Coating experts: I need your opinions here

[Eldorado2k]

I wonder if he's rinsing properly. Could be using a power washer that puts out the pressure but very low volume of water and not really rinsing it all. Because of the pressure he thinks it's rinsed enough. Just a thought. Never seen this happen before.

He doesn’t have a power washer, just a normal garden hose and typical 8 pattern trigger nozzle. I saw pics.

[Billy Baldone]

It looks to me like there was some sort of rinse/bad water type of issue.

[Bruno Soares]

I see you mention his car was professionally coated but do we know what coating was used? Might help narrow down what's going on if it's some coating that needs a topper before it leaves the shop. That almost looks like excess of something that just needs a few washes to be removed. He could try a different soap just once to see if it's something on that gallon of HW, not sure how easy it is for him to get a different soap to test.

[WillSports3]

His water is too hard. When he dries, he's not getting all of it up that's why he's seeing the smears. I doubt it's hyperwash. My suggestion, get him to use something as a drying aid when he dries, one spritz per panel.

[TTQ B4U]

Looks to me like his wife used fabric softener or a dryer sheet and it's leaching out from his towel.

My advice to ALL my clients I ceramic coat is to dry the vehicle with a leaf blower. Sound silly but I show them when they take delivery how easy it is. From there use a damp towel soaked in rinseless wash solution and wrung out until it's barely damp. Grab a decent drying aid spray such as Wolfgang Uber or ECH2O Mixed up, spritz the panel and wipe the spray and any water drops that do remain.

As part of my packages I always give customers a 480gsm Korean towel for drying, a 1oz bottle of CarPro Reset for their first wash and a small 8oz spray bottle of Wolfgang Uber or my Blue Juice mix of ECH2O and a detail spray. I then send them home with cell phone pics of the various products I recommend for use on their cars. 95% of those I send away do exactly what I tell them.

This year I have had two customers use completely the wrong stuff, one really complained, the other owned it and I re-did the coating on his car at No Charge because he was a super cool guy and brought me yet another coating job to do.

Honestly though, CarPro Reset is all I use to wash and all I recommend. It's pricey at first but really in the grand scheme it's not. $1oz if that and it's enough to make 5-7 gals of soapy water. I wash two of my cars with 1 oz mixed up.

[acuRAS82]

Agree that Reset seems to be the top dog to recommend these days. I still don’t think HW is causing those issues, it does seem like he’s not drying everything away... but that’s just a lazy guess. But there’s no doubt that Reset rinses a bit cleaner than HW from my limited, but recent experience with each.

But HW is still extremely nice to work with.

[SNP209]

Was he washing in direct sunlight? Looks like the soapy solution dried on the surface before he was able to rinse it off. Even then in my experience with HW, it should've been reactivated when it was hosed off again.

Maybe just wash one panel at a time and hose off immediately? If all else fails, he could go with rinseless washes until this issue is sorted.

[PaulMys]

JMO, and I know I am "That guy".

But this entire thread is the exact reason I have not walked on over to the "coating camp" and asked for a seat on the log........

[Bill D]

You’re not the only no coating guy. I’m also not interested in them.

[Larry A]

Tell him to ask the guy who coated it what he would use to wash his car