I had a horrible looking rear quarter on my '06 Supercrew (huge swirls from the dealer).....of course the truck is BLACK! So I went to a body shop guy that I trust and he recommended another guy who was good at buffing out black. Well it's all said and done and it looks worse. Well I should qualify that, the one quarter I had a problem with looks better but now the whole truck has small swirls all over it. Now that his wax job has faded they show up likeyou wouldnt believe Is there a way to get rid of these for good by hand, as opposed to hiding them with wax. HELP please.

 

by hand? Hope your nickname is Popeye.

I have had good results removing minor swirls by hand using Meguiar's ScratchX. but the key word there is minor.

There comes a point when nothing but a rotary will remove them, depending on how bad they are ..

I would suggest picking up a tube of ScratchX and giving it a try .. nothing to lose but a few bucks and some of your time, and it might very well work.

don't be afraid to put some umph into it, work a very smalll area, like 12" x 12".. and try several applications before you give up .. another tip .. don't let the scratchx dry .. wipe it off prior to it drying and hazing over.

when applying I have found it best to use a cross hatch pattern .. back and forth, then up and down .. you have to use enough pressure to break the product down ..

good luck .. and eat your spinich.

 

My problem is that I dont trust anyone to touch it now and i'm not touching it with a machine thats for sure.

 

Looks like you need to go to a Meguiar's Day and go through their school. You will need a rotary variable speed buffer to do this. and a few products, and some proper learning.

Go to www.Meguiarsonline.com and read up

 

Whoa Whoa Whoa... Don't scare the guy fellas. He is capable. Any and all problems don't necessarily have to be removed by mechanical means...

The Popeye comment is pretty much dead on though...

There are some products that can be used by hand in a fairly successful manner to remove light swirling -- which is hopefully what you have.

A product that immediately pops into my head is Meguiar's #9 Swirl Remover 2.0. This product actually offers more fillers than abrasives to remove swirls. In short, you're not really removing them as much as you are concealing them.

This product is available in most auto parts stores (Pep Boys, AutoZone, etc) and will run you somewhere between $5 and $10 for the bottle.

This, still, will be no cake walk and you're still going to need to 'wax' it at the end of this process (might I suggest going ahead and claying it immediately after you wash it?)...

Are you interested in doing this? If so, I'll add more guidance.

 

Rock pick.... what do you mean by "Claying it" ive seen the clay bars in stores and have wondred how they work. I'm in the same boat as Muddyape i have some swirls and scratches, i'd like to minimize theri appearance but i don't think i could ever totally eliminate them.

Thanks,

 

Want to do it right, with a set of two year old twins I do things 2 hrs at a time (naps) so if it takes a week to us a swirl remover and wax, well than thats what i'll do. I've got no problem with the upkeep once it's done but the initial work is going to be a pain in the stones. It makes me sick to my stomach to think that I really thought this guy was going to make it right. I should have read up on this and then just had ONE panel to fix initially, instead i've got a whole truck to do. The swirls arent deep I dont believe however they are everywhere. I picked up some scratch-x and i'll try it first. Then we'll move on to new things. RockPick I am however interested in the clay bar.

 

just a couple of quick pics to show you that it can indeed be done by hand ..

process here was a quick clay job then three applications of Meg's ScratchX by hand. Nothing else has been done when these pics were taken (no wax, or LSP of any kind)..

this work was done by Avengeance, a guy on LS1tech .






RP is correct (as always ) .. don't be scared .. it can't hurt anything to try as long as you do it correctly, and good results are possible if you are willing to put in the effort and use the right stuff ..

good luck and have fun ..

 

Clay will do nothing for swirls and such. Clay is an abrasive technique that removes bonded contamination that regular washing doesn't get. It's extremely safe and should, in my opinion, be used several times per year to keep your paint smooth and optically sharp.

Search around a little here and you'll see LOADS of information on it!

-RP-

 

Muddy -

My suggestion to you is to also invest in some nice microfiber towels as well as learning good techniques for your procedure -- and also all wash cycles.

Search around a little bit here and there... read about the two bucket method and microfiber towels. Realize that, like just about anything else out there, you get what you pay for when it comes to towels -- terry cloth towels are becoming a thing of the past for detailers...

I'm sorry I don't have much time to really type out a huge response right now but I'd be happy to help later... just let me know after you've looked around a little if you have other questions!

RP

 

RockPick youve done enough to help already..no need for a long drawn out reply thanks though) I will search and research to find what I need with regards to clay bars. Also, I did the a rear quarter and front fender this morning with appreciable results. I did the scratch-x twice and seemed to take the paint from a bunch of random swirls to a more consistent finish (obviously covered in Micro micro scratches) But looks fluid, nothing that the deep polish and nxt wax couldnt get rid of. I did both panels complete and they look great. I left my kids in my wifes car parked next to me in the driveway with a dvd playing (felt like a scumbag but they were happy) A bonus was that I took the 4x4 decals off the rear quarters and you cant tell where they were anymore. The truck should be waxed regularly anyway so if I do i'll never know the difference anyways. I'll give every panel a couple rounds of scratch-x etc. and call it a day. BTW the microfiber towels are AWESOME, after the initial pain in the @#$ procedure of using the scratch-x.....the deep polish and the nxt wax were the easiest applications i've ever done.

 

I had to invest in some scratch-x myself this weekend after a rushed drying job with a terrycloth towel left swirls on my hood.

I hate this time of year. Even at 7 am the water was drying on the truck before I could get finished washing.

Trying to keep the water spots from forming caused my towel swirls.

I've got to agree with Gipraw... scratch-x is a PIA to try and remove after it has dried. Seems like the more applications you use, the worse it gets too. I had to rely on my polish to remove what was left of the haze from the last application.

I'm sure the entire truck probably needs it now if it will ever cool off enough during the day so that I can do it.