I've been having major issues with the paint on my car. I've been seeing a ton of residue which looks like welt marks after I wash my car. What should I do? I was trying to clean one off but it feels like I'm going to rip the paint off the car.

 

Clay bar? What soap are you using? Do you have wax / polish on it? What wash towels / mittens are you using?

Once the folks here understand the base activities, can then offer hypotheses. Can you tell I've been tech reports today?

 

All good questions, let us know what your wash routine is.

Personally I use the Zaino line and did on my black Z with a lot of success.

My first question would be how fast do you dry your car after you are done?

 

I let the dudes in my parking lot wash my car with the portable stuff.... so I'm not sure what they use.

 

Doh, doh, doh.

Do you know if they are drying it after they wash it?

 

what is "portable stuff"?
I would definitely spend a little one on one time with the paint.I have black also and i clean it at least every 2-3 days.To keep black looking right you gotta stay on it. I would'nt mess with "portable stuff".

 

From the sound of it it might be a portable wash service that does a bunch of cars in your lot and probably doesn't dry it? Water spots will absolutely kill your paint in short order. And yeah when I had my Z I was cali dusting/QD spraying it every few days which sounds like a lot but I hardly ever had to give it a full wash because of it.

 

My 04 G35's paint didn't hold up that well and I used a local car wash. That's one of the main reasons I chose to not own another black car.

 

Ugh! This is rarely good news for a black car. My wife runs her black Sequoia through a car wash, but a) I'm not washing it , b) they dry it, and c) this is over a good few coats of Zaino.

 

stop getting washes from automatic washes
Don't ever let anyone else wash you car
Use a sheep skin wash mit
two buckets, clean water, soap water
invest in 10 hours worth of reading on car wash/detail
invest 300 dollars in a Portable Cable rotor and wax/selent/polish/claybar
that should get you started.
have fun, its a long journey with black cars.

 

i do all of that, but i dont have a PC. and my paint looks like absolute ****.

maybe i need to buff? but its only been a year.....

 

You dont need a rotor to make your black paint look good but you do need to invest more time in keeping it nice.

When I had my black Z I would spend about 15 minutes a night twice a week with it. I would dust it with the cali duster and then spray it with the Zaino Z8 QD spray. Thats it, sparkly and shiny, twice a week was really all it took and mine was a daily driver. This eliminated the need for me to do those massive all day waxing and polishing sessions. The problem is sometimes people let their cars get so dirty that they have no choice but to do that. Then maybe every 6 weeks after the QD spray I would put a layer of Z2 polish on it. Takes about 30 minutes to apply.

Keep in mind, moreso than any other color, black paint is VERY susceptible to water spots. You need to be drying your car the minute you turn off the hose if not sooner. One trick I learned to help this process is to take the nozzle off the hose and rinse your car that way - I forget what this process is called but it does wonders in clearing off most of the water. But really get in there and dry dry dry as soon as you can. Water spots are death.

As far as autowashes go, there is only one kind I would use and that was the touchless/railless kind. Basically you drive into a "room", park, and the car is automatically washed around you - but no brushes - then air dryed on the way out. I never used anything with rails or anything with brushes. In the winter I was going 1-2x a week depending on how bad the salt was. But since I had so many layers of Zaino on it frankly it was a cinch to keep clean.

Check out autopia.org if you want more information on detailing than you can handle.

 

Also, if they are washing it in a parking lot, I assume the sun is beating on the car during the wash. If I have to wash my car in the sun (I rarely do), I make sure I am constantly using the hose to keep the entire car wet. They are certainly not doing that. Even if they do dry the car, it is probably too late. It literally takes minutes for water spots to occur. And they are hard to get rid of. Wash the car in the shade whenever possible and use the nozzle off the hose technique described above as your last rinse. Sounds like you need someone to detail that car and get it back to normal. If it is not water spots, you probably need to clay at the very least. HOW ABOUT SOME PICS?!?!?