Hey gang,

I washed my black coupe the other day and it looked great- then I saw it in teh sun later that day and I didn't even think it was my car- its covered with swirl marks and scratches. I took it to a detail shop and they want to charge me $150 to compiund it, remove the swirl marks, and then wax it. I told them forget it and I would try to do somethign myself. When I wash it- I always wash it in the shade under my car-port and I clean it from top to bottom. I think I have scratched it by using a shammy- or however you spell it. But I have used this on my other black car in the past and it hasn't ruined my pain job like it did my G35. It looks awfull- any suggestions on what I should do to get the swirl marks and scratches out? Some people say to use 3M, others say Mothers, and others say use Nu-finish. What works best on black cars thats relativily easy to do by myself. Also how do you guys dry off yoru cars? Use cotten towels?

2003 Black/Willow Coupe- Aero/Sport/Prem

 

niko,

$150 isn't bad, the prob is, they are going to use compound. if you want to do it yourself, it may end up costing around that much, perhaps even more. i recently ended up getting a porter cable 7424 for that exact purpose. in the end i ended up spending around $300 for materials. the difference is, i've done my car and a couple of my friends cars. the 3m stuff will work, as will meguiars. but doing it by hand will be really difficult. you may want to check out autopia.com for some more info.

 

TK is right.. I had a grip of swirls on my E55 (got it used, can't afford a new one). I bought a portal cable, the correct pads, and the polish. You will end paying more than $150. I used DAPC professional grade polish, then used Swirl 2.0, Dawn washed, then Zainos. I did it twice, and I will never ever want to do it again.

G35C 6MT / AMG E55

 

Actually, I've noticed that the best time to find swirls scratches is at night under a street light, or in your garage if its poorly lit. I have a porter cable and polishing compound. My coupe is pretty beat up, so I'm gonna spend one good weekend to get it prepped for the winter.

---------------------------------
http://www.anythingbox.net

 

Thanks for the posts. Not sure if I want to try to compound the car myself. I was thinking of maybe getting the 3M swirl mark remover for dark colored cars- I believe this has a polish in it as well. Then after doing that just wax it and see how it looks. If it's decent then I will try to keep up with it- if not then I may bring it in for them to compound at the detail shop. I'm just concerned about the pain job- I have a black 2001 Nissan Maxima and it doesn't have nearly as many scratches or swirl marks as the G- plus the paint just looks deeper on the Maxima. I wonder if they sprayed less coats on it to keep the costs down???

2003 Black/Willow Coupe- Aero/Sport/Prem

 

I'm gonna wait until my black sedan gets unbearably swirled before I go the pro or porter cable route. The 3M Swirl Mark Remover for black cars won't do much, and it is a light polish with mostly swirl mark "filler" that is removed with wax/zaino/whatever. CG is bad for filling swirl marks, and from what I hear so is Zaino. Klasse seems to fill them up nicely, in fact, my swirls were gone completely after using the AIO and SG, although the stuff doesn't last as long as zaino, nor is it as durable. Do some reading on autopia, and I'm sure you'll have a porter cable in a few weeks That site make you want to be **** about your car

Drew
2003 G35 Sedan 6MT / Black / Graphite / Aero

 

niko

if you choose to to the 3m smr by hand, you need to make sure you really work it in. i made the mistake of doing it by hand a few months ago. what happened was that i didn't work it in long enough, and it left a haze of scratch marks. you could only see them in the right lighting, but they were still there. you are supposed to keep going until it breaks down into a fine powder.

if you really mean to try and fix these yourself, then you may as well spend the money and get the porter cable and the pads to go w/ it, otherwise wait. if you insist on doing it by hand, do yourself a favor and head over to autopia and search the forums for tips on doing it by hand. if you're going to do it, you may as well do it right. good luck

 

I found my black coupe having swirl marks all over the place on the very first night. They can be seen under flash light...so does everything else! Anyway i've tried Zymol wax and CG (it didn't do much). However Zymol kinda worked since it made them less obvious...IMO. I dunno about any other products tho. Good luck.

