Nicster

Well... I have a phantom black goat..and I noticed that there's swirl marks in the paint. I didnt notice this when I bought the car and now its too late. I thought it was normal til I started looking at other cars. Is there any thing I could do?

BIGBOS

Its the quality paint setup from the factory, buy a good buffer and go to town

Brains

iTrader: (7)

Probably the dealer, mine doesn't have swirls... They do come out pretty easily though, you can do it by hand or use a random orbital buffer with some swirl remover. Follow it up with a nice glaze and wax.

Steveceno

All cars have smirl marks from the first wash and dry. Basically black will show everything and anything. I have a phanton black. Whatever you do dont take an orbitor buffer to the paint it will make it worse than better when the wax wears away. I would suggest you use a glaze.

Brains

iTrader: (7)

If they come back, you didn't do it right...

PiP

That is totally incorrect.
An orbital buffer is one of the best tools for taking out light swirl marks.
Meguiar's even sells a orbital.

You dont get swirls out with wax, you get them out with a polish.

Anyway, on topic, call the dealer and show it to them. Dont let them fix it, but make them give you the money to take it to a REAL detailer.
They will be able to polish them out, then all you have to do is be careful when you wash it.

Nicster

Thanks guys for all the help. I'm going to the dealer on Monday, to see what they could do. BTW, can anyone recommend me any specific products?

Steveceno

When your using an obital and a polish, your basically using fine particalls to remove swirl marks. But the particalls leave swirl marks. Your basically wet sanding the paint but with a finer grit found in the polish. One would use a orbital and polish to remove deep / heavy scratches / swirls caused from years of washing and wiping down the car. The reason why you follow up a polish with a glaze and wax is to hide the damage caused by the orbital.
Here's what I recommend. Purchase 3M 'finesse it' and follow up with 3m Hand glaze. You wont see a thing. If you don't believe me ask your local reputable autobody shop. I bet they will suggest the same thing I did.

Brains

iTrader: (7)

Gee, I own *three* black cars (and one blue).. Any time I've had paint imperfections, I use a random orbital with a very fine rubbing compound, then a Maguires machine glaze, and follow it up with a hand wax. There are *ZERO* swirl marks in my paint. As I said before, if you're ending up with swirl marks you're screwing something up.

sawedoff

iTrader: (3)

When you're through getting the paint cleaned and buffed, something that I recommend is Super Glaze from The Wax Shop. I use it on my 99' Z28 1LE, especially on the black roof and mirrors. The dealer that had the car, didn't care for the car because of what it was. So he kept it off the lot in the weeds. The paint looked every part of the stepchild. Super Glaze really helps keep the paint looking deep and not dried out. I've been using their stuff for over ten years.

http://www.thewaxshop.com/products.asp
http://www.griotsgarage.com/index.jsp

Steveceno

Dont wax the car for 3-4 months and park the car in the sun. You'll see the swirl marks.

Brains

iTrader: (7)

All three of my black cars sit outside. Next?

Fact is, there are no swirl marks ... If there were, they can be buffed out with a random orbital if you do it right..

Steveceno

OK you win. No swirl marks. Maybe you need glasses? LOL

Brains

iTrader: (7)

Not according to my last vision test... Scored 20/10 and I don't wear lenses...

Face it man, something you're doing is causing swirl marks. Wrong pad, wrong product, wrong process, I'm not sure -- but every time I spend the time to do this (and its not too often, I'm lazy) the results are stellar. Heck it could be the sponge or towels you're using to wash the car, they can definitely swirl your paint QUICKLY if they trap dirt or are themselves abrasive.

hink9

kinda of off topic but i relates to this, when washing a vehicle whats the best way to apply soap with out creating swirl marks, and whats the best way to dry it, i have a quicksilver gto, so im not too worried, i had a black truck that had swirl marks from hell from day one, first time it was pdi detailed. its a shame that dealership detailers are the worst detailers... TIA>

Nicster

I guess my biggest fear is taking an orbital to my new goat and burning up the clear coat. That would suck bigtime. Once I used a rubbing compound (turtle wax) on car I had and ended up creating some ugly scratches! So...I ask any of you pro's out there have any procedures and specific products that you use. Brains...what type of fine polish do you use? I think what I might end up doing is trying out some different stuff on my midnight blue S-10, and see what works best. I'm planning on keeping my goat until I finish paying the sucker off, and by then I don't want to be left with a POS.

Brains

iTrader: (7)

The best way to wash it? I don't know, never really paid attention to any direction or anything. I tend to move in lines that flow with the panels, but I think it has more to do with using a good car wash detergent along with a very clean open cell cellulose sponge. I dry the car with a clean California Water Blade, and follow that up with very soft USA cotton towels that weren't washed in any fabric softener.

Using a true rotary buffer can burn up your paint. A random orbital is nearly impossible to burn the paint with. A rubbing compound *WILL* put scratches into the paint -- that's really the purpose of it You start with a rubbing compound *ONLY* if you *HAVE* to... Its designed to be abrasive, to sand down any larger scratches. For most very light swirl marks, its not necessary, and you can start with a good swirl remover or a good machine glaze. Those are much more light on the abrasives, but they're still in the glaze. It'll take a while with a random orbital because its not nearly as aggressive as a rotary buffer, but its a lot more safe. Just work on it until the swirls are gone, and then completely wash the car again. Once you've verified the swirls are gone, come back with your favorite wax process to finish it off. Anytime I spend the day doing this the car looks better than brand new

kn7671

Ok, first off, there is no solid clear coat on top of the black. The factory mixes the clear in with the black paint. This is done with almost all factory paint jobs, especially non-metallic paints. This is actually more durable, but does not look as good as dedicated clear coat. There is only about 3-4 coats of paint on the car from the factory, so care must be taken when polishing factory paint. Good thing about the clear being mixed together with the factory color is that the paint is the same all the way down to the factory primer coat. This allows for lots of polishing. A professional show car quality paint job would have 8-10 coats of paint.

Brains

iTrader: (7)

If that were true, then any time you use a clay bar or an abrasive polish of any kind, you'd see black on the pad -- and I've never seen it on the Formula (haven't had to polish out the GTO yet, and I personally painted the Mustang with a PPG single stage black -- NO clear coat on that car). Not to mention, you can take a look at my front bumper cover and see the rock chips where the clear has been removed, but the base coat is intact. The clear is in fact ... well ... clear...

Chupa

I know for a fact that there is a layer of clear coat on my TA, because when I removed the side strips, it took off the clear coat underneath them Now you can tell where they were because the clear coat around the edges was lifted up ever so slightly, and you can see the air underneath.