Rough paint and spotty wax. Anyway to correct?

[MrTrendizzle]

Hey guys.

I've just spent the best part of 5 hours cleaning my car inside and out to a near perfect condition only to be left with a subpar wax coat.
As you can see from the pictures the wax has left behind these spots/streaks. Besides using clay is there anyway to correct this for now?

I'm going to pick up a new clay kit next week but for now is there anyway i can clean up this wax? It's literally driving me crazy.

Also what can i do to reduce cleaning time?
I strip, hoover, clean the interior with carpet, dash and leather products including inside glass and dressing.

I then deep clean the wheel wells, wheels, brakes, exhaust.
Engine degrease, metal polish and dress plastics.
Snowfoam, rinse, wash, rinse, dry, polish, wash, dry, wax and clean the exterior glass.

This seems to take me the best part of half a day to complete. Surely there's someway to reduce the time.
I tend to do this every 4 weeks or so to keep the car looking brand new with a deep crystal clear almost mirror like colour.

EDIT: In the pictures i can clearly see paint contaminants. To the naked eye i couldn't see those. I guess clay bar it is. Also missed a scratch. :(

[rayaans]

You fail to say what wax you used and what decontamination process you followed before applying the wax if any?

Tar spots and other contamination will cause that effect as the wax residue doesnt rub off them like it would on paint. 

Its likely the car needs a full decon including tar removal, fallout removal and clay bar followed by a machine polish. There's no point using a clay bar if you're not going to polish it afterwards as youll introduce a lot of swirls and marks, especially on Lexus soft paint - even worse when its black!

[Jgtcracer]

23 hours ago, rayaans said:

You fail to say what wax you used and what decontamination process you followed before applying the wax if any?

Tar spots and other contamination will cause that effect as the wax residue doesnt rub off them like it would on paint. 

Its likely the car needs a full decon including tar removal, fallout removal and clay bar followed by a machine polish. There's no point using a clay bar if you're not going to polish it afterwards as youll introduce a lot of swirls and marks, especially on Lexus soft paint - even worse when its black!

Yea, I’d just strip it off and have a look.  If it goes away with the wax and paint quality is good, may be ok to just re-wax.  If not then de-con and polish.

I use a Menzerna 400 2 stage abrasive that leaves a really good finish.  They also do a 2500 and 3500(3800??) finishing polish also that I use for correction with a DA polisher.

let us know how you get on!

 

[Linas.P]

Looks to me like something is having reaction with your vax, of maybe it needs to be buffed better.

Agree with what others said - you need to machine polish (or hand polish if you brave) after using clay bar. 

The way to reduce time it takes to wash - first of all cleaning leather every month is massive overkill, you will probably scrub it off doing it so often. So I would do it at most once or twice a year. Perhaps would use good sealant for protections and just vacuum the corners if there is some dust/sand build-up. 

The other way to slightly reduce cleaning time is to go ceramic, it takes time to apply, but it reduces washing and especially drying time if done correctly and many ceramic top-coats can be used as QD nowadays.

So my cleaning would be interior vacuum, with soft-bristle brush just to dust off vents and panels, then quick vacuum corners of seats and then the actual carpet, the individual carpets I do outside of the car. This takes max 20 min. And I do full interior deep clean at most twice a year, that adds probably 30-40min, definitely not every month.

The outside cleaning is pretty much snow foam, whilst it is working on the paint I would do wheels and then move to grilles and badges with soft-brush and APC, by that time snow foam mostly softens everything that was on the car and I just rinse it - again that is maybe 20 minutes. Then contact wash - I do as little as possible not to scratch the car too much, so lightly go over the panels with MF mitt and two buckets, ceramic coat helps here. 10 min max. Rinse again and then spray QD/Drying aid/Top coat and wipe with MF drying towel, and then go over again with MF cloth. maybe another 20min. Then quickly complete windows - outside usually is good from washing, so just some fingerprints from inside. 10 min. 

That is a about all 1-1.5h give or take. But that is obviously after full 3 stage polish and ceramic coat which I would do once 1-2 years and it does take like 12-24h to do depending on the car (closer to 12h on IS250, but I struggled a lot with RC).

[Mr Vlad]

There's a term for that haze on your car MrT and I can't remember it. The car body shop I took my car to to eliminate as many scratches off my car as possible (and there was thousands now just tens (to get rid of the tens means a full respray)) said that the haze effect is caused by incorrect use of products and can only be rectified by rubbing/polishing down to almost the paint. Personally I'd find a car body shop and get their advice and pay them to go over your car.

