Qew Disaster!

V

violentveedub

New member
Well, I’ve done it…



I think (according to this website) I’m the first to try QEW and completely destroy my swirl free finish…



My car: 97 VW jetta, DARK blue/purple (nicely modified I might add)

Paint: is mostly repaint, very quality job almost zero OP but it is incredibly soft.

Products: DACP, swirl free polish, fmj x2 (last coat was over 2 months ago though, I’ve been busy and I moved)



Process. Mixed 2 cap full of QEW with one gallon of water in a 10 Quart bucket. Then I used my 100% sheepskin mitt to wash the car as normal. One panel at a time from the roof down and front to back; in other words least dirty to most dirty. I didn’t touch the areas under the rub strip until all other areas (minus wheels) had been cleaned. I dipped the mitt (which had been soaking in the solution for 30 minutes or so while I cleaned the carpets) in the solution, let it drip most of the water off, gave it a bit of a fluff and wiped down a panel (1/2 hood, ½ roof). I then blotted the panel semi dry with a high nap, shaggy, MF towel (Vroom band). I then wiped it the rest of the way dry with my Megs. WW. I think about ½ way through I gave up on the blotting technique and just wiped it dry with the WW. It’s doesn’t matter the car looks equally as disgusting on both sides.



The results: It looks like I took the car to a spray booth and grabbed the dirtiest foam brush they had and went to town all over.



What happened? My mitt was kind of old but it had never done this before. Do you think it was because I had some severely waning wax protection on my paint? It’s really marred, it’s gonna take some work with the DACP and the PC to correct this. I don’t want to have this happen again but I have no other way to wash, I just moved to an apartment w/ no hose and QEW was supposed to be the answer.



What gives?
 
Weird - one thing that comes to mind, although this is unlikely, is it possible you had some sort of glaze or product with fillers which were hiding some of the marring you see now? I know this is highly unlikely, but the thought occured to me as I read your post. I've used QEW and have not noticed marring from it before, which is why I ask. Have you used both the mf and WW drying towel before? I have seen some folks mention that their vroom towels have some sharp little bits in the nap that can cause marring.



Otherwise, I don't have an answer for you and am sorry you had a bad experience. :(



In the future you might try PB's srpay and wipe, it isn't a waterless wash but it does remove reasonable amount of dust. I use it a couple times a week so I don't have to wash my car (I'm in a condo too)
 
No, no fillers. I know that swirl free polish has fillers but I use an alcohol wipe to prevent bonding issues with the FMJ.



Regardless my car has NEVER had swirls and holograms like this.



I’ve used the Megs WW before and it’s ok I got a couple of scratches with it but nothing so uniform, I’m thinking this had to be from the wash step. Like I said I gave up on the Vroom towel about ½ way in.
 
Ohh i forgot to mention i had about a 3 gallon rinse bucket with plain water. do you think the mitt was too water logged with regular water to pick up the QEW solution?



damn I feel dumb. No one has mangaed this before.
 
When I used it, I used multiple mitts. I didn't try to get the mitt I just washed a panel with as clean as possible, I just took a fresh one each time, for piece of mind. I also sprayed the slickest QD I had ( Megs FD) on the panel before blot drying with WW MFs.
 
I was going one panel at a time, wash, rinse mitt, dry, Move on. I split the hood and roof in 1/2. The car was fairly dirty but it was all just road dust, some spray at the back (which is why i did it last) from a thunderstorm I drove in.
 
I don't trust my QEW enough anymore to use it. I just end up washing normally and feeling much more confident about inducing scratches.



BTW, PM me if anyone wants 2 bottles of QEW!
 
I would say it was just a combination of the soft paint with the dirt. You *could* have been doing too large of an area, but who knows. Perhaps this dirt was just beyond the reach of QEW and the car needed to be hand washed.



Sounds like QEW isn't going to be the product for you.
 
Ya I agree - I tried using S&W once on a section that I knew was too dirty, and I paid for it. Maybe the car was just too dirty for QEW. I wash my car at my parents house now, you might want to find a friend with a driveway. :)
 
There are some things to remember about using QEW.



1. If the area to be cleaned is EXTREMELY dirty, your MF should be extremely wet, and you should wash much smaller areas with dirty conditions. If the areas are lightly soiled, you can wring out the MF before applying it to the paint surface.



