Paint swirls... I feel like giving into them!

[AdrenalineJunky]

Paint swirls... I have always attempted to limit these. Whenever anyone comes around my vehicles or let alone works on them, stress levels rise when I attempt to communicate issues about how not cause paint swirls. You would think body shops would at least know what your referring to. Most people say thats normal or just look at you like your crazy.

I avoid auto touch car washes. Always wash by hand. And yet the unplanned body shop repairs/dealer work which include the basic wash always lead to the awful swirls.

I would like to not care... I feel like I'm fighting a loosing battle here.. Help!Feed back please

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Maybe this will help...

Instead of thinking of swirls in the negative, think of them as shimmer!

Swirls help the sun or bright light to dance on your paint!

If you have a rotary buffer, put a wool pad on it, get an abrasive compound and get creative, inflict the swirls, or shimmer in an artistic design that compliments your car's body design.


Does that help?

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Another option is to have the car painted silver metallic, it's hard to look at silver metallic in bright sun because it's like looking at a mirror and it causes pain to your eyes so you won't look at the paint and thus you won't see the swirls.

How's that idea?

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Seriously, swirls will always be a problem with clear coat paints and swirls will always be a problem when dealing with body shops, dealerships and even a segment of the detailing world.

Keep your skills honed and keep your garage stocked with plenty of foam buffing pads, a selection of electric polishes and my favorite, a collection of waxes and paint sealants.


Here's something I just posted to another thread...


"Car waxes and paint sealants are to men like shoes are to women, you can never have too many" - Mike Phillips


Plan on buying one or two waxes or paint sealants a month and might as well start building a "Wax Rack", kind of like a "Shoe Rack" only unlike shoes in a closet, maybe find a nice wall in the living room to display your collection.


Hey, building a nice display rack involves power tools....

 

[Slava]

Another option is to have the car painted silver metallic, it's hard to look at silver metallic in bright sun because it's like looking at a mirror and it causes pain to your eyes so you won't look at the paint and thus you won't see the swirls.

How's that idea?

This is your answer. I currently own a Platinum Silver Metallic paint and you can't see swirls what so ever. Even with using Brinkman light it takes me a while to find them.

 

[bigdawg]

Maybe this will help...

Instead of thinking of swirls in the negative, think of them as shimmer!

Swirls help the sun or bright light to dance on your paint!

If you have a rotary buffer, put a wool pad on it, get an abrasive compound and get creative, inflict the swirls, or shimmer in an artistic design that compliments your car's body design.


Does that help?

:haha:

 

[Shane731]

Plan on buying one or two waxes or paint sealants a month and might as well start building a "Wax Rack", kind of like a "Shoe Rack" only unlike shoes in a closet, maybe find a nice wall in the living room to display your collection.


Hey, building a nice display rack involves power tools....

Better make sure Al is the one doing the building and not Tim! :laughing:

 

[Rsurfer]

Maybe this will help...

Instead of thinking of swirls in the negative, think of them as shimmer!

Swirls help the sun or bright light to dance on your paint!

If you have a rotary buffer, put a wool pad on it, get an abrasive compound and get creative, inflict the swirls, or shimmer in an artistic design that compliments your car's body design.


Does that help?

Shimmer is created by the Devil, Evil, Evil, Evil.

 

[Matt]

"Car waxes and paint sealants are to men like shoes are to women, you can never have too many" - Mike Phillips

Mike, I LOVE that quote. BRILLIANT!
I'm going to add it to my profile over on Club Lexus and Lexus Owners Club, but don't worry, I'll make sure I give you full credit! (I hope you don't mind, just say if you do, I won't put it there)

Shimmer is created by the Devil, Evil, Evil, Evil.

Actually I saw a brand new Rav4 the other night and I took a short video of it because it had the WORST holograming I've ever seen! I stopped to look at it because at first I thought someone had wiped the car down with a muddy cloth and left it with dirty streaks but upon inspection, the paint was perfectly clean, it was the WORST I've ever seen. I'll post the video here when I get around to uploading it to YouTube.

 

[turbos17]

"Car waxes and paint sealants are to men like shoes are to women, you can never have too many" - Mike Phillips




:iagree: :laughing:


Hey, building a nice display rack involves power tools....

Better make sure Al is the one doing the building and not Tim! :laughing:

Epic! :dblthumb2:

 

[AdrenalineJunky]

Maybe this will help...

Instead of thinking of swirls in the negative, think of them as shimmer!

Swirls help the sun or bright light to dance on your paint!

If you have a rotary buffer, put a wool pad on it, get an abrasive compound and get creative, inflict the swirls, or shimmer in an artistic design that compliments your car's body design.


Does that help?

Honestly, no it does not help.

Another option is to have the car painted silver metallic, it's hard to look at silver metallic in bright sun because it's like looking at a mirror and it causes pain to your eyes so you won't look at the paint and thus you won't see the swirls.

How's that idea?

This truck is not getting painted. Silver can look slick on some cars, but the majority in my opinion just blend in being silver. The truck color is called Sunburst orange. I understand these colors are harder to maintain swirls, but usually when I'm the only person cleaning the truck it is not a problem.

Seriously, swirls will always be a problem with clear coat paints and swirls will always be a problem when dealing with body shops, dealerships and even a segment of the detailing world.

Keep your skills honed and keep your garage stocked with plenty of foam buffing pads, a selection of electric polishes and my favorite, a collection of waxes and paint sealants.


Here's something I just posted to another thread...


"Car waxes and paint sealants are to men like shoes are to women, you can never have too many" - Mike Phillips


Plan on buying one or two waxes or paint sealants a month and might as well start building a "Wax Rack", kind of like a "Shoe Rack" only unlike shoes in a closet, maybe find a nice wall in the living room to display your collection.


