Preparing your car for winter is essential to maintain its appearance and protect it from harsh weather. The episode emphasizes a systematic approach, starting with a deep decontamination wash and potentially a light polish to enhance clarity. It discusses the importance of applying protective coatings like Tough as Shell to repel grime and salt. Regular maintenance during winter is crucial, as neglect can lead to significant damage. The host shares practical tips and product recommendations to simplify the process, ensuring your car remains clean and protected throughout the season.
Winter is coming, and right now is the perfect time to prep your car before the cold, rain, and salt hit your paint. In this video, I'll show you exactly how to get your car ready for winter using the right products and simple steps you can do at home.
We'll cover:
How to decontaminate your paint before winter
Why a quick one-step polish makes all the difference
The best way to protect your paint from road salt and grime
How to maintain protection all winter long without a full hand wash
"So the first step I'm gonna do is I'm gonna decontaminate the paint usually. So with my car that I maintain very often, there's usually not too much that needs to be decontaminated."
Decontaminating the paint means cleaning your car's surface to get rid of things that can damage the paint, like dirt and rust. It's important to keep your car looking good and protect it from damage.
Decontaminating the paint involves removing contaminants like dirt, tar, and industrial fallout from the car's surface to maintain its appearance and protect the finish. This process often includes using specialized products like clay bars or iron removers.
An iron remover is a special cleaner that helps get rid of tiny bits of metal that can stick to your car's paint and wheels. Using it helps keep your car looking nice and prevents rust from forming.
An iron remover is a chemical product designed to dissolve and remove iron particles and other contaminants from a vehicle's paint and wheels. These products are essential for maintaining a car's finish and preventing rust.
"...for a ceramic coating or a ceramic spray. So there's not a lot to it."
A ceramic coating is a special liquid that you put on a car's paint to protect it. It helps keep the car shiny and makes it easier to wash because dirt and water slide off more easily.
Ceramic coating is a liquid polymer applied to the exterior of a vehicle, creating a protective layer that bonds with the paint. It provides durability, enhances shine, and makes the surface easier to clean by repelling dirt and water.
"...for a ceramic coating or a ceramic spray. So there's not a lot to it."
A ceramic spray is a quick and easy way to protect your car's paint. It's like a spray-on version of a ceramic coating that helps keep the car looking good and makes cleaning easier.
Ceramic spray is a simpler form of ceramic coating that can be applied easily and provides a layer of protection for the vehicle's surface. It offers some benefits of ceramic coatings but typically with less durability and longevity.
"...if they just would have used the Picture Perfect Polish, they would have gotten a almost a full correction out of what they tried to do..."
Picture Perfect Polish is a brand that makes products to clean and improve car paint. Their polish helps make the paint look better by fixing scratches and adding shine.
Picture Perfect Polish is a brand known for its automotive detailing products, particularly focused on paint correction and enhancement. Their products are designed to improve the appearance of a vehicle's paint by removing imperfections and enhancing shine.
"...if they just would have used the Picture Perfect Polish, they would have gotten a almost a full correction out of what they tried to do because they did a two-step too..."
Paint correction is a way to fix scratches and marks on a car's paint. It makes the paint look shiny and new again by polishing it.
Paint correction is a process used in automotive detailing to remove imperfections from a vehicle's paint surface, such as swirl marks, scratches, and oxidation. This is typically achieved through polishing techniques that restore the paint's clarity and shine.
"or a clay bar, did a little spot polishing, maybe just like the hood, it wasn't looking great"
A clay bar is a special tool that helps clean your car's paint by removing tiny bits of dirt and grime that regular washing might miss. It makes the paint feel smooth and look shiny.
A clay bar is a detailing tool used to remove contaminants from the surface of a vehicle's paint. It helps to achieve a smooth finish by pulling away dirt, grime, and other particles that washing alone cannot remove.
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Personally, a big fan of doing a little bit of extra work now
to save a crap ton of work in the future.
And right now, I think is the perfect time
to start prepping your car for winter,
especially if you're concerned with maintaining
a ceramic coating, if you're concerned about
how your car looks during the winter.
Even with snow and sludge and all the crap
that can happen rain, I think what got me kind of tipped
off to this and thinking about this in general
is we had a rainy day here in SoCal.
And so I'm just re-going through my kind of checklist
of like, what do I want to make sure to get done
as the seasons start changing for my car?
And then also, how do I make it easy
to kind of maintain during the season?
Though things aren't perfect during winter,
you don't want to obviously do nothing during winter, right?
So I think taking just a little extra time now
and kind of resetting, I kind of do this,
I like to do this as the seasons change,
but definitely when the bigger seasons change
as we get into like winter and then summer,
kind of my twice a year roundup.
