AquaDry abused my new car....HELP!!!

D

Deep_Freeze

New member
Well, I just got a car with 3800 miles on it. I have never owned a black car, so I really didn't know what I was getting into, but I really love how it looks clean.



OK, I went to my local wal-mart and bought the aquadry to dry the car with. I throughly rinsed it out with water before use. I have noticed that the car had a coat of wax already on it when I bought it cause it still had residue in the gaps and such. So what I decided to do was just give it a quick wash and dry right after a pretty good rain.



Well, I did a basic wash, then applied some tire gel to the tires in the shade. Some of the water on the car dried a little while I was gelling the tires. So I proceeded to dry the car with the aquadry. I noticed that using it was higher in effort than I was used to in drying a car. I thought at the time that everything was OK cause while the car wasn't totally wet anymore, it wasn't bone dray either so I could just use the water on there to fix any water spots. Maybe I am an idiot and used it wrong, I don't know.



As I was drying, I noticed that it had some black on it and ended up having quite a bit of black on it. Needless to say, this got my attention cause it had never happened to me before. :eek: Then when I got home, I noticed tiny streaks on the paint all over the car. :mad: Guess I just assumed that this product was good, so I didn't doubt it til I saw the streaks.



Now, I can't tell if the streaks are scratches or just streaks (hopefully just streaks), but they do appear to be minor scratches, as they don't come off very easily. I lightly ran my fingernail on the paint to see if there was any grooves to suggest deep scratches, but there are no grooves that I can tell at all. I bought some SEC and S100 wax upon a lot of reading on this site, and I wonder if that will be enough to clear up my problem. I haven't cleaned since, and I am quite scared right now. Any suggestions would be appreciated VERY much, as I feel like a complete idiot right now......:(



BTW, the package of the product says that it is "clearcoat safe", lol. It is a PVA towel which I thought was a cheaper alternative to the absorber. :wall
 
Sorry to hear about the (hopefully just) streaks on the new car. It is encouraging that you cannot feel them with your fingernail. You can download the free version of the Autopia Guide to Detailing. It's full of great info.



You might want to do a "Dawn wash" to get rid of the old wax. Be sure to check out The PERFECT Drying Technique.



What is AquaDry? I did a Google search and came up with all sorts of weird stuff, mostly having to do with incontinence, but nothing about car care. Is it some kind of synthetic chamois?
 
Taxlady said:
What is AquaDry? I did a Google search and came up with all sorts of weird stuff, mostly having to do with incontinence, but nothing about car care. Is it some kind of synthetic chamois?
Click to expand...



yes, that is exactly what it is.



I was hoping the SEC would remove the old wax, whenever I can get to put the s100 on the car. Right now, it is raining like everyday where I am.
 
I haven't tried SEC yet, so I don't know if it will remove wax, but I imagine it does. You could do a search or wait for someone else to reply.



I wouldn't want a chamy on my car, genuine or synthetic. I use the California WaterBlade (very carefully) and blot what's left with an MF (microfibre towel). Other people have other methods.



And BTW :wavey welcome to Autopia.
 
Try the CD scratch test (not one of your good ones - AOL or something) with your AquaDry.



If it scratchs throw it in the bin - if it doesn't then either you didn't wash the car well enough and left something there that you dragged across the paint and caused scratches,



or given that you got black on the AquaDry then maybe someone used a black coloured wax on it before which you have now started to remove - what you are seeing may be what was hidden under the black wax (why else would someone have used it?)
 
butchdave said:
Try the CD scratch test (not one of your good ones - AOL or something) with your AquaDry.



If it scratchs throw it in the bin - if it doesn't then either you didn't wash the car well enough and left something there that you dragged across the paint and caused scratches,



or given that you got black on the AquaDry then maybe someone used a black coloured wax on it before which you have now started to remove - what you are seeing may be what was hidden under the black wax (why else would someone have used it?)
Click to expand...



