So far in my (limited) experience, it seems like I have two choices. Have a clean car full of swirl marks, or have a dirty scratch free car. I can't for the life of me figure out how to keep my car clean AND scratch free, and avoid having to polish it ALL the time. I thought the goal was to only have to do all that polishing work once and then keep from scratching it again (maybe occasionally after that, but not after every wash!) I either need to figure out my washing technique better, or really re-set my expectations here.
My car is a 2004 e46 M3- jet black. Here was the process I followed last:
Right now since I'm still inexperienced (and after doing the whole car and realizing I wasn't doing it right) I decided to start doing my car slowly, one panel at a time. So right now, one side of the car + hood had the following done:
Everything was looking great on that side- I was just hitting each new panel I was ready to work on with QD and microfiber before working on it since it wasn't too dirty. But after doing almost half the car, and driving it over a few weeks, it started to get dusty enough that it needed a full wash. Wash process was
Immediately after touching polished/waxed hood of the car w/ the wool mitt I could see the micromarring- even with extremely light pressure. I didn't want to let the car stay dirty, so I just said F* it and did the rest to finish this experiment and see what the results would be. In the end- the hood was totally swirled up pretty bad...vertical panels were not nearly as bad. Was tough to see without direct sunlight, but those still do have very light micromarring as well. You can tell there is a bit of a haze, not too bad but it's there. The beading stayed good on the vertical panels, but unless my mind was playing tricks on me, the beading was also not nearly as good on the hood when I rinsed everything off.. it was sheeting and pooling a lot more. It's only been a few weeks, I can't imagine 1 coat of DGPS and 2 coats of wax would be gone...during 1 wash. And that was DP foam, not dawn or anything.
Also...the car pretty much looks like crap. Water spots everywere, and just generally not that clean, because of how afraid I was to use pressure with the wash mitt- and clearly for good reason. I can accept that 2-3 weeks was probably too long to not wash the car- I usually do it once a week, but didn't want to mess things up in the middle of polishing because of my last experience... So that leaves me 2 questions
-Even if it was too long- what DO you do if your car has too much dust on it. I don't know how much more 'low touch' I can get than this process.
-The fact that the hood was worse than the sides does suggest it was because of more dust etc settling on the hood. But the last time I did this, there was pretty much 0 time between the clay/polish & washing the car (that time I was using ONR to do a rinseless wash to get polish streaks off), and the wool mitt still left scratches. Looks like I need to ditch these wool mitts, but have those ever been a problem for anyone else...seriously I was using NO pressure at all! Ultimately what I need to figure out here is, what do I use/how do I get enough pressure to get the car actually clean, but not introduce more swirls in the paint? (Also- aren't carnuba waxes supposed to be super hard? Shouldn't they be protecting from this?)
Sorry for the long rant, but it is SO frustrating to do all that polishing work and try to be so careful only to have it ruined...
My car is a 2004 e46 M3- jet black. Here was the process I followed last:
Right now since I'm still inexperienced (and after doing the whole car and realizing I wasn't doing it right) I decided to start doing my car slowly, one panel at a time. So right now, one side of the car + hood had the following done:
- polish with WG TSR/FG. Made sure this part of the car was totally scratch/swirl free under sunlight/brinkman
- 1 coat of WG Deep Gloss paint sealant, 2 coats Dodo Juice Supernatural
Everything was looking great on that side- I was just hitting each new panel I was ready to work on with QD and microfiber before working on it since it wasn't too dirty. But after doing almost half the car, and driving it over a few weeks, it started to get dusty enough that it needed a full wash. Wash process was
- Rinse car off with power washer (greenworks 1700-PSI 1.4-GPM). Definitely saw the beading on the pats that had been sealed and waxed.
- Soap it up w/ power washer/ AG foam cannon using DP Xtreme. Let it sit for just a little under 5 min
- Wash w/ CarPro wool wash mitt. The parts of the car that hadn't already been polished/waxed I used a little more pressure. Parts where I had finished polishing and waxing I used almost NO pressure this time, because last time I did it I noticed either the mitt or waffle weave had put swirls back in.
- Rinse the car off again using pressure washer, then sheeting method w/ just the hose
- Pat dry w/ waffle weave mf towels
Immediately after touching polished/waxed hood of the car w/ the wool mitt I could see the micromarring- even with extremely light pressure. I didn't want to let the car stay dirty, so I just said F* it and did the rest to finish this experiment and see what the results would be. In the end- the hood was totally swirled up pretty bad...vertical panels were not nearly as bad. Was tough to see without direct sunlight, but those still do have very light micromarring as well. You can tell there is a bit of a haze, not too bad but it's there. The beading stayed good on the vertical panels, but unless my mind was playing tricks on me, the beading was also not nearly as good on the hood when I rinsed everything off.. it was sheeting and pooling a lot more. It's only been a few weeks, I can't imagine 1 coat of DGPS and 2 coats of wax would be gone...during 1 wash. And that was DP foam, not dawn or anything.
Also...the car pretty much looks like crap. Water spots everywere, and just generally not that clean, because of how afraid I was to use pressure with the wash mitt- and clearly for good reason. I can accept that 2-3 weeks was probably too long to not wash the car- I usually do it once a week, but didn't want to mess things up in the middle of polishing because of my last experience... So that leaves me 2 questions
-Even if it was too long- what DO you do if your car has too much dust on it. I don't know how much more 'low touch' I can get than this process.
-The fact that the hood was worse than the sides does suggest it was because of more dust etc settling on the hood. But the last time I did this, there was pretty much 0 time between the clay/polish & washing the car (that time I was using ONR to do a rinseless wash to get polish streaks off), and the wool mitt still left scratches. Looks like I need to ditch these wool mitts, but have those ever been a problem for anyone else...seriously I was using NO pressure at all! Ultimately what I need to figure out here is, what do I use/how do I get enough pressure to get the car actually clean, but not introduce more swirls in the paint? (Also- aren't carnuba waxes supposed to be super hard? Shouldn't they be protecting from this?)
Sorry for the long rant, but it is SO frustrating to do all that polishing work and try to be so careful only to have it ruined...
