What is a good swirl cover up?

[Detaillab]

Currently we have #66 which does cover some light swirls, but when we talk about how paint shops put a "glaze" to covor up thier shoddy work and I want to know what will cover swirls. I don't want to cover up bad work, but rather would like to offer this as a lower cost temporary solution for those that cannot affor a full buff-out right away.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: What is a good swirl cover up?

Historically #7 was abused by body shops to mask their shoddy work but any of our pure polishes will wipe on and act to fill-in hairline swirls and scratches. Note this works better with single stage paints, it's pretty hard to mask or hide swirls on clear coats with a pure polish to any level that the problem goes away.

This is why when clear coat finishes were introduced the industry discovered they had to change the way they did things in order to make their customers accept their work.

Meguiar's had been offering the right products since cars have been around that get the job done the right way, by this we mean instead of coarse abrasive compounds, (the industry standard for the first 70 to 80 years of automobile history), we offered paint cleaners that used diminishing abrasives, this would be

• M01 Medium Cut Cleaner
• M02 Fine Cut Cleaner
• M04 Heavy Cut Cleaner

And starting in 1965 we introduced the foam pad which enabled people in the body shop industry and the detail industry to get away from wool cutting and finishing pads as the fibers themselves instill swirls. (Add a compound to a fiber pad and you have 2 things that cut and swirl paint).

Then in 1986 or 1987 Meguiar's introduced our first cleaner/polish M09 Swirl Remover. This was an in-between product, part paint cleaner and part pure polish, it was product idea to bridge the gap between products that were too aggressive for final polishing and products that offered no cleaning ability at all. Because clear coat paints were generally speaking harder than traditional paints and because it was so much easier for our eyes to see swirls in the finish, a new product was needed and thus the introduction of a new product catagory... cleaner/polishes.


Point being that besides Meguiar's, (that we know of), historically, (before the 1980's), the only other options for sanding and buffing clear coat paints were compounds that used abrasives that didn't break down and wool pads and because these types of products left horrible swirls in all paints but were more easily seen in clear coat paints, the industry had to change and most suppliers to the body shop industry have now brought out products like Meguiar's, that is in the late 80's and early 90's companies started introducing their own version of Meguiar's foam pad and compounds that didn't rely on sharp, course abrasives.

If you have customer's that don't want swirls in their clear coat finish then educate them on,

* How clear coat paints work and that generally speaking then tend to be harder than traditional single stage paints.

* Even though they are harder they still scratch and swirl easily

* Because they're harder it's harder for them, or as a detailer for you, to remove them.

* Even if you remove them, if the car is a daily driver and they're not careful with how they wash and maintain the paint the swirls will just be re-instilled.

* If they want the swirls removed it will require more time, labor and specialized products applied by a skilled craftsman not just anyone who can wipe on and off a product.


Besides that, if they don't want a show car finish on a daily driver and they don't want to pay for a show car finish on a daily driver then the next best idea or approach is exactly what you're doing and that's using a cleaner/wax, (a one step product), to clean the paint, make it shiny, reduce the visibility of swirls and leave a coating of protection behind on the paint.


Just trying to help you correctly solve your customer's problems...

[Detaillab]

Re: What is a good swirl cover up?

Absolutly, and we really get dramatic results with #66. (and I have gotten fabulous results with cleaner wax, DC1, ScratchX, and ColorX) There are just so many people out there who buy black cars and especially trucks, trash the paint job, then ask me to fix it. I educate them, and they appreciate it, but more often than not don't care enough to let me remove the swirls and defects. (even though I really want to) So I wondered if there was a better looking temporary solution (understanding and explaining to the customer that it will last a few washes max). I guess I will try some pure polish, but in my experience, like you said, it will really not cover up everything on these modern finishes. Since I am not trying to cover up my micro-marring mistakes, or buffer swirls which are pretty light, but rather several years of black paint that was taken care of poorly. It's too bad, but all too often it is not worth the money to them.

[Murr1525]

Re: What is a good swirl cover up?

In theory, a coat of #66 should be faster to apply than a coat of #7, etc and a coat of wax, so just seeing if people want a coat of wax on their car should get you to be able to use #66? Even if you dont work it in extra well.

I am not a shop expert, but you should be able to charge a certain amount for the time it takes in applying one coat of whatever, no matter what it does?