[LenT]

On 5/16/2022 at 4:04 PM, Linas.P said:

The other way to slightly reduce cleaning time is to go ceramic, it takes time to apply, but it reduces washing and especially drying time if done correctly and many ceramic top-coats can be used as QD nowadays.

I think Linas has it right, here.  I don’t think you get a superior look to an expertly applied wax finish, but it lasts for years - rather than months - and is easier to maintain.

The downside is that ceramic products should ideally be baked on, to harden the surface.  The infrared heaters required are not normally available to the non-professional.  Nor - come to that - are the ceramic coatings.

So the ideal regime would be to hand your car over to a professional Detailer for ceramic coating.  From then on you can dump the clay bars and waxes, get a snow foam gun, microfibre cloths and the relevant ceramic after-care products and maintain that finish for years.

Just a couple of downsides: if you’re that interested in the best possible car finish, then you have to stay away from the quick bucket brigade and car washes!

[Jgtcracer]

3 hours ago, LenT said:

I think Linas has it right, here.  I don’t think you get a superior look to an expertly applied wax finish, but it lasts for years - rather than months - and is easier to maintain.

The downside is that ceramic products should ideally be baked on, to harden the surface.  The infrared heaters required are not normally available to the non-professional.  Nor - come to that - are the ceramic coatings.

So the ideal regime would be to hand your car over to a professional Detailer for ceramic coating.  From then on you can dump the clay bars and waxes, get a snow foam gun, microfibre cloths and the relevant ceramic after-care products and maintain that finish for years.

Just a couple of downsides: if you’re that interested in the best possible car finish, then you have to stay away from the quick bucket brigade and car washes!

+1 this, though there are now some good quality at home products that will last.  No getting away from the fact that there is hours in the prep however and once it’s on, it’s a pain to get off.  

[rayaans]

On 6/12/2022 at 10:47 AM, LenT said:

I think Linas has it right, here.  I don’t think you get a superior look to an expertly applied wax finish, but it lasts for years - rather than months - and is easier to maintain.

The downside is that ceramic products should ideally be baked on, to harden the surface.  The infrared heaters required are not normally available to the non-professional.  Nor - come to that - are the ceramic coatings.

So the ideal regime would be to hand your car over to a professional Detailer for ceramic coating.  From then on you can dump the clay bars and waxes, get a snow foam gun, microfibre cloths and the relevant ceramic after-care products and maintain that finish for years.

Just a couple of downsides: if you’re that interested in the best possible car finish, then you have to stay away from the quick bucket brigade and car washes!

There are plenty of consumer ceramic coatings that last up to 2 years. Some of the better ones include things like Pyramid car care coatings and Cquartz Lite. Gyeon Cancoat is a brilliant product but doesnt have the same level of durability compared to the other two but it is cheaper. 

Ceramic Pro tends to be the long lasting one if you go for the 10 year package. It is guaranteed for 10 years too but you need to have evidence of proper maintenance i.e. a yearly maintenance visit to the detailer to check the coating.

[Mr Vlad]

How have you got on with the haze on your car MrT?

[Linas.P]

On 6/12/2022 at 10:47 AM, LenT said:

I think Linas has it right, here.  I don’t think you get a superior look to an expertly applied wax finish, but it lasts for years - rather than months - and is easier to maintain.

The downside is that ceramic products should ideally be baked on, to harden the surface.  The infrared heaters required are not normally available to the non-professional.  Nor - come to that - are the ceramic coatings.

So the ideal regime would be to hand your car over to a professional Detailer for ceramic coating.  From then on you can dump the clay bars and waxes, get a snow foam gun, microfibre cloths and the relevant ceramic after-care products and maintain that finish for years.

Just a couple of downsides: if you’re that interested in the best possible car finish, then you have to stay away from the quick bucket brigade and car washes!

Yep - if you got your car detailed then both automatic and hand car scratchers are out of question, sadly the rule "if you want it done right, do it yourself" applies here. 

You right that real professional ceramic coats require UV hardening (not sure about infrared) and that is difficult to do at home. However, what I done last couple of times was simply leaving the car inside (so it does not get wet) for extra time, they say 24h, so I left it over long weekend (closer to 72-96h) and then let the sun do the job over time. Sure consumer ceramic products are not the same as professional ones, but the technology came long way in last 10 years and results achieved at home are more than acceptable imho.