Review: Swirl / Scratch "remover"
06-09-09, 01:31 PM
#1
Lead Lap
Thread Starter
Review: Swirl / Scratch "remover"
I ask a lot of questions on this forum, so I thought I would share some experiences I had when I detailed my car this weekend.
I noticed after I bought my car that if you look at the hood (or the trunk) under halogen lighting you can see very fine scratches. You can only see these under halogen lights and if you look at it parallel to the surface. I know a picture would help here, but I have a crappy camera and I never got the scratches to show correctly.
I believe these scratches were due to how the dealership washes cars (because they were there after I purchased my car, and I bought the car new). However, I did take my car through an automatic car wash once (yes, I know) so some of the very fine scratches in the clear coat could also be from that.
Anyway, I tried 3 products and used them all by hand (because I don't have an orbital, etc yet).
The products were:
Z-PC
Meguiar's Swirl X
Meguiar's Ultimate Compound
Z-PC: Z-PC did nothing for me. In looking at the abrasive chart, it appears Z-PC is fairly mild. I might revisit it when I get an orbital, but it was pretty much worthless trying to use by hand.
Swirl X: Swirl X seemed to work, but it involved a lot of labor, and I felt like it only got rid of about 30-50% of my fine scratches.
Ultimate Compound: This stuff seemed to do the trick. It probably got rid of 80% of scratches, and it probably would have gotten more if I hadn't gotten tired.
Conclusion: I'm going to look into the Porter Cable 7424 (or the new one), and when I do I'll probably start with Z-PC again, but as long as I am working scratches over by hand it'll probably be Ultimate Compound.
I know this probably isn't an amazing review, and I'm sure I'm not enlightening the experts, but I've learned a lot from this forum and I wanted to give back a little. Maybe someone is in the same situation I'm in, and this will benefit them.
...now if anyone wants to ship me some free product to test out...I'd be happy to help ;-)
I noticed after I bought my car that if you look at the hood (or the trunk) under halogen lighting you can see very fine scratches. You can only see these under halogen lights and if you look at it parallel to the surface. I know a picture would help here, but I have a crappy camera and I never got the scratches to show correctly.
I believe these scratches were due to how the dealership washes cars (because they were there after I purchased my car, and I bought the car new). However, I did take my car through an automatic car wash once (yes, I know) so some of the very fine scratches in the clear coat could also be from that.
Anyway, I tried 3 products and used them all by hand (because I don't have an orbital, etc yet).
The products were:
Z-PC
Meguiar's Swirl X
Meguiar's Ultimate Compound
Z-PC: Z-PC did nothing for me. In looking at the abrasive chart, it appears Z-PC is fairly mild. I might revisit it when I get an orbital, but it was pretty much worthless trying to use by hand.
Swirl X: Swirl X seemed to work, but it involved a lot of labor, and I felt like it only got rid of about 30-50% of my fine scratches.
Ultimate Compound: This stuff seemed to do the trick. It probably got rid of 80% of scratches, and it probably would have gotten more if I hadn't gotten tired.
Conclusion: I'm going to look into the Porter Cable 7424 (or the new one), and when I do I'll probably start with Z-PC again, but as long as I am working scratches over by hand it'll probably be Ultimate Compound.
I know this probably isn't an amazing review, and I'm sure I'm not enlightening the experts, but I've learned a lot from this forum and I wanted to give back a little. Maybe someone is in the same situation I'm in, and this will benefit them.
...now if anyone wants to ship me some free product to test out...I'd be happy to help ;-)
. Great review bud 
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brociouz
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11-30-09 11:22 AM
