Is Car Wash Spray too Powerful?
 

I've got a black 04 and one of the first things I did after I bought it was wash it because it was a bit dirty. I took it to one of those manual car washes with the power washers. The paint looks amazing when not in direct sunlight but when it is in direct sunlight theres almost like this gray wavy 3D effect coming off the paint. What is that? I know black usually looks like crap in direct sunlight no matter what but I've never seen this 3D thing going on before. I'm freaking out that I may have gotten too close with the power washer. I wasn't point blank with it but I did come maybe a little more close than I should have at times.

Sounds like you may be describing orange peel

Yeah, sounds like orange peel. Common on RX-8s, some have it worse than others. Nothing you did at that car wash!

What exactly causes orange peel ? I never knew it was a bad thing.

It's not bad. It just looks bad. It is caused in the painting process. If enough coats of paint has been applied to the car, you can wet sand and buff it out.

Could the OP seeing an old wax build up?

Most painters love fruit and they are consistently eating Oranges.
Hence, the fuxx up the paint when spraying.

It's also known than a car wash will remove the paint down to primer grey.

No its not orange peel. It's not bumpy at all. Ill try to take a pic but i don't think it'll come out.

I am willing to bet it is a hologram effect. Swirls, or in other words, micro scratches. Pressure washes will not cause this.

I am not going to explain the whole process of what you have done and what you should have done. IInstead, ill ask you to read this site if you want to take care of your paint:

www.autopia.org

If you dont care, then... Dont bother I guess :dunno:

Autopia.org has been weird lately. The sites not working lol. I tried going on today and yesterday but the site is blocked or something.

Yeah thats exactly what it is. It looks like a hologram. The car looks immaculate not in the sun so I'm guessing the previous owners did a decent job taking care of it. It is 7 years old after all.

either that or he tried polishing it himself and used way to aggressive of a polish. (leaving buffer trails)

either way taking it to a detailing shop to get it polished will fix it no problem.
and for now give it a nice coat of wax. you'd be surprised how many swirls wax can fill.

they are correct..u cannot do that to ur paint at a car wash...u can mess ur paint up some going thru an automatic car wash. if u do that to many times ur paint will have something similar to swirls all over it. yes u have swirls...most cars do. they can be kind of removed and totaly buried by polishing ur car with a mild polish and a foam pad..then wax the bejesus out of it at least 2 times. peferable once with a decent sealant then a good shiny wax.once some doofass buffs a dark colored car to aggressivly its hard as hell to completly remove bad swirls but u can bury then very nicely.

Thanks guys. It doesn't look like your typical swirl marks. It really does look like random 3D holograms. I'll have it buffed out by a pro though..Thats as soon as I can keep this car on the road for more than a week!

with a little practice u can do it yourself with np...buy a good little orbital waxer and practice on ur hood for starters....dont use a ton of wax and keep away from the black plastic dont force a crapton or wax into the cracks and ur golden...back and forth side to side let dry wipe off....most detail shops are just going to hide ur swirls...but having it polished once by someone who knows what thier doing with a faom pad might be a good idea.http://www.griotsgarage.com/ watch him wax he knows his stuff...never uses a high speed buffer just an orbital.

do it yourself... its really not that hard.

orange peel is not desirable. You can tell how much orange peel you have by looking at a reflection of something in the paint. Basically the reflection will be bumpy and messed up like the surface of an orange.

Here's my TDI with a lot of orange peel (look at the tree and car reflection on the door):

https://a.imageshack.us/img809/5422/96173801.jpg


Here's a junker car that someone polished the paint, which removed most of the peel:

https://img443.imageshack.us/img443/...1010012vm3.jpg

Don't buff too much you will remove or make the clear coat too thin.

Depends on what compound he will be using and I assume he will not be doing this more than once a month

To the original poster - Either way, log onto autopia.org if you can. There are many reputable detailers on the site that will be willing to help you get your paint back into shape. Read up on how to wash anddry your car to keep it as swirl free as possible.

The last thing you want to do is to take it to a detailer that doesnt know what he is doing. We are talking about adding additional damage to the paint and possibly burning the paint by using a rotary polisher incorrectly.

a high speed buffer will remove paint for sure...the best case is never use one at all its not needed for most problems. a high speed buffer heats the paint to the point of melting it . an orbital will not. if u take care of ur paint from day 1 u will hopefully never have to have it touched by a high speed buffer thats best case. sometimes u gotta.