I used to have a black 4runner and always washed it in back and forth motions never in circles. Same goes for polishing. Swirl marks are scratches in the clear coat of the paint. Toyota's have a very nice clear coat, but it scratches real easy.

Alway rinse the car with a hose with pressure good first, and have a lot of water on the vehicle when washing. I also put the soap on the wash mit to avoid dunking it in a dirty bucket and picking dirt back up. Rinse the mit frequently and turn it over after washing half of the car. I machine wash all my car wash accessories after every use and air dry them.(I know, I have a problem)

I think that you're going to have some swirls no matter what, as I've never seen a black car without them. It's just trying to minimize them. Black cars are the hardest to take care, show all the imperfections, but look the best when they're clean.

Good luck man.

P.S. I really didn't notice any new swirls after washing this way. Just wished I washed this way from the start.

 

i let a professional wax team do mine all the time. you wouldn't believe how easy it is to scratch the soft paint work on these things...

...wax on, wax off Daniel Sang

 

The May 2000 issue of Consumer Reports had a comparison of inexpensive car waxes. They tested 26 supermarket products. The top 4 choices were, starting from best:

- Zymol Cleaner Wax (high gloss, average durability)
- Prestone Bullet Wax (average gloss, high durability)
- Nu Finish Car Polish (above average gloss and durability) - for the paste; the liquid scored lower
- Armor All Car Wax (average gloss, high durability)

If waxes were tested more recently, please let me know.

Personally I am not interested in expensive competition level products that don't last.

I've had very good results with NuFinish on dark cars with clearcoats, but my black Miata without clearcoat looks far better using Zymol. Zymol does not last as long as NuFinish, but does last significantly longer than Meguiars or Meguiars Gold in my experience. Zymol looks much better with greater gloss and less swirl marks than NuFinish, Finish 2001, Meguiars or Meguiars Gold on my black Miata.

My recommendation for everyone is to use NuFinish if you are satisfied with its appearance on your particular car and use Zymol if you are not satisfied with its appearance. Those more concerned with appearance may want to jump directly to Zymol.

I use NuFinish on my car with clearcoat because it lasts the longest on any product that I have tried and I use Zymol on my black car because the gloss outweighs the inconvenience of having to wax more frequently IMO.

Zymol is available at Costco & elsewhere at a small premium over NuFinish.

 

Professional detailers wax in staight motion horizontally

 

Watch out for those awirl marks! One thong I can tell you NEVER to use is those car wash wipes for anything! Even dust is no good for wipes. I wrecked my entire STi paint job with Armor All wipes. I used them between washes to keep dust down and they scratched the S h i t out of my paint. After that, I have become obsessed with proper procedures and proper products.

1. ALWAYS Rinse your car with cool clean water.

2. Use any car wash soap but NOT dish detergent. Use a good real wool mit or a sytnthetic microfibre towel.

3. Dry your car with one of three things and three things only: A california waterblade, a micro fibre drying towel or 100% cotton towels. This does not include chamois, or bath, Terry cloth towels.

 

I've always used an absorber to dry my car but I keep it super clean and wash it after every use. I actually have two, one for the clean areas, and one for the inside of the doors and trunk(this one picks up a lot of dirt, but I also wash it after every use).

I also have a wash mit for the wheels also. I recommend simple green on the wheels. I've tried other things but simple green works the best at removing brake dust. And trust me, sti brembos put out a lot of dust. The gold wheels look bronze after about a week. Just spray the simple green on in consentrate form and then rinse. You'll still need to use the mit but it makes life way better. BBS wheels take almost as long to clean as the whole car(so many nooks and crannies).

I wash my car about once a week.

 

I disagree. terry cloth towels are almost ALWAYS 100% cotton. Terry also has a pile, which will draw surface debris away from the paint and help you avoid scratches. I only use the water blade when I'm short on time. It has no way to draw debris away from the paint though, which makes it easy to trap things against the paint and cause scratches. other than that, I use 100% cotton made in the U.S.A terry cloths. Other countries that make them tend to use a poly backing for some unkown reason, which doesn't work nearly as well as the cotton backing that is almost ALWAYS used when terry cloths are being made in america. Good bath towels are usually 100% cotton as well, and thus work like a charm when drying becuase there is more surface area to absorb water. When using any terry cloth towel, make sure to cut away the lining of the cloth, because that can scratch pretty badly. It will cause the towel to die faster, but its worth it IMO. Chamois work very well if you just blot away water on the larger surfaces of the car. I don't think its worth paying the 25 bux for one though. There are better ways of drying the car. I tried microfibers, but I didn't like them. They seemed to be good for like, 2 good wipes before they were soaked. i was going through 9-10 just to dry my car, which I always managed to do with just about 4 terry cloths. Some of my friends have had good luck with filtered leaf blowers. I wouldn't recommend it personally, I'm paranoid about stuff in the air getting sucked in and sandblasting my finish...

I also use ONLY zaino on the exterior of my car. It has the best durability and clarity I've ever seen. I swear by it. Before Zaino I used just about everything, and while some products yielded a better LOOK, I was having to wax every weekend to keep it up. I zainoed my car about a month ago, and its put up with a months worth of Houston's acid rain, and its still slick and shiny. I just take it through a touchless car wash once a week, and all the dirt just glides off, and my car looks like its been freshly detailed with a few squirts of instant detailer. Its the best.

 

Yeah zaino brother polish is suppose to be the best. I bought some but didn't get to try it yet.

 

zaino brothers polish is suppose to be the best polish from word of mouth. It originally was created for exotic car/car show cars. I only know from my friends who say it the absolute best. You can only buy it from certain distributors/internet sales.

As far as swirls are concerned they're scratches in the clear coat of the paint made by dragging dirt on the surface. Even when you wash and wax a minute amount of dirt will alway be present. It's just a matter of minimizing this amount of dirt. Thus avoid getting swirls.

As far as taking swirls out, there are products for that purpose. They usually fill in the scratches in the clear coat to hide the swirls, or I think you can buff them out. Which I believe requires taking a small amount of the clear coat off. This is usually done if swirls are heavy, possibly after years of use.

 

If your sti is new is shouldn't be that bad, just start practicing good washing/waxing habits to minimize new swirls.

 

I was my blue STI with steel wool or SOS pads. Try that.