How to stop marring my paint

N

neighborsenvy

New member
I corrected the paint on my 09 Pontiac G8 4 months ago. Since then I am getting swirls everywhere! I did an ipa wipe after polishing to make sure there wasnt any swirls left behind.



I wash my car at least every 4-5 days and usually twice a week. I use two buckets, one with a grit guard. I use ONR at 1.5oz per 2 gallons and use a grout sponge. The water in the soiled bucket is barely even dirty when Im finished. I will do the upper half of two panels and then do the bottom half. If theres any kind of dirt behind the wheels I will spray ONR on them before hand. I also use cobra WW microfiber.



I think my paint is really soft as I already have chips all over the place with 20k miles. I even have some on the roof and side panels.



I think Im going to try that aquaquartz stuff after I polish the car again since its supposed to be durable.



I just dont understand.
 
Ill give the other sponge a try. My car doesnt even get a chance to be dirty with the amount Im washing it. The last time I used a microfiber sponge, there would be stuff that wouldnt rinse out of it. I could see getting some swirls on the side panels since they have more dirt but there shouldnt be any on the hood. It rarely has anything on it.
 
neighborsenvy said:
Ill give the other sponge a try. My car doesnt even get a chance to be dirty with the amount Im washing it. The last time I used a microfiber sponge, there would be stuff that wouldnt rinse out of it.
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Well...even though it's Autopian heresy (at least for some members), I find grout sponges to be a bit too aggressive (although the only one I have used, I think, is the Lowe's ProLine...still have that Grecian one from Excel that I never tried *sorry Patrick*). However, I have also experienced the MF wash media staining with QEW/ONR--it's been discussed many times here and seems to be a non-issue. What part of Jersey are you in?
 
You need to do some troubleshooting to figure out where your marring is coming from. As much as I love ONR (and have no marring issues), take a step back from it and do a traditional wash with the same media. Polish a 12x12" area as your test spot and use the traditional wash and same media (for washing and drying). One other thing you didn't mention was if you pre-soaked with ONR. I don't use ONR on dry panels, it takes 2 minutes to pre-soak the whole car and it goes a long way to prevent marring as well as making washing easier.
 
IMO, ONR is not safe for all finishes. If you have a very delicate finish that scratches every time you fart near it, then I would consider sticking with traditional washes if I were you.



A few things you can do to help would be to incorporate a foam gun into the wash routine as well as a CR spotless system and a leaf blower. I also feel that a pressure washer helps remove more of the dirt from the surface far better than a regular hose and I feel that alone can help reduce the amount of marring you accumulate over time.





Rasky
 
neighborsenvy- IME washing without inducing marring is *VERY* difficult. You're trying to move abrasive stuff across the paint without letting it *scratch* the paint; hard to do. If you apply pressure to the stuff while moving it across the finish, you're gonna get damage.



I can't wash marring-free with ONR, at least not to the point that I'll use it on my good vehicles. Yeah, I'm confident that I've considered all the relevent variables and that I'm "doing it right". Yeah, I do use ONR for some things (used it on the '93 beater-Audi yesterday to clean a few areas). No, I wouldn't try it on my good vehicles because *I* get some degree of marring from it too often to consider it "safe".



Note that with my conventional washes, I go *years* without doing significant correction. I just can't seem to do that with ONR :nixweiss Maybe you're like me in this regard. Not that my idea of a "conventional wash" is anything most people would want to master...people who've watched me do it in person always say that they'd rather just scratch up the paint than do what I do.
 
sigh...maaaann and this whole time i was so happy about my onr =[...I AM looking into a some sort of touchless wash setup/foambathing method...*starts heading back to the drawing board* I guess i'll be asking a ton more questions now.... (btw if you ever read accum's guide...on the one hand, If it does away with having to correct your car...i mean...maybe it's worth the time he puts into the wash...on the other hand...if you do a whole ton of stuff after it anyways.. umm..maybe it's not for you? I mean either way, I see it as you spend time, but save one products in the long run, and perhaps energy...then again, I get the feeling that accum does this every other weekend or sooner lol soo.....accum you're a maniac, but geniuses often are)
 
