29 Aug, 19

How To Protect Your Car Paint With Grit Guards

Grit Guards - Protect Your PaintworkWhether you take your vehicle for a valet, or you do it yourself, washing your car should be a necessity on all vehicle maintenance schedules. You may not think so, but regular washing and cleaning is one main way for you to maintain your car’s paintwork! So, as soon as the sun comes out and the temperature rises, you should take it as an opportunity to bust out the hose pipe and the car cleaning buckets, ready to get your vehicle shining and show-room ready! If you’re unsure about how regularly you should wash your car, check out our article – How Often Should You Clean Your Car?

If you lead a busy lifestyle (or you’re too lazy) and you can’t find the time to give your car a wash, there are countless hand car washing services available almost everywhere at reasonable prices, so there is no excuse for not keeping your car looking clean throughout the year.

However, if you do choose to clean your own car, in order to protect your paintwork from swirls and scratches, you should consider purchasing a grit guard. Read on to find out what this product is and how to use one!

What Are Grit Guards?

A git guard is a metal or plastic grate/grill that you place a few inches from the bottom of your wash bucket and its purpose is to trap dirt particles while you are rinsing the wash mitt or sponge that you are using. Essentially, it prevents you from reapplying grit to the car when you wash the sponge or mitt. The grit guard design extracts the sediments from the cleaning tool and this helps to stop your paintwork from getting scratched every time you scrub your car with it.

A grit guard also reduces the movement of the water when it swirls around in the bucket. When you wash the washcloth, the dirt and grit fall below the level of the grate and it drops between the fins at the bottom and stays there. The fins at the bottom of the grit guard bucket reduce the current in the water, so the sediments stay sat at the bottom and the water above the guard does not become contaminated.

The grit guard insert also acts as a washboard. So, when you are wanting to clean the washcloth, you can rub it on the rough surface of the grit guard and this will extract all the dirt particles from it. This way, you can remove most, if not all of the dirt from the washcloth or sponge, ensuring that every time you put the cloth or sponge back onto the surface of your car, it is clean. The loose particles will sink and stay at the bottom of the basket.

How to Use A Grit Guard

  • Step One – To begin with, you need to prepare a bucket of water and place the grit guard insert at the bottom. It is recommended that you use the two bucket wash method for cleaning your vehicle, therefore, each bucket should have a grit guard inserted in it.
  • Step Two – Now, fill up your grit guard bucket with water.
  • Step Three – Rinse off your vehicle so that all the large bits of dirt and debris are removed. You can do this by using your bucket of clean water or hosing it down with a hosepipe.
  • Step Four – Use your wash bucket to clean your vehicle with soapy water. Any dirt/debris particles present will sink to the bottom of the car wash bucket with grit guard inserted in it.
  • Step Five – Whilst you’re cleaning your car, rub the cleaning pads, mitt or washcloth against the grit guard insert between every wash. This will make sure that all the excess dirt from them will be removed from the cleaning tool.
  • Step Six – Wash and repeat the steps above with your bucket and grit guard. Remember, you will not need to change your water unless your vehicle is really dirty. You can, however, keep an eye on how clean your water is looking whilst you are in the process of washing your car. You’ll be surprised at how well the grit guard is keeping all the dirt trapped at the bottom.

When you use quality car cleaning products as well as your bucket and grit guard, you will see optimum results.

Should I Use A Grit Guard?

If you want to keep your vehicle’s paintwork in excellent condition for as long as possible, then yes. Grit guards have been proven to do just this. When you correctly use them, the grit that would normally stick to the wash mitt when you insert it back into the bucket will instead be resting at the bottom, below the guard.

If you choose not to use a grit guard, you run the risk of scratching your paintwork, as there will be nothing to stop or remove the grit and grime being transferred back onto your vehicle when you are using your washing tool. You will also need to change your soapy water more often because nothing is preventing the dirt getting mixed up in all parts of the water – you’ll be using dirty water to try and clean your car.

By using a washing tool that has dirt and grit stuck to it, you will leave small scratches and swirls in your paintwork and if you want them repaired, you’ll either have to buy a scratch remover or pay for professional car scratch repair. To avoid this risk, it’s best to invest in a grit guard and reduce the chances of damaging your car’s paint job.

Where Can I Buy One?

You can purchase a grit guard from any shop that sells car accessories. They are easy and cheap to access and you can find them in the car cleaning section of the store. You can also purchase them from online retailers. Grit Guard is the official scratch-free cleaning product, but there are many other types out there that come in different sizes to fit several different types of buckets!

When buying a grit guard, the colour is not necessarily important, because they all will work in the same way. However, if you invest in different colour guards it will help differentiate between the two buckets that you are using while you are washing your car. The brighter colours will stand out in dirtier water, so you won’t forget which one is which.

Whilst using a grit guard will help you avoid littering your car paint with minute scratches, you may already have previous paintwork damage that you want repairing. At Bodyteq, we offer a multitude of bodywork services, such as car paint scratch repair. If there is any damage to your paintwork, like deep scratches that need to be removed, don’t hesitate to book your vehicle in with us. Contact us today, either by filling in our easy online form or giving us a call on 02079984712.

1 thought on “How To Protect Your Car Paint With Grit Guards

  • Thank you for providing us with this information. Very well detailed and informative! This will help out a lot.

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