Whats your favorite swirl remover?

[soapboxpreacher]

Swirls suck! Go thru one ""soft cloth" care wash and your car is a mess! I have soft finish so mine is really bad and anything out of my control leave my finish in havoc! I have some WG Swirl remover 3.0 but havent used it yet. I am hoping it is easy by hand for a swirl remover because I love their WG Deep Gloss stuff because not only is it easy to work with but leave the vehicle better then I found it! In the past I have used the megs cleaner wax which wasnt too bad...but really I dont have a favorite! For me a DA isnt an option so I need to find a great swirl remover that wouldnt hammer the clear coat. I feel that some of these can cut pretty hard especially with a DA.

 

[dlc95]

I tend to start with Menzerna PF2500 as my universal starting point, and adjust the pad for the pad for paint hardness

Within the Rupes system, Quarz Gloss Medium Compound, and either the green or yellow pad. Quarz with the yellow pad can be a really nice "one step".

But to dobthis by hand I'd opt for a cleaner wax type product. The Meguiar's 3 in 1 wax, or D166 would probably get you where you need to be.

I like to start with Duragloss 501, which has some pretty potent cleaners, and very durable synthetic polymer protection. It's been a while since I used it by hand, but by machine I get some nice, light swirl removal.

 

[SWETM]

On a ultra soft clearcoat you can get problems with a swirl remover if I'm correct is a medium cut polish. Even by hand it can haze some. And the newer polish often has a decent cut from them and you use a finishing pad up to a medium cut foam pad and get a great finish. So even by hand do a test spot with the least aggressive combo and work your way up.

When polishing by hand I can see a benefit with useing a non-diminishing abrasive polish like most Meguiars polishes is. As you don't need to be breaking them down as with a diminishing polish. Maybe Meguiars Polish and Compound could be a versitale hand polishing combo. I like Sonax EX 04-06 and Perfect Finish as polish and Sonax Cut & Finish as medium cut polish and Sonax Cutmax as compound. Don't know if they are user friendly as a hand polishing though. But on a DA polisher they are great and work great on soft finicky paints to hard paints. They are diminishing abrasives in them so need to be working them good. The benefit with most diminishing abrasives now days is they work quite fast. So they could work good with hand polishing too.

Is it a budget thing or are you afraid of useing a polisher or something else?

There is coming great options on cordless polishers now. Flex is leading in this category so far I think with free spinning DA polisher and soon the vrg3401 aka the CBeast is coming too.

 

[392hemi]

Also I think you are in the suburbs. Find a good touchless wash with no brushes or clothes. And buy a rinseless/waterless wash kit and do that.

I had a brand new white car and owned it for 4 years. Always hand washed by me. The day I went to trade it in because my new car had arrived, I decided to run it through a soft cloth automatic wash because it was dirty. I inspected the paint and that one wash had horribly swirled and marred the swirl free finish I maintained meticulously for 4 years. Case in point, that 5 min wash destroyed the paint to my eyes. To the dealership, they didnt even notice as the car was perfect inside and out.

I live in an apartment and do rinseless/waterless washes. I'll use 20 to 25 microfiber cloths to wash my car. I'd rather wash microfiber than polish paint lol.

There was just a post about polishes for Tesla since it appears to be soft. A polisher will save you ALOT of time. Having polished by hand before, I would never again. Machine all the way!

 

[acuRAS82]

I like the PBMG swirl removers. I also like Mckees. I haven’t had a reason to switch as I have plenty of these, but whenever that time comes I would probably switch back to HD/3D.

 

[soapboxpreacher]

Other than Megs 3 and 1 are there any other removers that can be done by hand without hating yourself in the morning?

 

[conman1395]

Other than Megs 3 and 1 are there any other removers that can be done by hand without hating yourself in the morning?

I truly don't think there's a single swirl remover that can be used by hand without hating yourself within 2 hours. The work I can do in two hours by hand is about most of a hood (and I'm not doing it well at that pace either). I could honestly nearly polish a whole car if I had my DA. I've definitely done swirl removal with an AIO with in 2.5 hours. Also the whole idea that a DA will cut more than by hand is actually incorrect. When I have super deep scratches, I usually tackle them with a small cutting pad, an aggressive compound (105 usually for hand-work) and use the force of my hand. It's hard to apply even pressure, even through five fingers. If you're talking about your white Tesla, then yeah that paint will be a pain because that stuff is very, very, very hard to finish out. You actually won't come close to the "gentleness" of a jeweling polish and a DA using your hand. I honestly don't know how long it'd take me to do a whole car by hand, but I'd guess probably 100 hours or so. So no, you'll hate yourself for multiple mornings.

