So you think that the green mitt doesn't induce swirl marks? I could afford a sheepskin mitt but I'd prefer to treat/wash all the towels and mitts together.

 

I have sheepskin as well. I don't use it on my Fit. Never had any swirl marks with the Green Mitt (I like your description of dreadlocks) My Fit is blue - so if there are swirls, I don't see them. It seems to me that the "dreadlocks" pull the dirt away from the next wipe better than sheepskin.
I dunno.
I dry with a natural chamois too though and then I wash the chamois in car wash soap, rinse and dry.
Like I mentioned, they said you can use these mitts as a chamois but they don't work for that at all.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I think the green "dreadlock" mitt is worth a try.

 

I use a yellow microfiber washmitt and other microfiber towels from Autozone on my VBP, and its full of swirls. I see them in the sun at the right angles. ScratchX takes the out but it's time and labor intensive.

 

I use amorall car soap and armorall window cleaner. comes out great

 

I use meguier's it is good stuff. I try to wash my car every 2 weeks and I do a "quick wax" as i dry to keep the clear coat. But every three months I do a full wax treatment. I don't have a indoor garage and I live in Florida where it is humid, hot, and raining all the time.

 

Mother's Car wash, lambskin wash mit, synthetic chamois....Zymol wax (the creme type not the cheap liquid from Walmart) and a clay bar treatment once a year.....NEVER use dishwashing soap. It is too harsh, takes the wax off and has no lubricating properties like a car wash soap.

 

Yeah for wax I use meguire's as well =] Good stuff

 

nothing for the best for my FIT aka Electra

 

for sure. I know what you mean. haha

 

Newbie Q;
When I purchased my new FIT I had the protective coat put on the car. I cannot remember the name at the moment X...something.
I did this mostly for the inside. I have kids and I wanted to be able to keep the seats clean. I got it on my Passat and it worked wonders on my light gray fabric seats.

My question is this...does this eliminate the need to wax? I was amazed the other day when I sprayed a little water on the car to get the dust from the road off, and it beaded up like crazy! I wiped down the car with a towel and it looked like I had just washed it completely.

Anyone have experience with this coating and what I should and shouldnt do to keep the coating warranty as well as keeping the car B-utiful?

 

you guys should post pics of your car before and after wash and what did you use...close up pics etc. i have black fit FTL sucks when its durrrrty. Might have to invest in a pressure wash.

ANy of you guys use pressure wash, excluding the car wash. Has it done a number on your paint??

 

Pressure washers will ruin your paint. Don't confuse portable gas or electric pressure washers with coin-operated car wash sprayers. Not the same thing.

 

^ please elaborate? whats the difference?

 

Portable pressure washers generate between 1200 to 2,000 psi of water pressure. I bought one with the idea of blasting away collected road tar in the wheel wells of my SUV years ago. While letting the pressure washer run with the stream pointing at the ground (my asphalt driveway) while I looked in a wheel well for a good place to start blasting, I looked down to see deep channels being cut in the asphalt by the water jet. If I had used it on the painted sheet metal of the car, the paint would have been removed. The coin-op car wash sprayers only generate about 1/3-1/2 of the pressure of portables, and have nozzles with little aerator holes to keep the stream from being too concentrated on your paint.

Home portable washers are great for getting oil stains off of concrete, washing unset concrete out of a mixing tub, literally, intentionally, removing old paint from a house prior to repainting. Not the kind of tool to use on a car that is infamous for its weak paint that cracks and falls off if you yell loud enough.

 

*sniffle*...i suffer from this affliction as well

 

get step stool, a plastic one with a oval hole (handle) in the center.
those are easy to pickup and move around instead of having to have
to grab the sides.

target has them.

i use it often when im waxing my car.

 

Okay, so I used a coin car wash (with a high pressure washer) and it totally ruined my car..... I want to cry so bad, sniff sniff.

Anyways, for the future, I'm just going to go into the car wash places, or be more careful at home with a regular water hose.

What can I do about the scratches? There's a "V" shape scratch pretty bad on my rear door and it's really bothering me. Other than that, there's only a few scratches here and there which did not penetrate through the blue coat (I have a VBP). What products should I get to get rid of these scratches?

Also, lastly, what is this Protection Plan I have? I paid about $800 for it and don't really know what it entails. Since i got the car (late June) for a good price, I didn't bother asking, but I wonder if I heard wrong about the salesman saying that it will repair dings and scratches... does anyone know about this plan?

<3 Honda fit, btw..... just not the paint.. sniff

 

Usually those plans are considered ripoffs but if they'll fix your paint then do it. Treat it as an insurance plan and milk it.

 

New Fit owners may want to read this. We all want to give our cars TLC, but this makes sense, even if it's coming from a automatic car wash company:

"Driveway car washing is widely considered a wholesome ritual for those who care about their cars. Yet it's one of the worst things you can do to your car's finish. First, rags and sponges used in the process inevitably become impregnated with tiny grit particles that scratch the paint and clearcoat. And since garden hoses often fail to remove all soap film, soap residue can "bake" into the finish and eat into the paint for days afterward."

For the tests, scientists used electron microscopes able to record the density and depth of abrasions down to 0.27 of 1,000th of a millimeter. After 25 hand washings, microphotography revealed a dense, crisscross pattern of scratches on the vehicle finish, penetrating as far as 10% into the paint thickness. Under high magnification, these scratches formed "sandpaper" patterns attributable to the action of tiny dirt particles trapped in the pores of the rags and sponges used.

After 25 trips through the automatic wash, microphotos of the vehicle's surface showed no sign of the tangle of deep scratches created by handwashing. In the Texas University tests, especially, machine wash "reflectiveness readings" (i.e., retention of the factory paint's original luster) were 300-700% higher than with hand washing."

So is this another case where common knowledge (hand washing you car is better) is wrong?