We may be fully immersed in the cold weather, but that doesn’t mean the responsibility of caring for our collector cars escapes us during the snow and ice. In fact, taking care of your classics during the winter months may be even more important than in the summer, especially if you use and drive them regularly.
But when you’re in the midst of ice and snow and terrible weather….how do you wash a car and keep it clean in those conditions??? Well, we hate to break it to you, but keeping your classic car clean through the winter is next-to-impossible. It is possible, if you’re persistent, to keep it in excellent shape, despite the weather constantly undoing your efforts. Here are our best tips for cold-weather washing, so the frostbite doesn’t get the best of you and your classics don’t have to be garage-ridden until March:
- Start before it gets cold! The best way to protect your car and be able to give it a good scrubbing in the winter is to start when it is still warm outside and give it a fabulous coat of protective wax sealant. When your car has a good wax job, you can wash it several times through the winter and immensely decrease your risk of even minor damage to the paint job.
- Scrub the wheels first. The wheels typically take the longest, and also will likely need the most work of any part of your car. Scrubbing them first means there is no water or soap sitting on the body of your car during the time it takes you to wash the wheels.
- Use warm water, if at all possible. If you can hook up your hose to an interior line, or if you have a hot water pressure washer, you will be much more efficient and prevent water from freezing on or around your car as quickly as it would using an outside tap.
- Invest in some protective gloves. Find yourself a good pair of waterproof gloves that fit your hands snuggly enough to allow you to still do detail work on your car, but will also protect your hands from the elements while you are working.
- Don’t forget to dry! Not only should you thoroughly dry the surface of your vehicle when you are finished washing, but you also need to roll the windows down and expose the rubber stripping until it has had ample time to dry. Leaving window and door sealers wet will cause damage to the rubber and will make dry rot set in much faster.
If you have questions about how your collector car insurance policies can change, or if they need to be updated for the winter months or for car storage give our agents a call at 888-901-1338 to get all of your questions answered!