Taking out Swirl Marks by hand

guest2299 · 02-06-08, 11:12

Best suggestions for doing this?

Setec Astronomy · 02-06-08, 11:30

Have a bottle of Aleve ready?

Way2SSlow · 02-06-08, 11:31

Polish and a rotary or dual action polisher...Just move them around on the paint with your hands. Seriously, swirl removal by hand is not something that is going to be fun.

If you're new to it, I suggest the Poorboys SSR line and quality polishing pads from a good vendor. The SSR's are pretty easy to master.

Macruz19 · 02-06-08, 11:54

If you look in stores such as autogeek.net, I believe they have foam polishing pads to use by hand... but I'm not sure.

guest2299 · 02-06-08, 12:01

I am determined to get it done by hand no matter if it takes all day. Suggestions?

holland_patrick · 02-06-08, 12:14

you'll have to take your time as it will take HOURS do to.

If i had to do a car buy hand I woudl start with the trunk(because if i start at the hood I'll get lazy) and work in 1 foot blocks and get one of those polishing buddies with the different pads and SSR 2.5 ,2,and 1

I'd do the little blocks till i was happy then move on to the next block..

this is something you can't rush.

I would expect to work the polish for at least 5 min in each step(try the ssr 1 first to see if that will get you to where you want to be)

Oh and get some bold and bright while your at it.. SO you can shine up your tires

weekendwarrior · 02-06-08, 12:28

I will probably get in trouble for saying this here, but I advise guys that work by hand to use a glaze with fillers, instead of trying to remove swirls by hand (when we're talking about an entire car). Before I got a PC, and eventually a rotary, I tried doing this by hand to an entire car. I spent a couple of DAYS (not hours), and I was worn out and sore afterwards - and probably only achieved about a 40% improvement...if that. The next weekend I bought my PC. I just don't think the end product is worth all the effort when it comes to trying to actually remove swirls by hand.

guest2299 · 02-06-08, 12:45

The thing is if I use a rotary, I will not know what I am doing and rotarys are not cheap to begin with.

BigJimZ28 · 02-06-08, 01:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by guest2299

I am determined to get it done by hand no matter if it takes all day. Suggestions?

it could take all day by machine
it will take all week by hand

JoshVette · 02-06-08, 02:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigJimZ28

it could take all day by machine
it will take all week by hand

I agree, especially if it's a German car with very hard clear, then it may take even longer.

I can polish out a soft clear coated car with a rotary in about 4-6 hours (just polishing) but with a harder clear it may take as long as 8-10 hour by machine to get it 100% perfect.

I would venture to say you won't remove them by hand and your best hope since it's all by hand is to just glaze them over and cover them up once a month.

mattgg11 · 02-06-08, 02:31

I actually just purchased the hand polishing system from Autogeek. However, I don't plan to remove defects from the entire vehicle. I just hope to get rid of a few isolated cases of wash-induced marring.

On a side note, what do the pros think of using this system Pinnacle Polishin’ Pal is an ergonomically shaped urethane handle that holds specially designed foam pads using tough hook & loop backing. with Z-PC, Z-AIO, Z-2 to get rid of the marring and seal the car?

Secondly, if I decided to step up and buy a machine, how much total would I have to spend for a basic system for removing paint defects?

Could I get away with buying a PC/UDM and only a pad or two, then just use my Z-PC?
Or would I need to buy several pads & polishes?

Keep in mind, I'm not a professional detailer and won't have the time to spend on learning how different pads/polishes interact. I'm just looking for a simple go-to solution for removing relatively minor marring that may occur.

Way2SSlow · 02-06-08, 02:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by guest2299

The thing is if I use a rotary, I will not know what I am doing and rotarys are not cheap to begin with.

Get a Porter Cable 7424, a UDM or a Flex DA polisher. You may be able to mess up paint with one, but you'd have to try pretty hard to do it. Your body will definitely thankyou for it.