Do swirls really bother you guys?

thesacrifice said:
I try and be realistic. I've pretty much eliminated swirls with good wash techinques/product.



I do however have some straight line marring in places. The Autopian in me wants a perfect finish, the realist in me realizes that my car looks great and better than %99 of the cars I pass everyday. Plus straight line marring has a lot less effect on the look of a car than swirls. And I only see that marring under very specific lighting conditions, it helps that the car is a darker silver.



The only corrective product my car has had was Poliseal once, and I've owned the car since Dec 2005. I feel confident in saying that I've done a damn fine job keeping the soft subaru butter clearcoat relatively mar free.



Sometimes good enough is good enough, and that's why I'll never own a black car.
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That's what I have left.. straight line marring after using the PC. I'll get those out somehow, but you're right. My car looks better than the cars I pass everyday!
 
Ignorance IS bliss. I don't WANT to know about good wines, then I'll have to start caring and spending time and money on it. Am still happy with a hot dog; no French names needed for my food except for Fries. Clothes are clothes, who cares?



But it's too late for beer, stereo systems, and cars; for these it's got to be right!
 
dpsorg said:
Ignorance IS bliss. I don't WANT to know about good wines, then I'll have to start caring and spending time and money on it. Am still happy with a hot dog; no French names needed for my food except for Fries. Clothes are clothes, who cares?



But it's too late for beer, stereo systems, and cars; for these it's got to be right!
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Exactly...I have been browsing this site in and out for a bit, and just joined. I couldn't help but notice some swirls/marring in the paint on our cars after seeing some of the click and brags on here. Now I am trying to perfect my washing technique, claying, LSP application, etc. I will never be able to just "wash and wax" and be satisfied again! I have always kept my cars in what I thought was "nice" condition...thanks to this site, my standards just went up ten-fold. No more bath-towels and thin car shampoo for me. Now I just have to keep myself from becoming TOO consumed with the finish of our cars. The wife may get jealous of all the TLC the cars are getting. :dig



-John
 
Macruz19 said:
Like I said, my TL is my daily driver and how much swirls is too much on your DD?

You guys think I'm doing too much work? Now, I have minor swirls to worry about. DAMN you Autopia!! Haha. I'm more anal than ever!!
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There is only one person's opinion that matters here, yours. I will be the very first person to say that keeping a daily driver *perfect* is near impossible, but it *is* capable of being accomplished. I would say that I have kept my daily drivers near perfect about 80% of the time. Yes, there are times where weather just doesn't cooperate, and times where I just don't feel like detailing anything for a while, and let them go a little bit, but I take pride in how the vehicle I drive all the time looks. It's like keeping the grass cut at your house. Do you just let it go crazy and cut when people start to complain, or do you like to have everything nicely trimmed on a regular basis? Again, this is all personal preference, but my preference is to be as swirl free as possible.



Btw, there is only one thing that I hate more than swirls, and that's holograms. :hairpull Nothing drives me more insane than seeing cars loaded with holograms, YUCK!!
 
^ True. Good thing I don't have holograms on my car, and the only bad weather here is either heavy rain, and Hurricanes.







BTW, Does anyone know a good Polish that has some fillers so I can hide the remaing swirls?
 
That was just one example of a good glaze. There are a lot of other great ones out there. I highly suggest you poke around and do some research before you buy anything though.
 
Let's just say that now that I have been "sensitized" to the issue swirls bother me a lot! MY PC is coming UPS today. By tomorrow evening I hope the sirls on the blacvk Acura RL are history. (Cross fingers)
 
JDookie said:
I will be the very first person to say that keeping a daily driver *perfect* is near impossible, but it *is* capable of being accomplished. I would say that I have kept my daily drivers near perfect about 80% of the time...
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I agree. I realize that without any C&B pics to prove it a lot of people will simply think I'm BSing, but I do *not* have the "wash/dry induced swirls" that I believe are under discussion in this thread. Some RIDS, sure, marring happens. And I'm not saying they're *perfect*, but some of our drivers are very, very close. Note that I haven't polished any of our vehicles for years (except the new arrivals like the Blazer).



