Silicon Blade woes

[DeanFYoung]

Despite, on another thread saying all was well with my AutoGlym hydra blade.

I managed to make two long scratches on my car at the weekend when using it, just above the fuel filler cap.

Suffice to say I am annoyed, but they dont look too deep, and should polish out OK (no time to do it yesterday unfortunately)

A warning to all - be very careful with these things!!!

[PJS]

Careful? Feck them in the bin pronto to save grief in the first place!
Buy a couple of decent microfibre towels (good heavyweight ones) and you'll never look at a blade ever again.

[Dimplyred]

I've stopped using one for this very reason.

My scratch did polish out, but the blade IS in the bin now.

[robbo51]

Originally Posted by PJS

Careful? Feck them in the bin pronto to save grief in the first place!
Buy a couple of decent microfibre towels (good heavyweight ones) and you'll never look at a blade ever again.

Good advice

[ADE Type S]

Couldnt of put it better my self!

Ive been using the PoorBoys World Waffle Weave drying towel and the only thing i can say about it is AWESOME!!!!!

[DeanFYoung]

"PoorBoys World Waffle Weave drying towel" - sounds like quite a towel...

I will venture to my nearest Halfords this week and see what I can find...maybe I'll give my blade to my brother!!

[gray52]

you must have had dirt on the car or the blade???

if you get the same on a microfibre cloth it will do the same. i used a shammie but spent ages running it all over the car, which is not good and you will get swirls. i spent alot of time at the weekend cleaning, polishing and waxing. im now using the applicator foam pads and they are brilliant!! half the time and half the product being applied. these do not leave any swirls either.

a good swirl or scratch test is to get an old rw dvd which has failed, and run whatever you are going to use on your car first, you will then see or not see scratches appear on the disk. if what ever your using scratches the disk it will scratch your car, simple.

[R GT]

Meguirs do a waffle towel that halfords sell it is £11 pounds but worth every penny happy drying. ps it works best after it has been saturated so go easy on the wiping and go over areas several times you will not be disapointed.

[robbo51]

Originally Posted by R GT

Meguirs do a waffle towel that halfords sell it is £11 pounds but worth every penny happy drying. ps it works best after it has been saturated so go easy on the wiping and go over areas several times you will not be disapointed.

Its called a:
Meguires 'Water Magnet'

[DeanFYoung]

Originally Posted by robbo51

Its called a:
Meguires 'Water Magnet'

Cheers - I'll look out for that one as well.

Reckon I didn't rinse the car thorougly enough, as I definitely rinsed the blade, and I'd done most of the car before getting the scratch.

[spile]

Sorry but if you have grit on the car that it makes no difference WHAT you dry the car with. I find the water magnet one of the worst things I've ever bought for the car. It certainly isn't any good at removing excess water when compared with the Autoglym blade.

[Koen]

Originally Posted by spile

Sorry but if you have grit on the car that it makes no difference WHAT you dry the car with. ...

I don't agree completely. When you use a blade, you have to apply some pressure. Moreover, the pressure is applied to a very narrow surface. That means that any grit or whatever gets a firm push into the paint/finish.
When I dry my car, I kinda drag a shammy over the surface, giving hardly any pressure at all. I'm sure that makes a difference.

K.

[PJS]

Originally Posted by DeanFYoung

maybe I'll give my blade to my brother!!

You bastid!
What's your brother done on you then, to foist this upon him?
You'll not get anything decent out of Halfords, least of all the Meg's towel - it works for a while, then most have found it stops working as well as it first did, so resort to chucking more money at what they should've done first time round.
I have an absolute stonker of a towel, but it's not one anyone has heard of or come across yet, and at the price, they might just have a coronary - but by Christ is it superb!
I may do something with it soon - so keep your eyes peeled, as they say.

Should also point out, pat drying is the best method for minimising swirls or scratches, but I don't go for the QD to 'help' drying malarky either.
Some swear blind it works - to each their own, is what I say.

[spile]

[quote][/When you use a blade, you have to apply some pressure. Moreover, the pressure is applied to a very narrow surface. That means that any grit or whatever gets a firm push into the paint/finish.
QUOTE]

This effect is more noticable with a cloth where the main direction of force is down whereas the main direction of force with a blade is to the side.
Of course YMMV as this all depends on HOW you use the thing.

[GHGH]

I also scratched my car with this blade.
I burned it...

[Ramsay]

I don't like the Autoglym blade either and now only use it on the windows.

Koen also mentioned dragging a open chamoix leather to remove the excess water - this is precisely how my car cleaning Armah in Hong Kong used to do it - all for £1:00 a month. Do it myself now though.

[GHGH]

My car is one year next week, and I'm already more relaxed about cleaning regimes and water spots...