hey,
i have had my 02 s2000 for a couple months now and the day i picked it up the car looked MINT i have tried to keep it clean an make it look the way it did when i first bought it but havent had any luck. i got some advice on the right way to detail and i was wondering if its the correct way or maybe its me? i wash an dry car, use cleaner wax, than this new stuff ICE from turtle wax and, than finally a hard shell wax. Where am i going wrong? i see alot of swirles in my paint now and i am using a microfiber towel please some info would be appreciated thanx.

 

wax does now fix swirls, it may hide them for awhile but it will not remove the swirls.. you have to use some polish to remove swrils...

 

to find out whats causing your swirls we need to know more about your procedures-

i can tell you that swirls are most often caused by the rags used to wipe down the car... also, minimize swirls by wiping only as the air flows over the car- not in circles.

what kinda rags do you use, and what other products touch your paint?

 

wanabe - does it really matter if you dry in circles? I used to detail for 3 years and we always dried in circles but never had a problem with swirls. But we foamed or hand waxed the car of course after that.

 

yeah, i learned to work circles too... that was before clear coats!
clear coats are great for paint protection but they seem to swirl more easily than paint.
back and forth minimizes swirls- circular promotes them... and they show more when using circles.

 

Another thing to watch for is your wash technique.

The kicker now is that you've got swirls and need to get rid of them before you can implement a process that minimizes swirls. The question that needs to be asked now is how far are you willing to go to get it cleaned up. If you really want to get into paint protection, this guide here (in the FAQ section)https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=221878 is pretty damn good reading.

If you don't really want to get into that, you can try scoping out your local detailers to find a good one. But as most folks will tell you, the detailers that are worth their salt are few and far between.

 

Try a clay bar, and then the polish, then the wax.

It makes a big difference as to the quality of soap, wax ect you use. I use "Muguiers gold" soap, was and polish ect.

 

Most "swirls" are straight line (not circular) scratches that form a circular optical pattern when seen with a reflected light source.


If polishing I skip the claybar unless there is embedded particles..

 

Heres my best advice to you... DONT LET IT GET REAL DIRTY, When my car gets really dirty i lightly pressure wash increasing pressure as i circle the car then after the majority of the dirt is off i go with soap and clean it. This way i never actually grind the dirt into the paint. Thats the main way you get swirls. Or not removing enough dirty prior to waxing. To remove swirls cheaply and effectivly just get a waxing wheel (cheaper then buffer) 30bucks or so anywhere and get some polishing compound and spend some time passing down the main parts of the car, that'll clean it up. Now get rid of that wax and use some stripper to clean it all off. Then go through with a finishing wax and do your lights,tires,rims,interior etc. Done

 

[QUOTE]It makes a big difference as to the quality of soap, wax ect