Car full of holograms/swirls.......induced by body shop ;/

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ejoech

New member
I brought my 2004 Mazda6 to my local body shop to get my bumper replaced because an idiot friend of mine backed into me. My car was pretty dirty at the time and I did not have much time to clean it myself. They offered to do a full detail for $150, so I figured, sure, it will save me time and they do good body work so I'm sure their detailing is good. This was a month or so ago. Now that we've had some nice sunny days, I've seen my car in full sun. It's COVERED in swirl marks..everywhere, and there are even some hologram marks.



I don't know what to do. I just finally picked up a 7424 but I don't have much experience with it. I like the body work that they do, but I'm very pissed off that my paint is this messed up.



What do you reccomend I do?



Thanks.
 
I feel ya!



I just had dent removal and a repaint done to my hood. The dent was pretty deep and right over a cross brace, so it called for some knowlegeable body shop work. The body work is amazing - you can not tell where that dent was. The spraying is great - perfect color match of opalescent paint.



But when I first picked the vehicle up, it was covered in rotary holograms. I took it back and they very willingly went over it again with a variety of products. Now I am noticing moderate swirl marks all over the hood - more than I ever put on it in the previous five years! These are people who are supposed to know paint! I'm not going back again, because I think that this may truly be the best that they can do in finishing paint.



After the paint cures, I am probably going to seek out an Autopia-level detailer in my area ...
 
my moms car was repainted by a bodyshop and not only do they include orange peel for us but the holograms that you talked about. each panel took me half an hour to 45 minutes to remove the holograming but there are still swirls. oh yeah i used a pc to do the removal too. learned a lesson from that, always look at the bodyshops work before you make an appointment to bring your own car in. we made a mistake of not doing that.
 
Ok, if you just got a PC, here's what I would do. Make sure you've got 6" pads, not 7.5". Use a white pad with SSR2.5, see if that gets it perfect. If not, step down to a white pad with SSR1 and check again. Work each polish in until almost dry, run the PC on 6 with light pressure, go to no pressure as you finish up. Hope for the best.



Sometimes, damage done with a rotary cannot be fixed with a rotary. DO NOT attempt to fix it with a rotary yourself, if it needs rotary work find a trusted expert for it. Sean (GSRStilez) is around your area I think and he is one of the best. If you can't fix it with the PC, drop him a PM.
 
themightytimmah said:
Sometimes, damage done with a rotary cannot be fixed with a rotary. DO NOT attempt to fix it with a rotary yourself, if it needs rotary work find a trusted expert for it. Sean (GSRStilez) is around your area I think and he is one of the best. If you can't fix it with the PC, drop him a PM.
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um, with all respect. if it cannot be fixed by a rotary then why are you recommending a professional that can work the rotary well?
 
What he meant was in the hands of a amateur a rotary will not get rid of

them but add more.

I second Sean(GSRStilez) He does some of the nicest work I have seen :xyxthumbs
 
What he meant was damage caused by roatry HAS TO be fixed with one. Not with the PC it just can't match the swirling and you really need to Buff it up
 
Yeah, some stuff just takes a rotary in the right hands. Often though, you can remove hologams with the PC; it's the really *awful* rotary-swirls that are beyond this sort of fix.



I've been able to do some pretty good correction on Mazda clear using the PC, but only with 4" pads and products like 3M PI-III RC (pn 05933). Anything milder (and also 6.5" pads) was *too* mild. I did follow the RC with PI-III MG (pn 05937), but it was looking almost ready-to-wax after just the RC. Watch for differences in hardness between the original Mazda clear and the new stuff ;)



But if you can get GSRStilez to work on it, that'd be a no-brainer ;)
 
ejoech said:
... they do good body work so I'm sure their detailing is good.
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:wall You'd think that would be the case but somehow it isn't so! It seems a lot of bodyshops have a hard time getting the finishing part down correctly.



My entire car was repainted and the paint job itself is beautiful but it came back full of swirls. I took it back and they went over it again and included some holograms this time. :angry I came to the conclusion that I'd have to fix it myself. Fortunately the swirls/holograms were rather minor and I was able to polish them out and whatever was left the Zaino has filled in nicely. I'll probably go over it with Zaino PC at some point but right now the car looks really nice. At some point in time I plan to invest in a PC and really go to town on it but right now the swirls are minimal, even in bright sunlight.



In fact, after I detailed it I took it back for some other work and the bodyshop manager was impressed. He has a great paint guy but they definitely need to work on the detailing end. The hardest part is getting the paint job correct and I'm glad they did a great job in this regard but it seems a shame to ruin a good thing but covering it with swirls. It's rather like cooking a steak perfectly and then dumping some awful gravy on it. :hmph:
 
So typical....



Which is why I only link one body shop in my area on my website...and the only dealership I would trust at all is Sewell (DFW area).



You can remove rotary swirls by hand or with a PC if they aren't too deep. If they are real bad, the only way to get rid of them completely (or in one polishing session vs several) is with someone skilled in the use of a rotary.
 
Thanks for all the replies. Yeah, I've spoken to Sean this past winter and even met with him for some detailing a couple of times. I may try a shop around me called DETAILING DYNAMICS which is supposed to be top-notch. At least get a quote from them. It would be easier for me to leave it in a shop.



I also never had any intention to attempt to repair it with a rotary heh...just getting started with a PC, no need to jump up to a rotary quite yet.



Thanks for the help.
 
You should at least try your hand at removing the swirls via PC before you pay someone. If they aren't deep, you can probably remove them on your own. Worth trying, at least.
 
OK, pardon my n00b questions, but I'm ignorant as to how the bodywork process goes. Is it necessary for any reason for bodyshops to take a rotary to a freshly painted surface? Do they need to correct certain problems that can't be avoided during the painting process, or are they trying to get it to look its best? Just wondering.
 
kpagel said:
OK, pardon my n00b questions, but I'm ignorant as to how the bodywork process goes. Is it necessary for any reason for bodyshops to take a rotary to a freshly painted surface? Do they need to correct certain problems that can't be avoided during the painting process, or are they trying to get it to look its best? Just wondering.
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Yes, a rotary is used almost as soon as the paint "dries". The rotary and special pads/compounds are used to level fresh paint before it cures completely. The fresh paint responds very quickly to the rotary and an experienced hand is required to finish it properly without introducing holograms into it.



If fresh paint is allowed to completely cure, it's much harder and more difficult to level with the rotary and compound. Sometimes fully cured paint needs to be wetsanded to level it properly. The amount of time that a shop has to level the paint more easily with the rotary depends on the paint/process used, but sometimes it's as little as a few hours.



Jason
 
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