How to Provide Your Car Wash Customers with Rust Protection Services

Rust is a major concern for your car wash customers. Even though they are doing their best to keep their vehicles clean, salt, dirt, and other corrosive substances can slowly eat away at the metal undercarriage, door panels, and other metal parts of their vehicles.
As a car wash owner, you can earn extra revenue by offering rust protection services for your car wash customers. All you need is a dedicated service bay to apply the rustproofing to your customers’ vehicles.

There are three common methods of rustproofing vehicles you can offer:

1. Drip Oil Spray Wax

The drip oil spray wax method is the original rustproofing method. It involves spraying an oil wax onto the vehicle and allowing it to drip for a period of 24 to 48 hours to ensure it gets into all hard-to-reach areas of the vehicle. Holes do need to be drilled in door panels and other such locations to ensure proper protection. The holes are then plugged with rubber or plastic caps.

2. Dripless Oil Spray Wax

This method also requires spraying the vehicle with a wax coating. Unlike the drip method, the dripless spray wax does not require a 24- to 48-hour application period. However, since it is dripless, it does not always get into all those hard-to-reach areas. Holes also need to be drilled in key locations to ensure proper coverage.

3. Spray-On Undercoating 

Spray-on undercoating is an effective method to protect the underside of the vehicle. The spray coating is tar-based and helps seal and keep out corrosion-causing substances. Undercoating is also frequently applied around wheel wells.

Which Rust Protection Is the Best?

To effectively cover the vehicle, a combination of drip or dripless spray wax and undercoating provides the best rust protection. Ideally, you would want to offer spray-on undercoating and at least dripless oil spray wax for your rustproofing services. If you have extra space, you may want to also offer drip oil spray wax.

Steps for Applying Rustproofing

Before applying rustproofing to your customers’ vehicles, there are several key steps you need to follow to ensure proper protection.

Step 1: Wash the Car

You need to make sure all dust, dirt, and other debris are fully removed from the vehicle. This includes verifying the undercarriage of the vehicle and wheel wells are also clean and dirt-free.

Step 2: Inspect the Vehicle for Rust

Chances are you will encounter some rust underneath the vehicle. Check for stone chips on the vehicle’s exterior surfaces that chipped off all the paint and which may have rusted the metal. You will want to remove all the rust from the vehicle before applying the rustproofing.

Step 3: Apply Touch-Up Paint

For any rusty areas on the vehicle’s exterior you removed, make sure to touch them up with touch-up paint for small chips or the right automotive paint for areas larger than a dime. Allow the paint to dry and cure fully before rustproofing. If your customer has to take their vehicle to a body shop to have exterior paintwork completed, make sure to re-wash the car before applying the rustproofing.

Step 4: Apply the Rustproofing

Once the vehicle has been properly cleaned and prepped, it is ready to have the rustproofing applied. The methods used to apply the rustproofing will depend on the ones you are offering your customers.
As you can see, applying rustproofing is simple. Just make sure to obtain any necessary certifications/licensing you may need to offer this value-added service for your car wash customers.

To get all of your car wash supplies wholesale, like Armor All extreme shield wax and other Armor All products, please feel free to shop our online store or call Superior Car Wash Supply at 800-554-9274 today!