Need advice on washing my car, carbon black 4 series

[diehardbenzfan]

Hi there! I got my car back in December and have taken it to a car wash in my area that's very popular since, always happy with the wash, I see all sorts of expensive cars in there such as range rovers and Maserati so don't think it's a shady place, anyways around march time I took it for a wash and it was very sunny that day, I parked it up, looked at it and saw these light swirl marks all over the car only visible in direct sunlight, now this gave me a heart attack, I asked a customer at work who specialises in detailing and told me the swirl marks are because of the fact the car wash people use the same mits and apply a wax at the end and dry it off causing the marks.

He said to me the car needs a buffer or polish or something that will cost me 500 pounds to get rid of the marks and gave me advice on how to wash it properly.

I went to Halfords, got the zip wax car shampoo, got 2 mitts, 2 buckets with those leather drying cloths and done it exactly how he said, the car looked crap after, water marks everywhere and no shine what so ever, now obviously this means I need to polish it and wax it but how do I know that won't cause more damage? What do I do here, I love the colour of this car and it took me ages trying to find the right spec in the colour, is it something I just accept? I don't want to spend 100 pounds a month for some man to come and wash it for me properly, does anybody have any advice?

Thanks

[diehardbenzfan]

Does anybody know what equipment main dealers use for the cars in the showroom? Or is it all the same

[PDP76]

Bin the leathers. They'll put more swirls in it. Get microfibre driving towels. The big ones.
Get a decent shampoo. If you already have a jet wash look at snow foam too.
Black cars need a good rinse off and dried off well otherwise they'll always show marks on them. Personally I use black colour magic to polish and meguiars wax to finish. Looks good and the black polish fills light marks in well (10 yr old car now )
In between polish and wax I blast it off with the lance then snow foam it. Rinse and dry, job done

[PDP76]

Done a couple weeks back when we had some sun. Not very dirty so..
Rinse, snowfoam, rinse, dry, polish, wax. Treat tyres and wheels.
Not bad for 10yrs old.

[diehardbenzfan]

PDP76 said:

Done a couple weeks back when we had some sun. Not very dirty so..
Rinse, snowfoam, rinse, dry, polish, wax. Treat tyres and wheels.
Not bad for 10yrs old.

That looks nice! Ill give it a go, thing is, will it still be spotless after another wash without the wax and polish? I hardly have time to do that all the time so what if I decide to give it a standard wash without the wax and p

[PDP76]

The polish and wax will last a good few washes before it looks to fade off. A decent shampoo or snow foam will keep on top of it.

[scratcher_]

PDP76 said:

The polish and wax will last a good few washes before it looks to fade off. A decent shampoo or snow foam will keep on top of it.

Snow Foam - and shampoo
Snow Foam the car to remove loose dirt and help soften the heavier stuff.
Then onto your two bucket wash.

Rinsing with an open hose will remove lots of the water from the vicar so that you only need to pay dry the bits that are left.
As above, a nice microfiber drying towel will make this an easier step.