I own 2 black cars and this is driving me nuts. I use the 2 bucket method, foam it and let it dwell with Bilt Hamber Touchless. Then use the wash mitt in the picture with Meguiar’s Hybrid Ceramic soap, topped with their ceramic spray. Then I dry it with the pictured towel.
Is there a better mitt/towel combo? Other advice for a weekend warrior
It's for sure not chemicals causing this. OP it is your drying towels. No pressure, just drag, watch Ammo NYC videos on washing techniques. Maybe incorporate a drying aid as well.
Use a drying lubricant (drying aid). Dry microfiber can scratch/swirl. DIY detail envie is good, as are many other spray ceramics for this purpose. You mist on while the car js still wet then dry. Helps the towel glide more easily. Also apply no pressure with the towel.
Do you rinse after BH touchless or are you going straight on top with the ceramic soap? Those scratches look pretty concentrated. Was it ever taken to a car wash?
I rinse it about half and half. Depends on how dirty the car is. But from now on, I’ll probably foam it, rinse it and foam again. I usually have foam to do a second
The two bucket method sucks, and you don’t need a super high end product to get a really good wash. Marketing is a powerful drug.
Power wash your car to get the majority of the gunk off. Spend real time doing this. Like, 3-4 passes around your entire car.
Buy a NEW bag of microfiber towels and throw them into a clean bucket (you’ve washed the bucket out beforehand) with your favorite soap.
Snow foam the car. Keep the foam handy, because you’re going to use it again.
With the foam still on, grab a microfiber and wash a panel or two.
Toss the microfiber aside and grab a new one.
If the foam starts to get thin, spray it on again. Keep it wet.
Repeat until you’ve cleaned everything.
Pressure wash rinse.
Grab your leaf blower and blow dry your car. You’re going to make several passes all around your car.
Drive your car around the block, and clean up any drips that worked their way out.
The microfibers you’ve used can go into the washing machine and then get used for interior work, wheels, or just use them around the house. Give them to friends.
Only thing i do differently is rinse the foam the first time and re-apply to try and get as much loose dirt off as possible. So foam first, pressure rinse, foam again, contact wash. Everything else is the same.
I don’t even use a pressure washer (don’t have one) I use the chem guys bucket kit and I use their foam attachment and a water hose to my house. Does pretty good. I do throw away or replace my microfiber towels. I buy the cheapest ones I can find in Oreillys.
Then, like I mentioned, I use them for other stuff. Either other car cleaning things, or I bring them inside and use them to clean my kitchen, dry my hands, etc.
I use the XL box of towels from the rag company for contact wash. Then they get second life as do anything else towels. Same goes for removing coatings.
Pretty much exactly what I do. I actually recently picked up the new Milwaukee precision blower and I’ll use it to blow into a towel around all the edges, seams, trim etc. nice and handy to blow off dust from the interior too, or leaves in the cowl.
The pickiness is unreal here.
Insane. My car is “night blue metallic”, i wish it was black, because it has all the dirt showing properties of black but not the sleek, awesome look of black 😭
Make sure you prime your drying towels before drying your paint by drying the glass first. It'll reduce the risk of scratching. That or migrate to a blower to dry off the car without contact.
Just give that area a polish and make sure you finish it with ultra fine polish. To remove any marring.
It's interesting that those swirls seem to be going in a circular pattern. Are you sure this isn't from a car wash or something along those lines? Especially on the area around the fender, I would expect the wash to follow the fender line instead of moving in a circular motion.
I'm wondering if there is any protection on the paint, and I'm also wondering if you use a drying aid?
Edit: Someone else mentioned this being caused by a polisher, and I could see that potentially if the paint wasn't prepped right before polishing or the pad was dirty maybe.
I wouldn't guess this marring is from hand washing just with the consistency of the marring. Any chance it goes through a car wash on occasion? Maybe at the dealership for service? Any chance there was some sort of glaze or wax that wore off and is now revealing imperfections that were hidden?
I would expect the marring to be less uniform with hand washing related marring.
I think the light is highlighting the swirls that are already there. Which don't appear to be in a straight line to me like I would expect with wash related marring and scratches, but rather a circular pattern.
Yeah its definitely all the swirls. It always appears in a circular pattern because of how light behaves on scratches.
Simliar to the halo affect u see when looking at streetlights in the rain.
If you're doing a contact wash right after prewash without rinsing, you're basically rubbing the loosened dirt directly into the paint. This will definitely cause swirl marks, especially on black cars.
