Violet Rays, known in short as UV Rays.

Over time, UV Rays will dull the finish of your car. In reality, it’s no so much over time but that you’ll notice it over time. UV Rays dull the finish a little bit everyday. The good news is that many car wax products provide UV protection. They don’t completely eliminate the effects of UV Rays but they retard the process.

Droppings: For these, we can thank our fine-feathered friends. Birds are going to go somewhere and somewhere can include going over your car. Some of us believe that birds like to aim for cars, especially nice, clean cars. But, whether intentional or not, inevitably, birds will drop their little gifts on our vehicles.

Other than simply not looking very nice, bird droppings contain a high amount of uric acid. This is a corrosive chemical that will eat right through the finish on your car. In other words, you don’t want to leave those droppings on your car, not if you care about its finish.

The solution is to set yourself up to more rain, sap, sun and droppings; take the car to Richmond Carwash, or some other carwash in the area and have it cleaned on a semi-regular basis.

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