Yeah, I thought the same about the wax, but the residue from the wax is a cream color, so it doesn't look like it was black wax.



Interesting test, while I was drying the car, I did flip the towel a lot, so I don't think I could have dragged the same thing across the paint. I did try the CD test, and the AquaDry was soft across it, without a single scratch, even with the still dirty side used on the CD. Wow, that does make me wonder what caused this to happen.......



Wait, I did notice that if I do the CD test pretty hard, kinda like the way I dried the car, lol, it does cause minor streaks, although I don't think I really pressed all that hard. Don't know, maybe discovering what I did can help me fix the problem. Maybe the SEC and s100 will be enough, or could use something in between, not sure what though.
 
Taxlady said:
What is AquaDry? I did a Google search and came up with all sorts of weird stuff, mostly having to do with incontinence...
Click to expand...
:lol :rofl :rofl



Deep_Freeze, some ideas: You should dry the car off as soon as possible, not go and do something else while the water dries. There are two reasons for this 1) water spots 2) dust That said, I think it's possible the black residue you found could be either airborne dust or dirt that's firmly stuck on your wax coat, which happens sometimes.



Don't press or drag the cloth over the paint. If you have to do any dragging it should be short. Ideally, you'll want to BLOT it dry.



It may fail the CD scratch test, but don't put too much weight on that. You should not be rubbing the cloth like you would when you're using MF to buff something off anyway.



Are you serious about you pressing hard on the paint while drying??? If so, I'll bet this is why you have fine scratching. Don't apply pressure. It's not the product's fault. :nono
 
Well, it is a 350Z that I just bought, which makes this worse, cause I have loved this car since birth. That is what scares me, cause I know it is supposed to have a clearcoat on it, yet I got some black off the car.



I have come to the conclusion that I made a mistake. But I can't do anything about that now, I used the product like any other towel in which I wiped off the water instead of blotting. Wish I knew the difference at the time, but nothing I can do now.



The question I have is how to FIX the problem and if SEC and s100 is enough to do that. I still don't think they are scratches, look more like streaks. I don't know if a swirl remover could be added and if I want to use that on a new car. It is raining here like everyday, so it is hard to just try something.



I'm real scared that I cause some kind of permenant damage by rubbing instead of blotting. Guess I can only find out after another wax job, I guess.........:(
 
If your Z is clearcoated, (most likely), you didn't get black paint on your AquaDry. You may have gotten some dirt, grease, tar, what have you, but not paint.

Did you buy the car used? There could very easily have been some sort of quickie detail spray used on it by someone. Even new car dealers are sometimes guilty of this.

Since you have SEC, try some on a small section of the car and see what happens. If it cleans things up, do the rest of the car, apply some S100, go cruising for chicks.:p



Charles:wavey
 
CharlesW said:
If your Z is clearcoated, (most likely), you didn't get black paint on your AquaDry. You may have gotten some dirt, grease, tar, what have you, but not paint.

Did you buy the car used? There could very easily have been some sort of quickie detail spray used on it by someone. Even new car dealers are sometimes guilty of this.

Since you have SEC, try some on a small section of the car and see what happens. If it cleans things up, do the rest of the car, apply some S100, go cruising for chicks.:p



Charles:wavey
Click to expand...



Yeah, I hope you are right. Nothing is worse than wondering if you messed up your new car. I have always prided myself in taking care of my cars, this is very discouraging. I will try just the SEC and see what happens.
 
Well, I was able to get out and wash & wax the car with the s100. All I can say is WOW. It does look great, I love this car. When I used the SEC, alot more black came off the car. I am convinced that someone tried to use some kind of quickie detail of the car as Charles suggested. It was obviously not paint, from what I could tell, so I am relieved. Wish I had a digital camera, it looks great.



That was the good, now for a little bad. There are light swirls on the car, but they are in straight lines from front to back on the car. So I guess they aren't swirls, they are more of like small lines. The streaks are all gone, but these swirl like lines remain. Really, they are very hard to see by anyone but me, but I would still like to get rid of them if I can. Right now, I am going to roll with it the way it is, cause it still looks outstanding, but any suggestions for the future to get rid of these lines?
 
