Swirl Marks
 

I made the STUPID mistake of taking my Boxster thru an automatic car wash. So, needless to say the car now has swirl marks. Is there a way to get rid of the swirls w/out getting the entire car re-painted?

Most polishes are great at removing swirl marks and its something that you can do by yourself very easilly..

Mike

Like Mike said, off the shelf products can do the job, for best results use a clay bar to remove all residues from surface, following with a paint cleaner, polisher, and a nice coat of wax. I used Maguire's product 3 stage product, very satisfied with the results. Day vs Night difference esspecially after claying the car.

Look for my post last week "1st time using clay bar", Stryke suggested alot of helpful tips.

Swirl marks can be removed by any high end auto detailing. Well let me restate, a good high end auto detailer should be able to do it. Ask how they go about doing it (what sort of prep work) before releasing your baby to them. if they give a general answer like "well we wash it and then wax it with the machine" then move on to another place.

I'm weary of giving people new to detailing free reign with swril removers because if not properly applied you can do allot more damage than good.
If you are working by hand I would suggest a very light scratch and swril remover like Meguair's ScratchX.
The best product I've used (by hand) on my Black car was 3M fine cut. but be careful if you use it. use very small doses and don't rub on and remove in circles.
An orbital polisher like the porter cable 7424 can apply the precisely correct amount of pressure in a circular motion but your hand cannot. With any detailing you should be making vertical pases in a downward motion unless you are using a dedicated Concorus grad buffing towel. then you can buff horizontally without fear of swriling or micro marring.

I've heard good things about the NXT product for micro-swirls.

Zaino brothers came out with a product recently which is supposed to be at the top of the market for taking care of swirls and other paint problems. It is called Zaino Z-PC, goto www.zainostore.com and i beleive its $12.95 per 8 oz bottle. Havent tried out myself since I dont have paint swirls, but from what I am hearing this might be what you really want. I also suggest using most of their products in regards to maintaining your paint.

The NXT is good for covering up swrils. But they are easy to remove so why bother covering up when you can get rid of it altogether. It really looks terrible at night under street lamps or in high noon sun.

Exactly...

I am a firm believer in removing something not covering it up. Just like yo uwouldn't sweep dirt under a rug, why cover swirls if they can be removed, and there are so many products to remove them.

All cars can use a nice polish before detailing as everybody has some swirl marks.

Mike

if you go to the trouble of removing swirls with an orbital polisher do yourself and invest in some high grade detailing towels.
And no I don't think this includes MF towels that are made in China.

This is the only towel I use to clean and remove waxes and polishes.
But no buffing. I use a dedicated Concours towel for that.
http://www.autopia-carcare.com/mf-201.html

Stryke also offered to teach alot of guys how to detail start to finish. :)