ES350Bob

LOL @ toothless and it's armless too....

I started using no touch when we had severe water use restrictions, they were permitted.

I had a black car brand new at the time and ended up trading it with a tiny swirl mark on trunk lid after 2 years and two months.

In such good condition that sales manager directly asked me what i did to maintain the car. He had a dark blue IS with dozens of swirl marks, that is why he asked.

I told him my top secret.....roughly 6 no touch to 1 hand wash and you end up swirless on a very dark car and that I would not have the tiny one on trunk lid if not for dealer hand washing the car or some other something.

I use Laserbright no touch system, don't know if they use better quality soaps etc., but that car and my current are/will be virtually swirless with no damage to paint. And they use conditioned water rinse for no spots, never hand dry it as it is blown dry there, and any remainder is blown off on drive home.


When I do wash it by hand, I use Bounty paper towels wetted first, no grit or sand on them to swirl the exterior.

twister

Back in my ES350 days when they replaced my scraped wheel with a spare in the trunk, in addition to washing the car they also left a box of mint chocolate dots in a little gift box with a dealership logo. Sort of like they do on a cruise or in a hotel with a chocolate mint on your pillow

Actually, my only gripe is after I put Lexus rubber winter mats, sometime after the carwash they leave water footmarks when bring the car around. That makes mat slippery along with gas/break pedals...

15951

Oh dear god, please tell me you're not using paper towels to wash your car. PLEASE spend some time on autopia.org.

ES350Bob

LOL..yep, fraid so...

They work great and no I do not re-use them--fresh ones each time, and reason I decided to try them is because no matter how careful I was with mits etc. there seemed always to be some grit left or got on them while between washes and with the paper towels it is a fresh one-several layers-- each area of car.

Maybe not for everyone--- but my method really allowed/allows virtually none of those opaque or semi-opaque swirl marks like in past black cars.

And it is all thanks to water restrictions causing the use of no touch and then paper towel to gently clean when doing it myself.

Bounty is the softer and quicker pickerupper..

toneman

If you want to know for sure if your paint surface is swirl-free...here's one ghetto way to find out for sure (results more dramatic on darker-colored vehicles): with your vehicle parked in a dark place (e.g., parked inside your garage at night w/ no lights on), shine a flashlight that puts out a fair amount of bright light very close (e.g., 6 inches or less...unless you have a very powerful flashlight that puts out a large spot beam, in which case you don't have to have too close) to the vehicle surface. This method will definitely reveal swirls that would otherwise not be as easily noticeable when viewed at certain angles during the daytime.

Sure, one could argue that if such swirls can't be easily seen during the day, then why would it matter if they can be seen using my method? True, but for those of us who are **** about taking care of our vehicles...every little bit of detail counts!

Also--many commercial touchless car wash places still employ folks who hand-dry whatever moisture is still left on the vehicle; last I checked, this hand-dry process typically involves the use of drying cloths...as such, it would be unavoidable to think that nothing ever touches your car during a no-touch car wash process.

ES350Bob

The one I go to has huge blow dryers to dry the car off, a cheerleader squad could get in there, all with wet hair, and have it dry in a couple of minutes.