Warning about drying "blades"

[dynodon]

A customer of mine contacted me recently with a problem that I have heard before. (with a product he bought from someone else, because I won't sell them)

He bought into the "blade" concept of drying cars. Most of you have probably seen these at car shows. A soft "surgical" type of wiping blade in a holder. It is a good concept, but a bad idea for paint.

The problem is that only one tiny speck of dirt on the blade, and you can ruin a paint finish before you know it. That blade puts a huge amount of pressure on a tiny surface area. Driving dirt into the surface and causing scratches. A spec of sand can be a tragedy. This is what happened to my customer that tried one. Many long and deep scratches that might eventually rub out, but may likely will require professional repainting.

Next time you go to a show where they demonstrate these drying blades, just look closely at the hood or other car part they use to demonstrate it on. I have never seen one that wasn't covered with find scratches. If their own demonstrations show damage to paint, then you know it is happening in the real world.

It is OK to use something like this on glass if you are careful, but never on paint without risking damage.

Use a quality synthetic chamois and follow that up with a dry towel (cotton or microfiber). One truth is that NO product will soak up 100% of water once it is wet enough to wring out. Not cotton, not micro-fiber, not even my Hydro-Wipe PRO synthetic Chamois. All of them leave some water on the surface. I recommend following a quick wipe with whatever you use with a buff with a soft dry towel. By drying 98% of the water with a synthetic chamois (our your product of choice) you can use ONE hand or bath size towel to buff to a perfect gloss the entire car.

[steve 300c]

This post was too late for me but maybe not for someone else. I threw my blade out after one use and felt a little sad about the 40bucks Cdn I wasted on it, but not nearly as sad as the 14" long white scratch accross my roof that it caused. not good being that the car is BB. My dealer wasnt suprised when I told him and he came back with the mopar paint protectant sealer coating in a bottle and said "use this and just buff it out!" he saved the day and at 30bucks a bottle I keep it in the glove box with a clean rag.man was I lucky nothing but the old fassioned way for this cat.
To the balde I salute you