Tips for removing swirls by hand with SMA Technology
Hello everyone,
Over the last two days i have been doing a full swirl removal on my truck with my 2 hands, 5 foam applicator pads, SwirlX , Scratch X 2.0, and Ultimate Compound. I am all done with the exterior and just finished cleaning up all my supplies in the garage from my weekend project. It is NOT impossible to remove swirls by hand. I used artificial lighting and the sun as my guide to see if i was actually removing swirls. Both my arms are about to fall off and tomorrow is the interior which is nowhere near as hard as what i have been doing the last two days.
Ultimate Compound Tips
- First off, this is an actual Compound and just because its in the consumer line doesn't mean its not aggressive
- do a test spot first , see if it finishes LSP ready and go from there
- I found that when i did a whole panel with UC that it was too aggressive and i didn't need that strong of a product to apply to the whole truck. I think there would have been a lot of marring if i did.
- work small areas , i would say if your trying to remove swirls then a size of a microfiber would be about right.
- do not try and work too big of areas, if you do then odds are you wont work the product in long enough or remove any swirls and possibly create more problems
- use a yellow foam applicator pad, i find there better than the blue ones for defect/swirl removal
Swirl X Tips: This is the product i chose to apply to the entire truck and even applied it twice on some panels. It took 2 days just to do the whole truck with Swirl X because i wanted those light swirls i had in my truck gone. I took my time and i got a swirl free finish
- don't overuse product, a little goes a long way in a small area.
- clean your foam wax pad often
- if you don't clean your foam wax pad often then simply grab another one
- this product is just right for removing swirls and i think is the most effective for that specific problem
I didn't experience any marring when i viewed the truck in the sunlight
- if your hand gets tired, then go back and forth between both your hands.
General tips for working by hand
- dedicate a whole weekend, or predict how long it will take, take into account size of car and severity of swirls.
- don't give up, if you work small areas and work the product in properly then you will remove at least some swirls, keep in mind SwirlX is more aggressive than M83!
- take advantage of the SMAT technology and understand how they are different than diminishing abrasives
- sometimes it takes more than one pass
- if one hand gets tired then switch to the other.
- take a break after every panel or so and get something to eat or drink. I found that closing my eyes relaxed me
- take your time
- if you rush then your results wont be as good as you expect them to be
- use the sun, artificial lighting doesn't show everything
- if your car is small enough then it may not take as long as it does for larger vehicles.
- evaluate how bad your swirls are. In my case they were mild.
My Personal Experience:
Keep in mind this is just my personal experience on a Chevy Silverado, these 3 new swirl and scratch removers wont perform the exact same way on every single car. So for example: UC may finish LSP ready and it may not, for me it didn't, which is okay. So what did work for me for me was SwirlX. If i would have been in a big hurry and used UC on the whole truck and used it improperly, well things wouldn't have went okay. But having more than one product at your disposal always helps and in my case was kinda a lifesaver.
hopefully this will help others as well and be sure to keep in mind this is just my personal experience and not any official answer from Meguiar's
Thanks for reading
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Originally Posted by Carfire
