Preventing Swirls and Scratches on Soft Black Paint

[nmatthew]

My car has an extremely soft black paint. I always find new swirls here and there after each wash. As a result I have to correct the paint for like every 6 months or so. I have a ceramic coating on my car, by the way.

For my wash, I always do a 2 bucket method, I use korean microfiber mitts (similar to Gyeon smoothie). The shampoo I use is Tac System's Mystic Bubble. My wash process includes a pre-wash, then rinsing with a pressure washer, foaming the car again and performing a hand wash. I always rinse my mitt every one or two panel, I also wash top to bottom in linear motions (1 pass only) I dry my car with Gyeon's silk drying towel, combined with a blower. Even recently I dried the car without touching it only with a blower since I just got it recoated. BUT still I got a few new scratches here and there.

So, i assume that my washing process is adding scratches to the car. Should I use multiple wash mitts? Should I use a drying aid for added lubricity?

 

[bcgreen]

I know this is not going to help you very much but I used to own a black 2004 G35 that had extremely soft paint. It was so soft that running a cotton ball over the paint would scratch it. I would end up polishing the paint once a month and towards the end you could just barely see the primer around the quarter panel where the wife would touch trying to get out with her #9 nails. That's when I joined this forum and Accumulator came to my rescue. He told me to try Optimum Opti-Coat. Wow, wow, what a difference - the greatest product I've ever used and a lot of guys feel the same way and the price was right too. Every time I washed the car it look just as if I had polished and waxed it. It was phenominal. Never had to break out the polisher again, it was a hard shell type of coating and for the next two years I didn't have to top it with anything.
Now you can't get OC unless you are a certified professional detailer and the price has gone through the roof.

 

[Bill D]

Definitely use multiple mitts and wash more often than you think is necessary. I would use a foam gun to constantly flow soap over your paint while you wash. Just foaming once and rinsing isn't enough. Prepare to use a lot of soap.

 

[bcgreen]

Definitely use multiple mitts and wash more often than you think is necessary. I would use a foam gun to constantly flow soap over your paint while you wash. Just foaming once and rinsing isn't enough. Prepare to use a lot of soap.

That sounds like a good approach to his issue but a real pain to have to go through that each and every time to clean the vehicle. But if it works then that's what you have to do.

 

[Bill D]

Once you do it a few times it’s not reallly that big of a pain. Beats the time and expense of having to polish. Not to mention saving clearcoat.

 

[mc2hill]

I know that feeling - my black Frontier would scratch from a hard look.

I would suggest adding Grit Guard(s), and making it a 2, 3, or 4 bucket wash. The more you clean the mitt, the less chance of marring from the wash. Or looking at using multiple mitts or even the 'bucket of towels' method. Most use the BoT method with rinseless washes, but it works the same with wash soap.
Bucket of Towels - place several high quality microfiber towels in your wash solution, remove a towel & fold it into 4's, now you have 4 (or 8 if you reverse it) clean parts to clean the car. But only clean small sections - the temptation is to get 'greedy' and wipe a large section, but that defeats the purpose and can lead to swirls. Move to a clean section of the towel and continue.

 

[Desertnate]

Definitely use multiple mitts and wash more often than you think is necessary. I would use a foam gun to constantly flow soap over your paint while you wash. Just foaming once and rinsing isn't enough. Prepare to use a lot of soap.

Once you do this to prevent swirls from washing, you need to pay attention to drying as well. Make sure you use the absolute softest drying towels possible and/or use a leaf blower/air dryer to blow off the water.

To make the water easier to dry or blow off, using a sealant or a coating with a high level of water sheeting will help with this. If you can flood rinse the surface to remove most of the water, there is far less drying going on and it will reduce the opportunities to induce swirls.

 

[nmatthew]

I know that feeling - my black Frontier would scratch from a hard look.