Your easiest solution if you're hesitant to use a DA is find an easy glaze to use by hand.

 

[TTQ B4U]

Other than Megs 3 and 1 are there any other removers that can be done by hand without hating yourself in the morning?

Buy a polisher and thank us later. Basic swirls will be tackled effectively with just about any decent polish. What are your plans for the final protection product, wax, sealant, coating? I do coatings so CarPro Essence and Cquartz are solid go-to products. Meg's Ultimate polish is a great OTC product to knock out swirls too.

 

[Desertnate]

I agree with the others who say in order to really remove the swirls and get a good, even result you'll need a DA. It will also dramatically reduce the lenght of time to do the work.

The type of product for me all depends on the vehicle's paint. On my Japanese cars, a finishing polish on a medium cut polishing pad works great for removing swirls. On hard German paint I again go with a medium polishing pad, but will step down to a compound, though I have used the WG Swirl Remover with success as well. It just took a bit more work.

 

[soapboxpreacher]

Buy a polisher and thank us later. Basic swirls will be tackled effectively with just about any decent polish. What are your plans for the final protection product, wax, sealant, coating? I do coatings so CarPro Essence and Cquartz are solid go-to products. Meg's Ultimate polish is a great OTC product to knock out swirls too.

Was afraid of that. I do worry on using one that is my issue.

 

[acuRAS82]

Was afraid of that. I do worry on using one that is my issue.

It’s something that sounds scarier than it is. Once you go at it you will never look back. Just keep the polisher moving. Don’t do this by hand, it’s brutal and by hand is what you should be afraid of. The thought scares me anyways.

 

[Desertnate]

Was afraid of that. I do worry on using one that is my issue.

If you are careful and don't go too agressive, the risk is actually pretty low.

The first time out, I went very gentle on the car and actually didn't get the level of correction I wanted, but I learned a lot about handling the polisher, when to swap out pads, applying the right amount of polish etc. The best part was the car still looked much better, so I felt successfull in the work performed. Each time since, my skills and knowledge has improved.

The Meguiars Ultimate polish recommended is a great starting point. It's pretty mild, easy to use, cheap, readily available in stores, and knocks out swirls with good results on soft paint. For me it was the "gateway polish" to exploring other polishes. Combine it with a mild to medium polishing pad and you should be able to safely remove swirls with pretty low risk to your vehicle. If you want to lessen the risk further, try an AIO product like 3D Speed, Griot's One Step Sealant, or others sold here. The abrasives will be a bit more mild and they add protection at the same time. The only negative is you can't put a coating over the top of them.

I'd also encurage you to watch some of Mike Phillips video's. I don't remember if he has one for beginners using a DA polisher, but just watch him demo just about any AIO or polish. He always uses the same technique when polishing out a surface. I'm sure there are other's who have done good video's, I just happened to learn from Mike's.

 

[SWETM]

You can practice with the polisher if going that way. My first polishing was on my Weber grill with Ultima Paint Prep Plus LOL. Then I got a scrap panel to practice on with both compound and polish. When polishing the first car I started at the flat bigger panels. And double masking taped all of that I thought could be a risk to pump in to or polishing over. Also left a good safety zone to the edges and such. Just make your time to get the job done. As even if you use a polisher it's time consuming to be doing. And think the time it takes to be doing it by hand. You can make it look good from a distance with hand polishing. But to do correction on an already nice paint is more of a challenge by hand. You can get very aggressive with hand polishing if wanted and also be polishing through the clearcoat if you are not thinking of what you are doing. So sometimes it's even more safe to use a polisher than polishing by hand. The ability to get an awesome finish is also better from a polisher and the right combo.

But understand it's scary in the beginning. A DA is a very safe to use when you follow the guidelines you get on a forum like this. Do a test with hand polishing a panel to your satisfaction and see how it works for you. A door or any side panel don't stand out so much. Then you get a feel of the labor you would be putting in and also how the results are. Just think of that it's as important to do test spots to see what you get and what combo that works on your paint. Meguiars Ultimate Compound and the polish I think works good to polishing by hand. And most polishes do work by hand too. When rotarys was the standard polisher it was scary. But with DAs and the developing in abrasive technology and have a knowledge about the basics it's very safe to use. And at first use least aggressive combo and make it shine is safer. Going after the deeper scratches with heavy compounding is when you need to be on the safe side and a paint thickness gauge is almost necessary to have to make it a little more safer. And a finishing polish and finishing pad does make your softer paint to be corrected more than a rock hard clearcoat.