Baybarea

I would like to get a new paint job and was wondering how you fellow CL members wash your car without getting swirl marks? I know this is a big problem especially with black cars. Also, is there a quick fix to remove these swirl marks till I can save enough money for a paint job?

rembo

i have the same prob, my car have litle circle strip

a black car attract the dirt
mines have trouble to stay clean more that 2 days


but its so dam class when its clean

all this to stay that i would like to know how to get them dissapear to.
p.s. i use a simoniz speed dry towel

Xterminate

easy to not get swirl mark, just wash them in straight up and down line, ie... start from top of the hood then straight down, same motion on everywhere else part of the car

same with towel drying, you don't wanna circle dry it, straight up and down motion

DonJuan45i

I heard drying with a leaf blower is a very good alternative, cant imagine wind leaving a swirl

Parker Gen

I don't think you can get them to go away... you have created this effect through the technique you use in washing your cars. It's called the web effect, and you do this to your paint by using the old karate kid technique, where you rub with your sponge in circles. You should never wash your car using the circular motion, because after your finished when the sun shines onto the paint, it brings out the little things that look like scrathes all over the place. That's just the way you've applied the wash etc, and in each different direction and angle you have caused the sun to pick this up, and your end result is the web.
Always wash your car in straight lines, not circular motion.

LXMN

If your gonna wash your car by hand, eventually you will get swirl marks. The products and method you use to wash your car determine how minimal the swirl marks are going to be. There is no way around it. That is what swirl remover, buffing compound, and polish is made for.

Don't forget to wax afterwards. Or at least every 2 months.

tuan92129

You can try meguiars.com for info on removing swirls..
Washing/drying in a straight line will NOT prevent swirl marks. You are scratching your car either way. If you think about it, same washing solution, same wash mit, and pressure, you are either having 'straight' scratches, or curvy scratches You need to hire a professional to buff out the swirls with a rotary buffer, which costs about $150. You can't really prevent swirls on a daily driver, every time you wash/dry you add swirls, but using microfiber towels and using clean wash mits will reduce the amount of swirls on the paint.

RayLai417

get the mr. clean autodry :]

3000

I never had a problem washing a black car. I wash my brother in law's black 97 ES300 with a wash brush all the time and never see a swirl mark. Then I dry it with "The Absorber". And I wax it. The only things I see are scratch marks from other people's doors.

13loody

If you already have swirl marks, you can always do a wash, clay, wash, medium cut, light cut, swirl remover, polish, wait one day, and finally wax. I just did it the other day with a friend and trust me, it's a lot of work. Car looks freaking clean as hell and smooth! Buying all the equipment and product is quite expensive and labor intensive, so getting a detail job for $250-$300 once a year is worth it to most people especially if they do it alone.

To prevent future swirl marks, use the 2 bucket method with a real lamb skin mitt. Get a foaming nozzle to spray on your soap before washing it. When washing, don't apply pressure, just let it glide over the surface. I use several microfiber towels to dry most of it and 2-3 of those waffle styled towels to dry all the microbeads. After that, apply sealant and let it sit for 15mins and wipe off. Then wax her the next day. You should be sealing and waxing at least every other time you wash her if you're washing 2 times a month. Black is a lot of work to maintain, but it also gets the most looks when clean.

Baybarea

Just a few questions. What is clay? What is the meanning of medium and light cut, lke how does it work? What is the difference between polish and wax? I found this:


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...146200912&rd=1



on eBay, will this work for what 13loody was talking about.

Pheonix

well fish thig to do is quit suing nasty bath towels and scrraching grim into the paint.


Go use an OXO brush. Toyota B202 is real easy to keep clean & real easy to touch-up. Especially the old SSP formula.

13loody

Clay is what it sounds like. It's clay or puddy that you use to remove crap you normally can't wash off. I used a quick detailer to keep it lubricated, but many people use car wash soap with some water. I think quick detailer is better and since I'm putting all this work into the car, I don't think cheapening out a few dollars in product is as worthwhile.

I used Meguiar's Mirror Glaze products, not the standard over-the-counter Meguiar's. Here is a link to the Meguiar cuts that I used. I went with medium and fine, but there were a few deep scratches that I could have buffed out with the heavy/diamond cut. It really depends on how bad your car is. I didn't use the compound cleaner since I didn't sand or anything do anything deep.

I used Meguiar's Swirl Remover as my polish. It's basically and even finer cut to get rid of microscratches/marring.

After all that, I seal her up. This helps by adding a thin protective coating to the surface. If you think about it, doing all those cuts removes a thin layer of clearcoat, and this sealant will replace it.

I like to use a paste wax because it's still easy to use, and provides better protection and lasts longer than liquid waxes. I tried using a pure carnauba wax once and it was extremely difficult to use. I could have applied the paste wax 10 times in the same amount of time I used just applying one coat of the pure carnauba wax. The pure carnauba wax worked EXTREMELY well, but it was just too difficult to apply. I might give it another shot and apply a thinner coat next time to see if that will help. It sucks when you remove all the swirls and scratches just to make new ones removing the wax >.<

lexusk8

Moving this thread to the Auto Detailing forum where it belongs

madmax98

I baby the paint on all my black cars. i try to avoid scratches and swirls at all costs so i do things that people consider strange, maybe. When i wash the car: i wash it in the shade; i spray the whole car to make sure all loose dirt is out; always clean the top first then work your way down; after spraying the car, i go with weak flowing water scrubbing the paint with my bare hands to try to get as much dirt off as possible; then i go with a soaped sponge over the high areas first, make sure the sponge is clean and there's no dirt trapped in pores; leave the bottom area< side skirts, front and rear bumper, behind the wheels> till the end because those areas have a lot of dirt that might scratch other areas as well; i dry going sideways in the direction of the wind using only clean shammies; then i move on to waxing with appropriate pads using the lightest pressure. I hope that helps. BTW, this is an all day project for me, very relaxing but it makes the girlfriend furious