What the HE11 am i doing wrong?

V

violentveedub

New member
the car is a 97 jetta in a very dark blue/purple. I spend literaly 3 days polishing with #83 then 3M SMR, then 2 coats of FMJ. the car was historicly purfect, no swirls or hairlines scratches anywhere.



flash to now, about 1.5 weeks later the car is pretty dusty and has some bugs on it from interstate driving. so i wash it...



rinse the whole car thoughly



2 buckets, one rinse on with Meg's gold class



wash the car with a turtle wax wool wash mit. one panel at a time following the lines of the car rinsing after each panel.



rinse, open hose rinse, dry by blotting with the absorber.



stand back, hairline sratches all over the car? just for an experiment i took a 100% cotton terry towel ad lightly rubbed it on the paint. It hazed so bad i don't have a reflection anymore. what the hell am i doing wrong and why is my paint so fragile?



plz help i'll pay any money for any product that allows me to wash my car without making all these swirls.
 
i used menzerna Full Molecular Jacket, i know it bonded properly becuase the paint is still slick and smooth.



the mitt is actual sheepskin. I used to use cotton chenile but switched back to this wool mitt for the sake of difference. I don't know if the chenile cuased any swirls becasue my car was not in this immaculate condidtion last time i washed it.
 
Some paints are incredibly easy to mar. Moving the dirt across the paint when you wash can scratch *very* easily. Only thing that has worked for me is to use a high-lubricity shampoo (I do *not* consider the GC to be one, BTW) such as Griot's Car Wash, and, most importantly, a foamgun. Search on "foamgun" and you'll find some of our discussions about it. It's the only way I can wash a vehicle without marring the paint. FWIW, chenille, wool, both work fine with the foamgun as long as you get a fresh one if the mitt gets soiled and won't rinse clean.



And don't touch it with that towel! It' not unusual for a nice, soft, cotton towel to mar automotive paint.



Get some good WWMFs to dry the car with and dry by blotting, not wiping. Yeah, they work better than the Absorber ;
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but if he's got 2 coats of FMJ on the car, he's marring the lsp, NOT the paint, right?



I've got to think that paint is harder than just about any lsp, otherwise we'd all be painting our cars every spring. Maybe it's the FMJ that's easily marred. Does anyone else have this experience with it?



I've noticed that #26 mars more easily than #16 and both more easily than Collinite. The two layers of SG on my wife's Passat proved very hard to mar with my hankderchief.



Jason
 
it's a decent possiblity that i only marred the FMJ, i put some more on a spot and it "pretty much" got rid of the swirls. I'm gonna have to polish again. I suppose i'll have to get a WW now; that and a decent quality mitt, i think the one i have is trashed.



I hope FMJ doesn't mar this easy i was ultra gentle with the paint and the wash. I"m gonna be pissed if i spent all that cash and got bubkiss.
 
Just a hunch, But possibly some oil got onto one of your drying towels. That might make the blur/haze you are seeing. Try washing the car again and use a different set of wash tools, including the mitt. Might help.
 
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