I recently had my car painted and the body shop applied a glaze to the paint before I picked it up, but left some small scratches / swirls on the paint. The headlights were also scratched up a bit. After waiting for the paint to fully cure per body shops instructions, I finally went to work to try and get the paint & headlights corrected. This was my first time detailing, but with the help of DetailedImage and DetailersDomain, I was able to get some pretty good results. I wanted to try the lightest polish / pads / product I could and try to achieve some good results since the paint was new and the scratches / swirls were not deep or major. This was a 2 day process for me, as I washed & dried the car, clayed the paint, polished, and sealed the paint the first day. The next day, I applied the coat of wax, and finished the minor details like the rims, tire shine, etc.

Main Materials used:

Chemical Guys Citrus Wash & Gloss
2 Adams Professional Car Wash Pads
2 Adams Great White Microfiber Drying Towel
Adams Detailing Clay & Detail Spray
Meguiars Endurance High Gloss Tire Shine
Porter Cable 7424XP
3M Blue Painters Tape
Lake Country Green Very Light Cutting Pad
Lake Country Blue Fine Finishing Pad
Menzerna PO85RD Micro Finish
3 Adams Double Soft MicroFiber Towels
2 Adams Single Soft MicroFiber Towels
Menzerna Power Lock Polymer Sealant
Dodo Juice Supernatural Wax



Pictures of the swirls/scratches. The whole car was covered in this:








Finished Results:

 

Very nice work

 

Beautiful job, man! I work at a bodyshop, and yes, unfortunately a new paint job can't look its best until a number of weeks after it's done. No matter how clean and soft the materials we use to wash/buff a freshly painted surface, swirl marks are inevitable. Most bodyshops (ours included) will apply a glaze to cover it up, but we always recommend a professional wax after 6-7 weeks of curing for the final product.

 

Btw that's the cleanest garage of all time.

 

Thanks for the kind words. The garage is actually kinda messy, just looks clean lol.

 

love that color, nice!!

 

Same here! Metallic black is one of my favorites. Good work on the paint correction.

 

teach me your ways!

 

How much did the body shop charge you for that work?

 

It was an insurance job. My car was keyed up pretty badly in front of my house, so decided to change from OB to something a little different. The color is found on BMW's. Also had the mirror bases painted, CF hood & trunk clear coated, and a couple of other minor things. Everything was done for around $6k

 

Looks awesome, very nice work, especially if that was your first time. If you have any day time shots of the full car that would be great, love the hood!

Greg @ DI

 

Very nice!

 

amazing!

 

looks awesome, man... that's exactly the type of black paint I wanted to do to my car, too!

 

Wow, super work. +1 for the day/ outside shots.