2. Always use a "rinse bucket" to rinse out the soiled MF.



3. I have never used a wash mitt with QEW. I always use Microfibers.



4. Very Important - - - NEVER go over an area more than ONCE. If you need to go over it again, rinse thoroughly before doing so.



5. Follow up your wash (each panel) with a soft, clean, dry MF.



6. Finish with a dry MF and your favorite detail spray.



I've been using QEW, exclusively, on my black car for over 2 years, and it has never left a scratch on my car.
 
violentveedub said:
I dipped the mitt (which had been soaking in the solution for 30 minutes or so while I cleaned the carpets) in the solution, let it drip most of the water off, gave it a bit of a fluff and wiped down a panel (1/2 hood, ½ roof). I then blotted the panel semi dry with a high nap, shaggy, MF towel (Vroom band). I then wiped it the rest of the way dry with my Megs. WW. I think about ½ way through I gave up on the blotting technique and just wiped it dry with the WW.
Click to expand...



I'm not a guru of QEW, but from my experiences, my thoughts are:

1) You said you let most of the water drip off the mitt before washing the car - I always "slosh" the QEW on the paint to give it a little extra dwell time, and so as to have as much lubricity as possible before wiping with the mitt. I try to have a soaking wet mitt when touching the paint. I wouldn't use a just damp mitt.

2)You wiped with a WW towel. It's possible that you still had some dirt left over from the first towel. I don't find WW to be very forgiving if there are any contaminants on the paint when drying. I dry most off with a thick, plush towel, then use a QD (or preferably S+W) and plush mf to deal with the streaking.

3)Maybe try using a richer mix. Maybe you have hard water.

Just some thoughts. :nixweiss
 
I'm gonig to swing by the auto parts store and pick up a few of the Megs ultimate terry towels for my first drying pass. I had read a few tutorials that suggest using a terry towel but everyone else admonishes them in such a manner I was going to stick with mircofiber. None of my MFs are very big and I only have about 4 really quality ones I’d want to try. The vroom ones will have to be scrutinized further. I’ve already tossed my old wash mitt and have two clean ones I’ll try for my next go at this. I’ll try the two mitt method, work a ½ a fender, add some QD to the mix. I think possibly I over diluted the mixture with the rinse water; either that or some how when I left the mitt to soak it some how it “sucked upâ€� the solution? Or possibly some residue on the mitt wrecked the usefulness of the QEW? I’m not a chemist just title agent that is too depressed to eat my lunch. The lack of a good coat of FMJ might have not have played to my favor. I’ll correct everything I can and give it another go, if it sucks again I too will be disposing of my QEW.
 
If you insist on terry, I would suggest Bed Bath and Beyond or a good department store and get only the finest quality supima cotton variety. IMO, you can't use too many mitts especially in the case of QEW.
 
I have never had any of the problems you're describing.... but I use what I think is probably the safest QEW method I've seen, which came from this site here:



http://www.taurusclub.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=117



You may want to check that out; using the two-bucket, pre-spray method seems to encapsulate and wick away the dirt so you aren't dragging it across the surface or reintroducing it to other areas of the finish.



Just a thought.
 
violentveedub said:
Process. Mixed 2 cap full of QEW with one gallon of water in a 10 Quart bucket.
Click to expand...



It seems as though this could be part of your problem. The directions state that you need 1 ounce per gallon of water. A cap full is a long way from an ounce. Give it another shot using the proper ratio and I think you will have better success. This time though, just do a fender of part of the hood or something and evaluate.





Drewski, how big are those bottles?
 
Another variation: I not only use my plushest MF's to dry, but also to wash when I use QEW. Each section to be washed gets a clean 1/4 of a MF. Once all four quarters of the wash towel have been used, my drying towel becomes my new wash towel, and I grab another for drying (sort of "pipelining" the towels through drying duty, then to wash duty).



FWIW,

Tort
 
There has to be about a 101 different options to wash with QEW without a problem. Some how I royaly screwed it up and i now find it quite amusing.





I thought it was measured and 2 caps of the 16 oz bottles does equal an once. That's what I used in a gallon of water, it was in a 10 quart bucket.



I think i'll just keep polishing and QEW-ing my hood untill i find the way that works or if it there isn't a way that works.
 
Well I only used one gallon, in a 2 gallon bucket; but hey, I'm not here to argue :) Thanks for all the replies folks, hopefully I can fix up this poor performance.
 
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