QEW first experience, questions

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ForceFed4

New member
Hi there,



Based on what I've read here on Autopia I picked up some QEW and have used it a couple times on my car to try it out. Now that I have, I want to ask a couple of questions as I'm not totally sure that I' not damaging the car's paint.



Here is what I'm doing: I mix the QEW with water to the ratio indicated on the bottle. This results in a solution that has little to no "soap suds" at all, nor does it develop suds when applied to the car. Since this product is quite different than any other I've used, I'm not sure if that's completely normal or not, and what I should do about it.



I'm using a single bucket and a chenile wash mitt to apply, then I "rough" dry with a white 100% cotton towel, doing a final dry with a microfibre towel immediately after.



As far as cleaning goes, I'm very impressed, the dirt just seems to "float" off the car, it really does work.



BUT, to my eye, it seems like the car has more swirlmarks since I started to use QEW. It could just be mental, and I'm simply noticing previously existing swirls more because I'm paranoid about the new product, but I wanted to see what others here experienced with QEW.



I don't want to be in a situation where the method I use to clean the car regularly means I need to polish out swirlmarks constantly, as I don't think I or the car's paint will be up for that.



Nature of the product? User error? User's imagination? Fact of life w/ clearcoated paint? Other?
 
I have not used QEW yet, but i know most people are using two buckets, one for QEW and one of pure water for a rinse bucket. Soak mit, wash panel, rinse mit, grab another mit while that rinses, wash panel repeat.... etc etc



another thought i had for when the car is too dirty to QEW, was to begin with a normal wash, then totally rinse the car and dont worry about drying. If you are claying, clay and then QEW to follow up and dry. if just washing, it may take longer overall, but do a normal wash and then a QEW. This way, you can get all the nasty grime off, but follow up with the QEW to deal with water spots and such.
 
I use one bucket, one pad almost all the time. The key is to not use a lot of pressure and use quality towels. Work just one section at a time.
 
Scottwax said:
I use one bucket, one pad almost all the time. The key is to not use a lot of pressure and use quality towels. Work just one section at a time.
Click to expand...



Same here. Very little pressure and a high quality MF to wash is doing excellent for me using just one bucket. Using the MF decreases the chances of inducing swirls and lifts off dirt very well.
 
ForceFed4 said:
BUT, to my eye, it seems like the car has more swirlmarks since I started to use QEW. It could just be mental, and I'm simply noticing previously existing swirls more because I'm paranoid about the new product, but I wanted to see what others here experienced with QEW.
Click to expand...



ForceFed, I'm sort of in the same boat as you with QEW, except I've been using the stuff for almost 3 years. The thing that allows me to continue using QEW is that I've accepted the fact that light marring is a normal consequence of washing your car. Will using QEW regularly cause marring to build up on your car? Of course it will. But the same can be said for even the most obsessively careful "traditional" car wash procedures. The key is the keep those marrs to a minimum using OCD procedures emphasized here on Autopia and then incorporating them as well as *improving* upon them by your own personal experimentation.



With the recent purchase of a new red car for my wife, I decided to put QEW under a pretty stringent test for marring by using it under intense flourescent lighting in my garage. Keep in mind that at this point, I've pretty much memorized what any marring on my car looks like. Did I find any new marring after using it? Yes. Is this marring visible under any other lighting...including direct sunlight? No! I would say that the damage QEW does to your paint in terms of light marring is no worse than traditional washing techniques....however, I don't think I will ever feel totally "comfortable" about using QEW to clean a few weeks worth of dirt on a brand spanking new 45,000 car. But at the same time, all the testimony offered here on Autopia about how people didn't notice any new swirls when using it does have a certain mitigating effect.
 
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