medium swirl mark remover?

[andrew300]

hey my girlfriend just got a slightly used 03 eclipse gts vert and wants me to detail it for her. it is a metallic paint with clear coat similar to graphite. it has medium swirl marks everywhere and was wondering what was the best way to remove them. i am not using a buffer, i am doing everything by hand. my plan was to wash the car throughly and then use dawn to remove all previous wax, then wash again, then clay, wash, swirl remover (dont know which one to use) and then do an entire zaino job as thats the products that i have. i need something that will remove them rather than cover them as zaino will just remove what i put on before. i have zaino swirl remover but from what i know, it isnt that great. please let me know what i should do to try to get these swirl marks out. also do you guys recomend using a carranuba wax over the zaino sealant for a wetter look? please inform me as i am new and will continue to browse the forum for more answers and tips.

[imported_BretFraz]

:welcome to Autopia



1st off, I think you`re doing wayyyyy too much washing. I mean, you`re plan starts off with 3 straight washes. Why? Doesn`t make sense.



Wash ONCE! You can use Dawn if you want to but any good car shampoo is fine. Claying comes after washing. You can wash again after claying but that`s not necessary. Any clay residue left on the paint will be removed by the paint polishing.



As for polishes, a couple good moderate polishes are Meguiars DACP or Einszett Paint Polish. Both start out moderately aggressive but buffer down to a mild polish.



After polishing you can either rewash the car to remove polish residue or wipe it down with a mix of rubbing alcohol and water from a spray bottle. The reason you do this is to ensure a perfectly clean surface for Zaino to bond to.



At this point your paint should be polished and looking great so all you need to do is protect it. Either Z5 or Z2 will work fine here. Z5 fills in very minor swirls while Z2 is a little more reflective/glossy looking. Really, its a toss up as to which one to use. If you have Z5 already, definitely use it. It`s a great product.



The only reason to use a wax on top of a sealant is for looks. If you just gotta have that carnauba look on your paint, go ahead and wax. But you certainly don`t need a wax; Zaino is more durable, slicker, and more reflective than any wax on the market so its not like your car is going to shine more with wax on top of Zaino. It`s your call, though.



Keep browsing the forums. Read the articles at the Learn! icon at the top of the page. I`m sure you`ll learn a lot here.

[92MX83]

Manawar, you say you`re not using a buffer. Expect to use mucho elbow grease trying to get rid of the swirls. I fear that if you`re as new to detailing as you say, you may even despair and *give up*, but I hope this doesn`t happen. If you can afford the entire Zaino system, you should be able to afford a buffer. There`s no magic hand-applied chemical that you can just wipe on, wipe off and expect the swirls to go away permanently. It`ll take some effort.



Best of luck to you, and like bretfraz says, learn learn learn.

[oaevo8u]

Man you have to get a buffer...I thought I could remove swirls by hand and I was dead wrong...I spent 12 hours on my car and was severly dissapointed..so dissapointed that I went and bought a pc and now my paint looks alomst 90% better. GOOD LUCK

[White95Max]

Originally posted by oaevo8u

Man you have to get a buffer...I thought I could remove swirls by hand and I was dead wrong...I spent 12 hours on my car and was severly dissapointed..so dissapointed that I went and bought a pc and now my paint looks alomst 90% better. GOOD LUCK



Ditto...I tried to remove some light swirls on my car with #9. I spent about an hour on just the trunk lid and spoiler, and didn`t even get rid of them completely.

The next day I ordered a PC, and my car looks much better now. Nearly all scratches and swirls are gone from the entire car after ~1.5 hrs of polishing. My arms are much happier as well. :)

[andrew300]

haha yeah i just finished trying to get the swirls out with the meguiars #9. it failed. i think i am going to go to lowes and get one of the buffers. which pad should i use with the meguiars #9? any tips on using the buffer as i heard you can mess it up badly if you dont use it right (thats what turned me away from it) i will look for more info on this. also does the #9 remove the swirls or cover them because i am sure the zaino will take all of that off. thanks you guys are a lot of help.

[andrew300]

also what things will i need to get? will it come with everything or will i have to buy some other things? i want soft pads that wont harm anything. i guess i need them for removing the swirls with the #9 and buffing it out. maybe for applying zaino and even wax. please give me a list of what i need so i can go get them tomorrow. thanks.

[scottabir]

I dont know if you can find them locally or not but here is what *I* think you should get. 1 cutting pad, 1 polishing pad, 1 finishing pad. This is the bare minimum obviously but should get you through a detail sesion. The pad you can clean off during use and keep going...just dont mix products with it.

Yuo might be able to find a megs distributor in your area, they should carry their foam pads.

You will probably need to order a velcro backing plate if you want to use the velcro system (obviously).I purchased mine online so I dont know what all comes with it from lowes.

[andrew300]

ok so i am going to order the pc 7424. these are the things i should get, correct me if i am wrong. the 5inch velcro backing pad, a couple flat 6 inch foam pads. do i need to get a counterweight? there are light swirls in the paint so do you think using a coat of meguiars #9 with a foam pad will get most out? or do i need to use a cutting pad with a stronger polish? thanks.

[cwcad]

hello, not to tell you what to do but here is what i did. i used the sponsors of this forum and went to there site and bought a package that included all the pads that you will need to do your car short of a heavily oxidized car from the seventies. i bought them and did over 12 complete details witht the pads that i got from my kit. the site i got the package from gave me more than enough info to do the job and continued with advice as i learned because i kept calling and emailing until i got a shine that was the way that i wanted it. just remember that surface preparataion is most important. GOOD LUCK!

[imported_pugoman]

Getting a PC will make such a difference - I don`t even bother wasting my time trying to tackle paint defects by hand anymore.



If you have light to medium swirls, then you`re gonna need something a bit more aggressive that #9.



Try Megs #80 Speed Glaze on a polishing pad. If that doesn`t do the trick then try Megs DACP on a polishing pad. If that doesn`t work, then you`ve got more than light to medium swirls! You may find yourself using a cutting pad with DACP to get rid of them. Don`t be scared to use a cutting pad if needs be.

[scottabir]

No you dont need to get the other counterweight. That is a matter of opinion. Some people say it makes a difference with vibration, some people say it doesnt do anything at all.

#9 is a good follow up product after DACP, but I do not like it for removing defects. #80 is a good recommendation. If you want to try out something other than Megs you can try the 1z line of polishes, they are very user friendly. So are PB`s SSR line.