Best Products To Restore A Daily Driven Car: Essential Tools in 2021

Daily driven cars sometimes get left behind in terms of exterior and that will cause issues more in the long run. Keeping your car in a good condition has its own benefits starting from better looks to higher resale value. Keep reading to find out the best tools needed to restore a daily driven car.

All the items we will list are easy to use and will transform your old car for very few bucks. If you have not taken into account detailing your car at home to save yourself the expensive car washes make sure to check out our best car detailing kit for starters.

Why Do You Need To Fix Dents, Scratches, and Prevent Rust?

When it comes to taking care of your car the little things are those who matter. If you let dirt build up on your car as time goes by that starts to rust your body panels, breaks, and chassis. It is important to know that cleaning your car is the first thing you can do to prevent it from rusting and losing value. Low-temperature countries like Germany throw salt on their roads so they melt quicker. As your car drivers on the icy road full of salt, it will catch dirt mixed with salt onto the body panels and underneath. The first thing to do when restoring a car is to give it a good wash.

Other exterior damages that can occur to a daily driven car are scratches and faded paint caused by the sun. You can remove all scratches using a polishing compound. For a more detailed guide read our step-by-step guide on how to remove scratches. Scratches and swirls cause your car to depreciate in value if you are looking to sell it. Moreover, nobody likes to drive in a car full of scratches and paint is better looking with no swirls.

Last but not least we have dents. Car dents seem impossible to fix for most people. In this article, you will find the best dent removal kits to get rid of hail damage dents, or casual parking dents. This is a complete DIY guide and the products shown here can be used multiple times. 

Best Tools To Restore Your Car

• Best Price: FastCap Super Glue Adhesive
• Best Purchase: Rust Preventive Coating
• Best Interior: Leather Car Steering Wheel Cover

FastCap Super Glue Adhesive

FastCap Super Glue Adhesive is the cheapest way to fix broken tabs and accessories on your car. The FastCap Super Glue Adhesive comes in a 2 pack including the glue with a spray canister that activates the power of glue in seconds. The Mercedes-Benz star emblem is known to get broken very often and using this product can help glue the star emblem in seconds. Just make sure you get perfect alignment before gluing the parts altogether.

The FastCap Super Glue Adhesive can be used for many different household purposes not only for cars. Bumper trims can sometimes be broken very easily and it’s costly to replace them. This product finds great application in many things, whether interior plastic pieces or chrome trims that like to pop out after a few thousand miles. The cost to restore a daily driven car shouldn’t be expensive if you buy the right products.

Rust Preventive Coating

Rust can never be repaired, but you can prevent it from rusting your car and totalling it out. To prevent rust there are two simple steps you can do. Firstly and most importantly you wash your car so the rust that comes mixed with road dirt does not build up. Secondly, you can prevent it by applying rust preventative coating. It is as easy to apply as painting your fence. All the tools needed to restore a daily driven car from rust is a bucket of rust preventative coating and a brush.

Rust Preventive Coating is easy to use and can be applied to all metal surfaces. This is best applied to your car underneath. Rust coating is simple, you can use a spray gun with more sophisticated appliances but Rust Preventive Coating can be applied using a brush. Make sure to use a mask, gloves, and glasses if using this product as it contains chemicals that will make your breathing harder. Using POR-15 Rust Preventive Coating requires no special grinding of the rust, it seals the rust permanently. For better results, you might consider taking a few times and preparing the surface before application but it is not necessarily required.

Tip: Sometimes you might also question is restoring a car worth it? Don’t let your car rust out, the more time you let corrosion work its way the more rusty the car will be.

Leather Car Steering Wheel Cover

The last piece to restore a daily driven car is the steering wheel. As miles go on your steering wheel start to wear out. Cheaper steering wheels like soft rubber ones tend to get your hands dirty, leather ones start ripping off and look too bad.

AULLY PARK Universal Leather Car Steering Wheel Cover is the best way to mask the steering wheel. The material is soft and easy to install. The stitching comes in four colors: black, off-white, grey, and black&red. All you need to do to install this steering wheel cover is included in the pack. This does require a little stitching skill but the steering wheel cover is already prepared. All you have to do is pass the needle with no mistakes.

Honorable Mention

Other great items that need to be part of your garage and will help in car restoration are:

Car Dent Puller

If you park the car outside you are more likely to have dents on your car. Hail damage can sometimes total your car and PDR shops charge a lot for fixing these dents. Using a car dent puller kit you can take out small dents from your car. Fixing dents is easy, the car dent puller kits will stick to the dents using glue and the force of pulling will straighten them out. This is restoring a car with no experience at all.

