Despite years of engineering, innovation, and design updates, your vehicle is still subject to damage caused by the sun. After all, the sun is way older than your car and has developed its radiative properties over millions of years. Naturally, this brings us to the question of how to protect car paint from sun damage.
If you have a new car that you’ve just driven off the lot, it can be incredibly annoying to have your beautiful paintwork damaged. The sun’s ultraviolet rays can harm your skin and break down the paint on your brand-new car, causing it to look old and worn out.
If your vehicle stays in the sunlight for extended periods, severe sun damage may cause your paintwork to crack and peel, exposing your car’s body to further damage. This prompts many to wonder—how to protect car paint from sun damage?
To realize why you need to protect your car paint from sun damage, you first need to understand how exposure to the sun can damage your car’s paint.
Discover How the Sun Can Damage Your Precious Vehicle’s Car Paint
The primary cause of sunburn is ultraviolet radiation generated nearly 92,000,000 miles from our planet on the sun’s blistering hot surface. It is present naturally in sunlight and makes up 10% of the total electromagnetic radiation output of the sun.
While UV light is invisible and loses much of its impact on its journey to the Earth, it remains powerful enough to damage your skin and your vehicle’s high-grade paint.
Here’s How It Works
- UV rays are a strong energy producer that stimulates a surface to react upon hitting it.
- The resultant reaction produces a quick burst of energy that dissipates as heat and causes molecular bonds to break.
- This occurs when UV rays hit your car’s exterior paint surfaces.
- As time passes, constant exposure to the sun starts to break down the paint molecules, diminishing your vehicle’s exterior paint coat, and making it less reflective and shiny.
- This makes your vehicle appear old and dull on the outside. Over time, it can also cause your car paint to bubble up, develop swirls, crack and start peeling off.
- That’s not all! UV rays also cause oxidative damage to your car’s interiors, wearing out your dashboard and expensive internal upholstery over time.
- PS As colors have different reflective properties, red car paint is much more prone to UV damage and fades faster upon exposure to sunlight.
Other Contaminants
- Natural by-products such as bird droppings, tree sap, and bug guts contain high acids that also accelerate UV radiation damage on your car’s external surfaces.
- Bird droppings have high uric acid levels that can break down clear-coated paint within a few hours.
- Another external contaminant that can accelerate UV damage is salt. Salt or sodium chloride can sometimes corrode and infiltrate protective surfaces like wax coatings and other automotive sealants.
- Road grime combines toxic elements like gravel, tar, chemicals, and oils that slowly erode your protective coatings and car paint.
Just like applying sunscreen protects your skin against UV radiation, you also need to take specific measures to protect your car against UV damage from exposure to sunlight.
Let’s learn more about them below.
5 Smart Ways to Protect Car Paint from Sun Damage
As you can see above, sun damage can destroy your car’s external paint job as much as accidental scratches, door dings, insect splatter, tree sap, bird droppings, etc.
The five best ways to protect car paint from sun damage and other external contaminants are listed below:
-
Park in the Shade:
One of the easiest ways to protect car paint from sun damage is limiting sunlight exposure. You can achieve this quickly by simply parking your car in the shade.
Avoiding direct sunlight will protect your vehicle’s interiors and exteriors while maintaining a comparatively lower temperature inside your car.
-
Wax Your Car Regularly:
Another great way to protect car paint from sun damage is to apply a layer of wax that acts as a protective shield between your car’s finely-applied paintwork and sunlight.
The wax also lends a high-gloss finish to your car and protects it against bug splatter, tree sap, bird droppings, etc., making it easier to wipe all these off your vehicle.
You may need to re-apply the wax coat several times a year, depending on the type of wax coating you choose and the level of sun exposure.
Adding a layer of wax between your car’s finish and the sun’s ultraviolet rays is a great way to protect it. This, however, raises the question-how often does your vehicle need a wax job? Answers vary based on the car, but it is generally best to wax your car at regular periods.
-
Add a Shield:
The old ways work best when discovering intelligent ways to protect car paint from sun damage or oxidation. We’re talking about using a shield as a barrier between your car paint and harmful UV rays.
And no, we are not talking about the SHIELD led by Samuel L. Jackson in the Marvel Multiverse. Instead, we are talking about the humble car cover.
While using a car cover may seem like an age-old trick, it remains one of the best ways to prevent sunlight from damaging your car paint. Using a mask to shield your car also protects your vehicle’s external paint surfaces from bird droppings, tree sap, acid rain, etc.
When buying car covers, opt for a breathable one that prevents condensation and fits your car well to avoid situations where your vehicle may get scratched.
Get Clear Bra or Paint Protection Film Installation
One of the most innovative ways to protect car paint from sun damage and other forms of harm is to apply a layer of high-grade PPF film on top.
Bravo recommends getting XPEL Ultimate Plus, a leading industry product with a hydrophobic layer and a self-healing top coat capable of correcting minor scratches and abrasions with simple heat application.
We recommend XPEL PPF or Clear Bra Installation as it helps prevent oxidative damage to your vehicle’s custom paint, whether a Tesla or a C8.
XPEL’s warranty covers ten years from the date of purchase and defects like yellowing, staining, cracking, blistering, and delamination. In fact, with proper maintenance and care, XPEL PPF can protect your car’s paint against damage for more than ten years.
Add a High-Gloss Ceramic Coating
Why add just one layer of protection to your vehicle’s exteriors when you can add two?
Adding a layer of ceramic coating atop your car’s paint and ceramic coating helps to keep your vehicle looking as good as the day you drove it home for a longer time.
The highly impactful combination of PPF and ceramic coating prevents your car paint from fading, cracking, or peeling off and gives it an added gloss and shine. Bravo uses FUSION PLUS™, the first ceramic coating from XPEL, the undisputed industry leader in paint protection technology.
Pro-Tip: It’s vital to wash your car frequently to remove external contaminants like salt, natural acids, and road gravel that can slowly erode your protective layers and exterior surfaces. For best results, use the two-bucket washing method.
Worried About How to Protect Car Paint Against Sun Damage?
Enjoy Superior Protection with Bravo Protection Products Today!
If you are worried about how the sun can damage your car’s external paint surface and wish to avoid seeing your vehicle’s glossy, high-end finish slowly fade, then get Clear Bra or PPF Installation today!
Bravo’s team of experts, operating from their newer and upgraded service center in Plymouth, Minnesota, combines over 50 years of experience in PPF application and ceramic coating to offer superior car paint protection.
We use only the finest XPEL products and even XPEL’s specialized software that allows us to cut perfectly seized films for every make and model.
So, what are you waiting for? Drive your car down to Bravo Protection Products to keep your vehicle sparkling and shiny for years to come.