And what I like to do during this time
is just do like a light decontamination,
maybe a light polish, maybe on some high traffic areas.
My kid's grabbing the door handle,
so maybe I'll do some polish and recoding
on certain areas of the car.
And then always I like to put down a fresh layer
of Tough as Shell usually,
because it just makes the next few months so much easier.
So if this is something that you're interested in,
that's where I'm gonna walk you through exactly what to do,
the products that will actually work
before the winter conditions.
And then during the winter conditions as well,
I think that's an important part.
There's so many detailing products out there
that work really great during optimal conditions,
and then not so great during suboptimal conditions,
but there's a few kind of tips and tricks
that you could really do to make your car look,
I will say decent during heavy storms, right?
I think when it comes to winter and just weather in general,
you have to kind of look at car care
through a specific lens of like,
hey, look, if I'm gonna be out daily driving this car,
I just need good enough through the winter.
If you live in one of those,
the Midwest or the states like that,
for me in California, it stays pretty good year round.
So if you're in one of those places,
I think this is still kind of just good protocol,
I guess, to get in the groove and the routine
of just doing something that's really good for your car
and really helps it look good forever.
And I kind of look at this as like,
again, doing a little bit of extra work now
means that you don't have to play catch up later
and when it's cold and nasty,
and then you're trying to like polish out a fender
or trying to recote something and it's not working
because the temperature is all jacked up.
So I kind of think about my car,
the same way I think about my house sometimes is like,
you winterize your home,
kind of making sure everything's good,
maybe before a storm, you're double checking everything.
It's the same exact thing with your car.
So the first step I'm gonna do
is I'm gonna decontaminate the paint usually.
So with my car that I maintain very often,
there's usually not too much that needs to be decontaminated.
So this is perfect for like,
you could use a iron remover
or you can end up doing a traditional clay bar
or whatever that's fine too.
For me, it tends to be like the roof of my car
that needs just a little decontamination.
And then obviously I'm washing the car.
This is when I'm gonna increase the concentration
of something like super-soaper.
I just wanna get like any extra grime, any extra dirt.
And I'm just trying to get like a really, really deep clean.
This is when I'd probably use the decon bundle
and I'm gonna mix in more pure magic cleaner
and into with the super-soaper
and I'm gonna foam those together.
I just wanna get any water spots
that maybe have accumulated on the glass
because my car sits out.
Just anything.
Just wanna do like a deep decontamination wash.
That's kind of the goal for step one.
As I move into step two,
again, depending upon where kind of the condition
of your car is and what you want it to be,
this is where I might do like a quick polish
because once it's clean, to do a quick one-step polish,
you don't really need to do a full correction.
It's just about kind of bringing up the paint a little bit
if there's like some spot areas
that need to be treated a little bit.
Kind of like I said, with my personal car,
my kids touch everything on their way in and on the way out.
So sometimes these spots just need a little touch up, right?
So if you have any oxidation buildup or anything like that,
it also just adds clarity to the car.
It's gonna help your protection bond a little bit better.
So that's again why I like using the Picture Perfect Polish.
Cuts fast, it finishes clean and it preps the surface
for a ceramic coating or a ceramic spray.
So there's not a lot to it.
Kind of funny enough, I saw a short video the other day
on another product that they were claiming
is super easy to use, super fast,
but when they did like a 50-50 shot,
it added a lot of gloss,
but it didn't really remove any of the defects,
which to me just tells me
that there's a bunch of oils on the surface still.
And so one thing with the Picture Perfect Polish
is it is a true one-step,
but it acts like kind of like a, I don't know,
you just get great correction out of it.
And so it's super easy to use.
And it's funny because these people
are like boasting about how awesome the paint looked.
And I'm like, man, if they just would have used
the Picture Perfect Polish,
they would have gotten a almost a full correction
out of what they tried to do
because they did a two-step too, it was wild.
Anyway, pick up the Picture Perfect Polish,
it's way better than anything out there.
So the third step, now that you kind of did a deep wash,
maybe you decontaminated with like an iron remover
or a clay bar, did a little spot polishing,
maybe just like the hood, it wasn't looking great
or whatever, right?
And just did a little spot polishing.
And now you got the paint totally prepped.
Now it's time to seal it before the weather rolls in.
So this is where the Gloss Boss,
which is my wipe on ceramic coating,
Tuffa Shell comes in.
A ceramic spray, it's gonna help repel the salt,
the water, the grime, like on a day like today,
for me where we're getting a lot of rain,
the water's just beating up.
It's coming off the glass
because I put it on the glass as well.
So it's just repelling water everywhere.
Just looks super cool too.
And it helps like everything else in my line,
it's just super easy to apply it.
When you pair it with a polished surface,
it's gonna last through the season.