Deep_Freeze said:
Well, I was able to get out and wash & wax the car with the s100. All I can say is WOW. It does look great, I love this car. When I used the SEC, alot more black came off the car. I am convinced that someone tried to use some kind of quickie detail of the car as Charles suggested. It was obviously not paint, from what I could tell, so I am relieved. Wish I had a digital camera, it looks great.



That was the good, now for a little bad. There are light swirls on the car, but they are in straight lines from front to back on the car. So I guess they aren't swirls, they are more of like small lines. The streaks are all gone, but these swirl like lines remain. Really, they are very hard to see by anyone but me, but I would still like to get rid of them if I can. Right now, I am going to roll with it the way it is, cause it still looks outstanding, but any suggestions for the future to get rid of these lines?
Click to expand...

Great!

Is it possible that someone tried to cover up the swirl lines with something like the Turtle Wax colored wax product?

The fine lines would probably come out with a swirl remover, but that can be quite a project by hand. You really need a PC for that, but it would be quite an investment just to remove those swirls. Maybe you can find someone in you area to either remove the swirls or loan you a PC for an hour or two. It can be done by hand, but it is a lot of work.



Charles
 
CharlesW said:
Great!

Is it possible that someone tried to cover up the swirl lines with something like the Turtle Wax colored wax product?

The fine lines would probably come out with a swirl remover, but that can be quite a project by hand. You really need a PC for that, but it would be quite an investment just to remove those swirls. Maybe you can find someone in you area to either remove the swirls or loan you a PC for an hour or two. It can be done by hand, but it is a lot of work.



Charles
Click to expand...





Huh, yeah, that could always be a possibility. But the leftover wax in the cracks was cream-colored, so I don't know what they tried to do. But it did seem like some kind of wax, detailer, or something. I just know the car looks faaaaaaar better now, and the lines are very, very minor. I know I am supposed to use the SEC like every 6 months, so at that time, I might look into getting rid of the lines with some type of swirl remover. Really, I am kinda scared to use some kind of swirl remover on a relatively new car.



I wouldn't be suprised if the guy who did the initial wax job put the lines in it, and tried to cover it with some kind of black detailer or something.
 
My personal opinion, if you're going to continue to detail the car regularly, then get yourself a PC, its really worth the $150 or so, especially on such a beautiful car. For me, I've never really had any tough work to do with the PC, other than the recent stuff everyone remembers me posting about, but I love the machine, and you will too. It makes.....everything......so much easier!
 
Are we sure that his Z is clearcoated? I remember a bunch of guys going :eek: when they heard that some brand new Lexus (I think) wasn't clearcoated in black. I'd check on that, because if later on you keep on pulling black colour when using SEC you'll begin to wonder....



If using a swirl remover makes you nervous (it's not that harsh really) you can probably improve hiding slightly by using a glaze prior to waxing.
 
Goodnclean, I have used a PC before, but can't find it, lol. Since I only have one car right now, I am fine with hand buffing. Of course if I decide to do any swirl removal, I will probably use a PC to make it a little easier.



4dsc, I will have to check that out. Haven't really thought about it, just assumed it was clearcoated. Been looking for the answer, and can't find it, but is worth finding out. This is the second time I got black back from messing with the car, so my eyes are out for another time now, cause all of it should be gone now.



BTW, is there any glaze you recommend??? I have been thinking of what I want to put in between, some kind of polymer that is long lasting, don't really know what.
 
Yes thats why I asked. Lexuses are my area of knowledge, and I know they don't clearcoat some black because they feel it detracts from gloss.



I'd still get the PC myself for only one car ;) You can get it online from Meguiars, Loews...



As for polymer sealants, I just tried Poorboys EX, and really love it, you can get it from www.poorboysworld.com I polished before it with P21S GEPC.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top