Removing Swirls

[Pahrump808]

I have a few days off next week and I am planning on spending uninterrupted
times on my car (Black Honda CRV 2012) I understand that the paint is soft
and need to be careful. What are your recommendations? I have a DA with a Foam
pad. I am trying to remove swirls and perfect my shine. When working out the
swirls how much time is to be spent in an area? Thank you for your time and
advice.

After wash
Swirl X ??
Ultimate Polish ??
Wax using M26 or NXT have both

[Murr1525]

Re: Removing Swirls

I would want to have SwirlX and Ult. Compound on my shelf. You would try a test spot of the SwirlX, see if it fixes it. If not, try the UC.

You could look at Ult. Polish instead of SwirlX, they are fairly close to each other. SwirlX is a fraction stronger, but less oils. Ult. Polish is milder, but more oils.

Time is hard to say. You want to move slow, and in both directions. So doing an ~1.5' square, going slow up and down, then slow left to right is maybe 30 seconds or so.

[Pahrump808]

Re: Removing Swirls

If I use SwirlX will I need Ultimate Polish to bring out more shine or will the SwirlX be enough then wax?

[Murr1525]

Re: Removing Swirls

Ehh.... hard to say. Most likely, they Ult. Polish would look better in the end. But is milder, and may not remove the swirls, unless the paint is really soft.

You could use the Ult. Compound, and follow up with Ult. Polish. The uC may leave more marring, but the Ult. Polish should be able to remove marring.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Removing Swirls

Mat isn't dodging your question - the simple truth is that there is no pat answer here. Paint system vary quite a bit (you yourself mentioned that some evidence points to your CR-V having soft paint) so without being hands on your particular car we can't say with 100% certainty which products will give the best shine. Plus, there's a whole lot more to the mix than just product choice - you say you have a foam pad, but which one? Pad choice can play a big role here as an overly aggressive pad up against very delicate paint can create a lot of marring, regardless of product used. Tool speed is a big variable as well, along with how much pressure is used, how quickly you're moving the tool across the paint, how large an area you're working at a time, etc.

We can give you guidelines and starting points, but in the end it's up to you, the detailer, to make the final decision as to what works best and gets you closest to your personal goals. With that in mind, and assuming you've got a decent polishing pad to work with, we would recommend starting with a test spot using Ultimate Compound with the tool set to speed 5, covering an area no larger than 2' x 2', and working the product in overlapping strokes moving from side to side, then up and down, then repeat both directions. Wipe off the excess product and assess your progress. A little side note here - Honda paint seems to be all over the map when it comes to "hardness" or "softness", much like BMW paint and even Toyota paint for that matter. We've worked on some Hondas with extremely soft and delicate paint, but those have all been last gen Civics and Fits for some reason. Most of the Hondas we've worked on have actually been pretty straightforward to correct.

If you haven't done so already, we highly recommend reading through D/A Buffing 101 - An Introduction to the G110v2 and similar tools and, if need be, The Challenge of Delicate Paint

[Pahrump808]

Re: Removing Swirls

Thanks Mike, great article. Very helpful.