And this is literally like armor for your car
for the next few months.
Now I recommend definitely maintaining with more product
through the winter time.
So if you do like a once a month wash
or something like that, I do recommend adding
and kind of re-upping the paint protection
because it's just gonna make your life so much easier
when it comes to washing the car down.
That's really what it is all about.
It used to laugh at the detailer friend of mine of like,
you know, we add this paint protection on the car
and it makes the water bead up really well,
but when we finish the car,
when we're showing it to the client,
we don't show them that the water beads, right?
Because then we'd be essentially getting the car dirty again.
So the beads are the cool part that you see
when you have weather.
But it's all about how much easier it makes
that car to clean, right?
So that's really what you wanna do
with that third step in protecting the paint.
And for the fourth step,
this is where I think a lot of people actually go wrong.
They think that winter means to, you know,
just stop washing the car, right?
We're not gonna do it.
We just, we go through, you know,
the salt on the roads is snowing all the time.
We're just not gonna wash the car during the winter months.
And I honestly personally think
that's the worst thing you could possibly do.
So I think you do want to maintain
and protect your car all seasons, right?
Even if it's just a quick pre-soak
and rinse every couple weeks.
And again, this is, all my products are very purpose-built.
And so this is exactly where the Super Super,
the Super Super comes in.
It's great for a touchless or low contact wash,
even when it's too cold for a full hand wash.
So I definitely had this in mind of like,
hey, even in the dead of winter, grimy months,
if you can just pre-soak the panel and rinse it off,
that would be a lot better than doing nothing, right?
And so, and the great part about that is,
is that the Super Super so effective
at removing so much dirt and grime
that you can normally reapply your paint protections
and like tough a shell right after you get done washing it.
So even if it's snowing, dead of winter,
super terrible outside,
just a pre-soak, rinse it down,
maybe refoam or pre-soak again,
rinse it down and add tough a shell,
your car's gonna look so good during the winter months.
So the paint's gonna stay glossy,
super easy to clean, all winter long, right?
And you're not gonna be outside forever.
Hopefully if you do live in like the Midwest
or this, you know, Minnesota, Massachusetts, whatever,
that you have some sort of interior
that you could bring it into.
But sometimes you just get a fluke of a nice day
and you can clean your car during that time.
I wanted something and I wanted products designed
to work quickly and effectively as well.
And so doing that and using those products
will be really, really well, really, really good
for your car.
And a clean car is just a happy car, right?
So again, winter isn't the time to skip the maintenance.
That's why I wanted to kind of put out this guide real quick.
It's actually when the paint protection matters the most
and that's why we see a lot of these products
start to get bad reviews in the winter time
that we're getting good reviews in the summertime.
Cause let's be honest, the weather is very, very harsh
and it's very hard to do this.
So a little bit of extra effort on the front end of things
is gonna literally save you hours later.
So what you don't want is you don't want that road salt,
that grime, the, you know, dirt on the roads
to kind of build up and as it builds up,
it does really create some damage.
And then when it comes to spring,
you're gonna have a ton of work on your hands.
So doing the prep once, maintaining it through the season
is you're gonna thank yourself
and your car is gonna look good.
So again, wash it, do a deep wash.
I have the Decon bundle that I'll link below.
That'll get you everything that you need to,
everything you need for like a deep decontamination wash,
super, super pure magic cleaner.
I would polish and prep with the picture perfect polish.
Again, don't worry about doing the whole car
if it doesn't need it.
Just spot treat if you need to
and then protect and maintain
with either the gloss boss or toughest shell.
It's just super easy.
But this is literally my exact system I used before
every season really.
It's fast, it's effective and it's super simple.
So I'll make sure to drop a link to all the products
that I mentioned and they're also on Amazon as well.
So yeah, you don't need to go crazy.
Just prep a little bit and it really makes a difference.
And this is kind of more real world detailing,
but anyway, you will thank yourself
if you take a little bit of extra time to do it today.
So hope that helps someone
as we get into the changing of the seasons
and into the nasty, not fun time of year.
But with that, if you decide to pick up any products
over at jimbosdetailing.com,
make sure to use code podcast.
That's gonna save you a little bit of money.
And if you are spending over $100,
I still have a deal where you get a free drying towel,
which could actually be used in winter as well.
So to get that, you just have to spend
or have over $100 in your cart
and then use the code first
and you will get a free massive drying towel, $30 value.
So it's essentially like getting 30% off your order.
So if you do pick up something like the decon bundle
and then use code first, you will get a free drying towel
as well.
I think you need to add the towel to cart
and then use the code.
I think that's how it works.
But make sure you use either one of those discount codes
for my loyal podcast listeners.
I appreciate you guys.
And yeah, I'll catch you on the next one.
See ya.
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