I would suggest adding Grit Guard(s), and making it a 2, 3, or 4 bucket wash. The more you clean the mitt, the less chance of marring from the wash. Or looking at using multiple mitts or even the 'bucket of towels' method. Most use the BoT method with rinseless washes, but it works the same with wash soap.
Bucket of Towels - place several high quality microfiber towels in your wash solution, remove a towel & fold it into 4's, now you have 4 (or 8 if you reverse it) clean parts to clean the car. But only clean small sections - the temptation is to get 'greedy' and wipe a large section, but that defeats the purpose and can lead to swirls. Move to a clean section of the towel and continue.

I use grit guards on both my wash and rinse bucket already. I'll try to use multiple mitts on my next wash. If it still doesn't satisfy my needs, I'll try the BoT method then.

By the way, how do you wash your black Frontier?

 

[nmatthew]

Once you do this to prevent swirls from washing, you need to pay attention to drying as well. Make sure you use the absolute softest drying towels possible and/or use a leaf blower/air dryer to blow off the water.

To make the water easier to dry or blow off, using a sealant or a coating with a high level of water sheeting will help with this. If you can flood rinse the surface to remove most of the water, there is far less drying going on and it will reduce the opportunities to induce swirls.

Yes I agree. I have a coating from Fireball on my car already. In the past I found out that using my Gyeon silk dryer alone will still leave a few scratches.

Do you think I should use a drying aid/detail spray that is made for coatings?

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

I'll try to use multiple mitts on my next wash.

See this article,

How to safely wash a ceramic coated car by Mike Phillips - Traditional Hose & Bucket Approach

Dunk your towels

I've already mixed up my car wash solution so I'm going to place all 12 of my clean and inspected microfiber towels into the bucket. I dunk them into the wash solution and just let them soak while I wash the wheels and tires.

Grab a microfiber towel out of your wash bucket.

Squeeze any excess wash solution out of the towel

Basically when you hold the towel above the bucket you should not see a steady stream of water coming out of the towel. Drips are good.

Starting at the top
This is me washing the passenger side of the roof and at the same time taking a pictures.


I start in the MIDDLE and work my way outward. I only make one or two passes as I work from the middle to the outside of the panel. If you move the towel or a mitt OVER AND OVER A PANEL this is called SCRUBBING - not washing and you will loosen the dirt on the panel and then rub it into the paint and cause swirls and scratches. Think about it!

and yeah... more info in the actual article.


How to safely wash a ceramic coated car by Mike Phillips - Traditional Hose & Bucket Approach

 

[Desertnate]

If you are going to physically touch the car and dry it, it won't hurt as it will add a bit of lubrication between the drying towel and the paint.

My wife's dark red/maroon metallic Toyota is crazy soft too. I don't use a drying aid, but am very careful with the drying. I flood rinse the whole thing and then just go back and dab up/gently dry what water is left behind.

 

[mc2hill]

...By the way, how do you wash your black Frontier?

Mostly rinseless washes, with an occasional foam gun/2BM wash. I quit trying to chase the swirls and just kept it clean (mostly). But I don't have to do that any more, as an impaired driver totaled it a few months ago.

 

[Bruno Soares]

Soft black paint…. Either wrap the whole car in PPF or sell it. That’s what I would do.

I’ve owned 2 black cars before. Never again unless I have the cash to have it completely wrapped in PPF.

 

[joshhas99problems]

A quality coating makes all the difference on black paint. The prosumer options arent bad eeither...certainly better than with no coating

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[bcgreen]

I used to have a black 2004 Infin. G35. The paint was so soft that you could take a cotton ball and slide it along the paint and it would scratch. When the wife exited from the drivers side she would grab hold of the B pillar to help her up. I would spend my time each week polishing out the scratches. I even went down to see Mike when he worked for Meguiars to help figure things out. Anyway the primer was just barely visible and luckily, Accumulator, came to my rescue and recommended that I use Optimum Opti-Coat. After that the car was like most black cars with hard paint and it looked gorgeous everytime I dusted it. A real life saver. I don't know about other coatings but OC was the best thing ever. I just wished I would have known that Optimum was going to up the price and who could use it - I would have bought a half doz. syringes and figured out how to store it for the future.