With daily use, the car paintwork loses its ideal look. Scratches, chips, various contaminants, including bituminous stains, begin to appear on the body. It is simply impossible to wash off bitumen with ordinary water, while special shampoos can be effective only for fresh stains. So, how can you remove bitumen from a car without damaging the paint? When do you need to use a car detailing steamer? Let’s find out!
Why Is Bitumen Dangerous for Your Car?
Bitumen is a tar-containing substance that is a part of the asphalt. During road construction works or increased solar activity, bitumen becomes liquid, sticking to the wheels and the car body. When bitumen cools, it forms a sticky black film on the surface, which is very difficult to wash off even with the help of a professional auto detail steam cleaner by Fortador.
The danger of the bitumen and similar substances is that they can penetrate into the bodypaint, and stay in it forever. Even professional deep polishing can not remove these traces, except with the paint itself. Dark stains left after such procedures are especially noticeable on light cars. So, it is important to start removing stains as early as possible in order to avoid the emergence of yellow spots on the paintwork.
How to Remove Bitumen Stains Yourself?
Nowadays, there are a huge variety of bitumen removal products on store shelves. Their main difference is efficiency and price:
- Special products are intended only for removing bituminous stains. They tend to be more aggressive and are suitable for removing old stains. It is worth paying special attention to the composition of such products, so as not to damage the paintwork.
- Universal products are used to combat pollution of various origins. In this case, the product may be ineffective, therefore, it is worth choosing trusted brands.
Each product has its own instructions for use, which must be followed. But there are general recommendations that are also worth paying attention to:
- Before processing, it is imperative to wash the body. For example, drivers can use auto detailing steamers.
- The agent is best applied to a cold surface of the body. This is due to the fact that on a hot surface it will quickly evaporate and will not have time to enter into full interaction with bitumen. Therefore, after using a steam cleaner for cars it is better to give your vehicle some time to cool down.
- If you are using the product for the first time, then first you need to apply it to an unnoticeable area of the body, to check the effect on the paintwork.
- You need to treat gradually layer by layer, and not try to remove everything at once.
- Do not try to remove stains with a knife or other sharp objects.
Upon finishing cleaning, wash the car again with a steam machine for car detailing, wipe it dry, removing the traces of the cleaner.
