I'm having trouble with spray sealants, waterless wash and QD

J

john1r

New member
I can't seem to figure out how much product to apply and how to properly wipe and buff. For example, I washed my car over the weekend and on Monday noticed some water spots that I guess I missed (or they dripped from somewhere). In particular there were several spots on my hood (again, not sure how I missed them) in about a 1-2 foot area. Since it had been 2 days since I washed the car, and my garage gets very dusty, I chose to use Opti Clean to remove the spots. Again, since the car was a little dusty, I wanted to use enough product to ensure that I didn't cause any marring.



I used about 3 to 4 good spritzes in the 1-2 foot area to completely saturate the area. Using a very plush MF folded into 4 sections I gently wiped across with one side, flipped, wiped again, etc... However, either I'm wiping too gently or put on too much product, b/c no matter how many times I wiped the section, the car was still extremely wet. Do I need to wipe harder? Do I need a different MF (I'm using a good quality one from PakShak)?



Also, on a related note, if you are just cleaning up a small section like I was, how do you do it (or do you just do the entire panel instead of a small section)? Let's say the whole hood is a bit dusty, but I really only wanted to clean the section that had the spotting. If I spray the opti clean on just that section, and maybe a bit surrounding it, I'm eventually going to be wiping a dusty section with very little opti clean (the area around the area I'm trying to clean). Any suggestions on this would be great as well.



Thanks again!
 
3-4 good spritzes sounds like a lot for a 1-2 foot area. I would also suggest using a second MF towel for drying.
 
yakky said:
3-4 good spritzes sounds like a lot for a 1-2 foot area. I would also suggest using a second MF towel for drying.
Click to expand...



Thanks. I'll try using less I'm just afraid of dragging dry dust across the paint.



Also, should I be 'working it in' to some extent? Was my one gentle pass, flip MF, another gently pass, not the proper way to use Opti Clean? Should I spray it on, wipe it around a bit, then dry with another MF?



Thanks again!
 
I would hesitate to use any of the waterless washes with anything that is more than just dusty. As long as the surface is wet, you should be ok, in theory. That said, the wetter, the better from a safety perspective. I find that most of the sprayers don't atomize the wash enough, the one exception is the Poorboys sprayer, it is fantastic. Your method is correct, but you could use a third towel to actually dry the clean paint. At that point the dirt is gone (or so you hope!) and you can apply enough pressure to dry it.



That brings me to the exact reason I don't really care for waterless washes. I have tried Poorboys and Crofgate's. While they can be effective, using ONR is faster and seems safer. It also uses a heck of a lot less towels. I just don't see any reason to spend 30 minutes doing a waterless wash when an ONR wash can be done in 20 minutes, unless you don't have access to any water.
 
Thanks again for the info. Yeah, I don't like use waterless washes either, this was just for a quick touch-up to a specific area. I guess it's probably just safer to leave it alone until my next wash...
 
I think for specific areas they are fine. As long as you continue to use lots of liquid, you will be fine. Some light marring is 100x better than bird bomb etching.
 
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