2004 G35 Coupe 5AT
Black/Graphite Ltr
Tire Pkg

 

To be honest, $150 is not a whole lot of money for the kind of work a professional detail shop provides. They will be removing most of the scratches off of your car, which will take approximately 3hrs to complete. If you try to use some of the aftermarket products w/o the proper machinery and technique, you may end up putting more scratches on the vehicle. In addition, many of the chemicals that you could purchase at Kragens are glazes that only hides the scratches temporarily. After a few washes, it's going to come back. We charge $230 for that kind of work, so whichever shop you spoke w/ is actually doing it for pretty cheap.

 

i think the price is fine. it's the fact that they will be using compound to remove them is what bothers me.

 

Niko if you really want to do it yourself, here is the procedure I used from a benz site. It's pretty much the same procedure in removing swirls from other forums.

A lot of people have been asking me lately how to buff swirl marks out of the paint using a random orbital buffer(Porter cable 7336SP). I only recommend using this buffer or a similar RANDOM ORBITAL buffer, do not use a rotary, there is too much risk involved for a beginner. Also I do not guarantee perfect results, perfect results comes with practice from these basic instruction that i can provide you. This is how I do all the cars I do and I find it is the technique that works best for me. I suggest playing around a little bit and experiment (dont forget to post your results!) Here are the instructions for a car with a fair amount of swirl marks.

I recommend getting a porter cable 7336SP from your local lowes and buying the porter cable pad accessory kit from www.properautocare.com Also try and find a local body shop supply store that carries meguiars professional line of products. I highly recommend their Dual Action cleaner polish (#83). It is a fairly aggressive polish, excellent at removing swirls and is very easy to use, especially for a beginner.

1) I would use the wool pad that comes in the kit(if u have a lot of swirls) and make 4 dime sized drops of the product around the pad and rub it around a 2ft by 2ft section while the machine is off. (I actually suggest that you try the yellow pad first, you want to try and use the least aggresive route to removing swirls as possible, most automotive paint finishes are extremely thin so be careful!)

2)Go to the top left corner of the section, set the machine speed to 5 and start it pushing down with about 10 pounds of pressure. go side to side until you reach the bottom right corner and then start going up and down(over lap the passes of the buffer, just like mowing the lawn) still with 10 pounds of pressure until you reach the top left corner again.

3)Now lighten up pressure and keep repeating this until u see the product has almost completely buffed out (dissapeared). Now turn the machine off and wipe off the excess residue with a quality microfiber towel.

Tips: Remember to let off on pressure around edges and tops of the fender as the paint is usually thinner in these areas. Also avoid crossing body gaps with pressure, or you will get a lot of splatter. I also recommend taping off rubber/plastic trim unless u are really skilled at avoid the trim(the machine does vibrate all over the place). After u have used the dual action cleaner polish with a wool pad, I would follow up with meguiars #9 2.0 swirl remover to remove any swirls left behind or hazing created by incompletely buffing out the product. This haze is especially noticeable on a black car. Work this swirl remover in the same way as the DACP but use the white pad that comes in the kit, not the wool or yellow pad. This should leave u with a near perfect finish, dont expect all the swirls gone but a good amount of them will dissapear and the others will be diminshed. Then dawn wash the vehicle if you plan on going the Zaino route or Klasse to remove gloss enhancers and polishing oils left behind by the polish or just top it with your favorite carnuaba wax. If you have any further questions dont be afraid to ask!

I would like to thank Steve at the Guru Reports (www.gurureports.org) for helping me with this technique.

G35C 6MT / AMG E55

 

Niko,

even after detailing and removing your swirls, they will come back. Trust me, it's the price you get for owning a black car. I have a black coupe myself with swirls. I just use zymol to hide them although they still, just concealed by the wax.

-wicked
-Black/Black G35 coupe

 

it's possible to keep swirls from returning. you just have to be very diligent about what you use to touch the finish. this is my 3rd black car. sure there are swirls, some put by me, most put by the dealer. i've removed the light one's that i've put in. and you'd better believe that' i'm going to make sure no one puts anymore in.

 

I beleive it is possible, but it is very hard. On a difficulty scale of 1 - 10, I rate it a 10. It will become a obsession to keep your car swirless. That's why after my 3rd black car, I opted for a silver car. Black is still my favorite color though. It makes the car look mean.

G35C 6MT / AMG E55