Avoiding swirl marks and water spots?
 

I hand wash my car about every week at a local car wash place. Go through all the motions, use the spray polish, wax, clearcoat, rinse it off, do the spot free rinse. After that I go to dry the car with some microfiber cloths, well this past time I did it I had a bunch of swirl marks on my car. So I took it through a touchless wash, and it solved the visible swirl marks, but now I have a bunch of water spots all over. What is the easiest solution to avoid both of these?

Edit: I'm very new to washing my car myself, so any advice is appreciated :D

You have a lot to learn! I don't have much time before I head to work, but I'll throw out some quick items.

Terms:

Swirl Marks - Fine scratches in the paint. Scratches are in your paint (like getting keyed but much much less deep into the paint). Swirl marks are not something on your paint.

Polish - Abrasive compound used to abrade/level paint to remove swirl marks and light scratches

Wax - Protective coating on top of your paint. A sacrificial barrier to the elements. Not supposed to be abrasive.

Clearcoat - Actual paint product laid on top of base coat when the car was in the factory (or in the body shop getting repainted)


Consider the following whenever you make physical contact with your paint:

Is the media (towel or wash mitt) as clean and as soft of a material as possible? To me, if it has touched anything or stored in anything that's basically not sterile, it's considered dirty and goes into the dirty towel bin. Microfiber towels used for paint are separated from terry cloths and other microfibers that are used for the really dirty jobs, ie. wheel cleaning

Did you take the tags off the microfiber towels?

Is the paint surface really clean and dust/dirt-free? Are you working outside or in a less-dusty/dirty environment, ie. garage

How much pressure are you putting onto the paint, and is it necessary for the task you are doing?

Are you letting any drops of any type of water dry onto the paint surface, and is it drying in the sun? (You shouldn't)

Why are you touching your paint? Do you really have to? Is it really dirty/dusty enough to warrant touching it? Any physical contact with your paint is another chance for swirl marks to show up.


I just rattled off the most basic things I think about whenever I do detailing work on any car that has paint worth caring for.

To answer some of those questions, yes I took the tags off the microfiber, they are ones that I purchased in the auto department of a local store.

The paint surface doesn't appear clean or dust free, it was washed outside. Yesterday was a particularly sunny day, and the sun was shining on the car when it was being washed.

When doing the routine of the wash I use the lowest pressure setting, and when I'm rinsing the car off the highest pressure setting on the wash.

And I avoid touching the paint at all cost. The only time I do is to confirm if something is like a rock chip, or scratch, or dent, instead of just a streak of dirt or something.

To add, I guess they aren't actual swirl marks, more like smudges from the microfiber in a circular motion. This was very noticeable in the sunlight, so I took it to a touchless wash at night, and it didn't dry completely, and I awoke to a water spot/streak covered car. Is there any fast solution to removing these? Like running a damp microfiber gently over it or something? I'd rather not run it through and wash it again if it can be avoided.

The microfiber towels at the autoparts store are crap. I've been looking into a lot of detailing stuff since getting my new car last week and have learned a lot.

Adam's polishing has a lot of awesome, informational videos and tutorials on youtube. I just bought the "Adam's Essential Car Kit" and a few other things from @DetailersDomain over the weekend.

The microfiber towels that they have on there are much different than the ones from Autozone and stuff. They still have those types of microfiber towels but it's listed that those be used for things like doorjams, engine bay etc. and not the actual surface of the car.

I'm still quite a bit of a newb when it comes to this topic though, so maybe the guys from DetailersDomain can chime in since I tagged them in this post.

Just to give the opposite end of the spectrum:

I am the swirl mark King!

My car is a DD that gets almost 4,000 miles a month on it, year round. When not driving it sits outside. It is constantly exposed to sun, rain, dust, pollen, bugs, smoke, debris, snow, ice, tree sap, bird crap, cats, dogs, alien scans and any number of other mystery materials. I want to keep in clean and shiny but don't think of the paint as some delicate flower that can't be touched or take some abuse.
I wash it every week with a microfiber cloth that I rinse out and hang in the bucket which sits beside my hose and then wipe it down with an artificial chamois that I also rinse and throw back in it's container.
Do I have swirls? You bet I do and if I look at it at just the right angle, squint perfectly with the precise level of light I just may see them.
Can I tell from just looking at the car from 2 feet away? Nope and nobody else can either.
If it was a garage queen or show car then by all means I would handle it differently but it isn't so I don't.

Haha ya I'm in the same boat. About 2000 miles a month all highway, so I get rock chips and window dinks all the time. Live in an apartment also, so my car is under a tree every night. Normally I don't care too much, I take it to the wash once a week spend about an hour on it, and normally it isn't bad. It's to my liking, just yesterday for some reason the smudges from the microfiber were atrocious and noticeable from 15+ yards back...

I guess I'm still in the baby phase since I've only had the car for a month, before I freaked out over the smallest thing, now I look at the front and just say, damn thats a lot of chips...oh well... But washing it and having swirl marks is something I can kind of control, so I want to avoid it if possible.

This is my sixth new car so my baby stage for it was about a week and I know that anything I do while washing it is the least of my worries. Worst thing I ever did was wax my brand new Lancer wearing a jacket with metal buttons on the cuffs. Didn't notice I had been dragging the button over the paint until done half the car. It was nasty and I make sure to never do that again.

