Swirl marks on fresh paint?!?!?!

[MagnumMike]

Ok here is the deal. I recently had the driver side of my car painted. When I picked my car up it was covered in swirl marks from their buffer. Now I know the guy so I didn't make a big deal about it, especially since I got a good deal on the paint job. He told me about the swirl marks before I left and suggested that I use Meguairs #9 or #7 to help get rid of the swirl marks. I just wanted to make sure that these products were the right ones for my situation. I am also curious if it would be ok to use Ultimate Compound to get rid of the swirls or is that too harsh or unsafe for fresh paint. When I say fresh paint I mean less than 1 week old.

Here is a pic as it sits today. It looks fine when the sun is not directly on it, but put it in the sun and there is buffing marks everywhere. I will try and get a pic in the sun tomorrow.



Sorry for all the bugs on the bumper. It needs a bath...lol

[ffboy]

Re: Swirl marks on fresh paint?!?!?!

#7 has no cutting power, maybe the guy who painted and buffed the paint simply buffed the paint with a wool pad without any further finishing steps. He should be the one to do that, not you. It normally happens. the paint initially looks good for a few days, then after a couple of washes holograms holograms.

[Murr1525]

Re: Swirl marks on fresh paint?!?!?!

9, #80, SwirlX are all mild cleaner/polishes that you could consider.

As it is a fresh repaint, it will likely be very soft, and get a little harder over time, but usually still softer than original. So you cna work on it now, and see what happens, or if it seems extremely soft, wait a little longer.

Usually we would recommend ColorX if the paint was extremely soft, but you wont want that yet for fresh paint.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Swirl marks on fresh paint?!?!?!

The pictures don't show the defects you mention but that's down to the lighting more than anything, we suspect. M07, as mentioned, won't actually get rid of the swirls and holograms created by the body shop, but it will do a decent job of hiding them. That's all fine and well, and you can do that by hand tomorrow if you like, but the hiding effect won't last more than a couple of months (maybe) and all the defects will be visible again. Obviously you want to get rid of them, and it's actually pretty easy to do, and safe to do, too, as long as you do it right.

If you have a DA buffer we'd recommend some M205 Ultra Finishing Polish with a W8207 polishing pad or W9207 finishing pad and you should be able to permanently eradicate the swirls and holograms left by the body shop very easily. M205 is completely safe to use on this fresh paint so that's not a worry at all. What you don't want to do quite yet, however, is wax the finish. Give that 60 to 90 days from the day it was painted, unless the body shop tells you otherwise.

[MagnumMike]

Re: Swirl marks on fresh paint?!?!?!

Thanks for the quick responses. I am going to give the 205 a try. I'll let you know how it turns out.

[MagnumMike]

Re: Swirl marks on fresh paint?!?!?!

The 205 worked like a charm.. No more swirl marks!!!

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Swirl marks on fresh paint?!?!?!

The 205 worked like a charm.. No more swirl marks!!!

We hate to say we told you so, but...............


Nice work, Mike, and it was probably pretty easy, too, wasn't it?