All you have to do to make sure for perfect restoration is the dent size. The dent puller kit comes with suction tabs. Using this dent puller kit you can restore dents from parking and hail damage. If your car has dents no bigger than £2 you can give this car dent puller ago. Works best with metallic body parts.

If you are looking to pull bumpers or fenders out they are most likely made out of plastic so it is better to use an air suction puller. To use this product you need to use hot water to the surface that is dented and align the air suction pullers. Once done using little force to pull the bumper or fender will get back to shape.

Polishing Compound

Most of the scratches you think need a whole paint job can be saved and restored using a polishing compound. For a more in-depth guide make sure to read out step by step guide on how to remove scratches from paint. As mentioned in our guide you will need a compound and 3-4hours to do the whole car.

The best polishing compound you can use as a starter is Meguiar’s Ultimate Compound. It is under 10$ and gives great results. More professional compounds will require more polishing skills and you will be better off using Meguiar’s Ultimate Compound. You will also need a rotary machine to polish the car surface. I found Vonhaus 7-Inch Rotary Polisher to be a great rotary machine under 90$ and it also comes with polishing pads too.

If you do not have a rotary machine you can choose polishing compounds that can be applied by hand. Meguiar’s ScratchX is the best polishing compound you can apply by hand. Just make sure the surface is clean and you use a clean microfiber towel or a soft foam pad.

Chrome Restore

To restore a muscle car you will also have to deal with oxidated chrome trims. The chrome metals like grill, bumper, and wheels make the car look like it is very left behind. To restore chrome pieces you can use Coke despite not being the most efficient way because of the existence of Metal Polishers.

There are plenty of different metal polishers you can buy but the best bang for the buck goes to Chemical Guys. Chemical Guys Heavy Metal Polish Restorer and Protectant come in 16oz which is plenty to restore a muscle car chrome pieces but not only. Most cars today have chrome and shiny metal trims that get quite dirty or oxidize over time. Using this metal polisher will take your restoration project from rags to riches.

Is It Worth Restoring A Car?

If you are asking yourself the question of whether or not is it worth it to restore a daily driven car you might think about it from different perspectives. Car flipping is an easy business to do and has a good return on money if you are patient and pay a little attention to details. All the products mentioned above will help restore a daily driven car and make it presentable for flipping. This is because the seller thinks about the car restoration at a professional shop and you can get the car at a much cheaper price. Little fixes a good wash and polish with wax will make the car look 10 times better. And this is a side hustle that anyone can do with a very little budget, about 500-1000$.

On the other hand, you might think of your car restoration as a whole project. To restore a muscle car has been one of many American’s dream as they show the pride and glory of their native production cars. The old American Muscle Cars are powerful and with a little DIY handiness they can be a powerful daily driver. If you are looking to restore a daily driven car to its perfect condition make sure to use OEM parts for replacement and do your best to restore. Little by little your project car can sell on antique auctions for up to $500,000 depending on condition.

To conclude restoring a muscle car, or any type of car is totally worth it. You can learn new skills and have fun while rebuilding your project car. Many people also see it as a type of income, rebuilding cars and making videos about it. Price is not the only determinant when it comes to restoring. Other side factors like loving the type of car or recording Youtube Videos about it can make 10 times more money than the car itself. Randy from AutoAuctionRebuilds goes into dealer auctions and restores old cars for a profit. In one video he showed the audience his losses and profits. If you want to learn more make sure to follow Randy at AutoAuctionRebuilds.

Fun Fact: BMW is the easiest classical car to restore. They produce parts for old BMWs that date back to 1940. For all the bimmers out there.

Best Products To Restore A Daily Driven Car FAQ

Q. How to restore a classic car?

A: When restoring a classic car make sure to keep the car as stock as possible. Fancy paint and shiny wheels will depreciate their original value. Cars that sell the highest on antique auctions are the ones that are originally the same as they came from the first day they left the factory. To rebuild a classic car make sure to source OEM parts from junkyards or online purchases.

Q. Is it possible to restore a daily driven car with no experience?

A: Restoration of a car does not take much skill. Make sure to take your time and remember which bolt goes where and try your best to polish, retrofit or rebuild your project car. For advanced electrical restoration make sure to hit your local shops. 

Q. How to restore a dead car battery?

A: To restore a dead car battery you can flush the battery water and put fresh battery water. If you are looking for that, ask your local shops for a liquid “electrolyte”. If that does not work out for you you can try to recharge the battery using a battery charger and letting it charge overnight.

Q. What is the total cost to restore a daily driven car?

A: Depending on the shape of the car and how much work it needs to be done you can come up with a total cost. There is no fixed cost of restoring a car. Using all the products mentioned above you can spend around 50-100$ for all the products and restore the car visually on your own. The great thing about it is that you can use these products for many cars and your total cost of restoring a car will be very little.