Hello everyone; today I took advantage of the great weather and spent the day cleaning the exterior of my car.

After washing and drying, I cracked open my brand new bottle of Meguiar's Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner (http://www.meguiars.com/?auto-paint-...Paint-Cleaner). I applied it, and after wiping it back off, noticed I'd just put swirls / holograms in the paint!

I used a cotton applicator pad to put it on, and a terrycloth towel to take it back off. I'm not sure which step put the marks in the paint, but I need suggestions on application towels / pads / other so I can do this right.

Any suggestions on towels, applicators, buffers, whatever, or even technique?

I had to apply ScratchX to get the swirls out, and now I'm having to go over every crack on that side of the car to get the dust from the dried scratch-X out.


This is the first time I've done anything other than use an automatic touchless car wash. Please help, I'd love to be able to clean my car, but I'm now more afraid than ever to actually lay a hand on the paint. :-(

 

If I were you, I would go to autopia.net and read up. Use microfiber towels instead of terry cloth. Maybe you only noticed the swirls after you used the paint cleaning polish because the polish took all your wax off which may have been filling the swirls.

 

hrm, i wanna say that this is a part of meg's 3 step process (this being step1). that being said, you probably would have wanted to apply this w/ a PC7424 (random orbital). doing it by hand is very difficult because you need to generate enough heat so that it diminishes. you should probably see if anyone locally can help you out.

edit: actually rereading the product description (and realizing it's just a cleaner), it looks like the terry cloth would be the culprit

 

That's very possible; I'll go buy some microfibers tomorrow and finish the process. I trust autozone or a similar parts store would have what I want?

I'm relatively certain the streaks came from me; they matched the direction I was applying the cleaner. As it is, I have 1/3 of car with no wax on it until I get this resolved.

I'll go read up...

 

ALSO: Is it safe to apply this chemical over a clear bra? I have the Llumar Paint Protection Film. I'm guessing I should skip this chemical and just use the Polish and Wax on the bra?

 

autozone's towels aren't that great... well i should say some of the brands aren't that great. Meguiar's has nice OTC MF towels. The water magnet and their buffing/plush towels are good for removing polish. Get some MF or close cell foam applicators.

As for Meguiar's 3 step product line, those have fillers. You'll merely be hiding the marring but it's not necessarily a bad thing. Just depends on the results you want. Since you'll be doing everything by hand, the meguiar's line should be fine. Some polishes break down via heat, others by friction. Meguiar's line is good for using by hand but just follow with all the steps and I'm sure you'll be happy with the results.

If you want to see what you can do by machine... check out my latest details. These are all using Menzerna products. Well I should say for the most part. Wash/Polish/Seal are all Menzerna. I use Meguiar's Hyper Dressing for tires most of the time now and use either Hi-temp wheel cleaner or Menzerna's tire gel. I'm a distributor for Menzerna but since you're in OK, you may want to order from the guys in Florida or somewhere closer to possibly save a little on shipping costs in the event you decide to go w/ the Menzerna products. A word of caution though, these products can be used by hand but are best with a rotary or random orbital polisher. I used a random orbital polisher exclusively right now as I have not had the need to break out a rotary on any of the vehicles i work on.

http://www.attn-to-details.com/vehic...cord_10_12_05/

http://www.attn-to-details.com/vehicles/bmw_z_9_30_05/

Post any questions or PM me. I'll be more than happy to help you out.

 

The first thing you might want to try it rubbing the area down with a little rubbing alcohol mixed with water, about 50:50. This will remove any polish residue left on the paint, which will give you a better idea of what kind of issues you're now dealing with. It's possible the "holograms" are just polish residue. Megs step 1 doesn't have abrasives, so it would be hard to induce actual holograms with it, but if you don't buff it off entirely it will create what looks like holograms. When I say rubbing I mean very lightly misting then wiping the spray off with a clean mf towel.

As Frizzle mentioned (and I will expand on), a PC is one of the best investments you can make regarding your cars paint, imo. $119 at Lowes and it will probably last 15 years easy - it makes removing swirls infinitely easier, it's very easy to use and almost impossible to damage the paint with, plus the time it saves more than makes up for the cost. You can do these things by hand, but it's easier to add marring and it takes much longer. What products you use with it are up to you, there are many good brands. Poorboys, Menzerna, Optimum, Sonus, Meg's compounds/polishes...

 

I've used Mother's (Synthetics mostly) and they are pretty good. They can be had at any Pepboys. You can go to Mother's website too and there is a forum there with Admins who knows there stuff (literally). I've learned so much from them and Autopia. As for Towels, I bought some from Costco (like 20 of them) for about 10 dollars I think. I tried the test on CDs to see if they would scratch it, and they don't really (unless you are putting way too much pressure on it) or you use alot of pressure while applying the edges of the towels. I actually done this test on almost all MF towels, 100 % Egyptian Cotton towels, and a towel with 20 % model. Guess what? The towel with 20 % Model works as good as the MF towels and are way cheaper (well, not cheaper than the Costco Yellow Towels). Hope this helps.