I had another thread going in which sveral members, mostly RPl, gave me some great advice on removing the swirl marks from my recently aquired truck. Long story short, I've gone over it 3 times with Meguiars #9 and the paint is still swirly in direct sunlight or at night in direct artificial light. Sometimes it has a hologram effect, but mostly just swirls directly around the light source. I am starting to wonder if I am in part the cause, the swirls are about the size of the circular motion I used to apply/ remove the cleaner and wax. I have been doing this by hand, maybe they can't be removed by hand? I am done trying abrasive measures as since they aren't doing much good, I don't want to harm the paint any(hopefully I haven't yet with 3 applications of #9). I am very depressed over this and need some help! What can I try next? Maybe filling in the swirls instead of attempting to remove them, along with another layer of my paint? Please help!

 

I made the investment into a DA and will never go back to doing things by hand. I would suggest going with a DA and a more aggressinve product such as Speed Glaze or Dual Action Cleaner Polish.

 

I agree, power application and something like #80 Speed Glaze may be an upgrade necessary to tend to some of the swirling you've got.

 

Ahh, don't get down on your luck, buddy If #9 isn't strong enough for you, try moving up to a more aggressive product. Or, what you could do, is use a PC with #9 and see if that makes a difference. The circular motion to apply it is fine, (you are mimicking the PC's motions). As for removing, I don't see a problem in circular motions as long as you're using a reputable wipe, like Meguiar's Ultimate Wipe. Microfiber is probably the best thing to use to remove product,, what are you using to remove it?

 

I've been using clean terry cloth towels to remove the product.

I was going to try some 'fill n glaze' to try to fill in the swirls instead of going to something even more aggressive. I figure that if the 3 coats of #9 haven't done any good, more of the same will only make it worse. Why would an orbital buffer provide better results? I am afraid that I could make matters worse yet with something like that. I believe I do have (somewhere, would have to find it) a low-speed orbital buffer from wal-mart I bought years ago for an unrelated project. Would something like that work? Am I crazy to try something non-abrasive? I don't want to do any damage!

 

An orbital buffer is probably something you don't want to mess with if you don't know what you're doing. A dual action polisher, like the Porter Cable 7424/Meguiar's G100 is much more forgiving and stupidly easy to use, yet produces good results:

That was with the PC, a polishing pad, #9 and #26. Still needs work though.

 

Random orbital buffers are the same things as PC's....FYI. They will not harm the paint unlike rotary buffers (which include risk of burning the paint if you're not careful, and require a know-how of skill). If you think you are damaging your clearcoat, think again... If you used your PC with an abrasive polish for every single day, it would take you 10 years or less to strip the clearcoat off. You are only removing a very thin layer each time with the polish... probably even less because it is by hand. The reason a PC would work more efficiently is because of the heat it produces, which is virtually incapable to reproduce doing it by hand.

 

A "rotary" buffer is the one you need to be careful with!

 

I have a black F-150 and was scared to death of damaging my paint. The DA will not harm your paint. Take everyones word for it and make the investment. I posted in a thread that I started called "Time to detail - RP". It includes everything that I bought and a price for what I bought. Also, check out the link to my gallery. There are before pictures of my truck in there and you can see the types of problems I was having. I know that I didn't post any finished pictures (I know) but I will soon. It looks much better now. It seems like you are willing to take the time and effort into having great paint. Dig through the couch and find some money to make the investment.

 

So you guys really think one of these things will make the difference between no results (by hand) and no swirls(PC)? I just find it hard to believe that this thing is going to work miracles for me. Is it just the heat that it creates that helps? Can someone explain why it should work better?

 

RP, I read in another thread you replied to that it is important to let a product like #9 break down properly. Maybe I wasn't applying it correctly? Should I be able to achieve good results by hand?

 

Brain,

Here's how it goes... if one or two passes of a product by hand don't remove the swirls, you are going to have to step up to a more aggressive product (#9 is a very light SMR). They may not be easy by hand.

A PC with the right products and pads will clean up swirls better than can be done by hand. However, even a PC may not "cut it", depending on how bad the swirls are, or how tough the paint is. That's usually were an experienced detailer (or enthusiast) with a rotary buffer is required.

Even then it might to be possible to remove the imperfections, as it may require removing too much clear-coat.

 

How do I go about finding a professional? The paint is glossy, shiny and deep until it is in just the right light, then it can look kind of cloudy. I don't think it is too far gone at all, just out of my range. I've never done more than wax a car before. Gosh, I wish some of you guys lived in the Dallas area!

 

Brian,

Go to this site...

http://www.scottwax.com/

Email Scott (Scottwax) and ask him if he can help (he's in Arlington), or knows someone close (or closer) to you who can. Scottwax is a "brilliant" detailer! If you go to: http://www.autopia.org You can read many of his posts and see a lot of his work.

 

Boss, thank you for the advice, and I will definately keep this guy in mind if I can't do it on my own. As for an update:

I bought some new applicators and MF towels and went to work again. I did some searching today and realized that I may not have been working the #9 in properly. I am now moving much slower, but working it in more, small sections at a a time. This tequnique is making a huge difference. In artificial light it looks, well, much better. We'll see how pleased I am with it here in a few days after I have had a chance to look it over more closely in some more light.