Once the summer holidays are over, it's a good idea to take care of your car, especially if it accompanied you on long trips to the seaside. In fact, during the summer, intense sunlight, sea salt and other atmospheric agents can damage both the aesthetic appearance and functionality of your vehicle. This is why it is important to know how to take care of your car once the summer season is over.
Whether our car has been our trusted travel companion during these summer holidays or whether it has remained in the city during our holidays, it needs good treatment to maintain its optimal conditions. In this guide, we will show you how to protect and restore your car from summer damage, illustrating the treatments necessary to keep it in perfect condition even after the summer.
Cleaning the Car After the Summer: All the Steps
To care for your car after the summer, it is ideal to start with the interior before moving on to cleaning the bodywork and windows. This way, you avoid transferring dirt accumulated during the summer months (such as sand and debris) onto freshly cleaned surfaces.
Begin by vacuuming and removing sand and other debris, then proceed to clean and protect the interior, including the inside of the windows. Once the interior is clean, you can move on to cleaning the exterior and protecting the bodywork. Cleaning the exterior windows can be done as the final step.
Let's take a closer look at all the steps to clean your car after the summer:
- Interior cleaning | Start by cleaning the trunk and interior, removing any mats that may have accumulated large amounts of sand and debris. Use a vacuum cleaner to eliminate the most obvious dirt and then proceed with a more thorough cleaning using a specific interior cleaner and a good microfibre cloth
- Exterior washing | For external surfaces, start by applying a degreasing product over the entire bodywork to remove the largest dirt. You can then rinse the car with a high-pressure nozzle or use manual washing techniques.
Consult our guide on car washing or to discover all the best techniques and find the one best suited to your needs - Decontamination | Decontamination is an essential step after the summer months, as tar and salt can greatly damage surfaces and a simple wash may not be enough to completely eliminate these contaminants. Remember to rinse your car thoroughly after decontamination. Read our guide to carry out decontamination like an expert car detailer
- Polishing | After having carefully washed the car, proceed to polish it with a good polish capable of eliminating small imperfections and giving a brilliant appearance to your car. Consult our guide to polishing or if your car is damaged or scratched after the summer holidays, find out how to carry out small repairs
- Protection | Then move on to the final protection phase with a wax or sealant, an essential step to maintain the results obtained with this car detailing process for a long time and face the autumn months
- Final Details | Once you've completed all the steps to refurbish the car's surfaces, you can focus on details like cleaning and polishing the windows and refurbishing the car's tires and rims.
Best Products to Take Care of Your Car After the Summer
After having seen the processes to be carried out for cleaning and protecting cars, we recommend the best products to take care of your car after the summer.
Interior cleaning
- Interior Cleaner kit | This ready-to-use kit is perfect for cleaning car interiors . Eliminates dirt, stains and impurities from seats, mats, fabrics, carpets, dashboard and other interior surfaces. Its delicate but effective formulation restores a fresh and clean appearance to interiors, leaving a pleasant scent
- Degreaser | This high quality APC degreaser is essential for car maintenance and care. Degreaser completely eliminates all traces of impurities and best prepares the surface for the subsequent car care phases, guaranteeing deep cleaning and a perfect finish before and after the application of car polish
- Plastic Metal Refresher kit | This kit is ideal for those who want to keep internal plastic and metal surfaces in impeccable condition. Revives and renews surfaces, forming a water-repellent, shiny and non-greasy protective layer, ensuring a rejuvenated and renewed appearance to the interior plastic or metal surfaces of the car
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Cleaning of the exteriors
- Shampoo Wax | a slightly foaming car shampoo , enriched with a protective wax. Respects all external bodywork surfaces, including plastics, rubbers and nanometric treatments, offering additional protection and a brilliant finish for glossy paints
- Polishing Protective Wax for shiny surfaces | This high-end wax offers extraordinary shine and reliable protection for the bodywork. Its advanced formulation with waxes of natural origin creates a protective barrier that repels dirt, dust and contaminants, keeping the car shining over time
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- Matt Paint Cleaner | shampoo for matt paints, its formulation is specific for cleaning matt paints and all the external parts of your car
- Renewing Protective Detailer for matt surfaces | This premium-end detailer is specific for cleaning and protecting matt surfaces . Its formulation cleans, protects and renews surfaces, guaranteeing a fresh and flaw-free appearance for a long time
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- Tar/Resin Remover | Gel product essential for car decontamination as it effectively removes tar and resin residues . It acts quickly and delicately without damaging surfaces, maintaining the beauty of the car and protecting the paint from aggressive and corrosive agents
- Glass Cleaner | This professional cleaner is ideal for cleaning car windows . Its advanced degreasing formulation effectively eliminates dirt, fingerprints and streaks in a single pass, giving a shiny, streak-free finish
- Tire Restorer | This high-end product is perfect for tire care and maintenance . Applied with a brush, it gives a new shine to the tires, obtaining a professional and long-lasting result
By using these products, you will be able to guarantee complete cleaning and protection for your car, keeping it in optimal condition even after the summer months.
