Every enthusiast's fear: scratching the car while washing it.
The fear is well-founded: the more perfect, flawless, shiny, and optimally finished the car, the easier it will be to put "marks" on it.
In technical jargon, "marks" are called swirls, micro-scratches from washing, because the perfection of the surface creates the famous "lens effect" that you've probably already heard about from industry professionals.
Any glove or cloth, even the best ones, even using highly lubricated chemical products, meaning practically anything that comes into direct contact with a perfectly flawless and swirl-free car body, is capable of creating micro-defects in the short to medium term.
Does the perfect scratch-free wash not exist?
Exactly, it doesn't exist: reality has proven it over the years. The most we can do is minimize the risk of creating them, but it's impossible to completely eliminate the risk.
What should we do to reduce the risk of damaging the car body?
To minimize the risk of marking the car body, we must always use gloves and cloths that are almost new, or well-washed but not stiffened.
We must limit the size of our working area by always rinsing the glove in the second bucket and always having it loaded with new shampoo before placing it on the car body.
Another extremely important factor, if not THE MOST IMPORTANT, is the quality of the pre-wash we performed.
The more effective our pre-wash, the more contaminants we removed, the more we work with shampoo and glove on what is already nearly clean, the more we have won.
This group of products can be a great help for both unprotected and protected cars, used in a spray dispenser diluted 1:25.
👉 In-depth look: Read the guide "Product dilution in car detailing"
A super resetting pre-wash, correctly rinsed, will drastically limit the possibility of creating wash marks on the car's bodywork, simply because you will be working on something that is already almost clean, and... chemistry teaches us... that dirt should not be caressed, but attacked!
