Tips for washing a black sand pearl truck?

[byoshinaka]

Hi everyone.

i'm the proud owner of new black sand pearl, double cab, TRD Sport. Great truck.

A friend of mine was telling me that black paint tends to show swirl patterns from hand washing pretty easily. Any black sand pearl owners have tips for washing their trucks? What products do you use?

Thanks!

[TOYOtacoma07]

i have the same truck as you only trf offroad. same color and dbl cab too. as for the swirls i noticed them aswell. im not really sure what to do with them either. im told it was the way the wax was buffered. so im guessing it will eventually go away. sorry i couldnt be much help. gomen !but i hope someone could answer this question.

[aduncan8434]

I've had my black double cab for 6 months now and have just started noticing swirl marks, which really bugs me because I've taken such care to prevent them. Here is my advice, as I wish I had done this from the beginning... Use a leaf blower to dry your vehicle with. I've purchased many micro fiber cloths, waffle drying cloths, chamois, gel water squeegie, you name it, and still have begun to notice the pesky little swirl marks. I think the more you touch the paint causing friction, no matter the material you use, it's gonna swirl since it's black.

Also, when washing, use the fur wash mits and just be gentle.

Tonight I purchased Optimum-Poliseal with some cutting pads to get out the swirls (it's not like they are bad, but when you want the paint perfect they bother me). Then I'm gonna top that with a wax called Natty's Blue paste, which after days of reading autopia.org have determined it to be a good, durable and well-priced wax that looks really good on black

Once I get it looking perfect again, I'll be using the leaf blower to dry it off with for now on.

[aduncan8434]

Originally Posted by TOYOtacoma07

i have the same truck as you only trf offroad. same color and dbl cab too. as for the swirls i noticed them aswell. im not really sure what to do with them either. im told it was the way the wax was buffered. so im guessing it will eventually go away. sorry i couldnt be much help. gomen !but i hope someone could answer this question.

Hey toytacoma07, I'll be moving to Vegas in a month or so! Did you get your truck from Findlay? If so, how did you like dealing with them? I swear they went way beyond my expectatations, they are so nice I go visit them when I'm up there. They always recognize me, get me something to drink, heck last time i was there they filled my tank up with gas.

I was so happy with their service I out of the blue purchased the TRD Cold air intake (with their discount of course) from them the other day. Now I just got to get it installed.

The best thing about them though was that I was in their about an hour and had the deal done and over with. No crap with them, such as I experienced next door at Douglas Nissan, the most crooked place on earth.

[808skittles]

hrm i have a o6 bsp xrunner...
i have rather odd way of washing it but *shrugs* heh

i use a microfiber to sud down the truck, do it in sections and wash off after each section is done and keep the rest of the truck wet with each rinse of a section

to dry the truck *hah heres where it gets kinda funky.. i get many odd looks from my neighbors* i use one of those craftsman leaf blowers... 30 bux at sears onsale. and i plug it in and blow the truck dry... i dig it because it gets all the water out where the lug nuts are, that small space below the side view mirrors and so on.

after that i use NXT polish applied gently with applicator that comes int he box, then use a microfiber to wipe it down.. just make nice smooth gentle straight lines like from back of truck direction to front... havent had swirl mark issues yet *shrugs* hope thsi was of any help mang!

[SJlittlefoot]

How powerful of a leaf blower are you guys using and what kind of nozzle? I used my shop vac/blower w/ a 200mph blower it seems like it'd be faster for me to use my absorber.

[Mike5150]

If you are washing and waxing your truck with a circular motion stop doing that and do it more in a straight line.

[ksj]

Originally Posted by 808skittles

i get many odd looks from my neighbors* i use one of those craftsman leaf blowers... 30 bux at sears onsale. and i plug it in and blow the truck dry...

Those are looks of hatred because of the noise your leaf blower makes for the time you're blowing it dry. I had a neighbor that did that for awhile until everyone in the neighborhood finally told him to stop or risk having someone beat him and his car with a baseball bat because they were so annoyed. This clown would do it at 5-6pm on a weekend when everyone was outside BBQ'n, playing with their kids, etc. And it would take him over an hour to get it done.

[Remarkable]

I have your same color- in fact, I've had dark colored Toyotas for over 10 years. If you really want to get the swirl marks out, check a site called www.griotsgarage.com. They have a free detailing site online that will help you a lot. I have bought the random orbital polisher kit with the waxes. It will set you back about 200.00. Basically, swirl marks are scratches in your clear coat- you have to polish these out. Then you apply the wax. This system is incredibly easy to use. I just re-habilitated the original paint on my 1970 Chrysler- it turned out awesome with this system. If you want to hand polish, Google up Malm's wax and buy their polish and wax. Far superior to anything you will find to deal with swirls on dark colors. I will tell you this- a polished and waxed black truck will turn more heads than Paris Hilton, walking past her cell-mates on a Saturday night in the slammer.

[Pb]

Check the detailing forum http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/f101 and adopt a proper washing technique. Get rid of chamois and terry cloth. Get a real sheepskin mitt and good waffle-weave microfiber drying towels.

Here's my washing and drying stuff. Hose, filter, softener, bucket, mitt, nozzles, soap foam gun, tire brushes, and boars hair brush. I only use that big boars hair brush on tall vehicles or when it's too cold to use a wash mitt. If I didn't have the soap foam gun then I would be using 2 buckets. One for soapy water, and one for rinsing.

[troyslegacy]

Holy crap! To think I have been washing my truck all of the years with dish soap and simple green!

[tetsuo166]

Well Pb is clean to the extreme, but I hope you are kidding about using dish soap. That stuff is horrible wax and clear coats.

[troyslegacy]

Dude dish soap rocks and Simple Green is very good at getting off tree sap!

[Kenny]

Originally Posted by Pb

Check the detailing forum http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/f101 and adopt a proper washing technique. Get rid of chamois and terry cloth. Get a real sheepskin mitt and good waffle-weave microfiber drying towels.

Here's my washing and drying stuff. Hose, filter, softener, bucket, mitt, nozzles, soap foam gun, tire brushes, and boars hair brush. I only use that big boars hair brush on tall vehicles or when it's too cold to use a wash mitt. If I didn't have the soap foam gun then I would be using 2 buckets. One for soapy water, and one for rinsing.

Hey PB what are those 2 hoses that are connected to those 2 tubes. Looks like it does some damage!

[Pb]

It's an inline water filter and water softener. I made some custom length hoses, so I can use a short or a long hose. It depends on how much hose I need. I do some mobile car detailing. I take my equipment to a customers house and detail their car right there.