A short guide to maintaining a classic car

You don't really need to tell a serious classic car owner that they need to take care of their pride and joy. However, if you manage to get a classic offering from an Evans Halshaw car dealer on a whim and want to keep it at the top of its game, follow these top tips to ensure your investment is a worthwhile one. While you may simply think that cleaning and detailing a car is a basic case of washing and waxing it, carrying out improper practices may lead to degradation.

Firstly, establish a schedule for maintenance work. While you don't need to do it every day, light maintenance like surface-cleaning should be listed for every week while vacuuming, waxing, polishing and cleaning the engine should be done every fortnight. The more you do it, the less time you'll spend on it each week!

When doing the more specialised cleaning jobs, wash your car first. By applying polish or wax on a dusty car, the paint can be ruined. Furthermore, don't air-dry a classic; water spots can form, so use cotton detailing cloths and get rid of any excess water.

Clean every single inch of the interior, including vents. These can be addressed with a small brush; bigger ones can leave things behind and even clog up a vent. Floor mats should be shaken and vacuum-cleaned. Silicone-based protectants ought to be avoided when cleaning rubber and vinyl of the interior, as they leave oily residues that attract dust.

When cleaning the engine, degrease it first with a good specialised product. Also be sure to dry it out afterwards, applying wax and protectants to keep it looking ship-shape for longer.

Finally, clean the glass last, as you can easily make it dirty when cleaning other parts of the car. Cleaning solutions that are free from ammonia are the best thing to buy, while household glass cleaners are terrible for the car; these are known to dry out leather, plastic and vinyl, so tinted windows can take a real hit if this is used.

All this truly pays off, but you may need to do it even less if you have a top-quality car cover to preserve the beauty from one driving experience to another. Every time you take it off, you'll find yourself falling in love with it all over again.