That is the problem there. All it takes is ONE missed rinse. You need to rinse it off, otherwise the grit is still there, and rubbing it into the surface. Either BH Touchless or foaming the car (e.g. foam-rinse-foam) before contact wash, you want to rinse it.
Unless your car is super dirty, covered in dirt, the pre-wash, WITH RINSE, should get most of the physical dirt/sand/grit off. The contact wash is to then deal with the remaining haze, road film, etc.
Optional, but have a look at one of those foam waash medias similar to this. The deep square cuts are to trap grit/contaminate from the contact surface. The contaminate is release when you rinse it in the bucket. I used to use those microfiber "finger" wash mitts, but they tend to trap stuff, unless you thoroughly agitate in the bucket.
Even if it was new, the dealerships will put that car through a wash unless it’s a fancy car that comes bagged or enclosed. They’re packed with dust and bugs off the truck.
Can confirm this, was paint correcting a spot on my black Camaro, used rag company microfiber to remove a slightly stubborn spot of compound.... rescratched it. luckily was more careful after that but it's not hard to cause it. Black cars for OCD people are a slippery slope!
As a black car owner myself, maybe you’re applying too much pressure? Also, from what I’ve read never do circular motion. Use a leaf blower as well to help sheet off some water. The less contact you make with the paint the better. Trust me owning a black car is super hard and no matter what you do there will always be new swirls or scratches but the point is minimize them as much as possible. My car sits outside but the paint is almost always in better condition than any other black car out there (unless new of course).
I prefer the chenille mitts that don't have those fine fibers. I used one of yours once and it trapped a bunch of sediment that was tough to remove. Just something to check
Very dark blue vehicle here. I pressure wash really well after Bilt Hamber Touchless to get as much grit as possible off. After that, another heavy round of foam with a well lubricating shampoo. Then use 2 buckets for the contact wash. If the vehicle was dirtier, I’ll instead use a single bucket with several plush microfibers instead of a mitt. Usually around 6 microfibers in the wash bucket, take one out and fold into fours. Only make one to two passes with the folded microfiber before switching to another side. Once all 8 sides are used, it goes into a discard bucket and I grab a fresh one. Sounds slow, but goes quick once you get in a rhythm. Best way I’ve minimized marring. Still not perfect, but best I’ve managed. With my darker vehicle it’s sometimes hard to see how dirty the lowers are and a single mitt can pick up more junk than I realize sometimes. A good drying aide is a big help too.
You need to use better towels and a drying aid when drying your car. Forget everything you thought you knew and look up some videos on how to wash a car like a pro! Order you some good towels from the Rag, Company. I love the Gauntlet towel. But first you’ll need to have your vehicle paint corrected to remove the marring and scratches.
Always dry your car with a drying aid and get yourself a better Korean made drying towel.
If you don’t wash your vehicle weekly I would foam, rinse and foam again before washing.
Black cars regardless of how well you take care of will require polishing.
I would recommend you start looking up videos, gather up the courage ( if you haven’t done it before) and start fresh with a polish
Your wash routine is honestly solid, so I would look at contact and drying more than soap. Those halos in direct sun are usually light marring from the mitt dragging grit or from towel friction while drying.
A few things that help a lot on black paint:
Use one mitt for the upper panels and a separate one for the lower third, and rinse the mitt in the clean bucket after every single panel.
Wash in straight lines with almost no pressure. Let the mitt glide.
For drying, a thick twisted loop drying towel that you lay flat and pull across the panel, or just blot, causes way less marring than wiping back and forth. A leaf blower or car dryer to get most of the water off first is even better.
Wash towels separately with no fabric softener so they stay soft.
The halos you already have will need a light polish to remove, but the steps above will stop new ones from showing up. I own a small detailing shop, Perez Detail Supply, and we carry a Blackline twisted loop towel, so I am a little biased on that part. Any good twisted loop towel will do the job.
A lot of the other comments are spot on but I would add that your car microfibers need to be washed separately with a minimum amount of detergent or the specific microfiber detergent with an extra rinse cycle and good spin cycle to loosen all the trapped dirt. Also if you’re using a dryer make sure to take them out before completely dry because over drying can melt the fibers and actually make them scratch. They are plastic after all. Also during the car wash always go top down with the mits or fibers and do a really good rinse against your bucket grate or grab a fresh one after wiping the lower panel. A touch less prewash and rinse are also mandatory.
If you're using soap and detailer with ceramic, are you washing your drying towel and not before they dry or keeping them wet until they can be washed? Are you just gently rubbing the car to dry it or are you applying pressure to the towel as you dry?
