The Auto Detailing Podcast Oct 15, 2025

How to Prep Your Car for Winter — The RIGHT Way

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Term

decontaminate the paint

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.

Term

iron remover

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.

Term

ceramic coating

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.

Term

ceramic spray

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.

Company

Picture Perfect Polish

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.

Term

paint correction

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.

Part

clay bar

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.

LIVE

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.

About this episode

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.

ceramic coating ceramic spray clay bar decontaminate the paint iron remover paint correction Picture Perfect Polish

Original notes

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

Products Featured in This Video:
Decon Bundle (everything you need to prep your paint):
https://jimbosdetailing.com/products/the-decon-bundle

The Super Soaper (touchless car wash soap):
https://jimbosdetailing.com/products/the-super-soaper

Picture Perfect Polish (one-step polish for prep):
https://jimbosdetailing.com/products/picture-perfect-polish

Tough As Shell (spray ceramic coating):
https://jimbosdetailing.com/products/hard-as-shell-ceramic-spray

Or All products on Amazon: https://amzn.to/47p7FRl

Key Takeaway:

Prepping your car now means easier washes, longer-lasting protection, and no dull, damaged paint come spring.

Don't skip it — do it the right way.
Grab your Decon Bundle and get your car ready for winter today.

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