Light Swirls: Am I worrying too much?

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scanlessfool

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Hello, everyone.

I'm about to begin a full detail on my car now that I have a daily driver and have found a product that I'm comfortable working with. The pictures of the purple car show a before and after with Griot's Machine Polish 2 after one pass with an Orange LC pad. The last picture is 50/50 shot of a test panel I did on a friend's car. My question stems from the last picture. Above the tape line in the last picture is the test panel after I worked the product. You can however see very light imperfections still which is what I'm seeing on my purple car. Am I worrying to much that the product isn't fully removing the swirls or is it okay and those light marks should go away after I polish it? I hope it all makes sense the way I attempted to explain it.

I've done a second pass and I can not get rid of the light swirl marks. I have tried a orange LC pad at speed 5 with Griot's Machine Polish 2, a orange LC pad at speed 5 with Wolfgang Total Swirl Removal, and lastly a yellow LC pad at speed 5 with Wolfgang Total Swirl Removal. I made sure to work all 3 products in real well and what appeared to work best was the Wolfgang Total Swirl Removal.

I know it is best to use the least aggressive method, which is why I don't want to use the yellow pad, but I'll take another crack at it when I get home. Other than that, does anyone else have any advice?

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You may just have really hard clearcoat. It's up to you how much further you wanna pursue the swirls but since it's a daily driver, I wouldn't worry too much about it because inevitably some swirls will return eventually. Especially when it appears you've removed about 90% according to the 50/50
 
Maybe change up your pads or try another pass. If you have a really hard clear a rotary will correct it quicker..

Edit: I see you are using an orange pad. Maybe go for a more aggressive polish. No experience with what you've used though.

I do know that any defects you don't remove with a compound will still be there with a finishing polish. Who knows though, give it a try bbq

Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk 2
 
transambrotha said:
You may just have really hard clearcoat. It's up to you how much further you wanna pursue the swirls but since it's a daily driver, I wouldn't worry too much about it because inevitably some swirls will return eventually. Especially when it appears you've removed about 90% according to the 50/50
Click to expand...

Reading this post actually made me feel better. Here I am worrying about the 10% of swirls still left and I failed to notice that I got rid of the majority of swirls. The car actually isn't a daily driver, but a weekend driver. I figured I might as well get rid of all the swirls while I was at it.

Dugdug said:
You are referring to this picture correct?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/scanlessfool/Car%20Pics/Detailing/86efb470.jpg[IMG][/quote]

That was actually a picture of mine that I used to exhibit the light swirls I was speaking of.

[QUOTE="brlukosk, post: 719706, member: 32673"]Maybe change up your pads or try another pass. If you have a really hard clear a rotary will correct it quicker..

Edit: I see you are using an orange pad. Maybe go for a more aggressive polish. No experience with what you've used though.

I do know that any defects you don't remove with a compound will still be there with a finishing polish. Who knows though, give it a try bbq

Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk 2[/quote]

The most current aggressive setup is a LC yellow pad and 105. I guess I'll give it a crack.
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Dude, those 50/50 shots looks great! Whatever method you are using to get those once you top it with some sealant or wax it's going to look fantastic. My question to you would be: What is more important? Having zero swirls or defects and thinner clear cote, or having ALMOST zero swirls and a little bit thicker clear cote?
 
transambrotha said:
You may just have really hard clearcoat. It's up to you how much further you wanna pursue the swirls but since it's a daily driver, I wouldn't worry too much about it because inevitably some swirls will return eventually. Especially when it appears you've removed about 90% according to the 50/50
Click to expand...


I agree. IF it's a daily driver it's going to see normal wear-n-tear. It's normal and one reason is because clear coat paints are scratch sensitive. This means that while they are harder than traditional single stage paints they still scratch easily.


:)
 
On a daily, I wouldn't bother using a rotary...what for? It's a freakin' daily! Even if you did remove 99% of the swirls, it's a daily, it'll swirl again as you simply drive the car. Anything above 90-95% perfect is more than enough for a daily, especially dark colored, so don't worry too much about it. I probably wouldn't even compound it more than once a year, if that. Just use 205 a couple times a year on a DA, keep the rotary for show cars that need to be perfect and aren't driven much, if at all.
 
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