This is my first post in this thread so if I'm asking a redundant question please forgive me.

I find that it takes nothing to put fine scratches in my paint/clear. Any help would be appreciated... Here's my story;

I'm disabled so putting hours and hours into a project is almost beyond me... almost.
I will put in the work if I have to but I don't want to repeat a wax job more than absolutely necessary.

The problem I'm having
I live on an unpaved dusty road & I keep getting fine scratches within a day or two of waxing. I'm as careful as I can be with the finish & I use the California Duster every day. I never wipe the car down or use a finishing spray without washing it first.

What I Use & what I'm doing:
The Wash:
I wash it almost daily with a cold water pressure washer that uses a commercial pressure wash car wash.
I then use a jelly squeegee and finish it off with a clean micro fiber towel.

The Wax:
I use a soft/liquid wax product: Mother's fine scratch and swirl remover and it just doesn't seem to be hard enough to resist the fine scratches that I seem to always get. I'll then put down two coats of Mother's or Rejex and it does a great job but like I said they are just not protecting a car that lives off a dusty road and I'll have to wax it again with the scratch remover in a week.

What I'm looking for:
I'm looking for something that will lay down a durable, hard wax coat to protect against the fine scratches. But I'm also looking for something that I won't have to do every week or even every month; I'm willing to put in the work of a paste/carnauba wax as long as I don't have to do it more than once every six months or so and or if I can maintain the finish with a finishing spray after washes that would be great..

The easier, the better but what I'm mainly looking for is protection from the fine scratches... they are driving me nuts.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

There is no wax or sealant that will resist scratching. It sounds like you may need to fine tune your washing technique/supplies.

Can you give more information on what you use and how you use it when washing (ie. mitt, soap, drying towels, etc.)?

 

Zane is onto something here. You might want to try not using the jelly blade and instead, using the hose without a nozzle to sheet the water off your car. Then use a good drying towel.

I had a problem using a California water blade. I found that if I didn't get every single spec of grit and dirt off the finish, it would cause some pretty fine scratches.

What brand of Microfibers are you using to dry the car with ? I've found with some of the cheaper brands, they lack quality control and can also cause fine scratches on the finish.

 

Thanks, that's good to know and at least this gives me another direction to look in. I recently purchased a electric leaf blower to help with the water instead of the jelly blade but as I'm sure you know even a 150 mph air blast won't get rid of all the water. I'll need to wipe it down with something.

I'm using the pressure washer to "blast" the dust off so I don't have to use a soft brush or mitt. Actually a mitt would be out of the question... There's just no way I could do all that bending to do a good job with it and the pressure washer does seem to do a good job. Has anyone heard anything to the contrary?

If there is a flaw or weakness in my plan it probably in the micro-fiber towels. They are the yellow ones now being sold at Costco & I think they're Chinese. They're inexpensive at about $10.00 for 20 of them but they seemed to be first rate. I guess I should try other towels.

Any other suggestions? I've just ordered the Zano Basket so we'll See if the non-abrasive Z5 will help with the problem.

Living on a dusty road does have it's advantages, a flawless car isn't one of them though.

Al

 

I, personally, don't like your pressure washing idea. I would use hose pressure water to rinse all the major dust/dirt off my car before I even put a soft mitt to it with suds. I can tell you from experience that using a commercial car wash set up on my black vehicle with excessive dirt/dust on it HAS resulted in light scratch marks left behind. I only wash by hand on my dark cars now and I alwasy make sure a hose pressure rinse is done before anything makes contact with that surface.

Todd

 

Sorry for the double reply, but I screwed up on the quote on the first try.....

These are probably a 50-50 chance on being a problem. I think they are an okay towel for under hood work and interior, but I wouldn't use them on my paint. A good, quality waffle weave MF is your best bet to dry with. I use the Cobra MF waffle weave towels sold by the sponsor Auto-geek and they have worked wonderfully. I also have several purple waffle weave I got from another vendor about 2 years ago that are great and I still use.

Some swear by the CD test on MF, but I have generally found that pressure is the root of the CD scratch test. The yellow towels my Costco sells always scratch the CD, even lightly, so I use them as mentioned above.

Todd

 

I believe this is the problem: you get lots of road dust on the car, then blast it with the pressure washer daily. You're not able to use a wash mitt and hand-applied soap to really float the remaining dirt away, so despite the pressure washer, I have no doubt at all that there is still a significant coat of dust and dirt remaining. There's just NO way that any pressure wash, even with a foam gun and soap, can do a good job at removing all dust and dirt. You really do need hand agitation with a mitt, even if just lightly.

I believe that after these washes the car is in fact still significantly dirty. You can verify this if you are noticing that your wax applicator or wax-removal towels are dirty (they should not be).

So applying wax over the residual dirt, you are rubbing those fine particles into the clearcoat, and causing scratching. Likewise the water blade applied under these circumstances will cause scratching.

Here are my suggestions:

1. Is bending down the activity that is impossible? You should be able to find a mitt on a long handle, or fashion one yourself. Then you could use the mitt even from a seated or totally standing position.
2. Use a quality wash (Zaino Z7, Meg's NXT are great) and mix with water in proper proportions
3. yes, do a final nozzle-less rinse, then briefly blow dry, then dry remainder with waffle weave microfibler towel
4. I would only use waffle weave bought from autogeek (cobra brand) or pakshak
5. stop all use of the power washer. Use normal hose pressure only.
6. be sure to use the two bucket method (I didn't notice this mentioned yet in this thread)

Note that in Kmart and such - they usually sell gadgets with brushes on long poles, used for washing SUV's etc. You might want to buy one of those , throw away the brush, and find a way of putting a quality Eurow mitt on the end of the device. If your disability prevents bending, this could solve the problem, and of course if you can stand you should have no problem doing a good mitt wash of the upper surfaces of the car.

 

I would point to the lack of a quality mitt and soap as the problem. A high lubricity soap and sheepskin mitt helps to encapsulate the dirt particles and safely lift them from the surface. A set of quality microfiber towels wouldn't hurt, either.

Water alone rarely cleans the finish like it needs...follow that with a waterblade, and you've got a good chance of marring.

Pressure washers can be good tools, but they need to be used with great caution.

 

As said I would stop using the pressure washer and the Cali water blade, if you are driving on unpaved roads you will always have a dust problem. Use a cotton wash mitt (100% cotton) or a good quality sheepshin wash mitt, and use a good car wash (it give you lubrisity) something that water can not do. For drying an electric leaf blower works great (as long as your driveway is paved, or where you wash your car) , with a good coat of "wax" you will need one towel to take off the remaining water, and good towels are another key.