Waterless car cleaning - safe?

[chris_vysv8]

My SV8 is phantom and I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong w.r.t. my car's paintwork. I can get it looking really good with a massive effort of clay-cut-polish-wax (takes me about 14 hours) but then within a few weeks the fine hairline scratches start to show up again. These are the really fine type of scratches that show up in sort of clusters all scratched in the same direction and are only visible in direct sunlight.

I use a Meguiars lambswool mit to wash the car, always carefully rinsed before I start washing. I usually rinse my chamois before drying too - although not quite always. The only remotely risky thing I do is sometimes if the car hasn't been out all week and has just a light coating of fine dust; I use a quick detailer (in this case Turtle Wax Platinum series) with a Meguiars blue microfiber cloth that's been freshly washed and dried (and once dry, I keep my cloths in ziplock bags). So you can see I'm extremely anal and yet still this micro-marring shows up!!! :flamin:

Last time I detailed the car I used a fine-cut cleaner (Poorboys SSR1) so maybe this wasn't coarse enough to remove the marring I'm seeing? I don't use it by hand either, I use a random orbital polisher with Edge pads.

Anyone? Rick? :bow:

[BLKCV8]

The joys of owning a black car Chris................i have the same problem. I am not a fan of the quick detailer stuff though.Only way i can keep it looking good is to spend many hours working on it. I would love to know easy way !

[57FAT]

Have you tried Swissol products? I use them on my black ute and it really does make small marks disappear. After each wash I use my blower/vac to dry the car and then use their equivalent to "quick detailer" which helps even further. The end result is really worth the effort.

[chris_vysv8]

Have you tried Swissol products? I use them on my black ute and it really does make small marks disappear. After each wash I use my blower/vac to dry the car and then use their equivalent to "quick detailer" which helps even further. The end result is really worth the effort.

No I haven't tried Swissol yet, mainly because they are a bit out of my price range (or I should say, more than I'm prepared to spend). I think my next step is going to be to move away from the retail products (ie Turtle Wax) to using just Poorboys products, eg the Pro-Polish followed by EX-P sealant. Prolly try them next time the waxing is due at the end of the month. EX-P can be layered over several days to deliver an even better shine, which should be interesting.

[57FAT]

They aren't cheap, that's for sure, but after stuffing around with a few other products I think they are worth the expense. Are the other products your'e considering cornubia wax based?

[chris_vysv8]

They aren't cheap, that's for sure, but after stuffing around with a few other products I think they are worth the expense. Are the other products your'e considering cornubia wax based?

Actually both the Poorboys products I mentioned are totally free of any waxes and silicones. I'm not sure what the polish is made out of but the sealant is amino-resin based meaning it is both durable and able to be layered, unlike carnauba waxes. You can also choose to layer a carnauba wax on top of the EX-P and it will bond nicely. I'm going to try it with 2 layers of EX-P first and see how that comes out. Rick from WillWaxU uses some Poorboys products followed by Swissol and as we all know his results are fantastic.

First item of business though will be to buff out the scratches from my little sideways excursion a week ago. :mad:

PS Thank you to whichever mod fixed up my unfortunate little typo in the first message of this thread!

[57FAT]

Rick's results certainly speak for themselves. He posted a step by step guide not so long ago which was really informative, you may be aware of it. Good luck with it mate.

[muzza]

Dark cars are a bitch to keep clean and show every little scratch and ding - but they do look really hot.

I would really cut out using the quick detailer type stuff without rinsing the car off - dust is fine abrasive grit, and if you dont remove it you are just rubbing it against the paint and putting more fines scratches on it. The dust will accumulate on your microfibre towels and be rubbed all over your paint. Try wiping your finger in the dust then putting some between your teeth and you'll see what I mean.

Unless you actually mechanically polish the fines scratches out they will only be hidden by the silicone oils etc most polishes/waxes have in them. The oils and waxes slowly wash off the paint over weeks exposing the scratches again - the microfibre towels are excellent for cleaning but I have found they are also very efficient at removing waxes and oils - kinda like strong detergent - the special fibres can emulsify and remove the oily/waxy stuff.

I wash mine with a wash/wax style detergent that seems to give a fresh waxy layer each time with beading water, but it's only temporary.

Seriously, ask Rick at WillWaxU - he has forgotten more than most know about car detailing.

[pah]

[quote=Nursing_Mother]

OOPS that was meant to read "extremely..." So much for proof-reading!:vpo:


Shame on you Chris,

Take a 100 lines. I will pay more attention to poof reading in the future.

Kid's langauge?

And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle
Of the, tramways and the buses making hurry down the street,
And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting,
Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp of feet.


http://members.webone.com.au/~newtoy/clancy.htm



PAH

[Snappa]

Question I have...

Are you the only person cleaning your car??

Im only talking from experience in owning a black car and trying to keep it scratch free!!!

Firstly, NEVER get any paint protection.. waste of money and why get some monkey polishing a brand new car with a $4 bottle of cut and polish?? It will end up with scratches.

Secondly, NEVER let your dealer wash your car during a service.. because they are usually new kids without any training... (bring it in dirty, they sponge your rims, then your windows and then your body - with no hose down!!!) there are your scratches.. Yes the car looks clean when you pick it up as the sun has usually gone down and you can see it. Bottom line, wash it clean before you take it in, to avoid them doing it!

So then you end up blaming yourself for someone elses pathetic efforts.

Just be careful!

[chris_vysv8]

Good point - and in fact I never let anyone else so much as touch my car's paintwork. My last car was also black and I made the mistake of letting the detailing crowd at my local shopping centre give it a wash. End result? Masses of fine scratches, like they don't keep their sponges clean or something; probably use the same one for paintwork and wheels!

[throttlehappy]

i made the mistake of taking my car to a fat bastard detailer not long after i got it to get rid of some water marks etc...
when i went to pick it up i thought great, hes done a really good job only to have swirl marks show up in the next couple of days. my cars dark blue by the way. p*ssed off i took it back to him and he attempted to remove the swirls, well he didnt get rid of them and i found a few scratches that werent there previously :shock: then i find out off his worker he has had alot of complaints :shock: :shock: not happy i tell him its comming back till its fixed so he says come in early saturday morning. i say ok and i never show up :flip3: the swirls wouldnt fade and nothing looks worse than swirl marks on a dark car so i ended up doing a hand polish that took 4 hours :bawl: but fixed it up
all i can say is my next car will be red hot :yup:
im sick of trying to keep a dark car clean

[chris_vysv8]

Sounds like the typical horror story... I took my first car (VT Exec, no less :p) to some detailer in Melbourne's outer east. It had some fairly deep scratches on the rear quarter which they proceeded to try and remove - removing the clear coat in the process.

Like a lot of things, the old saying rings true "If you want it done right, do it yourself". Personally I have gotten excellent results by experimenting (and wasting quite a bit on useless products in the process). Even still, I didn't get really fantastic results until I started following the product recommendations and techniques in Rick from WillWaxU's How To posts on this forum.

[stevegunn]

Here ya go, have a read and a chat to this fella. not cheap stuff though
http://www.waterlesscarwash.com.au/pages/driwash.html