Hey, building a nice display rack involves power tools....

Thank you for the tips. I have never gotten into any buffing/polishing, as I have not wanted to spend the inital investment and take the risk of doing more bad than good.

At this point since I cannot find a local detailer that may be my only option. What causes some cars to have the marks that come from a bad buff job?

 

[AdrenalineJunky]

BTW, I have my user settings adjusted for instant auto notifications for any updates of PM, or subscribed threads.

Problem is I do not recieve any notifications. Looked in the junk box and nothing under there either.

Any ideas?

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

The truck color is called Sunburst orange. I understand these colors are harder to maintain swirls, but usually when I'm the only person cleaning the truck it is not a problem.

Thank you for the tips. I have never gotten into any buffing/polishing, as I have not wanted to spend the initial investment and take the risk of doing more bad than good.

That's a very pretty color.

Using a DA Polisher like a Porter Cable 7424XP is pretty easy and almost impossible to make a mistake with. It's too bad body shops don't incorporate them for use after the rotary buffer steps and there would be less horror stories like yours.

I've taught thousands of people from all backgrounds how to remove swirls using a PC both in classes and via a DVD and a Keyboard so if you want to learn and are physically able than we can help you to learn how to do it yourself.

We have the 5th Annual Detail Fest coming up in March and if you can get down here for that we'll be teaching people how to use all the different polishers.

At this point since I cannot find a local detailer that may be my only option.

Best thing to do though is to start a "Dedicated Thread" with words in the title that will get the attention of the right forum members. The title of this thread won't work. For example,

Pro Detailer Wanted in BLANK, New York

and post it here, Off-Topic or here, Show N' Shine (only post a thread once)

What causes some cars to have the marks that come from a bad buff job?

Improper use of a tool
Not finishing with the right pad and product combo

In your case, having your car buffed at a body shop they in all likelihood used a Rotary Buffer with a wool pad and a compound to cut the paint and then maybe a rotary buffer with a wool polishing pad and a glaze to remove the deeper swirls and replace them with more shallow swirls and hope and cross their fingers the glaze masks them and you're like most of their customers and don't know what swirls are.

That is the norm for body shops in the U.S. (sorry)

The good news, is with a DA Polisher you can remove them pretty easy, the trick I share with most new people to machine polishing is to only tackle a panel a weekend and work your way around the vehicle slowly so you're not overwhelmed and burn out as doing an entire truck in one day is a lot of work.

For what it would cost you to hire a TRUE pro you could buy a polisher, the pads and the chemicals and do it yourself and after you're finished you'll still have the tools, the pads and some of the chemicals to do any future polishing work.

How to choose the right polisher for your detailing project

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

BTW, I have my user settings adjusted for instant auto notifications for any updates of PM, or subscribed threads.

Problem is I do not receive any notifications. Looked in the junk box and nothing under there either.

Any ideas?

I double checked your setting and everything looks right.

If you're not getting notifications in your in-box or in a Spam or Junk mail folder then more than likely your ISP is flagging them as spam or something else and simply not delivering them to you.

Maybe try a different e-mail address?

 

[AdrenalineJunky]

That's a very pretty color.

Using a DA Polisher like a Porter Cable 7424XP is pretty easy and almost impossible to make a mistake with. It's too bad body shops don't incorporate them for use after the rotary buffer steps and there would be less horror stories like yours.

I've taught thousands of people from all backgrounds how to remove swirls using a PC both in classes and via a DVD and a Keyboard so if you want to learn and are physically able than we can help you to learn how to do it yourself.

We have the 5th Annual Detail Fest coming up in March and if you can get down here for that we'll be teaching people how to use all the different polishers.



Best thing to do though is to start a "Dedicated Thread" with words in the title that will get the attention of the right forum members. The title of this thread won't work. For example,

Pro Detailer Wanted in BLANK, New York

and post it here, Off-Topic or here, Show N' Shine (only post a thread once)




Improper use of a tool
Not finishing with the right pad and product combo

In your case, having your car buffed at a body shop they in all likelihood used a Rotary Buffer with a wool pad and a compound to cut the paint and then maybe a rotary buffer with a wool polishing pad and a glaze to remove the deeper swirls and replace them with more shallow swirls and hope and cross their fingers the glaze masks them and you're like most of their customers and don't know what swirls are.

That is the norm for body shops in the U.S. (sorry)

The good news, is with a DA Polisher you can remove them pretty easy, the trick I share with most new people to machine polishing is to only tackle a panel a weekend and work your way around the vehicle slowly so you're not overwhelmed and burn out as doing an entire truck in one day is a lot of work.

For what it would cost you to hire a TRUE pro you could buy a polisher, the pads and the chemicals and do it yourself and after you're finished you'll still have the tools, the pads and some of the chemicals to do any future polishing work.

How to choose the right polisher for your detailing project

Ok, well perhaps I will buy a polisher. You make it sound easy enough.. That would be cool to come down in March, but not sure that'll happen. I'll keep it in mind, thanks for the invite. Meanwhile where can a dvd be obtained?

Started a thread just like you suggested. Thanks for the tip.

I double checked your setting and everything looks right.

If you're not getting notifications in your in-box or in a Spam or Junk mail folder then more than likely your ISP is flagging them as spam or something else and simply not delivering them to you.

Maybe try a different e-mail address?

Is there a list of e-mail address that I would be getting these sort of messages from? Maybe I can add them to a safe list if that is an option to take care of the problem.

Thank you for all the time you've already spent. I feel much better about my horror situation and now know it can be reversed without too much hassle.