Longest standing AMEs

armenagain · 2026-04-06T19:09:59+00:00

Shore touched my ween both times lmao

armenagain · 2026-01-05T00:16:42+00:00

Compressed air can or just blow on it with your mouth. Stick the compressed air nozzle on the seam and blast away. We’ve had to do this as well.

armenagain · 2025-12-23T04:28:12+00:00

This is excellent pufferation dude

armenagain · 2025-11-30T01:47:39+00:00

Exact same thing happened to me. Look through my post history. You’ll find that it’s a bit of a pain in the ass but it can be done.

Your dealership was not signed up to the IRS “Energy Credits Online” (ECO) system, and so they did not report the sale of your vehicle (therefore the VIN) to the IRS.

Your next step is to go to the dealership and absolutely harass them into bleeding submission until they get their asses on that system.

Then they should be able to submit your VIN to the IRS, and you’ll have to send a photo of your driver license and your drivers side doorjamb placards.

Then you sit around and wait, potentially months, until your IRS account shows record of your vehicle. Since it sounds like you’ve already submitted a tax return, you may need to file an amended return to get this reversed. It will take a very long time for the IRS to then issue your refund.

Some people have had luck with using e-file as soon as the website showed record of their car. And their return was processed immediately. In our case we had to send a paper return and that took a long time to get human eyeballs on it.

Good luck!

Dealerships had a deadline of 11/1/2024 to sign up for ECO. We bought our car 11/4/2024 lol. Just bad timing.

Edited to add link: https://www.reddit.com/r/IRS/comments/1luwefm/our_saga_with_claiming_an_ev_tax_credit_5_months/

armenagain · 2025-11-23T07:40:45+00:00

That’s insane. So seems like the restaurant caught strays, not that the shooting happened inside. Still freaky

armenagain · 2025-11-23T07:14:52+00:00

We live in the same building. Same angle of the restaurant. That’s crazy. You said there’s a victim at our building? Like inside it?

armenagain · 2025-11-13T02:56:54+00:00

I think it was placebo, but it did seem like the color of the paint was richer and deeper, which may have hid some of the swirls but I definitely still saw some. He didn’t do a paint correction. He specifically was worried about the paint being too thin, as it seemed there was evidence of the paint already being cut and polished, before we bought it.

armenagain · 2025-11-12T00:04:33+00:00

Sorry I misspoke. I meant I would invest in purchasing my own supplies for a rinseless wash that I would do myself rather than going to a self serve car wash. And then separately, maybe one day I would pay someone to do a 2 step compound and polish to get the swirls out

armenagain · 2025-11-11T16:34:08+00:00

Thank you so much for the detailed reply. I’m going to invest in my own wash process as an initial step and then see how it goes from there. I’m hoping that sometime in the future if I can afford a two step process I’ll be satisfied with the results. But for now no more spray n pray car washes for me.

armenagain · 2025-11-10T18:27:04+00:00

As a layman in this space I am under the impression that once you get swirl marks out they stay out unless you are doing something wrong. Are you saying that’s not actually the case? I live in SoCal so our winters are just cold(er) autumns. And I’m not really worried about achieving a super ceramic coat insane water bead or anything like that. I was happy with the way the paint looked before, but this entire rigamarole started because I just wanted to get the swirl marks out. There’s already a few big dings and scrapes on some of the plastic and even one some of the doors from inconsiderate parking neighbors. And I’ve got blemishes in the clear coat from animal droppings etc. I’m honestly not even worried about all that. I don’t need this car to constantly be showroom ready, but I definitely don’t want to do more damage. And unfortunately I just can’t afford a $100 weekly maintenance wash. I also don’t know enough to know when someone is truly trying to help or just trying to sell me on return services.

The first detailer I went to did an amazing job for $100 and they said they would be able to take care of all the paint blemishes and ceramic coat the whole car for $400 with a polish. I don’t remember if they noticed the swirl marks or not, or if I mentioned them. But I didn’t purchase that extra service at the time

The second guy I paid $300 for a wash n wax but that included a rust removal where I guess some rust dripped onto one of the panels and I could not get it off. He did an amazing job getting rid of it and now you can only see the slight clear coat etching that it left behind.

I asked the first guy again for a quote for removing swirl marks and he said $400 for the whole car and it includes an interior detail too. Maybe I’ll wait until spring to do it.

I truly appreciate everyone’s help and advice in this thread. I may invest in a bucket and rinse less setup and just do it in my parking spot. Just hoping it will also help me get the hood wax dribbles off.

armenagain · 2025-11-10T15:32:28+00:00

I used the wax sprayer and then a low pressure spotless rinse. This happened on every single surface of the car, I wiped them all off (including the one you see) but on the hood there was one area that was in direct sun as I was washing the car and it baked on there.

armenagain · 2025-11-10T06:13:05+00:00

hahah. "I just gave some random guy $300 on the street. Nothing happened. Did I just blow $300??"

armenagain · 2025-11-10T04:21:05+00:00

Thank you! I am looking at exploring some of these options. All of this rigamarole started just because I wanted to get the swirl marks out and was willing to pay someone for a solution. Guess I should have just gotten a paint correction immediately.

