Can the Sun’s Rays Damage my Car?
The ‘new car smell’ you smell when you get inside your outdoor-parked car is many a time off-gassing of volatile organic compounds of your car’s interior. You may have come across some poorly maintained cars with dried-up, discolored, and poor-textured dashboards. Heat and UV rays are the secret ingredients behind this deterioration and you need to have a plan to counter it or your car will be the next victim. The drying of the rest of your car’s interior, including the leather, vinyl, and carpets also happens for the same reasons.
How Do Sun Rays Damage Cars?
Your car’s interior and exterior are both at risk, especially if you live in a warm environment all year round. Here’s what excessive heat and harmful UV rays can do to your car:
Seat covers deteriorate
When you purchase a new car, your first action should be to install some seat covers — replacing the seat covers is better than replacing the upholstery. Even your leather or vinyl covers will be prone to deterioration if your car is parked in high heat under the sun. UV rays are ruthless and can make your covers lose strength, fade, and become less flexible over time.
Dashboard issues
Sharp and harmful sun rays will have a detrimental effect on your dashboard’s texture and color, making your vehicle look old and poorly managed.
Paint job fades
The exterior of your car is also not safe from sharp sun rays. Cars with darker paint jobs, such as blue, black, and red colors will suffer most from harmful UV rays and will shed color over time.
Sun Rays Are Inevitable, so How Can You Protect Your Car?
Here’s what you can do to protect both the exterior and interior of your car:
Car sun visors
You can buy windshield covers and when you aren’t driving, you can just apply those covers on your front screen as well as on the rest of the car’s windows. For the rest of the windows, you may also opt for tinted stickers as they’ll help in blocking heat.
If your concern is visibility, you can buy top car sun visors and apply them on the front, as well as on the top of the side windows. More often than not, cars will have two sun visors installed on the windshield ahead of the front seats (one for each) and that’s about it. But some people prefer those visors on the sides of the front seats as well.
Weatherproof top covers
Once you park your car, an ideal way to give your car another layer of protection is to top it off with a cover. It also helps you protect your car against scratches and dust.
Apply leather conditioner on the seats
The sun can really pull off a number on your car seats so get a nice leather conditioner and apply it on the seats from time to time to keep them shining.
Park your car under a shade
Last but not least, it goes without saying that you should be parking your car under a shade. Always avoid parking it under the sun, no matter how many protection measures you’re going with. It gets really tough to bear the heat when you step inside a car parked in the sun. The heat also takes a while to dissipate.
Types of Car Sun Visors
The term ‘car sun visors’ is sometimes overlapped with windshield and window covers. So when you find people talking about car sun visors, they mean either of the following two:
For visibility
The frontal sun visors that you have to pull out from against the car’s top are visors meant to protect your eyes against the sun, especially when you’re driving. The driver and front passenger are most prone to sun rays flashing in their eyes — that’s why a car usually comes with two visors.
For windshield and windows
The other type of car sun visor is a black/silver shield that protects the sun’s rays from entering the car. They’re great for the side windows but windshield sun shade will only be used when you’re stepping out of the car.