If anybody's near Stoddard Imports in Willoughby Ohio, stop in and look at the S8, it's in for service this week. I last polished it in May of '04. There's a RIDS on the RF fender from where somebody brushed against the car (or maybe from a mechanic's fender cover), there's deep stone damage marring on the trunk lid that I'm afraid to remove (and I did try, with the rotary and aggressive stuff), and there are flaws galore in the deer-incident repairs... but there are no "swirls" from the wash/dry except for the black plastic "B" pillars (which have never been the same since Stoddard washed it during the deer repairs). The car's there for anybody to inspect, and if you're there ask Jeff or Mike in the bodyshop about how nice my beater/dog hauling minvan is. Those are the two vehicles I keep nice enough for sealants and I drive 'em both year-round, in all kinds of weather.



I'll readily admit that washing in a way that doesn't cause any marring is very, very difficult but it *can* be done.
 
Accumulator said:
If anybody's near Stoddard Imports in Willoughby Ohio, stop in and look at the S8, it's in for service this week.
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I called them but they didn't have any cars under the first or last name of Accumulator!!:chuckle:

My cars are the same as yours but we both have the totally opposite approaches to maintaining them. As long as the end result is the same - Bravo.
 
David Fermani said:
I called them but they didn't have any cars under the first or last name of Accumulator!!:chuckle:

My cars are the same as yours but we both have the totally opposite approaches to maintaining them. As long as the end result is the same - Bravo.
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David- Actually I bet the guys in the body shop just might recognize my user-name, they know all about my posting here and I've told them how I offer them as references :D At any rate, the people there really would know who somebody's talking about without my IRL name; the condition of my vehicles is, uhm... very well known at that dealership. Gene and Rudy in service, Gene N. in sales (used to be bodyshop manager), Jeff and Mike in the bodyshop, once somebody mentions the S8, my wife's A8, the Jag, the minivan...they'll say "oooh, *THAT* guy!!"



Oh, and our methods might be getting more similar! I've been using my siphon feed sprayer (hooks up to the air line, sorta a low-power pressure washer whose overspray I can deal with) for some of the initial work before I start in with that BHB and the foamgun...so far it's working well. See, I really *do* keep an open mind.
 
Macruz19 said:
^ True. Good thing I don't have holograms on my car, and the only bad weather here is either heavy rain, and Hurricanes.







BTW, Does anyone know a good Polish that has some fillers so I can hide the remaing swirls?
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I thought that's what Z-5 is for
 
swirls/wash scratches drive me crazy to no end!!.....i think bad swirls/wash scratching looks worse thatn bigger blemishes IMO....i can drive down the freeway and pick out swirling on the side of a vehicle before i see any other scratches and dents....



i religously wash, polish, and wax/seal my truck...is not perfect but kept nicer than about 95% of other peoples daily drivers
 
I used to care about swirls visible under some street lights. But now I care about depth and clarity. Of course, swirls galore will kill the clarity and depth but after a good polishing, a few popping up here and there is not going to do that even if you're under very trying lighting conditions. As long as the paint looks very deep and clear, I don't mind light swirls or scratches. The thing though is I haven't seen any new swirls on my hood since I got it swirl free last fall. I just use ONR and it seems to be doing me good.
 
nonsensez9 said:
I thought that's what Z-5 is for
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Z-5p doesn't have much fillers to cover. It's basically a seal. I'm still searching for a filler product, but until then, I'll try to eliminate as much as possible when I have time with my PC.



I know I will not get rid of them all, but I'll try not to look at my car under the parking garage light at work :faint:
 
swirls bother me.



back when i worked as a detailer before moving here to orlando, i strived to maintain a perfect finish. accumulator-like wash technique, good towel usage, fillers, etc etc etc. as of lately though, i dont have customers here in orlando. All i have is my tC, and even that, with work, school, social life, etc, i barely have time for. yes, it still gets it's weekly washing, but my wash technique has slackened, and as such, swirls and such has overtaken the paint. I just dont have time to clear them up.



there is hope on the horizon though. this weekend (well, friday and saturday) i have a major car show that i'm attended. thursday night i'm staying up late and completely detailing the tC the proper way. yay!
 
Since I have the luxury to alternate cars to drive I can afford myself to drive one of them in good weather only. I do find I am anal as hell after doing my annual details for both cars; trying to keep the finish as swirl free as I possibly can...waxing bi-weekly or monthly, wiping down windows weekly, wiping down the wheels after every drive, car cover. I tend to let the finish slide the moment my car is bombarded by rainy weather. Everything just seems tainted :/ Can't wait to do it all over again :)
 
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