Pressure Washer marring/scratches

All,
I just wanted to know if anyone has ever had a pressure washer mar/scratch there perfect paint? I corrected with 85rd this past Friday to perfection on all surfaces, and put down a layer of 1Z glance. This did not cause any marring. Well Saturday (one day later) I took the pressure washer and sprayed down all the pollen, but did not touch with car with any soap or wash medium, it was just a rinse off. I expected zero marring, however I took a look at the car in full sun and through the pollen haze, I can see 4 or 5 pretty distinct swirls. Should I be pre-spraying with the pressure turned way down first, then crank it up to 1300psi? I have a small Karcher unit.

What am I doing wrong here? Is water actually marring the car now too???!

2005 Audi Midnight Blue Paint.

Thanks for any feedback/help.
IB

 

How would a pressure washer create a swirl mark? Ive never experienced anything like that.

 

Are you sure you 100% corrected the paint? Did you do a prep sol or equivalent wipe down?

 

a pressure washer "can" marr the paint easily especially if you have soft
clear coat. I learned this the hard way...

If you don't have a foam canon, now is the time to buy one if you
want to keep on using your pressure washer for "pre wash"

First you foam the car up "NO WATER RINSE" after you foam the car,
then you can rinse it with water as you like. the dirt will be then easy to remove and it won't scratch your clearcoat.

also keep your distance, no need for blasting the paint with a pressure washer "at all" especially if you pre foam it.
oh want to keep your LSP longer? use less soap in the foam canon, and rinse before the foam starts to dry or drips allot.

if the car is dirty and you will reLSP it, then use more soap and maybe PS21 total auto wash mix, leave the foam longer on the car and rinse

 

I can not see how a pressure washer swirls it..the water is straight line ..I believe if you did not do a wipe down after polishing the pressure from the water would lift any polish filling the swirls swirls...the water it self against the pollen will not swirl it...if your 3-4 feet away the pressure hitting the paint is not all that powerful and the water droplets are micro sized...

I pressure wash my GF's CRV..which is soft paint..and its 98% perfect..and even after PWing it ..it still stays the same...

Al

 

I think it is removing something from the paint (dare I say fillers?) and that is causing you to see the swirls. As Al said, water from a PW travels fairly straight, and I can't see how it would inflict circular scatches.

 

I have never seen PW marr paint regardless of how soft it is.

I think its poor polishing and checks thats the culprit

 

Sorry, but there's no way power washing will do any kind of damage to your paint unless your using wayyyy too much pressure & you don't take proper care/caution. I could and do wash this close with 1800 psi on every car I detail and wash for many, many years and never witnesses a single problem.

 

IMO, what you're seeing is the concealing effect of PO85RD. PO106FF does it, too. It isn't an intentional filling effect according to Menzerna, it's just what the lubes they use in those two polishes *do*. Most pros will do either a prepsol or IPA wipedown after using either of those two polishes to make sure nothing is being concealed by them and their leftover lubes. It's pretty amazing how well they will conceal stuff.

The concealed defects simply became visible after you removed all the polish remnants with your PW. I'm in the group of peeps that think there is no way a PW is gonna mar your paint. And if it did, it isn't going to be swirled, but straight line scratches. And that ain't gonna happen, either.

 

let me get this straight, so any of you pros which I personally learned allot from
during those couple of years, blast the paint that has dirt like lower parts with water
from the PW before washing to remove that dirt? water no soap?

 

superbee, I did use ISO wide down 50/50, I know the PW marred the paint 100%,
thankfully it was 1 door that had it, maybe I missed it during polishing?
or maybe it was the PW? I don't know how many times a person can miss a large
spot like the door

 

I did a prep-all wipe down after polishing, trust me, it was 100% clean however, maybe the light was poor in that one spot. I can not imagine the prep-all not removing all the oils from 106FA (my finishing polish, I mistakenly said it was 85RD in my initial post).

I have pictures with process if anyone would like to see. Anyway, I am pretty much resigned to the fact that maybe those swirls were not completely removed, and then after rinsing with the pressure washing revealed my mistakes.



I guess I was having a really tough time with my wash process at the same time I experienced the pressure washer situation. The rinse was not causing the slight marring and scratches that I am seeing during that process, instead it is certainly the wool mitt I am using with not enough water when I go to wash the car (something I did later).

I have since changed from a 3 gallon bucket to a 5 gallon bucket filled to the brim, and I am using 5-6 tablespoons of Adams car wash soap compared to 3-4 I was using before. The marring from my original post here, to now has not significantly increased at all. Also I now fill the bucket up twice during a car wash, compared to using just one bucket of washing solution before. So I may have found a method that works for me. Just need to do full correction and start washing again to find out if I am finally getting swirl free results.

I also agree that holding the PW about 18 inches at least from the surface helps too in the initial rinse down. Rinsing soap I got a bit closer and sweep the water over the surface.

It's amazing how much we do for our cars. BTW, this is Audi Frozen Diamonds hard clear, but scratches super easy too (think one pass with bad wash media/solution). No idea why it needs to be so hard and so easy to scratch!

I will keep everyone posted on my progress.

 

i agree, i dont think a PW can cause marring, damage on the other hand i do think it can. i have used a few pressure washers that could easily strip the paint off a car. but we're talking industrial PW. putting out over 4000psi. not that an one here would do that but still should be careful. i used my foam cannon today for the first time and i must say i love it. my neighbor looked at me like WTF is that. you could even hear the foam LOL i love it

 

I agree, though I am not a Pro by any means, something feels strange about Menzerna...I know what you mean. It is a very weird feeling oily polish. Saw your postings at the other site as well...
I totally agree. What else do you recommend?
Oh and I don't think a pressure washer can scratch either but I don't use one because of my drop-top..

 

I was under the impression that swirl marks weren't actually swirls at all, I thought they were just lots of scratches and the way the light hit it made it look like a circular pattern. 50/50 shot I could be wrong, input por favor.

 

take a junk hood or panel that is perfect post correction with no oils or fillers and PW it, im thinking there is not going to be any swirls

 

I too don't think a pressure can swirl... maybe from drying?

 

Well I think I will revise my thought about this,
let me put it this way, it depends on your pressure washer nozzle,
if it is missed up or the tip is damaged the water might come out stronger, this is the only thing I could think that happened.

Mind you though since I bought the karcher I have had no problem
although I still use the same regime. I am guessing my husky wand
was damaged at the time.

 

I am waiting for some work crap to finish up. So trolling the boards I come across this older interesting post.

Guys, 100% it was my wash technique even one week after correction. My advice, go with two 5 gal buckets, a sheepskin mitt from phil or AG and wash/rinse/repeat.

Dry the mit afterwards in the drier.

Wash next week, notice no swirls.
Good luck! Problem with marring has been severely limited if not completely solved.
IB

myself = :goodn: