First time I clayed and waxed my car!

[bdanisi]

I gotta say washing my car has become therapeutic. I have black so obviously it requires the most maintenance. But for a while I was nervous (lol I dunno why) that unless I paid someone to wash and wax it for me I would mess it up myself. So I read and read and read. I clayed it for the first time ever that was crazy how much crap came off!
On to the wax. I got the new megauirs tech wax 2.0 which is is a new wax and the instructions said to wax the whole car let dry and then remove with microfiber. I thought this was interesting as I was always told to do the Mr miyagi wax on wax off. I waxed the car as evenly as possible let it dry and the microfiber ed the wax off. Somehow I still got swirls?? The whole point of that wax was to prevent that.

Tl;dr I'm a wax noob. What part did I mess up on? Uneven wax application? Did I mess up somehow when I removed the wax? And is there anyway to correct the swirls without reclaying and starting from scratch? Any feedback is greatly appreciated!
Brandon

[blue cat]

Did you apply in straight lines (crosshatch pattern) or spiral motions?
There will still be marks either method, but straight lines are harder to see and less reflective than circular swirls. I use the same wax and it is very good.

[Clembo]

Were the swirls there before you used the tech wax? Washing usually causes them, not the wax afterwards. IIRC, the tech wax is a polymer sealant and its results may depend on the condition of the paint at the start. Try a coat of carnauba like Meguiars Gold Class over it - they usually have fillers that will make the swirls less noticable. Besides, it will add to the depth of the shine.

No matter what, everything that touches your car should be as soft as a baby's butt and as clean as a surgical operating room. And all microfibers are not created equal. Some of the cheaper ones can be worse than using a paper towel. Microfiber is plastic so you want towels with the finest and longest fibers you can find.

Just my opinion on these things, I'm sure others will have more for you. There is also a lot of information on autogeek.net. Worth a read - knowledge is power!

[Laika]

I think you need to be more specific about these swirls.

Swirls are scratches.

You might be talking about light holograms.

[bdanisi]

Shit from reading this im starting to think the wax is highlighting some serious hail damage I took. Or I didn't wash it as well as I thought I did. I'll try and get a pic up today. Thx for the help tho!
And I did circles with the wax. So straight line is better?

[blue cat]

I think i watched a video of driveclean (youtube them) about car washing and they are super in-depth. One of the things they were preaching was wax in straight lines rather than circle patterns. Apparently you always leave marks from washing/waxing no matter how careful, but straight lines are less noticeable because they travel along the lines of the car and catch the light less. I've seen videos comparing straight line marks and swirl marks and the swirls certainly seemed to stand out more. Having said that, plenty of youtube detailers seem fine using a circular application pattern.

[Richard Cranium]

Adam's Polishes website has a full series of videos demonstrating good wash/wax techniques from start to finish, regardless of the actual products you end up using.

http://www.adamspolishes.com/t-videos.aspx

Note:I don't work for AP, but I did just buy a set of their 3 stage cutting/polishing waxes.