@#$%! All my swirls back in one wipe-down!

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Emile

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I recently re-polished the G35 Coupe with a White Lake Country Polishing Pad, my PC7424, and Optimum Poli-Seal. Results were not perfect, but a huge improvement and a damn decent up-close-and-personal paint job on my Obsidian Black vehicle. Unfortunately, yesterday I went to do a wipe-down using ONR as a quick detailer (makes for a nice waterless wash). Towards the end of the wipe-down, I was trying to buff out a streak of dirt that was a bit stubborn and I noticed that going over the area was causing new scratches. I went back and looked at the whole vehicle and apparently there were scratches EVERYWHERE! And they were all in the exact directions in which I had wiped my towel after spraying on the ONR!

Why the #### is my clearcoat so sensitive to scratches? In one single wipe-down I ruined all the hard work I did with the Poli-Seal and my Porter Cable. Unbelievable.
 
Maybe I should apply Poli-Seal by hand with a White Lake Country CCS Foam Euro Hand Polish applicator? Perhaps the scratches aren't deep and can be removed easily by hand in one pass to the entire vehicle.
 
I'm assuming the car is black....

What kind of towels are you using?

I highly advise against cleaning a black car with spray ANYTHING. Perform a complete rinseless wash at the minimum, or a conventional wash.

I don't know of a single black car that WON'T do what you described. It's very frustrating and this is why I own a silver and a white car. :)
 
This is why I do not QD my car or any of my customers cars unless the surface is 100% clean...

Even on light colored cars that do not show defects easily, if you are QD'ing a dirty car you ARE inducing marring.

My main use for QD is to use it as a drying aid...

Sorry to hear your misfortune but you know what they say, sometimes you have to learn the hard way.

If I were you there is no way I would even do a rinsless wash such as ONR unless my car was just lightly dusty. With the soft clear you are dealing with you really should invest in a foam gun and abandone your QD'ing
 
[email protected] said:
I'm assuming the car is black....

What kind of towels are you using?

I highly advise against cleaning a black car with spray ANYTHING. Perform a complete rinseless wash at the minimum, or a conventional wash.

I don't know of a single black car that WON'T do what you described. It's very frustrating and this is why I own a silver and a white car. :)
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Well, he did say his car was Obsidian Black..;):p

I definitely agree with the towel question. Maybe there was something stuck in the towel. I've actually had very good success using a QD and MF towel on my former ride, a black TL-S.
It could also be the paint itself. I've never owned an Infiniti, but I keep hearing about how the paints are really soft because they have some special property with seals itself back up after a chip or scratch.
 
Thanks for the advice guys. It sounds like you guys feel my pain and I appreciate that. Unfortunately, as said, I have to learn the hard way.

I think it was a combination of the light dust/dirt that was on the vehicle. But I had only driven it one day since I had washed it...normally I don't do waterless washes for this exact reason!

The car responds very well to ONR washes, but I do use waffle weave towels for drying the body panels. When I did the ONR QD wipe-down, I was using my DI All-Purpose Microfibers.

My G35 is a 2006 model and does not come with the Scratch Shield Self-Repairing Clearcoat. I believe Infiniti introduced that for 2008 or 2009 on the G37 models.

Either way, perhaps applying Poli-Seal by hand with the CCS White Polish Applicators may undo enough of the damage done.
 
Just a thought.
Maybe the vehicle was simply too dirty for a QD.
Anything other than very light dust doesn't always play well with a QD.
Also, I think I would use a regular QD rather than the ONR mix.
I like the ONR for a rinseless wash, but I have a tough time accepting it as a QD. I used it at QD strength once and was not impressed. No scratches, but it seemed to run off the surface and didn't stay in place very long. Because of that, the area I was attempting to QD was not completely covered with the QD spray.
If may just be me, but my ONR is now used only for rinseless washes.
 
CharlesW said:
Just a thought.
Maybe the vehicle was simply too dirty for a QD.
Anything other than very light dust doesn't always play well with a QD.
Also, I think I would use a regular QD rather than the ONR mix.
I like the ONR for a rinseless wash, but I have a tough time accepting it as a QD. I used it at QD strength once and was not impressed. No scratches, but it seemed to run off the surface and didn't stay in place very long. Because of that, the area I was attempting to QD was not completely covered with the QD spray.
If may just be me, but my ONR is now used only for rinseless washes.
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I use ONR, QD strength in a pump spray bottle and it works great. Use a fine mist and it doesn't run off. Leaves behind some polymer protection. It may not be my favorite QD, but it does work for me.
 
Give your MFs the cd test, I found a couple of mine that looked nice and clean...but left terrible marring. IMO, if you need ANY pressure to remove the dirt, it's too dirty to QD. I use a drying towel like a chamois, lay flat and drag to remove the lightest dust or else just do a full wash.

Black is really tough to keep swirl free, the Acura Type-R in my Flex test thread already has some light swirls just from washing. But...

A couple days of driving after a wash the owner tried to just rinse with the sheeting method followed by a QD. He learned, I LOLed.
 
Emile, I know exactly what you are talking about. With both my Diamond Gray and Rally Blue Subaru's. The cars can look great, then 2 days later the scratches resurface. I also use Poli-Seal and ONR. I just don't know what to do about it, except to not spend as much time in the garage trying to make them perfect anymore. So sad.

