Natural Sea Sponge Scratched the Sh*t out of my Car!

J

jaguax

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I'm really not that pissed though because I have a brand new UDM sitting here waiting to be used, and I was planning on detailing it soon anyway. But at the same time, the worlds gentlest sponge is not supposed to be scratching my finish like this.

They're not exactly swirl marks, but straight scratches in the direction that I was rubbing the sponge. Obviously sand right?

They are claimed to be thoroughly cleaned before shipping, but I think that's a lie because I saw a ton of tiny sand particles clinging to the plastic wrap that it was sealed in.

I spent 20 minutes rinsing it out in the bathtub before using it, and it felt very soft when rubbing it against my skin... It was VERY smooth on the car too, but obviously not smooth enough because here I am with these straight scratches running the length of the car now.

$20 gone for nothing... I'm sticking with the shmidt from now on.

Warning: Brutal pictures ahead (detail might be a bit off due to crappy MSPaint jpeg compression). Should I jump straight to the orange pad or try the white out first? (First time detailing)

swirls1ke1.jpg


swirls2av2.jpg
 
Crazy. I have an older Sea Sponge that still works great and never left scratches, rinsed it for little bit before I 1st used it just like you did. Not sure what happened with yours, sorry to hear/see.
 
ouch sorry to hear that . i would stay away from those
 
That marring is not from one use of a sea sponge...sorry...the sponge would have had to be coated in sand to do that much Marring...I have used sea sponges and never had marring from one use like that....in fact there was not noticable marring...

All swirls start out as straight line markings..just the more you get the sun hits them and creates the round swirly effect...thats the way the light refracts form the paint...

AL
 
Al, I just happen to have a close up picture of "swirls" that is cropped out of a larger picture.

Swirl-Lines2.jpg
 
Al-53 said:
That marring is not from one use of a sea sponge...sorry...the sponge would have had to be coated in sand to do that much Marring...I have used sea sponges and never had marring from one use like that....in fact there was not noticable marring...

All swirls start out as straight line markings..just the more you get the sun hits them and creates the round swirly effect...thats the way the light refracts form the paint...

AL
Click to expand...

Well... I don't know how else you can explain it. Everything was clean, the bucket, the water, and I thoroughly sprayed the car before even touching it with the sponge. I never had problems like this with the schmidt... The only variable that changed this time around was going from the schmidt to the sea sponge. And like I said, there was a lot of sand in the plastic wrap around the sponge, albeit very tiny particles.

But can someone answer my other question. Do those scratches look like something I should attack with the orange pad, or should I try out the white first?
 
AS I said that blow up shows a ton of scratches....the sponge would have to be like sand paper...I am not sticking up for the sponge by all means....but thats alot of marring ....from one use.....

AL
 
Sorry to see that, but just curious why did you stop using The ShMiTT if it was working well? ShMiTT is guaranteed not to come with any sand in it at all!
 
Wow, what wash and dilution were you using? Was the car really dirty?

I love sea songes, especially for rinsless washing where the shmitt is uneffiecient.

An orange pad and a compound like SSR2.5, Menz 106, XMT3 will get those out.
 
I love my Shmitt! I don't think I'd ever try a sea sponge. Sorry it did that to your car. On the other hand, just think of the great write up you can do after you get those scratches out!

Good luck.
 
Wow that sucks. Sorry to see that :( If you have XMT 2, try that with an Orange Pad, then XMT 1 with a White Pad, should remove them..
 
Really sorry to see that! I remember that last winter my truck was simply just filthy from it not having been washed in weeks and a lot of sand and salt on the roads. I did the single bucket but used the ShMITT and the Guzzler to wash and dry.

I had quite a bit of marring in my paint, but I know it wasn't from the Guzzler or the ShMITT.

I am saying that the swirls/marring might have already been there or your vehicle was very dirty and that's how it was caused.
 
I still have my old sea sponge that I hardly ever use at all...even if it can be clean of any sand, it can trap sand, increasing your possibility of scartching the finish...same goes for Ulti-Mitt...
 
jaguax said:
Well... I don't know how else you can explain it. Everything was clean, the bucket, the water, and I thoroughly sprayed the car before even touching it with the sponge. I never had problems like this with the schmidt... The only variable that changed this time around was going from the schmidt to the sea sponge. And like I said, there was a lot of sand in the plastic wrap around the sponge, albeit very tiny particles.

But can someone answer my other question. Do those scratches look like something I should attack with the orange pad, or should I try out the white first?
Click to expand...

I would just start with the orange pad.
 
IMO the marring was already there, the sponge did not do that.

You said yourself the paint has not been corrected yet. If it hasnt been corrected yet then thats how the paint already was.
 
Ahh, yes, if the paint hasn't been polished yet those swirls were already there.
 
yowzaz - those are pretty bad...although i would probably agree that some of that stuff is due to the sponge i think alot of it was tehre arleady...

i use a Shmitt and have used microfiber washmits on BRAND NEW CARS...and have come out pretty flawless..

butttttttt sometimes even on brand new cars, with a brand new washmit there still can be minor scratches..and this could be due to 1 frakin grain of dirt that happen to get lodged in and might have caused a lil marring

nothing a good polish can't take out

with that being said...my mom has a red slk320 and similar scratches to that, though not heavy...

hit it with a good polish and polisher/pad combo you should get most of those out
if you bust out a rotary you can get even better results and probably in 1/4 the time

i personally have a pc at the moment so i would use my ssr 3 orange/yellow pad, or SIP/orange yellow pad...depending on how the product looks after then maybe some 106ff with a white

it looks like it mite take a few steps.., but it can be solved!

dont panic too much, sometimes its not your fault...i hope you get it resolved!
 
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