how to wash without trashing my paint like ive been doing for years.

[Stratocaster]

ok i hava 1992 thunderbird. 63k miles on it. i used to wash with any cheap soap and a brush(sumn softer then i even brush my teeth with) and wuld dry with meijer bought towls.

i upgraded:P to a meguiars soft mit and there gold class car wash. then i dry mostly with the same meijer towels. and use microfibers to apply ultimate liquid wax...

is there anything in my proccess that wuld cause horrible swirls that are only slightly helped with the wax. and what do i need to do step by step to get my paint to the nice gloss without the swirls. and is my washing proccess in any way harming my efforts.

http://s1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/cmdpro/bad%20finish/

plz feel free to ask me any more details about how ive been doing things i horribly afraid my paint is gunna start to go south.

[Stratocaster]

Re: how to wash without trashing my paint like ive been doing for years.

and oh yh. freind of mine ran and ran his mouth about how awsome he is with a buffer. he ran swirl remover into the paint with a buffer wheel and used microfibers with years of old wax caked on it to rub it in. looked nice untill the right angle revealed the swirls were still there and there were horrible buff marks all over the car. that i culdnt wash out. what causes buff marks even when done by hand to be left behind?

[Murr1525]

Re: how to wash without trashing my paint like ive been doing for years.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7598756069207401372#

[walletless]

Re: how to wash without trashing my paint like ive been doing for years.

What is your wash technique? 2 buckets & grit guard.. or 1 bucket? Did the swirls exist before you moved from the cheap soap to Megs gold wash? How do you dry with the MF towel - large strokes, pat drying?

[Murr1525]

Re: how to wash without trashing my paint like ive been doing for years.

Swirls can come from anything rubbed on the paint, that is why it is best to use good quality pads, towels, etc, and good products.

The swirls could be from his technique with the buffer, the pad he used, the towels he worked it in with, or the towels he removed it with. Or more likely, a bit of each.

Since swirls are basically small scratches in the paint, they certainly wont wash off.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: how to wash without trashing my paint like ive been doing for years.

If you've been using a less than stellar wash process since 1992, and/or the previous owner did the same (assuming you're not the original owner of the car) - that's 20 years worth of mistreatment. Even if you're wash process wasn't all that bad, 20 years is a long time to accumulate defects without ever really trying to correct them. And looking at the pictures, sure, the paint has swirls, but we've seen worse on much newer cars, so don't be too darn hard on yourself. Besides, the paint still looks glossy, it's just swirled, which means it's fixable.

Meguiar's Quik Tips Video Series - WashingCheck out the video in that link and pay attention to the last bit where we take the nozzle off the hose and flood the surface. That will, on a well waxed car, sheet the majority of the water off the paint and make it much easier to dry. Not only easier, but since you're touching the paint less you reduce the risk of putting new swirls in the paint. And as Mat has pointed out, a swirl is really just a fine scratch, but you can't wash away a scratch.


From the sounds of it, your friend may have used some pretty poor technique, dirty towels, etc that created as much new damage as the old stuff he took out. Which puts you back at square one here. And it's dirty towels, low quality wash mitts, and old cotton terry cloth drying towels that create the vast majority of your swirls. They don't come from the soap itself, and the soap itself will actually do very little to prevent them. That's not what soap is for. Sure, the soap has some lubricating agents in it that help with removal of dirt and loose contaminants, but using the best soap in the world with lousy mitts and towels isn't going to save you.

[Stratocaster]

Re: how to wash without trashing my paint like ive been doing for years.

the swirls started years ago when my dad gave me the car and after a few years it started. i just wiped in big circles with the Towel(is it safe to call them terry cloths) and no this was going on long ago before i bought the meguiars stuff. and ONE bucket but i spray the mit off after i put it back in bucket to get more sudds. so i dunk mit... wipe car... spray mit(and it comes pretty damn clean with preasure) then dunk mit again. adn thank all u guys for ur imput.

so im using Megs mit... safe?
Megs soap... safe?
terry cloth to dry... prolly not safe?
then i use clean microfibers not dried with fabric softener
to apply the previously mentioned polish... i dont see how that doesnt seam safe.