Car with lots of swirl marks! help!

[Alexandre]

I picked a red car with lots of swirls marks/holograms/haze and did two test spots:

1 - #205 twice, working for like 2 minutes each time, it removed 80% of the swirl marks.

2 - M83 for like one minute , once, going to the #205 next and working for 2 minutes once, it removed like 90% of the swirl marks.

The question is, ho many times can I use the #205 in the same spot? Is two minutes too long? Do I need to do only circular movements or can I do vertical and horizontal movements as well? Oh and I don' t know if I was a little afraid of working much with M83 since it is 6/10.

PS: The haze and holograms were all gone with the #205

[Murr1525]

Re: Car with lots of swirl marks! help!

By hand, DA, PC, etc?

[Alexandre]

Re: Car with lots of swirl marks! help!

By hand!!

[Murr1525]

Re: Car with lots of swirl marks! help!

Working by hand tends to knock down the agressivenes a bit, unless you were to like really focus on one spot and dig your finger into the paint.

You can certainly apply #83 or #205 multiple times by hand.

[Alexandre]

Re: Car with lots of swirl marks! help!

But how much time can I work the product before wipe it off?

[Murr1525]

Re: Car with lots of swirl marks! help!

Even by machine #205 is supposed to have quite a long work time. If you keep your area small, like 1 foot square at a time, a minute or so would be ok, if the product is staying wet.

Sounds like you got good results from relatively mild products, so sounds good to me.

[Alexandre]

Re: Car with lots of swirl marks! help!

Even by machine #205 is supposed to have quite a long work time. If you keep your area small, like 1 foot square at a time, a minute or so would be ok, if the product is staying wet.

Sounds like you got good results from relatively mild products, so sounds good to me.

The big problem is M83, it is thicker than #205 and I get a little afraid of working it on the surface. Do you think I can get the same results using this combination (M83/#205) than if I had Swirl X? Is Swirl X that good? I am thinking about importing it but it is too expensive, I' d like to know if it d' be a big step ahead.

[Murr1525]

Re: Car with lots of swirl marks! help!

Hard to say. They are in the ballpark of each other, with SwirlX made more for hand use.

Every paint is different, so SwirlX may work better on this car, and not the next car.

I wouldnt worry about it really.

The #83 being thicker doesnt mean anything... just work it around the area, it will kind of spread out to the sides, pull it back in, work it in, etc. #83 will break down, unlike #205/SwrlX, so at some point it should go more clear than creamy. You would remove it when greasy/clear.

[Alexandre]

Re: Car with lots of swirl marks! help!

Hard to say. They are in the ballpark of each other, with SwirlX made more for hand use.

Every paint is different, so SwirlX may work better on this car, and not the next car.

I wouldnt worry about it really.

The #83 being thicker doesnt mean anything... just work it around the area, it will kind of spread out to the sides, pull it back in, work it in, etc. #83 will break down, unlike #205/SwrlX, so at some point it should go more clear than creamy. You would remove it when greasy/clear.

I see, I guess I' ve been wiping it off being still very creamy. And Murr, can I move my hands in vertical/horizontal lines from time to time? Or just into circles?

[yalerd]

Re: Car with lots of swirl marks! help!

I see, I guess I' ve been wiping it off being still very creamy. And Murr, can I move my hands in vertical/horizontal lines from time to time? Or just into circles?

Both.
I usually use one direction movement because I think it's less exhausting for me and use circular movements to spread product that is in the edges of my working area and continue working the product against the surface.

[Alexandre]

Re: Car with lots of swirl marks! help!

Now I understand when Michael said "it takes more muscle". The buffing cycle on 205 is really insane! O.O

[Mary S]

Re: Car with lots of swirl marks! help!

This link might be helpful Order of Aggressiveness of Consumer Products.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Car with lots of swirl marks! help!

The question is, ho many times can I use the #205 in the same spot? Is two minutes too long? Do I need to do only circular movements or can I do vertical and horizontal movements as well? Oh and I don' t know if I was a little afraid of working much with M83 since it is 6/10.

Here's the important thing to keep in mind when working with any product by hand: Swirl marks are extremely shallow, so if you are not removing them then you are not removing any real amount of paint either. If you hand buffed for 3 hours and they were still there, then you still haven't taken off any paint! (Yes, that is a wild exaggeration just to prove the basic point - if you aren't removing swirls, you aren't removing paint) This holds true whether you're using a very mild product, like Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner, or something very aggressive, like M105 Ultra Cut Compound.

Of course, once the swirls are gone you want to stop buffing, whether applying by hand or machine. Other than, perhaps, a bit of finish refining to remove any potential haze caused by an aggressive product or pad, but that's a different scenario altogether.