Question for you pro swirl removers

[Cheetah]

I had my car detailed about 2 months ago. It came out great but I have some questions mostly for my own education. He told me during the assessment that my car only had
"light swirling". After 4-5 hours working on it about 90% of the swirls were removed. He said the remaining swirls were deeper and would take another detail to completely remove. He used a pc and a rotary with several types of menzerna I believe and went through about 5-6 pads if I recall correctly. So my question is should it take 7 or 8 hours of polishing to remove swirls from a car? <==I have a 2003 bmw. Before the detail I thought the swirling wasn't so bad. You couldn't see the swirls from 10 feet away. I guess I'm asking because I plan on doing swirl removal by myself starting this summer and want to know what I'm up against.

[orngez]

with a pc swirl removal can take that long..not uncommon...bmw's often have very soft clear coats so it can take a while to removing micromarring and holograms...i would say that once you get a decent system down you are looking at 3-4 hours

[Bags]

If its the first time you are going to do it plan for all day. If you can hook up with smeone in your area and watch them do it the time will be well spent. When I did my 2006 Durango it took me 8 hours just for the polish with orange pad. I was using too much product on too small of an area. Good luck and do some reading on this site.

[ScottB]

It takes me about 4 hours to do the Vette properly ... the SRX (Caddy) takes about 6. Thats just the PC with assorted pads and polishes. I rarely break out the rotary although would save some time.

[Nica]

If it's your first time be ready to spend...perhaps a few days. The problem is that when it's your first time you second guess everything you do and it really takes you a long time, it's good to take your time because this way you can experiment lots and learn lots oh and not to mention you will feel very proud of the results you achieve.

As far as using a rotary, nothing wrong with a rotary but you should practice on either an old beater or a panel you can pick up from the scrap yard. Rotary and PC are different tools and require different skills.

Well hope this helps.

[Cheetah]

Thanks everyone.

[Whitethunder46]

It takes me about 4 hours to do the Vette properly ... the SRX (Caddy) takes about 6. Thats just the PC with assorted pads and polishes. I rarely break out the rotary although would save some time.

when you say 4-6 hours Scott, how many different polishes do you use? Are you able to just use one? (say XMT3 and get LSP) or do you take the time to do 2 steps, or maybe even 3 to jewel the paint?

[Grimm]

I spent 10+ hours on my car last fall with a PC and it still had a ways to go to be defect free. I've got like 3 hours into it last week doing the front, hood, front fenders, and roof so far and it's still not where I want it on those areas. But I'm guessing this car just has really hard clear. The swirls are mostly gone, I just have scratches left yet.

[trhland]

took me 9 hours to polish my truck. with a p/c.

[ltoman]

practice, practice, practice!