My dgm legacy makes it out of the garage maybe 3 or 4 times a year just because I don't want to wash it, but damn I miss driving that thing.
 
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lgtspecb, you have a hard time with your Dark Gray Metallic Legacy? My WRX is Dark Gray Metallic and it's actually really hard to find the scratches and swirl marks.

Anyways, I came home tonight and did another wipe-down with ONR as a QD, using a waffle weave towel this time. No new scratches appeared, and fortunately the Meguiar's NXT Tech Wax is actually doing a great job of filling in and hiding all the scratches I installed the previous evening.

I think after a month or so, I'll try applying Poli-Seal by hand with the CCS White Hand Foam Applicator and see how it turns out. It's just sad that I spent so much time re-polishing my vehicle the other week with Poli-Seal to get it ready for the summer months. Soon it may be time for a Flex. :righton:
 
Emile said:
Maybe I should apply Poli-Seal by hand with a White Lake Country CCS Foam Euro Hand Polish applicator? Perhaps the scratches aren't deep and can be removed easily by hand in one pass to the entire vehicle.
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why do it by hand when you already know your machine can do a much better job and quicker as well...i say use your machine with the poliseal, and maybe use a black pad vrs a white pad for a less agressive approach....

i am in the same boat right now, i polished out my tl type s about 4 months ago, and just noticed it is all swirled up again, i believe it was my last wash that did it as the car was dirtier then usual and i think my wool mitt swirled it up....

oh well, i will take my pc and run a pass of poliseal or xmt 360 over it followed by 4 star upp and it will be good to go for another 4-6 months...

btw, i have a kenitic blue pearl tl type s and its just about as bad as a black car and if you breathe on my clear coat wrong it scratches....
 
Any chance the inclusions you nocticed were not actually corrected with the Poli Seal???

Did you do any type of post polish wipe down to ensure the defects were removed.... I don't use poli-seal and therefore, do not know much about it but being that it is marketed as a one stepper does it not contain fillers?
 
mch, poli-seal is an aio product, so generally you wouldn't do a ipa wipedown afterwards.

emile, I also found the cobra ww towel better for qd than the cobra deluxe. I spray the onr qr directly on the car, then a mist on the towel and wipe the panel, then flip the towel to a dry side and do another wipe. I rarely qd, because even a day or two of rain and dust here make the cars to dirty to do so, and when I do, my qd is more like a onr wash, just out of a spray bottle instead of a bucket. Only reason I was using qd this weekend was to keep the car clean between photo shoots.

I also don't think the Dark Gray Metallic WRX, is the same as the Diamond Gray Metallic Legacy. They are very similar but the WRX looks a little darker and flatter. I'm glad yours isnt showing the swirls easy, get mine into bright sunlight with the right angle and you can spot a few.

I always thought about getting a product with fillers to use between details. Is the NXT easy to work with? Does it leave any residue on plastic and rubber? Paste or Liquid?
 
specb, sorry I wasn't thinking. I forgot about the Diamod Gray Metallic. My Dark Gray Metallic on my WRX is actually very hard to see paint defects and swirls and such. I like NXT Tech Wax Liquid a lot...it doesn't seem to stain trim, it hides swirls and scratches nicely, and it provides really sharp reflections and brings out the color nicely. I found that the Paste Wax is an absolute nightmare to buff off, but the Liquid is an absolute dream to apply and remove. Approx $18 for 18oz of NXT 2.0 Liquid makes it one of the best value waxes out there. Some people have complained about durability, but I usually rewax once every month or two so I cannot comment on that issue.

I don't think Poli-Seal has any fillers, but after I finished doing Poli-Seal to the entire vehicle, I gave it a wash and then an alcohol wipe-down, and then applied two coats of Meguiar's NXT Tech Wax. I know there were still paint defects (scratches here and there) but I was okay with that because they were very difficult to see and required being within several inches of the area to see them. Poli-Seal isn't as effective as Optimum Polish, but Poli-Seal has a much shorter working time and lays down a durable sealant, which saved me lots of time overall.

vinnie, using Poli-Seal by hand is much faster than by machine. When I apply it by hand, I mostly just have to wipe it on and then buff it off soon after. When I apply by machine, there is almost nothing to buff off, but I have to work in 2x2 area, taking a minute or two on each area until the product disappears. If I stop early, I end up with buffer swirls and track marks just like with a traditional polish.

Thanks for the posts guys. I'm driving the G35 today and maybe I will take some pictures now that she's out in the sun. She's not as bad as I initially had seen. When the ONR wipe-down was being done, the car looked like crap. After the second wipe-down the following evening (with the waffle weave towels), the car looked a lot better for reasons I cannot explain.
 
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Emile-That NXT stains horribly...LOL maybe some different trim is better at repelling it but any time I've accidentally swiped NXT on plastic/runner trim it stained and was difficult to remove.

Anyways, I feel your pain. I used to QD my car for the first 2-3 days after wash so I could pro-long the look. I started noticing some pretty bad marring and the car goes right into the garage. It's black VW paint. Now I just let it get dirty and use my QD mostly for last step.
 
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