Clark, Rich,
Really need your advice.
If you remember, a while ago I posted up about my concerns over swirl marks.
See this thread...
http://audi-sport.net/vb/showthread.php?t=39654
Following your advice I had them corrected by Matt @ Off Your Marks detailing. Who did an excellent job.
See this thread...
http://audi-sport.net/vb/showthread.php?t=45556
But over winter I've seriously done something wrong in my wash process/technique and reintroduced the swirls. Which now require another paint correction detail.
I am absolutely gutted and feel like a total muppet. I am doing something wrong somewhere, and I need to solve it, otherwise I'm just wasting my money getting Matt to re-correct the paint.
Following the paint correction in October 2007, crappy weather and winter started to set in. I remember not being able to wash the car for 2, maybe 3 weeks sometimes. Due to either time constraints, bad weather, cold or lack of day light.
I only do about 40 miles on the motorway per day, but the car got dirty quickly. Road grime, salt etc. But when I did wash it, I made sure I rinsed the car throughly with water first. I used a meguairs lambswool wash mitt, Zymol Clear wash suds, a clean water rinse bucket, and what I thought was a light and careful technique with the mitt. Fully rinsed the car and use 1-2 waffle weave drying towels - dab or very light strokes to dry.
Despite my best efforts the swirls are back, possibly worse than they were before.
I've had a chat with Matt, and I even had to embarassingly swallow my pride and ask for his time to actually show me how to wash the car.
But I'm worried about getting it wrong again, and after the paint is re-corrected, inducing swirls yet again.
One of Matts main points of advice is to pre-wash the car and remove as much dirt from the car before touching it with the wash mitt. I have started to do this since about February when I bought the K'archer foaming lance attachment. I'm using Maxi Suds II at the moment, and I've got some Meguiars Shampoo plus ready to go. I've tried both, but the pre-wash, which I'm doing twice, is just not shifting enough dirt.
Matt's pre-wash tends to be a warm water based one. As he has a Karcher with water heater built in. I don't have the option of using warm water, due to expense of the professional Karcher unit and can't have a hot water tap fitted outside as the kitchen has just been done. Other than Matt's wash mitts being of much deeper pile than the Meguairs mitt (not sure what brand it is), our technique is roughly the same.
So I need your advice, can you think of what I may have done that could have reintroduced the swirling, and do you have some advice for the future?
Matt and I seem to think that not washing the car at least weekly over winter AND not doing a pre-wash during most of it, could be the prime reasons.
But I need to get the correct process written down, so that once the paint is re-corrected, I can follow it and hopefully not introduce swirls again.
Can you, (or anyone) advise?
Cheers
Alan
Really need your advice.
If you remember, a while ago I posted up about my concerns over swirl marks.
See this thread...
http://audi-sport.net/vb/showthread.php?t=39654
Following your advice I had them corrected by Matt @ Off Your Marks detailing. Who did an excellent job.
See this thread...
http://audi-sport.net/vb/showthread.php?t=45556
But over winter I've seriously done something wrong in my wash process/technique and reintroduced the swirls. Which now require another paint correction detail.
I am absolutely gutted and feel like a total muppet. I am doing something wrong somewhere, and I need to solve it, otherwise I'm just wasting my money getting Matt to re-correct the paint.
Following the paint correction in October 2007, crappy weather and winter started to set in. I remember not being able to wash the car for 2, maybe 3 weeks sometimes. Due to either time constraints, bad weather, cold or lack of day light.
I only do about 40 miles on the motorway per day, but the car got dirty quickly. Road grime, salt etc. But when I did wash it, I made sure I rinsed the car throughly with water first. I used a meguairs lambswool wash mitt, Zymol Clear wash suds, a clean water rinse bucket, and what I thought was a light and careful technique with the mitt. Fully rinsed the car and use 1-2 waffle weave drying towels - dab or very light strokes to dry.
Despite my best efforts the swirls are back, possibly worse than they were before.
I've had a chat with Matt, and I even had to embarassingly swallow my pride and ask for his time to actually show me how to wash the car.
But I'm worried about getting it wrong again, and after the paint is re-corrected, inducing swirls yet again.
One of Matts main points of advice is to pre-wash the car and remove as much dirt from the car before touching it with the wash mitt. I have started to do this since about February when I bought the K'archer foaming lance attachment. I'm using Maxi Suds II at the moment, and I've got some Meguiars Shampoo plus ready to go. I've tried both, but the pre-wash, which I'm doing twice, is just not shifting enough dirt.
Matt's pre-wash tends to be a warm water based one. As he has a Karcher with water heater built in. I don't have the option of using warm water, due to expense of the professional Karcher unit and can't have a hot water tap fitted outside as the kitchen has just been done. Other than Matt's wash mitts being of much deeper pile than the Meguairs mitt (not sure what brand it is), our technique is roughly the same.
So I need your advice, can you think of what I may have done that could have reintroduced the swirling, and do you have some advice for the future?
Matt and I seem to think that not washing the car at least weekly over winter AND not doing a pre-wash during most of it, could be the prime reasons.
But I need to get the correct process written down, so that once the paint is re-corrected, I can follow it and hopefully not introduce swirls again.
Can you, (or anyone) advise?
Cheers
Alan