Tips on removing swirl marks & scratches...

[GMCSonoma]

I "stickied" this topic...any good suggestions on swirl removal??

I have a car with some "swirling action", and I've heard about 4 different ways to remove it from the clearcoat....I'd like to hear what our GMI members have to suggest!

Fire away!

[camaro chris]

rub on a good rubbing compound by hand, then take a machine buffer and put some wax on and shine it up. not a 100% job, but u can't see the scratches from a few feet away.

[Maverick]

Here are some links that I dug up for a thread a while back...

Originally Posted by Maverick

I'd check out the following links:
Meguiar's FAQs - How do I remove swirl marks?
Meguiar's Forums - How To Remove Swirls By Hand
Better Car Care - Swirls Marks and Water Spots

Better Car Care - Chips and Scratches

[kool_zx3]

I suggest using scratchx from meguiars by hand..... I am guessing you don't have a Porter Cable polisher so by hand it's tuff to do.
http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/sho...&threadid=7011

This is the best article i have come across on using it.... I did the whole car 3 times with it this weekend.... Talk about dead arms afterwards

A PC(porter cable) is the best thing.... about 80 bucks at lowe's. I ordered one for myself this afternoon along with some poorboys's polishes. Nice way to spend 300 bucks

[oldskls10]

There is no substitute for a good RO polisher, an array of pads and a backing plate, and a few grades of polish/wax. Sure Scratch-X will work by hand, but to do an entire car is exhausting! The key is to remove the swirls, preferably by machine, and then adopt safer washing and drying techniques. If you run your car through gast station car washes, tunnel washes or use the "brush of death" at the local car wash, you will get swirls in no time. If you can't hand wash at home, use a touchless car wash if possible. It won't get the car as clean, but if no mechanical brush/cloth touches the paint, the accumulation of swirl marks will be greatly diminished. For a safe hand wash use a quality sheepskin wash mit and adopt the "two bucket method." Only use a wafflw weave drying towel. Search the links posted above, and be sure to browse over to autopia.org and read through the forums, especially the Autopia University sub-forum.

[redlipp]

Originally Posted by GMCSonoma

I "stickied" this topic...any good suggestions on swirl removal??

I have a car with some "swirling action", and I've heard about 4 different ways to remove it from the clearcoat....I'd like to hear what our GMI members have to suggest!

Fire away!

alot depends on the color of the car your trying to remove the flaws from. if its a black/dark color there alot of waxes that are colored to each specific color, and can hide alot of the slight imperfections. but the best way imo is to find someone from your local detail/bodyshop dept that you trust, in most of them they will have someone there that has worked a buffer for many years and will have a lot of experience removing imperfections in paint and clear coats. i have seen many flaws removed from my own autos. but if you want to try experimenting, its best to have someone else's car to experiment own other than you own first. you can do more harm than good if you don't know what your doing. good luck if you doing it own your own.

[dav305z]

The absolute most important thing is to make sure you don't inflict worse damage by being too aggressive. The best way is to use some clear coat safe swirl remover, and then do several coats of a very good carnuba wax. The wax will fil the swirls and make them a lot less noticable. While you're doing all that work, you might as well get in their with a clay bar to smoothen the paint surface.

[Octane]

It depends on the depth of and location of the swirl. close to the edge of any panel detail I use a swirl remover by hand as well as any large surface using light pressure.

Having a couple of compounds or part of a "system" by Meguiar's or 3M, I use mostly 3M, start with the compound that removes the lease if what you have is a haze type swirl. Something more defined use the compound that is a little more aggressive, then work back up to the finer compounds making sure you use a dedicated cloth or pad for each compound, don't mix em.

I have a Mikkita variable speed polisher that I have done many cars from using heavy superduty cutting compound using wool pads on hard surface paint coatings to finishing compounds on enamel using foam pads. As mentioned previously, try it on your brothers or friends old beater car thats faded so if you mess up it won't be so hurtfull. You can learn allot putting in some hands on time to get a feel for handling and using a polisher.

My recommendation though would be use a polisher that has a speed setting that can be set as low as 500 rpm and up to 1200 rpm. After polishing an area ,that area will heat up and you can heat up the paint surface enough to blister the clearcoat or color or actually melt through the clearcoat. At that point if you do that, it will need re-coated with clear and or color if its that bad. Thats what beaters are for. Go easy.

[98Corvette]

My personal approach is a three step process.

I prefer the orbital buffer approach. High speed buffers can be tough to work with and dangerous if you are not skilled. The orbital buffer is very user friendly and is a nice compromise between ease of use and effectiveness.

First I start out using the buffer with Meguiars Swirl Remover 2.0
Second is a coat of Meguiars Fine Polish, or the Deep Crystal.
Third a coat of Meguiars Nxt Generation Syn Wax.
Leaves quite a nice shine and deep gloss look on a very difficult to care for Car.....Black.
As far as prevention, just wash the car by hand, make sure to keep clean tools/Mitts. for drying i stick with 100% cotton and the california water blade.