How to remove swirls by hand on a black Audi A5 that's been run through a Swirl-O-Matic Car Wash?

[Mike Phillips]

How to remove swirls by hand on a black Audi A5 that's been run through a Swirl-O-Matic Car Wash?


Here's some questions about car detailing sent via e-mail

Hi Mike,


I'd love your advise.

My friend has a black Audi A5 (2 stage paint, recent model, factory paint) that he's taken to machine auto washes (ARG!).
As you can imagine, the paint's got some swirls & scratches, not horrible, but not great.


I pointed out that automatic washes caused his scratches, and he needs to "own his process." (actually, I cringed, & chastised him, he's German he should know better....)

He understands now, so no more automatic car washes.

I've converted him to hand washes w/ good technique & a nice complement of Autogeek products.

(wheels first, Merino wool mitt, dedicated auto wash soap ph bal./high lubricity, 2 bucket method, 1-2 passes in direction wind passes over car, sheet water rinse, blow dry, you know the drill...)

As you can tell, I follow your process on your video "How to detail your brand new car"


He's dead set against polishing out the swirls & scratches (visualize a seeing eye dog at a red light), but does want to protect his paint w/ a great sealant (we'd like to use Menzerna Power Lock, which we both have).


My goal is to minimize the appearance of his swirls/scratches prior to applying sealant.



Question:

After getting to naked paint (liquid Dawn wash, blow dry, IPA wipe down, iron X, clay, wash, blow dry), what product would you recommend to apply before Power Lock to minimize the appearance of the swirls/scratches that won'tinterfere w/ the bonding of the Power Lock?


-Meg's #7?

-Another Glaze?

-Any other thoughts/ideas?

Thank you, Mike.


I appreciate your input


Kind regards,
-Robert-

Hi Robert,

Thank you for the question. I'll answer it in two parts, the first part a recommendation and the second part the actual MEAT of how to minimize the appearance of swirls and scratches.


Do-it-Yourself - Learn to machine polish
Machine polishing is really the way to go and your friend simply needs to get over his fear of machines because MODERN dual action polishers are completely safe and will do a better job faster than ANYTHING you and him can apply by hand.

Show him his article, look at the young boy, the young girl and the elderly gentleman all machine polishing cool cars.

Machine polishing paint - It's not that hard and with modern dual action polishers it's real safe!


Besides my recommendation for your friend to learn how to use a simple tool like the Porter Cable 7424XP, that's the one this girl is using on a Candy Apple 1965 Mustang Fastback show car.






Do-it-Yourself - Hand Polishing - Step by step directions

Here's what I would suggest.

The only true way to remove swirls and scratches is to level the surface. This means to abrade the surface and remove a LITTLE BIT of paint until the current surface is level with the lowest depth of the swirls and scratches in the paint.

To do this by hand is INCREDIBLY difficult because modern clearcoat paints, at least most factory paints are HARD - not soft. So this makes it HARD on you and your hand with five fingers to push some form of applicator pad over a SMALL section of paint both PUSHING HARD and MOVING YOUR HAND FAST.

I use to teach hand polishing when I taught all the Meguiar's Detailing 101 classes at the corporate headquarters in Irvine, California. I did this for 7 years for every car club you can name. Here's a picture from 2004 where I'm showing a Mercedes-Benz club how to remove swirls and scratches by hand using ScratchX

MBWorld.org at Meguiar's!





So been there and done that. What I found out is most people don't have the skill, muscle or tenacity to actually rub their car out by hand.


BUT - if you want to try and you're already using Menzerna Power Lock for your LSP then get a bottle of

Menzerna Super Finish (SF-3500) 8 oz



Then purchase some of these,

Nanoskin Hand Strap Applicator - 5 ¾ inch



And then purchase some of these to go onto the above hand strap backing pads


5.5 inch ThinPro White Polishing Pad


Step 1: Apply some of the polish (about the size of a quarter to a 50 cent coin) to the face of the pad.

Step 2: Next rub hard and fast to a small section, about a foot squared or so.

Step 3: Rub for about a minute and then wipe off the residue.


If you use GOOD TECHNIQUE the paint in that section will now look better. Not perfect but better. That's what you can do by hand. By machine you could get it close to perfect.

Step 4: Repeat this procedure over each panel and when you start a new section overlap into the previous section.


I'd recommend ONLY tackling one panel a day. That's because rubbing out a car by hand requires a lot of muscle and what happens to most people is after about one panel they won't have the energy or excitement they started with to adequately polish out the rest of the car.

So do one panel and then seal it and then the next day or the next weekend tackle another panel.



What it cost to move up to safe machine polishing


For about $200.00 you could get,

Porter Cable 7424XP Dual Action Polisher - $115.00


Right now the Porter Cable comes with a FREE Porter Cable DVD that shows you exactly how to use it. $12.99 (but free right now)



6 ThinPro Buffing Pads

5 each 5.5" WHITE ThinPro Polishing pads and
1 each 5.5" RED ThinPro Waxing pad = $47.94

1 each 5" Backing Plate $15.99

The Menzerna polish

Menzerna Super Finish (SF-3500) 8 oz $20.99



I put the above items in the Autogeek.com shopping cart and here's a screenshot of the total.







Okay lets break this down....


I don't know what year your Audi A5 is but lets take a guess it's a few years old so it's in the $30,000.00 to $40,000.00 price range.

If you can afford an Audi A5 you can afford the above MINIMALIST buffing kit and just like the little boy, the young girl, the young couple and the elderly man in the article I included a link to - you can do it yourself.





Here's another point of view

A quality exterior ONLY detail job by someone that has attended my 3-Day Competition Ready Detailing Class will run you anywhere from a low of $350.00 to a high of $1000.00

So the kit above is less than having a pro detail the outside of your car ONE TIME. So if you machine polish and wax your Audi one time the kit will have paid for itself.

And the good news is you can use the polisher for years, even decades. You can polish out your others cars or trucks.

And the most common thing that happens is after your family, friends, co-workers and neighbors see your car and ask you if you just had it painted, after you say "no" I detailed it myself.

The next thing that will happen is they will ask you,

How much do you charge and when can you do my car?


Of course you don't have to detail cars for money I'm just saying that a lot of people get into car detailing for money on the weekends by COMPLETE accident and then not only does the investment pay for itself it continues to pay back a profit.

And to me... the best part about all of the above is the SATISFACTION that comes from doing it yourself and doing a great job.



I appreciate that you sent me an e-mail asking for help for your friend. It took me about 30 minutes to type out this reply and CODE the links to the store not just for you but for the hundreds and likely thousands of people that will read this thread into the future.

I simply don't have the typing time to type out an in-depth reply, packed with information for one set of eye balls. (e-mail), so if I answer questions on company time I do it where I earn my keep and that's by answering questions on our very public and highly helpful, informative and friendly car detailing discussion forum - AutogeekOnline.net


I hope the above helps.

[Jaretr1]

Amen!

[Joe@NextLevelDetail]

That's some of the best advice you're going to get you can take that to the bank.