Re: Avoid washing your car too often; wash only when required! Quote:
Originally Posted by Kosfactor It will.
There is no sealant or coating that you can apply which would prevent it either.
You could use a pressure washer and blast away some of the loose sand and dirt, but that's about it. The moment you rub anything on the paint, it will cause swirls and scratches. Pressure washing will eventually cause rusting in places you cannot see if done frequently, no air blower will dry those places either. So water wash is not practical for daily drive cars.
Waterless is the best alternative to the neighborhood watchman. Do it once a week and you're good. One needs to be sensible though, if the vehicle has been through a lot of mud and dirt, you have got to take it to the car wash / hose it down before touching it. Certainly dry dusting is a bad idea whatever magic duster it is. |
I never claimed sealants or coatings help prevent swirls (coatings do help a little but that’s another issue). The main job of any paint protection is to prevent chemical and UV degradation, not physical abrasion resistance (Use PPF for that).
Touching your paint properly will not cause scratches and swirls, like I said educate yourself on proper wash technique and use purified water like we do. I can show you pictures of cars we have ceramic coated years ago who come in every 3 days for a foam wash, they have over 300-400 washes and have no paint defects under the brightest spot lights we have. There is no other treatment done in this period from when the coating was applied years ago with the exception of a chemical decon every few months.
Pressure washing with clean filtered water will never cause rusting in any place, your entire car body is galvanised for precisely the same reason, we have washed thousands of cars over many years and never had any rusting issue. Classic cars (pre 1990) are not pressure washed as they are prone to rusting no doubt. If you want to be extra sure, just drive around a little after the wash to dry the underbody completely.
Waterless washing, while preferable to your watchman, is far from perfect and will positively result in fine swirls within a few washes. Best avoided if you care about your paint and swirls. Best technique for maintaining a swirl free finish is to get a pressure washer, run it through a water softener system and spray your car down, followed by an air blower, assuming your paint is protected, water will just fly off with the air, zero need to touch with drying towels.
Here’s an example of daily driver Civic we coated years ago, it’s not a garage queen and we have done nothing to it over the years apart from the occasional chemical decon (tar + iron). Still beads water like crazy and there are no swirls on the paint. |