I collected a black one a few months back. I noticed "spider webs swirl marks" after some washes. I am using microfiber drying cloth and microfiber wash mitt. Wonder how did all these happen ? I am using Meguiar's gold class wash.

 

From my experience, there could be any number of reasons.

Since you're using microfiber, I'm sure you're aware of many of these issues, but I'm going to list everything I'm aware of anyways

If the microfiber is of poor quality, it could be creating the scratches. By poor quality, I mean large threads or possibly even high nylon (or any non-cotton material) content.

If you wash the washmitt or drying cloth with hard water, it could leave mineral deposits in either, which could cause scratches. I read a tip on autopia.org that suggested using a small amount of vinegar in the wash to minimize the mineral deposits that stay on. You want to use the vinegar in the rinse cycle. So you would typically put the vinegar in the wash at the same time you put in any fabric softener.

Another reason could be your wash technique. When washing, to minimize swirl marks, use plenty of soapy water to maximize lubrication. Only use as much force as necessary (if your car is waxed or sealed with some protectant, this should not be very much at all). Rince the wash mitt as often as you can, especially when washing the bottom of the car. When rinsing the wash mitt, it helps to not rinse it in the wash bucket... because the dirt that you just washed off the car goes right back into soap and onto your car (this is the two bucket technique on autopia.org). Some people go as far as to have separate wash mitts for washing the top and bottom portions of the car. Definitely use a separate wash mitt for the wheels/wheel wells if you do them.

Finally, if you don't get every last spec of dirt off the car, if you dry the car conventionally, you WILL get scratches. It is nearly impossible to get every little piece of dirt off. We are human afterall, and time is limited. The best way to dry the car (in the hope of minimizing the number of swirls created) is to NOT dry the car conventionally. Any time you create friction or rubbing, you have a chance for scratching. This is true for the wash stage as well, but cannot be avoided there. This is doubly true for the drying stage. To avoid friction, there are several techniques: (1) rinse all the water off - take the hose, take off the nozzle, and turn the water down until it's just a small stream. start at the top of the car, and work your way down and around, sheeting the drops of water off. At the end, you should have little water remaining - simply blot dry those spots. (2) blot dry the entire car. This is my standard technique. This takes a lot of patience (3) Buy a leaf blower - preferably electric to minimize the smoke/oil/gas that makes its way into the air and your paint. Go to town I haven't tried this yet, but I'm planning on it. If you have access to an air compressor, that would work well too.

Basically, avoid any and all friction against the paint - even with quality towels/wash mitts. I get mad if someone goes as far as to touch the paint. When going to the dealership, I always request NO CAR WASH.

Finally, it's impossible to completely avoid swirl marks - it's an inevitability, especially with black paint. Solutions? You can repaint, but this is expensive and unnecessary. You can also use waxes/sealants to hide MINOR swirl marks. This has worked well for me on my carbon gray TSX - I had many minor marks before I learned all this, and a few coats of Zaino Z5 fixed it right up. This is not a permanent solution, but Z5 (along with other sealants) lasts a long time (probably approaching 6 months to a year in the case of Z5). I don't know how well Z5 or other products work on a black car, unfortunatelly. Finally, you can polish the swirl marks (and any light scratches) out - either by hand or with a machine (many suggest the porter cable 7424 or 7336) and a good polish. You can do this by hand or pay a pro (detail shop) to do this step for you.

I got nearly all of this info from www.autopia.org. Lots of tips and product review information on the site.... all about washing cars!

One more thing - here in the US at least, we have these self serve coin operated car washes. Not the automatic ones where you drive your car in and the machine does the washing. What you do is you put coins in and get pressurized soap/water/soft water out of a hose. I go to one of these for most of my washes - but these do not get rid of all the dirt. So I do not dry the car - I do a rinse with soft/deionized water (spot free rinse) and go... this minimizes the water spots that occur. This type of wash has minimal friction, so there's hardly any chance of creating swirls/scratches. And gets the car pretty clean. Every once in a while, I do a complete wash by hand and/or apply a sealant (Zaino Z5 is what I prefer, but I haven't used anything else!).

Phew... that was a lot longer than planned. Good luck!

 

Great info. Im with you on the quarter car wash. I use the spot free wash and then dry my windows using a california blade. It turns out pretty good for a non-hand wash.

 

Heck yeah. Easy, quick, and cheap

 

Word, I use the quarter wash to blast the particles off my car. Then I handwash, then rinse, then spot free rinse. It works great. Costs me $1 and 40 minutes of my time.

 

i got spider webs inside my car......

 

There are many contributers to swirls and spiderwebbing. What you need to focus on now is removing them, not hiding them or filling them in. If you havent done so already I HIGHLY recommend investing in a Porter Cable 7336. The 7336 can be found at Lowes for $100. Next you'll need a backing plate and a supply of foam Lake Country pads. The PC 7336 can achive in a matter of a few minutes what polishing by hand will do in hours of back breaking labor. Invest in good polishes such as Einszetts, Menzerna, or 3M SMR. My brand of choice for the past few years has been Einszettes. Their polishes are easy to work with and deliver excellent results. Acura's clear coats are pretty soft so without assesing the damage you could probably get away with Einszettes PP (paint polish) or MP (metallic polish). Work one panel at a time for as long as needed to remove swirls. I just recently did a friends black TSX that was a mess with swirls from dealer washings. After a quick claying and a pass with PP and a yellow pad and another pass with MP and a white pad, the finish was absolutley flawless. She swore it looked better than the day she took delivery. And on top of that it was silky smooth.

The investment is minimal compared to the price we pay for the cars to begin with. The PC with the right pads will leave your finish perfect and swirl free.

 

On the other hand, just keep this in minde, the swirls will eventually come to your car, soon or later. I was upset about how I got some of it on my 3 weeks old car after I clayed and Zaino the exterior, but then again, there is not much you can stop it from happening. It's a fact of life for the car, you will get swirls. I have accepted the fact

 

Unless you own a body shop or you have the money to re-coat your clear coat every year, we all have to live with it. :boinkugh:

 

Well, I've had my Carbon Gray since last June, so it's been about 18 months, and I don't have any swirls now. Before I was aware of what was going on, I had installed some swirl marks from bad wash technique. The swirls were very light and I was able to hide them with several coats of Zaino. I haven't had any scratches crop up for 12 months - and trust me, I've been looking for them (parking lot sodium mercury lights and metal halide lights under gas stations at night are great for finding clear coat scratches).

You CAN keep your car swirl free for its entire life. Just use proper wash technique, don't let anyone who doesn't know what they're doing wash your car, and treat your car to some swirl hiding wax or sealant every once in a while.

Works for me...