Washing your car in the winter months to remove salt

Washing the salt off a car
A lot of salt and brine is spread during the winter to make roads passable again and remove snow and sleet. Of course, this is necessary to prevent accidents and allow traffic to continue. Unfortunately, it is bad for car paintwork. This blog contains information on the best ways to wash the salt off the car.



What is the effect of salt on a car?
When the car comes into contact with salt and brine during the winter, the paint can be seriously damaged. Salt often corrodes the paint finish, especially if it is no longer new. In the unprotected areas, salt will adhere to the metal and attack it, with dire consequences. In addition, it will damage the rubber and plastic parts of the car.

How to remove salt from your car
Driving through a car wash is the easiest way. Considering that this does not benefit the paintwork, it is not the best choice for everyone. You might consider the disadvantages of the car wash against those of salt. The safest method is manual washing with a proper pre-wash such as Super Snow Foam and a two-bucket system combined with Shinemax ceramic shampoo.

Removing the salt with a pre-wash
For salt removal, a good pre-wash such as  Super Snow Foam is already a very good tool. With this pre-wash method, you can already remove about 90% of the dirt. To repair the car, you can also spray the paint with an All Purpose Cleaner such as Quick Clean APC.

Car washing with a hand wash
A hand wash also lowers the chances of scratching in winter. The two-bucket system is an option to achieve this. One bucket is used for suds while the other bucket is used for rinsing. Hot water is usually used in winter or early spring. Especially with salt, this is not a good idea. Hot water dissolves salt and leaves it more in small openings. just cold water and car shampoo.
To reduce the risk of washing your car at some point with salt water, it is also advisable to change the water more often.

Protect as much as possible
After washing, the paintwork should be protected again as much as possible. Of course, during the colder months, you want to do this as soon as possible. You can use a ceramic sealant such as Nanoarmor. After rinsing and drying the car, you can apply this and buff it in. This will keep salt and brine from adhering well to the parts that have been treated.