I'm done being OCD about swirls...

mdgrwl

mdgrwl

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I'm throwing in the towel on being OCD...

I work full time.
I live in the Northeast.
I drive 100 miles a day ... and within a day or two, my car is filthy, especially during the winter.

For the longest I've been trying to NEVER take my car through an automatic and only doing 2 bucket washes & waterless. This leaves me vigorously watching the weather, looking for a few days in a row of dry weather to wash my car. And if there is any rain in the forecast I wouldn't wash as my car as it will just get filthy again during my commute ...this would leave me going 1-2 weeks in a row driving a filthy car. Worst, when I do find a few days in a row of dry weather, I have to wash my car outside in the dark, in 35 degree weather becuase I get home from work at 6pm and during the winter its dark out.

All this to avoid swirls... ?? Swirls that you have to really look for and swirls that the average Joe couldn't bother to take notice of??

I'm done. I just joined a automatic car wash for unlimited washes a year... now my car will be clean every day, but wont be swirl free. Oh friggin well!
 
^^^Good for You!!!^^^


Thank Goodness...
I have a partner in grime...OOOPS: Partner in crime!!!

:props:

Bob
 
I don't see being so OCD on a daily driver that big of deal anyway, especially in the conditions you drive in, so why bother. Keep it clean, leave the swirls alone, and preserve the life and thickness of your paint by not always chasing swirls, and keep a good sealant and/or wax on it and you'll be fine.

Nothing wrong at all with being OCD about swirls, but let's keep it real. There's a time and a place for everything, and for every vehicle situation. Being OCD about swirls on a car driven in these types of conditions/environment is almost laughable in my opinion. Pick your battles...but plan on winning them.

Garage queens are just that. Don't mind fighting the swirl battle in this regard. Daily drivers are different depending on the conditions driven in and then a choice must be an individual choice as to how to move forward in cleanliness/swirliness.
 
^I agree with Bill.

It's hard to keep a daily driver immaculate. I live in Alaska and it's not friendly towards a clean car at all. I tried to keep my truck clean (not even swirl free) for a while but gave up after I realized my attempts were futile. I do have a garage queen that stays very clean but there isn't much hope for my truck. I guess it's one of those things where you have to pick your battles and know when to throw in the towel, especially if it becomes so unenjoyable and time consuming to try and maintain. That's my .02. Can't win them all I suppose. My eventual plan to combat this problem is to move to a new state entirely.
 
Funny - I thought the owner of the vehicle(s) determined what was acceptable or not...

We are, of course, free to disagree, but if the owner of a DD wants to polish it weekly, what's "wrong" with that? If the owner of a nice weekender doesn't want to wash it... it may not look good, but it's his/her car...
 
SlightlyBent said:
Funny - I thought the owner of the vehicle(s) determined what was acceptable or not...
Click to expand...

It should be apparent that each poster thus far has pretty much came to the same conclusion as you, albeit said in different ways. In other words...:iagree:
 
In my opinion I don't think you'll ever stop begin OCD about swirls but congrats to finding a alternative to keeping your car clean
 
My OCD stop on my dd too. I did it for 6 months swirl free. After that, no more. I have a silver dd so you can barely can see it barely see it. I haven't let anyone wash my car though.
 
Use a paint coating like GTechniq C1 then you won't get any more scratches from car washes.
 
Hmm.... I drive 70-80 miles a day, have 12 hour days everyday, school, detailing business, parked outside from 4pm-5am next day. My car is swirl free, and washed about once a week. It shines like hell people say...Oh and i live in Chicago.

If i can do it, so can you!!!!!
 
And I thought I am the only one. In the first 2 years of coating my ride, I am just so anal about the little bit of swirls, or even hairlines. Sooner or later, I realized it is going no where for a daily ride. Heck, when parked in a shopping mall, at least my ride still look the best and glossy wet and most importantly it makes weekly washing easy.

I still can't let go of water spots. I use blower whenever I reach home from a downpour.
 
Same here, not worth the effort IMO.

I just keep it clean and protected.

Buff it twice a year to clean it up.

Plan on hitting it with WGTSR and orange pad in the spring to clean it up and polish with WGFG then go back with what is currently on it now, WGDGPS.

Once in the spring and once in the fall is good usually.
 
billboard2001 said:
^I agree with Bill.

It's hard to keep a daily driver immaculate. I live in Alaska and it's not friendly towards a clean car at all. I tried to keep my truck clean (not even swirl free) for a while but gave up after I realized my attempts were futile. I do have a garage queen that stays very clean but there isn't much hope for my truck. I guess it's one of those things where you have to pick your battles and know when to throw in the towel, especially if it becomes so unenjoyable and time consuming to try and maintain. That's my .02. Can't win them all I suppose. My eventual plan to combat this problem is to move to a new state entirely.
Click to expand...


Know what you mean, the garage queen stays in the garage, never gets driven in the rain etc. Makes for easy maintenance too. :xyxthumbs:

My truck on the other hand..... Sits outside 24/7...
 
As stated, a DD Honda Civic, vs Lotus garage queen are different marbles. Living in a frigid winter climate where all the slush in constantly on your makes life tough for anyone who is OCD about their DD.
BUT, keeping it reasonably clean and doing a full detailing (paint correction etc.) twice a year would be acceptable IMO.
Best of luck.
 
I use a touchless local car wash in the winter. No swirls. None. No LSP degradation (coating). Getting off 95% of crud is fine with me for winter driving. I do a conventional wash one a month in winter when temps allow.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
To have a swirl free car, I would have to let it sit dirty until the optimum conditions where I could wash it. I'd rather have a clean and bright looking car every day with some swirls.

As others have said, I plan on doing a full correction once or twice a year... with regular waxing.

Nice to see I'm not alone...
 
I used to think when I lived in Chicago, that I had it bad maintaining a vehicle. At least in comparison to places like southwest Florida. It seemed places like Venice, and Sarasota Fla. which I frequented often on vacation, car care was much easier, because of that area not being a dusty environment. Rain yes, high humidity yes, searing hot sun, yes most of the year, dusty, not at all bad.

Then I moved here to the desert southwest, New Mexico, and have no garage.

If I went back to owning a show condition Corvette like I once did, or other pristine ride, I think I would literally go insane here, and would have to be relegated to a rubber room! LOL
Mark
 
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