Removing swirls, scratches and water spots

[Mike Phillips]

What it means to remove swirls, scratches and water spots out of automotive clear coats

One of the most common problems people want to solve when it comes to improving the appearance of their car's finish is to remove swirls, scratches and water spot etchings out of their car's clear coat finish.


Below Photographs Courtesy of MeguiarsOnline.com

Swirls



Scratches



Water Spots



In order to remove any type of below surface defect out of a clear coat finish you need to carefully remove small amounts of paint surrounding the defect, (or defects), until the surface is uniformly level or flat. Of course some defects may be too deep to remove safely and in these situations you can often time improve the defect but not completely remove the defect.

In other words, in order to remove a scratch out of an automotive clear coat you must remove enough paint surrounding the scratch until the upper most portions of the surface are level with or equal to the lowest depths of the scratch or defect you're trying to remove.


Does that make sense?


The idea being, you don't really remove a scratch, you remove the paint surrounding a scratch.


The problem with removing below surface defects like swirls and scratches is whether or not you have enough film-build or paint thickness to safely remove the defect completely without going through the clear coat and exposing the basecoat also called color coat. Generally speaking, factory clear coats are thin so you need to be careful and take the cautious approach of using the least aggressive product to get the job done.

If you remove too much paint and expose the underlying color coat the only way to fix the problem is to have the affected area repainted. The color coat is usually dull as it gets its gloss from the clear layer of paint.


Products Mentioned
Swirl Removers, Compounds and Polishes
Buffers, Polishers and Pads
Applicator pads for working by hand


Further Reading
Tips & Techniques for using the Porter Cable 7424XP
The Final Wipe
2008 Lexus IS 250 - Pinnacle Detail


Resources
Autogeek Online Detailing Forum
Autogeek Online Store