do not use water blade

ya dude...just get some rubbing compound and polish and get to work on fixing the scratches if they bother you so much
 
im gonna take some pics of my water blade later maybe u guys might spot something abnormal..... im chill its just that my car is my child in a way il kill anything that touchs it
 
BillNorth said:
Some points:



Notice the correlation between unhappy water blade owners and the cars they have, = Honda/Acura. I've read some interesting stories on this board and others about how notoriously soft honda paint is, and how susceptible their black paint is to swirling even when using perfect technique.



The blade itself is not perfect. You have to be careful when using it. I do have one but no longer use it. I have found some minute scratches in my paint. When I did use it I always kept a bucket of clean water beside me so that I could dunk the blade inside between swipes. This allowed me to clean any potential grit that got caught on the blade.



I thing WW's or good cotton towels are more forgiving than the CWB because they have a nap to trap dirt away from the paint.



I personally use the sheeting method to dry my car. After washing I use a weak stream of water to sheet the big drops off the car. I then go around and blot the remainder (which isn't much) with a charisma. Works well and have not seen any ill effects.



Bill.
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I can certainly attest to this. I have had Hondas all my life, typically the paint looks great, but is super soft. I have a 1994 accord that is dark green, using the most fanatical wahing/drying techniques, I can still see minor marring in the sun. I have come to deal with it.







My take on the waterblade, I have it, but don't really have a need for it on my own persoanly car.



I use a free flowing sheet of water as a final rinse, the little bit of water that is left gets taken care of by a WWMF.



I have always feared that a bit of dirt could run from beneath a molding and get picked up by the CWB. Maybe I am just paranoid.
 
Same here. I have a waterblade but I use it primarily on the windows. There is no need to use it on my cars because I keep them waxed and the water just beads off.



I have a hard time beliving that the water blade can scratch glass. I mean, you can't tell me that the water blade is harsher than your windshield wipers. I'm sure that 'surgical grade silicone' is safer than whatever rubber they make wiper blades out of. If you are scratching the glass because of the waterblade then its because you have rocks on it or something.



I can't say if the waterblade scratches because the only cars I use it on are getting polished right after I use it anyway. So it doesn't really matter to me if it causes fine scratches. I'll just be removing them anyway. I'm sure claying causes more scratches than a properly used california water blade.
 
HellrotCi said:
If you could trap grit under a CWB it could happen just as easily with a WW. No matter what procedures you go through to dry your vehicles, you've got to pay attention to what you're doing. :rolleyes:



There's no doubt that grit can stick to the CWB because I have felt it myself on mine. That's why I always wash and rinse mine before using it. I then double check it to make sure it's grit free. This takes me about 15 seconds which is more than paid back with the speed of drying my vehicles that the CWB provides.
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the way i used my cwb was using it after washing the cwb, and carrying another damp towel with me to make sure the cwb was clean before using on the paint. there is no way to guarantee that dirt will not fall onto your finish and the cwb carry it across and scratch the paint.



also a ww towel has never scratched my paint, even after 100+ uses, while the cwb did it 1 out of 5 times i have used it. just not worth the risk to use the cwb when ww towels work amazingly.



and the honda/acura paint is definetly soft.
 
jstn said:


also a ww towel has never scratched my paint, even after 100+ uses, while the cwb did it 1 out of 5 times i have used it.





just not worth the risk to use the cwb when ww towels work amazingly.
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Here in our shop, we use the CWB followed by MF technique on EVERY SINGLE car we wash, which is about 15 a day... None of them exhibited any form of marring any more than a MF may have caused.



Granted, though, the CWB doesn't work well on vehicles that doesn't have a lot of flat areas where water can "pool". If your car sheets most of the water off the car before you even dry the car (especially if you use the "hose sheet" method), the CWB is almost useless since it'll grab the paint.
 
I can understand the BASIC THEORY as to why the CWB is likely to cause scratches: if a grain of sand is trapped, it has nowhere to go, and will be dragged along the paint surface. In contrast, a MF towel will pull the grain of sand into its pile, and the paint will not be at risk.



In my experience, though I appreciate their "plushness", MF towels (as well as wool wash mitts and terry towels, which may in theory have more potential to pull the offending particle away from the paint), often trap grit on the outermost surface and cause marring as well. One big advantage of the CWB is that it is very easy to pull off any remaining grit, and you can easily FEEL if it's clean or not. Even if you wash a MF towel, how easy is it to know how many dirt particles are still there - it's only a guess.



Anyway, you should use whatever gives you the best results; many factors apply to various situations.





:hm
 
sorry to revive an old thread, but I just learned the hard way. After all the reviews I read on CWB, the opinions were nearly equally divided...so I decided to give it a try, with all the precautions in mind, i.e. wipe the blade with towel after every pass. It worked as advertised and cut my drying time down by 1/2. It was much later when I saw my car's paint, under the sun at an angle, that's when I saw all the fine linear scratches the CWB produced...*sigh*



If you don't think you can get your car 100% clean after a wash, don't use the waterblade.
 
Diggs said:
i used my california water blade on my brand new black rsx type s and just got done detailing it with Z5 and it looks awsome. well tonight i go outside and the motion light goes on and is shining on my hood..... OMG there are tons of fine scratchs in my clear coats going in the direction the water blade was going. im so upset i just want everyone to know not to use it. i guess microfiber towels are gonna be my only option for drying now. hopfully a few more layers of z5 will get rid of the long swirl/striaght marks
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If you had one or a few scratches it might be because the CWB is flawed (ie drags a few missed particles across your paint). If your paint is loaded with fine scratches "in the direction of the water blade", it's because you didn't wash it properly, your CWB was soiled before you used it, or you waited too long after washing or it was windy and grit settled on your paint before you used it.
 
Jimmy Buffit said:
I use the CWB everyday.

I have a new, unwrapped, backup, just in case. That's how valuable it is in my shop.



I dry a car with CWB, 1 (one) 16x16 MF, and compressed air.



Jim
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+1 (but I use a leafblower rather than compressed air).



This three step process has saved me over 50% in drying time. :2thumbs:
 
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