Alexshimshimhae- Actually, I don't wash my vehicles until they *really* need it. BTDT and looking back it was IMO a stupid waste of my time. I don't spend one minute on this stuff beyond what I have to do for the results I can live with. Yeah, my washes take a while, but most of that is the detailed (oops, pun..) cleaning of areas others let stay dirty. Just "washing the hood" doesn't take much longer to do correctly than it does to do incorrectly; it's primarily a matter of how you do it. OK...two passes take longer than one, but not all that much.



The touchless approach will only work if you never let the vehicle get truly dirty. It'll require a pressure washer and the right stuff. See what SuperBee364 (where is he anyhow?) posted on that approach. Not all that feasible IMO,at least not for a driver.
 
Alexshimshimhae said:
sooooo ... shampoo with mf lw mitt or something?
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First passes with Boar's Hair Brush, subsequent ones with MF or sheepskin mitt. All done with foamgun output flooding point of wash medium-to-paint contact, all done with short, interrupted motions and with minimal pressure.



Remember that any dirt/etc. that gets caught in your wash media will probably cause marring; no, it doesn't "get caught up in the nap" or any such thing to a reliable extent. If the foamgun doesn't keep the wash medium that's in use rinsed clean (and mine might only do that because of my boosted water pressure) then you'll need to rinse said medium as soon as it's dirty and replace it as soon as it doesn't rinse clean. Given normal water pressure, I sure wouldn't wash half a panel without rinsing, much less some larger area.



Consider that if your mitt picks up a speck of something abrasive during its first inch of travel, any subsequent travel across the paint will usually result in a scratch.



FWIW, after I've washed a big, winter-filthy vehicle, my rinse buckets are still quite clean; most of the dirt was "dislodged and flushed away" rather than caught in my wash media (to then be transferred to the rinse buckets). To me, that means I've minimized the danger of the abovementioned problem.



No, washing a car isn't rocket science, but it might call for more careful thought than most people put into it. IF it were easy, there wouldn't be so many posts about polishing cars ;)
 
RaskyR1 said:
I also feel that a pressure washer helps remove more of the dirt from the surface far better than a regular hose and I feel that alone can help reduce the amount of marring you accumulate over time.
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I agree 100%. A pressure washer hits the paint hard and effectively chisels away the dirt leaving only the oily film. Much more effective than a hose for getting the paint ready to touch with a wash mit. Also uses less water.
 
I just have one of those little electric powerwashers. Would this be sufficient in washing down the car before I start. Washing conventionally should be just as quick if I use a powerwasher, with the CR spotless and leaf blower.



The only positive from this is I get some more practicing polishing my car lol. I think Im going to take the stripe off.
 
neighborsenvy said:
I just have one of those little electric powerwashers. Would this be sufficient in washing down the car before I start.
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More than enough powerful. I use mine on medium fan spray.
 
1. Pressure wash (rinse)

2. ONR two buckets and grout sponge

3. Blow car with leaf blower (electric), make sure to leave a few drops to hellp with water spots

4. Spray bottle with ONR solution to very lightly spritz areas where there might be water spots

5. Wipe car as gently as you can to absorb the remaining water.

6. Smile because you just washed your car without causing any marring



I prefer the Tile Solutions sponges because they last longer and can be cut up to use as tire dressing applicators



But I think the two most important things to a swirl free ONR wash is to go gentle and to constantly check your drying towel for anything that might have gotten into the fibers. Even the softest and most expensive towels can hide the smallest of particles that can mar a surface. After blasting away with the pressure washer you shouldn't have to really scrub at the dirt. Let the technology of the ONR do it's job and after it does, be gentle with the drying towel.



Ive dealt with some very soft clears on black cars more than I would ever want dream about. Once you get the system down you will cut down on the swirl immensly.
 
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