Saw this video:
https://youtu.be/Jk9BE-KGHTc
Is it true that using swirl x by hand can give this result?
Anyone had any experience with swirl x by hand?
I am fairly new to detailing as a hobby. And right now, i am at the rinseless washing, claying, and waxing. I am yet to try and learn paint correction
In that video, that's Mike Pennington, the Director of Training at Meguiar's demonstrating hand-technique for removing swirls.
If you duplicate what he did then "yes" you can remove light or more specifically shallow swirls and scratches. You will have to work SMALL areas at a time like he did. When moving onto a new section you'll have to overlap into the previous section for good UMR.
UMR = Uniform Material Removal - Removing the same amount of paint when doing correction work for a uniform appearance
When I watched the video here's what stood out to me...
First - Barry Meguiar's pointing out the obvious but in a nice and professional manner and that is most of the cars, (which are high end cool cars), at a car show like he was at and like all cars shows are ALL swirled out.
I know any of you reading this right now can relate. We go to car shows or even watch the cars on car guy TV shows and the cars are cool but the paint looks like crap. And it's so easy now days to actually do good work yet so often the paint on the cars at cars shows and on TV are all swirled-out.
That's okay though, creates business for detailers that actually know what they are doing.
The tricky thing is always finding a nice way to tell people their really cool, exotic or expensive car looks horrible.
Second - When the camera comes in to show the before and after difference where Mike worked, the camera man completely missed the mark. He didn't
A: Position the camera in a way to capture the light on both sides of the tape-line.
B: Position the car in a way to capture the light on both sides of the tape-line.
That video would have been a LOT more powerful and convincing if during the "after" video footage the intense light would have lit up the paint that Mike worked to show that he did in fact remove the swirls by hand. Instead all you see is the light barely on the swirled-out side and no light on the side he worked.
When I first started working on TV showing the masses how to polish paint and detail cars one of the things I had to do with EVERY TV production company we've worked with is,
A: Educate the director, producer and cameramen what swirls are.
B: Explain, share and show the cameramen how to capture the before shot (the ugly), and then how to capture the after shot, (the beautiful).
Most of the people I've worked with on the TV side simply are not "car guys". The don't know the difference between a squirrel or a swirl.
The difference between a swirl and squirrel
I forgot I wrote that new product introduction thread... incredible how many pages that thread went and all the questions...
Also interesting is that ScratchX (at least at that time in 2008), was more aggressive than SwirlX. So if a person really wanted to remove swirls by hand they would be much more effective to use Ultimate Compound and if they didn't have UC then get ScratchX. SwirlX would be a last option for me but then I wouldn't try to de-swirl a car by hand either.
lol. I've done it twice. [however I was a noob on both tries and didn't even know how to correctly spot swirls]