serious help

I need some serious advise. Ive been in business for a while now. Ive tried all kinds of products(prob to many) i always seem to get swirl marks in things i buff. Even with an edge foam polish pad and a product that says swirl free. Did a black Sl today

all done with a high speed buffer at about 1400 rpm-1200rpm
Step one Green edge foam pad/mag one
Step two Blue foam pad with mag 2 ( PULLED OUTSIDE SWIRLS)
Step three White foam finish pad mag 2 ( Pulled outside swirls)
Step four polish with pc orbitol.
took out the scratches but there were still light swirls. what am I doing wrong. The swirls were very light kindof like 3-d but they were there.

All these products that say swirl free yet I still get light swirls. Ive tried use the PC Orbitol with lake country cutting and polishing pad but doesnt seem to remove the scratches only shine it up. On darker cars it leaves light hazing, like the orbitol motion is scratching the paint.

It cant be the products because I use all the ones that everyone on this sight recommend. Ive used Pro, Top of the line, Malco, Meguiars. Am I just expecting to do to much! What percent of the scratchs should we be getting out on daily drivers. Buffer speeds? how fast to move across the panel.

I keep my pads clean , I always start with the less aggresive combo, keep my buffer flat. Just cant figure it out. Will u always get some sort of swirl mark when u high speed buff. Please help a very frustrated detailer. Just want to do the best job possible!

Did the vehicle have a lot of swirls to start with? sometimes a so-called detailer will have hacked the paint to the point to where there may not be enough clearcoat to remove them safely, just something to think about. It is hard to tell without seeing the vehicle and your techniques. I like flat pads and even slower speeds, buffing wet, slow uniform overlapping on my passes, checking my work as I go, and I really like the micro-finishing type products that are not chucked full of fluids that cover-up the swirls. I work with new paint everyday and swirl free is a must!!! If you are gradually working down from cutting to polishing to micro-finishing and your products & pads are still producing swirls, then you may have an issue with the products or pads themselves, paint on the car, or your technique. Some vehicles are difficult but you can get them pretty close. Unless you have a customer that takes extremely great care of their car, keeping a daily driver like new is next to impossible.


If you are looking for a swirl free show type finish, be well prepared for a lot of work if the finish is in rough shape, and it should have enough paint on it to work with.



Detailing, An Art In Motion!

First of all, make sure you are differentiating between swirl marks and cobweb scratches. The only way to remove cobwebs is to remove paint to below the level of the micro-scratches. That is not normally a good idea on a daily driver because someday you may run out of paint to remove.

Swirls can be caused by dirt on a pad scratching the surface or by a dry pad and dried compound scratching the surface. You can try priming your pad with product or with a lubricating spray such as Meguiar's Final Detail or Final Inspection or AM's Body Shine.

Orbital buffers should not scratch or produce swirl marks. You may try Meguiar's Swirl Free Polish ( first applied with a rotary and then followed up with a separate orbital application ) as your final polishing product. I've seen it work.
Doug

" A country that tolerates bad philosophers and fails to value good plumbers will find that neither its ideas nor its pipes will hold water. "



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/08/2006 03:02AM by Doug Delmont.