Avoiding swirl marks and water spots?

[Tero]

Originally Posted by Turbo95eg6

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

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.

[Tero]

Originally Posted by brandonblt2

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

[TylerLieberman]

Originally Posted by Tero

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.

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.

[Tero]

Originally Posted by TylerLieberman

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 . I've always had beater cars that I never cared for until now.

[Packofcrows]

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. ;(

[TylerLieberman]

Originally Posted by Packofcrows

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.

[brandonblt2]

Originally Posted by Tero

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

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.

[AFRichZC6]

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.

[Meatstreak]

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!