What it means to remove swirls, scratches and water spots out of automotive clear coats

[Mike Phillips]

What it means to remove swirls, scratches and water spots out of automotive clear coats

One of the most common problems people want to solve when it comes to improving the appearance of their car's finish is to remove swirls, scratches and water spot etchings out of their car's clear coat finish.


Below Photographs Courtesy of MeguiarsOnline.com


Swirls



Scratches



Water Spots



In order to remove any type of below surface defect out of a clear coat finish you need to carefully remove small amounts of paint surrounding the defect, (or defects), until the surface is uniformly level or flat. Of course some defects may be too deep to remove safely and in these situations you can often time improve the defect but not completely remove the defect.

In other words, in order to remove a scratch out of an automotive clear coat you must remove enough paint surrounding the scratch until the upper most portions of the surface are level with or equal to the lowest depths of the scratch or defect you're trying to remove.


Does that make sense?


The idea being, you don't really remove a scratch, you remove the paint surrounding a scratch.


The problem with removing below surface defects like swirls and scratches is whether or not you have enough film-build or paint thickness to safely remove the defect completely without going through the clear coat and exposing the basecoat also called color coat. Generally speaking, factory clear coats are thin so you need to be careful and take the cautious approach of using the least aggressive product to get the job done.

If you remove too much paint and expose the underlying color coat the only way to fix the problem is to have the affected area repainted. The color coat is usually dull as it gets its gloss from the clear layer of paint.


Products Mentioned
Swirl Removers, Compounds and Polishes
Buffers, Polishers and Pads
Applicator pads for working by hand


Further Reading
Tips & Techniques for using the Porter Cable 7424XP
The Final Wipe
2008 Lexus IS 250 - Pinnacle Detail


Resources
Autogeek Online Detailing Forum
Autogeek Online Store

[Spot]

How do you know if your removeing scratchs, or just useing somekind of filler that washs of .

[ASPHALT ROCKET]

How do you know if your removeing scratchs, or just useing somekind of filler that washs of .

This is were your IPA wipe downs come in to play. Whoever thinks they are not needed is sorely incorrect. This will give you the true look of the finish and show you if the defects are removed, not filled.

[detail viking]

[Mike Phillips]

If the swirls you are trying to remove are pretty bad, as in fairly deep, then when you start to buff by hand or machine the improvement will be noticeable and real. When it gets to working out 100% of the most shallow swirls and scratches then you'll need to chemically strip the paint after working a correction product and inspect the finish in bright light.

This is were your IPA wipe downs come in to play. Whoever thinks they are not needed is sorely incorrect.

Doing an IPA wipe down will reveal whether the defects have been removed or not but a person must be careful because IPA is not a good lubricant to start with and you can mar the paint and if you use too strong of solution it can soften or swell the paint.

I show the before and after results of wiping with IPA here,

1-Step versus 3-Step Process by Hand

[turbos17]

This is were your IPA wipe downs come in to play. Whoever thinks they are not needed is sorely incorrect. This will give you the true look of the finish and show you if the defects are removed, not filled.

Or if you have time you can wash the vehicle again. I know most people don't, but just another option.

[car-detailing]

What are swirls and how do you get them, how do they appear?

[FUNX650]

Mike, I would appreciate your input on this. Thanks

RE: Deep scratches not through the clear-coat.

I know this is really, really 'old school', but, whenever I'm in doubt of the actual film-build (paint thickness) of the clear-coat and there are scratches that have not penetrated into the underlying base (pigmented) coat, I will fill the scratch(es) with a dab of shoe polish of a contrasting color. While performing any paint correction process whether it be wetsanding/compounding/polishing and I see the shoe polish starting to disappear/dissapate--I stop. IMHO this should be enough fixing--I don't want to go through the clear.

[Mike Phillips]

I will fill the scratch(es) with a dab of shoe polish of a contrasting color. While performing any paint correction process whether it be wetsanding/compounding/polishing and I see the shoe polish starting to disappear/dissapate--I stop. IMHO this should be enough fixing--I don't want to go through the clear.

I could see getting shoe polish into a deeper scratch or scratches, but not sure how you would get shoe polish into masses of swirls and scratches.

Never seen this done before, but if it works for you or someone else it might make for a good how-to article if you can capture before, during and after pictures.

[FUNX650]

Mike...Thanks for your reply. I'll try to post-up some before/after pics on a couple scratches when the weather clears up. I also agree that a mass of swirls would probably not necessitate 'a little dab' (will do ya) of shoe polish or other similar contrast media--I feel I would have a better than average chance of checking my progress in order to not burn through this larger area vs. a more concentrated deep scratch area. Thanks again.