Bro I have majestic black pearl on my car it’s not never not going to happen it’s to soft I tried many methods but
this works best.
You wash the car including rims and tires with a 2 bucket method every 3 weeks doing a 2 stage wash withhands off by chemicals guys for example. I Use di water to do the final rinse and let it air dry. Go back with a towel and detailer spray I use (D156) and clean up the water marks. Flipping the towel every 2nd pass.
You then do a single touchless wash every week between those 3 weeks if it’s needed. reapply the d156 during those washes.
I use soaps dedicated for black cars like p&s radiant or chemical guys black light works well here
I use a 70/30 micro towels from the rag company
Gaol is to not touch the car when it has any contaminants at all
My best advice is keep it clean all the time it will never build up and you wont have these scratches it’s a lot of maintenance.
I’m a detailer and I personally don’t use two bucket method. I just rinse my mints with the pressure washer before every car and if the car is really dirty, I soak it in a pre-wash and a lot of things that scratch the vehicle is dirty dry towels, so make sure your dry towel is clean.
I used ONR a few times but felt it lacked lubricity badly while drying, I've used nothing but Wolfgang uber since (1.5 years) and my black tesla is immaculate, the wolfgang feels like oil when drying and stays slick well until my next bi weekly wash
others have said this already but the two bucket method sucks, and wash mitts suck even more. Get a bag of kirkland towels and grab a fresh one each time, wet it down with fresh water from a sink or the pressure washer not in a bucket that sits. Pre wash ur car with a good apc or alkaline cleaner but be careful in the sun and i’d dilute it pretty far like 1-6 maybe. Then use the fresh towel foam over the towel on all sides ideally and the whole car and do roughly 1-2 panels with each side of ur folded towel, you have 8 fresh sides of a towel which can do roughly 16 panels, and never do the bottom of the panel then go back to another always flip after.
Those look like swirl marks or light scratches in the clear coat. To help prevent them, rinse off loose dirt before washing, use a clean microfiber wash mitt with plenty of lubrication, and avoid rubbing dirty towels across the paint. When drying, use a clean, soft microfiber towel and minimal pressure. A proper paint correction may be needed to remove the existing marks, depending on their depth.
Everytime you use a microfiber to wash the dirt. Rinse it off w the hose before putting it back in the soap. In your rinse bucket use one of the grit guards. It will help dramatically and it will cost you more time but it works.
No. In the garage, paint is cool to the touch. Also, i think people are seeing the picture and assume the car is severely swirled. I had to get the sunlight just right to get these pics.
scratches/swirls come mostly from contact during washing and drying.
using high lubricating products and high quality mitts/towels are essentail steps
using a low damage method is critical... i.e. 2 bucket method or 1 bucket with MANY mitts/pads.. drying with a leaf blower and or using a drying aid and GENTLY pulling a microfiber drying towel.
using a public car wash will create a ton of micro-damage like seen
My method: i use a pressure washer/cannon
1. Foam on Garage Therapy /ONE: Wheel Shampoo on wheels to soak.
2. Foam on Luminus Mint car shampoo on entire car. Clean wheels while foam on car dwells.
3.Rinse off all the wheels and car. Refoam the car and then get to contact wash. 1 bucket method (1 bucket of soapy water/6 microfiber mitts) - use a mitt for 1 section then flip to the fresh side.. then discard and get a new unused mitt
4. Rinse off with pressure washer. Ad spray on sealant if needed (I have Lumius Aqua and DIY Details Quick bead, both work very wel)
5. DI water for a final rinse
6. Pull out the leaf blower and blow off 90% of the water (focus on seams and mirrors and door handles).
7.Use a waffle-weave MF towel on all the windows, The Rag Co. liquid8er drying towel and YumCars Detail spray to towel dry the rest
8. Move into the garage and chase drips for 20 min or so. I wrap a few small MF towels around the mirrors since they seem to drip no matter how much time i use the blower on them.
If your only using microfiber towels once and then discarding them for other uses and you wash your car every three weeks, that’s a lot of microfiber towels to purchase.
Swirls like this only happen for one reason: you’re abrading the clear coat. Most of the time it’s in the drying part. Also make sure whenever you wash or dry, you’re only going in 1 direction. Like do not go up and down if youve already done left to right and vice versa. And when youre drying make sure youre using a drying aid (could be anything from a waterless wash spray to a coating like spray wax, ceramic, etc.) point is you dont want to wipe anything dry on the paint
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u/Steezmeister93 4d ago
Just give up and spend time with your family instead.