Laser No-Touch Car Wash :(

[hamkj]

So I my car got cover with dust and I figured on my way to work, I would scoot through the Laser No-Touch Car Wash... BIG MISTAKE.... never ever taken any of my vehicles through one... so this was the first time... and will be my last...

The cars back fenders appear to be newer paint... shiny... The front fenders and hood appear to be original paint... and slightly faded... but still shiny...

After going through the car wash... if looks like it is covered in dried on dish soap....

I have tried the following stuff I had around the house.. and some stuff I just bought..

Meguires Heavy Oxidation Remover... (for a boat... but tried in hidden spot) = NO IMPROVEMENT.

NuShine Spray On - NO IMPROVEMENT

Mequires Polish - NO IMPROVEMENT

Mothers Carnuba Wax Cleaner - Little Bit Better.. but still see soap/wax drip stains.

Meguires Ultimate Compound - Worked the best.. but still see the soap/wax drip stains...

NEED IDEAS.... Anyone have this happen to them?

Let me know.

Thanks

* The third picture you can see where I have tried all sorts of cleaning agents!

[hamkj]

Here are the before pictures...

[RWebb]

what did the owner of the car wash say when you showed him the before & after pics of your car???

that is what you need to do.

[ischmitz]

Well, maybe your paint was heavily oxidized to begin with and someone had applied one of these fancy polymer-based paint sealers or something similar to hide it. You'll be amazed what can be done to hide shot paint....

I think it will be very difficult to get something out of the car wash unless you can prove that it was the washing process that damaged the paint as opposed to the washing process removing grease and wax.

I think your issue is not to get stains of the car but to fill in all the microscopic little scratches in order to bring some shine back to the paint. If you really want to go after the scratches first polishing or even color-sanding might be your best options. Check with a local detailing company or paint shop and get their opinions.

Then seal the surface with a classic hard wax.

Ingo

Have you tried a hard wax

[face-ache]

that colour has no clear coat..(no protection) yes a big mistake.

[Dantilla]

Many "Touchless" carwashes use very harsh chemicals. It's the only way to make a car look clean without physically removing contaminants.

I use a carwash on a regular basis, but it has the newer technology brushes that are:

-Very soft
-Continually rinsed

A good car wash is less likely to scratch your paint than doing it yourself in the driveway with a bucket.

A bad carwash, however, can be a disaster.

I will Never use any touchless carwash.

[Jtilden]

A few months ago I got stuck in rain for the first time I have owned my 911 sc, the same thing happened to my paint as well. I dont think it has anything to do with the place you washed your car. I thought it might have been acid rain (but then again if the chemicals in the water were too strong, the car wash might be the cause). The only thing that I managed to do to make it look decent was to wash with dawn and break out the porter cable. After the inital polish and wax it does not look like it used to but it is not as bad as when I first saw it after the rain dried...I used the orange pad btw

[ischmitz]

wait wait wait, now I get it. I didn't pick up on the touchless part of the car wash....

So what you did was essentially rinsing the paint with solvent or degreaser. It's like taking IPA, alcohol or carb cleaner to your paint. This literally washes out all oily residue and sure leaves the paint bone-dry. And as your paint is not a color coat sealed with a clear coat you essentially create a porous surface of paint like a sponge.

I think at this point you need either fill the porous surface with a good hard wax product or retort to color sanding to grind away the porous part and create a smooth finish. It depends on how weathered the paint is and what thickness is left.

Else use the old used-car-lot trick and rub the entire car with a cloth soaked in dyno oil. It will make the paint shine like new until the next rain. This is a joke but try it at a hidden spot to see the effect. It will make all the dullnes go away like magic. A good hard wax is supposed to do the same. It fills the pores.

Ingo

[rnln]

You mean dino oil, engine oil?
Yes, that will makes dead paint look much better, not as shiny as a good paint surface with good wax, but much better than dead paint. Multiple times I had it on my dead paint at some areas while replacing oil and it stays very long. My buddy laught at me that I developed a new wax
Rain won't wax it away completely. Only a coat of polish can.

[CCM911]

This looks like the car was heavily glazed, coupled with an ineffective "top coat" of wax(sealer). You need to use a good paint cleaner, and then apply as many layers of Hand Glaze as it takes to even out the paint. Once the paint is looking good again, be sure to use a high quality wax to seal it all up. Otherwise, the glaze will just run off on the first rain. That is what looks to have happened at the car wash, the chemicals took off all of the glaze on your paint.

Best of luck.

[s_morrison57]

man that looks terrible, try the Dawn dish soap on it and I use Zaino products on my car and it takes some time but I like the results. Clay bar may be a thing to tryas well, and does it work, my glass is nice and looked clear, after I used the clay bar, it cleaned the front winsheild so good that if you looked close you could see all kinds of pitting from rocks.
Soap and water wash the inside of your glass and clay bar the outside and you'll be shocked at how clear your glass is.
Hope you get it solved, good luck

[sobamaflyer]

1st I'm mortified that anyone would subject any Porsche to a car wash. You will NEVER convince me that a "good" carwash can EVER be better than a gentle driveway wash by someone who gives a poo. High pressure sprays into old rubber seals, teenagers, rotating or beating brushes tugging at sensitive trim bits......no sir, uh uh, not cool!

but off the soap box:

I agree it looks like someone tried too hard at some point to buff out the paint on this car, they have stripped almost all of the color coat off the edges. This was temporarily fixed with some product and now you have had that fix stripped off. That really doesn't look like some residual chemical. Is it like this anywhere else on the car? It may be that your front end was re-sprayed (poorly) at some point and the rest of the car stood up to the abuse.

As mentioned above there are some possible temporary fixes but nothing pleasant or perfect.

Sorry buddy, you are in store for a paint job. I agree that you should take the pictures of before in to the manager and see if they either give some insight or possibly subsidize your re-spray.

I've had a high(er) end detailing business for 20 years and this is a first.

[jlex]

I'll bet your car's paint was hot from the sun when you drove it through. Reminds me of how, back in the 60's, I washed my dad's red fiat using tide detergent after it had been sitting in the sun.... ended up looking just like yours. Man, did I catch hell

[grizzfan]

It would seem to me to that taking a Porsche to a carwash is a bad idea if for no other reason than getting all that water, soap and wax down in the air grill, on the engine and in airfilter intake. End of sermon.

My dad always used kerosene on his only ever new car (1961 Dodge Lancer) as the final after washing. You could see your face on that black paint for miles!!

Tom

[hamkj]

I hear ya... lesson learned...

Got the car out of the detail shop... $200 later... looks brand new... Car Wash has submitted request to cover it... not keeping expecting anything... but we will see... worth a try.

[Joe Bob]

Clay bar time.....

[rnln]

I thought you already tried polish with no improvement? What is their magic?

Originally Posted by hamkj

Got the car out of the detail shop... $200 later... looks brand new

[911st]

Had the same issue. Not only did it hurt the paint it messed up the wheels.

I took it to a professsional. All he could do was polish out the paint. I belive the chenicals they use so the car will come clean so quicly shoul not be used with paint that dose not have a clear coat.

If you have the energy go after the car wash and the chemical supplyer.

I figgure that my damages were easly $1000 range or so and I ended up with thinner paint to boot after the polishing.

One could amortize the cost of a paint job and haveing the wheels professionaly refinished.

JMO.

I was sick about it.

[911nut]

I've never run a car that I cared about through a car wash for obvious reasons....