How-To Guide: Prevent Sun Damage To Your Car
It’s not just your skin that you should worry about on hot sunny days. You should also think about your car. While most vehicles today use autobody paint with fade resistance, they’re not 100% protected from sun damage.
Tinted windows won’t spare the cabin either. The sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays can still penetrate them and wreak havoc on your seats and dashboard. Thankfully, there are more effective ways to prevent sun damage to your car.
Protecting Your Car Paint
Most car paints provide some degree of protection against the sun. However, they never completely shield the car’s surface. Repeated exposure to sunlight will eventually cause the car paint to fade, peel away, and chip. This exposes the metal underbody, making it prone to dust and corrosion.
If you want to extend the lifespan of your body paint, always try to keep the car away from direct sunlight. Park the car under a shade or in your garage when not in use. You should also consider washing and waxing your car more often.
Washing at least once a week will remove any dust or grime and prevent scratching of the surface. Waxing every three months will add a protective coating over the car paint.
Protecting Your Dashboard
The dashboard is typically made of hard plastic. And unfortunately, it gets a lot of sunlight. It doesn’t help that the front windshield magnifies the heat of the sun, which can cause it to fade and crack over time.
One way you can protect the dashboard is to keep your car parked under a shade when you’re out during the day. Moreover, you should invest in a foldable sunshade that you can place behind the windshield. By deflecting sunlight, it serves a double function. First, it protects the dashboard from the sun’s ultraviolet rays. Second, it deflects heat and prevents the car from overheating.
Protecting Your Car Seats
Car seats are also frequently exposed to the sun. Unless you take preventive measures, the seat covers will eventually show signs of wear and tear.
Leather seats are prone to drying and cracking. So the first thing you need to do is try and limit their sun exposure. You should also apply a leather protectant on the surface of your seats. This locks in the natural oils of the leather, so it doesn’t dry up as easily under the sun.
Cloth seats can also lose their color from sun exposure. Besides keeping them away from direct sunlight, we recommend using seat covers to further protect them. The additional seat covers will also prevent stains and other types of damage.
Other Ways To Protect Your Car
Check with your car manufacturer to see if they used UV-protective auto body paint. If not, you should get it done yourself so your car paint lasts longer.
Next, make sure that your car windows have tints that can block both UV-A and UVB-light so your cabin is better protected against sun exposure. Most car windows are only able to block UV-A rays.