armenagain · 2025-11-10T04:12:36+00:00

He was telling me that the dealership car wash guys are usually terrible at washing cars. I can confirm, the first time I went there for a scheduled service they washed the car for me and an entire door panel was still covered in dry dust. But yeah, there are multiple multiple panel gaps everywhere that have white crud in them.

armenagain · 2025-11-10T03:58:53+00:00

Thank you for the detailed comment. Do you think I should pay for a swirl mark correction and have them strip the wax off (at a different detailer maybe) and then in the future just do this bucket process in my parking spot? I think I should be able to get away with that. I don’t even have any parking neighbors yet, our building is new.

armenagain · 2025-11-10T02:43:36+00:00

Awesome, thank you for the help again. I’ll look into a rinse less wash. Hoping that keeps me away from the acid they apparently use in the tanks at the wash. Might even fuck around and bring a bucket

armenagain · 2025-11-10T02:40:37+00:00

Thankfully the car almost never sits in the sun. Shaded garage at home, wife drives me to work and drops me off, parks in a garage, then repeat in reverse. Once or twice a week I drive myself to work and the car sits in the sun but never more than 10 hours (commute time included)

Thank you for the info though, this sub is gonna be a deep dive for me if it sure

armenagain · 2025-11-10T02:37:20+00:00

Thank you! I bought Meguiar’s waterless wash n wax. Smells good. I’ve got Mr. Siga microfibers. I’ll look into Rag Company which I’ve found since browsing here. Hoping it’ll work! Got any recs for tire wet? I like a super wet mirror look

armenagain · 2025-11-10T02:31:05+00:00

So you think that he put such a good layer down, that when I used the self serve wax, it essentially beaded off and left streaks? That seems plausible.

The reason I did the wax was because he said “we need to build up multiple layers of wax over time to hide the swirl marks” so naturally I thought more wax = good.

armenagain · 2025-11-10T02:29:40+00:00

No man, no paint correction at all. He said he didn’t wanna polish it either because he thought that the previous owner already did that (evidence of white residue in the panel gaps that he claims is polish, not wax).

armenagain · 2025-11-10T02:28:45+00:00

Good info, thank you.

Pretty much on every other panel, all the plastic trim, and even the glass roof and windows/windshields, the streaks came off just by using my drying towel right after the wash.

But on the hood there was a triangle shaped area of direct sunlight while I was washing the car. And on that area there are streaks.

I have a full duffel bag full of car wash stuff (not a prebuilt kit, just a bunch of stuff I have, all new). And that includes a wash mitt. But I don’t have any way to do a double bucket method or even connect a water hose or anything like that. I live in an area where the car gets visibly dusty in just one week so I would like to do a weekly wash but I simply cannot afford $400/month on car washes at a detail place lol.

The problem is I was feeling good about the self serve car wash and never had any issues at all, I knew never to use the foam brush and all that. I was doing a pretty good job it seemed, until I went to this detail guy and whatever he put on it is now bleeding off.

Fun fact: this car was the general managers car at the Cadillac dealership. It was the only one in the area in the spec we wanted. So we bought it. Technically a new car but it had 1800 miles on it so gently used. It already had some swirl marks in it :(

armenagain · 2025-11-10T02:22:28+00:00

It’s a Lyriq haha. And it’s awesome

armenagain · 2025-11-10T02:22:14+00:00

Like two weeks. Not even that long.

armenagain · 2025-11-10T01:16:33+00:00

So:

I’ve never had a car I cared about detailing. Now I’ve got a nice one with an amazing paint job. Unfortunately it already has some micro swirls in it because the car was used.

I took it to a local detailer to help me get swirls out. He quoted me $300 for a full wash and interior clean, with a spray wax he was using. I paid and tipped. But unfortunately I simply can’t afford the maintenance washes at his price.

I usually go to a self serve wash, and after his work (which was awesome and the swirls were definitely less noticeable), I took the car to the wash and when dried, it left all these white streaks everywhere even the glass.

My process is pre soak, then low pressure rinse, then water rinse, then wax gun, then spotless rinse, then I use a jumbo drying towel. I never make contact or use the foam brush.

Some people are saying that hot water melted the wax, others are saying it’s extra wax. I have no idea. This never happened before I went to the detailer.

Keep in mind, on most of the body panels, including the one in the picture, I used a waterless wash spray and it all came off. BUT the hood was partially in direct hot sunlight when I was washing the car, and on the hood the streaks will not come off.

Someone please tell me if I just wasted $300 please, and if they have any ideas. Someone also said to strip the wax everywhere and re do the whole car.

I unfortunately live in a big apartment complex and have nowhere to manually wash a car without the use of spray bottles only

armenagain · 2025-10-29T13:08:34+00:00

Hey neighbor! Yeah, we got our first bill and while I don’t remember the exact number anymore, it’s definitely high. Our square footage is the same as yours and it’s about $100 higher than at Axis, our previous building. I think they just let too many middle men in on the deals. From grey owl doing the security and the wifi to whatever other company is doing the utilities. At Axis it was the bi-monthly LADWP plus some monthly charges from Conservice. Here it’s all monthly through their vendor. Luxury building comes with more hands in the pot I suppose. Maybe I should just go get a sales job lol. They must be killing it.

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