To be clear I am not criticizing those that treat their car like a precious jewel but simply pointing out that it is a car and the paint is specifically made to be able to take some contact and is able to be washed.

what kind of wax are you using? Is it spray on wax or liquid wax? If you are properly using the liquid wax you should not really be seeing any swirl marks in the clearcoat.

I lol at baby phase. I was in that team when scratched a bit the front bumper and some swirls
then i realized i need to knees and put my chek on the floor see front scratches. About swirls i need my glasses for notice them, remember for untrained eyes this car shine itself no matter if clean or crap

Answer: buy a white car next time

I still think my firestorm frs looks good (from a distance) when it's not washed for a month with a light layer of dust on top. I call it additional protection on top of wax. Hides the swirls and imperfections as well! :P

if you want to learn alot on how to take care of your car

look into watching some AMMO NYC videos, this guy is a crazy perfectionist! and its awesome!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYs...TkoxI5D17s1u-w

I've started to see that if you start early, it's pretty easy to keep the car looking really good.

Paint correction and polishing will take a good period of time to do, as will the rest of that initial deep cleaning/ "restoration". After that though, all you do is change the items you're using and maybe a couple of the methods and you can keep the paint looking really nice for a good while.

Paint correction, polishing, wax/sealant along with a good clean on the rest of the car. After that, go to a DIY carwash or something and bring your stuff with you. Wash the car, use some detail spray, and then dry it off with the proper towel. After that, just go over a few areas if they need it and you're good to go.

I'm still new to it though, so I'm still learning as I said. I'll be doing the full first cleaning on my '16 STI this weekend with all the stuff I just bought. Should be interesting :)

That's all I had to read. Let me guess, you use one of these?

http://i59.tinypic.com/312797t.jpg

Water spots come from mineral deposits that are left once water is dried. Depending on the severity, it might have to get polished out. More info about it here:

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/...-type-iii.html

Never, ever, ever EVER use the chemicals and/or water provided by a local car wash. Here's a quote I pulled from a different thread, if you're serious about keeping the paint in good shape it's time to start learning. One bad wash and it's back to swirl city.

I actually avoid using this at all cost. I only use the hose and then the tri-coat foam.

Edit: And I have no choice in washing. I have to take it to a car wash, I live in an apartment and don't have access really to any open water source.

I imagine it is a liquid wax, its a setting for the hose. So I turn the setting on and spray the car down.

Lol I remember those days. No big deal though. At the end of the day, it's just a car. You can't spend every second of your life keeping it clean.

In a perfect world, you would want distilled water, but I wouldn't expect you or anybody to go out and buy jugs of them, dump them into a bucket, and wash a car with it; that's a bit too inconvenient (personally).

I would suggest getting one or two of those buckets with a grit guard and bringing them with you to the wash along with your other stuff. Maybe get a good pH balanced car shampoo and just use the water at the wash to fill the bucket and rinse off the car. Nothing crazy or inconvenient, but should help quite a bit in keeping the paint looking nice.

Ya very true, I've noticed as the days gone on it's slowly less noticeable so I'm not really too concerned about it. I just need to get used to having a nice car :D. I've always had beater cars that I never cared for until now.

Swirl marks are caused by very fine scratches on the paint. Very, very, very fine. Unless you make it your day time job you wont ever get 100% rid of them 24/7.

One big problem I've seen lately with any new car is people washing car, driving out in dust bowl, and then coming home and covering it with a car cover. Especially if parked outside, the moving of car cover will cause some swirls to appear. I've tested this out on mine many times.

What does help is wax. Use it. Get it washed nicely, dried nicely, wipe it for dust, clay, and clean that off, then wax it with a real wax! Polish it, then finally, after its dried a few hours...and I'll get hate on this....well, apply a liquid wax like Meguiar's. It's reduced my swirls from returning by about 50%. And yes wax removes wax... but I like wax and its worked for me. Then just wax once month.

I wouldn't worry much about swirls though. 90% cars out there I see everyday have 'em.

p.s. wax back and forth. I think waxing in circles will not help as well. ;(

Why would you wax before polishing? Wax is supposed to be a sacrificial protective layer over the clearcoat. If you wax the car, you'll just have to polish through it; seems like a wasted step to me.

Everything I've gained from the chemical brothers and adams polishing guys has said polish before wax. Clay before polish.

Sounds like youre using some cheap wax that comes out of a car wash? Go buy a real wax Turtle Ice liquid wax is really good you can wax your car at home don't use that cheap hose carwash crap.

The bottom line is this:

How much do you care about your paint?

Use whatever techniques, processes, and products that gets you the results that you want.

You like the simple method of just getting dust and dirt off the paint through an automated car wash? Cool.

You want perfect paint and invest time and money in utilizing a comprehensive detailing setup that even high-end detailers (who get flown overseas to detail exotic cars for their clients) would envy? Awesome.

You want to do nothing at all and decide a clean car is not worth your time. So be it.

I wanted to thank everyone for all the info in this thread. It has been really helpful to me. I washed my car with the rinseless method for the first time this week and gotta say it was pretty awesome!