I'd imagine this is a repost but i'm cursed and can never find anything on forum searches.

Anyways, I have extremely bad swirl marks (cars been like that since i got it), and i wanted some opinions. What's the best/SAFEST stuff out there to remove swirl marks? I'd like to remove them without risking damage to my clear coat. I'm pretty much a clumsy idiot (if you remember me DROPPING my instrument cluster, running into a PILLAR, and accidently closing the garage door on my front bumper), so i'm not gonna use anything that i can screw my paint up with.

Opinions please? Also, include the price and how/where i can buy it. I'd prefer something i can run to Wal-mart or Auto Zone to get

 

Go to Autozone and get the Meguiars clay bar kit. Comes with the clay, wax, polish and all the necessary applicators. Cost about $20.00 and has everything you need. Wash the car really good and get all the crap off of it. Then get the clay out and go to town until you have the whole car done. Follow the clay with a really heavy coat of wax. Follow the wax with a really good coat of polish. Your paint should look brand new. When you are using the clay bar, wipe your hand on top of the paint before and after. It's amazing how clean and smooth the paint gets. I'm too tired to search right now, but find the pics that I posted about a week ago after doing this to my A6. The thing looks brand new.

Post pics after your done!

 

I've used claybar before, and it happened to be the EXACT kit you're referring to! but i wasn't aware of any effects it had on the swirls. Then again, I'm amazingly obvlivious. Will claybar really help the swirls?! I'll follow that exact process if you really think so, but it'll take me a good 8-12 hours

And trust me, I'll do like 839752394087 before and after pictures. IF i can manage to operate the stone-age digital camera I have.

 

I can't guarantee that it will get all the swirls out. I think it helped a ton with my car. I don't think anyone knows how to get the swirls out without taking it to a paint shop.

 

Here is some professional advice, claying will do NOTHING for swirls, clay only removes comtaminants "ON" the finish, swirls are "IN" the finish, so you need an aggessive cleaner polish for that. most times you need a machine to get out swirls, you will have limited success by hand. go here for more advice. ................ www.perfectautofinish.com

 

thanks guys. That's what i was thinking, because swirls are actually embedded in the clear coat, which is why most swirl removers actually remove a thin layer of clear coat, AKA it's really easy to mess up your paint. So the claybar, though a miracle worker, shouldn't really do much for swirl marks. But it'll definitely make the paint look better, so i'm going to go ahead and do that anyways. I'll post pictures when I get around to it, and update you guys on exactly what i do to get rid of the swirl marks. I'll do before and after pictures at every step.

 

Yea, when I get my lower's painted, I'm going to have the hood, front bumper, and front quarter panels all repainted... There are some rock chips that are starting to worry me a little bit. I don't want them to start rusting up. Right now, they are very small, and appear "white" when you look at them up close. It's going to cost me, but I'll feel better once it's all done... Good luck with the claybar, I'm going to get one when I get to the lower 48, they don't sell them here at the local wal-mart, and there are no really good auto parts stores... Bummer...

 

You definately need to polish to remove swirls. Some swirl removers simply use fillers and the wax/sealent holds them in, but does not remove the swirls. To really get rid of them you need to use a polisher either random orbital or circular and something like meguiars DACP or something like that that actually remove minimal parts of the clearcoat evening it out. And then make sure you wash your car right and keep it waxed/sealed and you should be good

 

The process is:
1. Wash the car.
2. Use the clay bar to remove any surface contanimants.
3. Use Meguiar's Scratch-X if your are going to do it by hand or get a Meguiar's or Porter Cable Dual Action buffer and use Meguiar's #83 followed by Meguiar's #80. Do not use a rotary buffer at all. Incorrect usage of a rotary buffer can and will damage the paint. Many applications maybe required especially if you are doing it by hand.
4. Wax the car. Use Meguiar's NXT wax or something similar.

 

Check out a post I made to another forum where somebody was asking a similar question. I pointed them to some good reading that talks about how to get rid of scratches (and how to detail your car in general). Good background for you and FREE! Here's the link: Click Here.