If I get my car repainted and take care of it, can I keep swirls off?

S

Sad little man

New member
I'm thinking of getting my car repainted because as it is, I'm really trying to save a shipwreck, and I'm so nuts over the condition it's making me insane. It'd take a lot of time and money to get all the swirls out, and there are some things that are there to stay. The car was my father's since it was new in 1995, and he took little to no care of the paint. It's now pretty swirled up even though I've taken a lot of abrasives to it, and it has some odd white specks all over the car that simply do not buff, clay, or whatever off. My question is, if I get the car repainted and keep a bunch of layers of Zaino and maybe some Carnauba topper on it, can I eliminate swirls coming back completely? I'm not really familliar with the anatomy of a swirl :D, so I'm not really sure if I keep the car heavily waxed at all times if my days of scrubbing out swirls could be behind me.
 
im pretty sure that swirls are just tiny scratches in a swirl shaped pattern. as long as the paintjob itself is flawless you can maintain that flawless look with proper detailing techniques. i wish i could get my cl repainted, the original owner must have taken my poor car off roading.. so many tiny paintchips argh. Goodluck with you new paintjob and makesure its perfect when it comes out of the shop, will save you alot of headaches. BTW what car? and what color paint you looking at?
 
You're going to think I'm nuts, but it's a '95 Neon Sport Coupe. It's flame red now, but I'm thinking of going to the "Viper red" shade. Hopefully if that happens I'd only need to get the body and door jams painted. Who cares if the engine bay is slightly off. :o For that money, I probably don't
 
Yes, you CAN keep a car swirl free. Swirls are just marring caused by scratching the paint (usually during washing/drying). It's NOT easy, but it's possible.



Just my $0.02, but FWIW, *I* would work on the finish you have, unless the Viper red is REALLY gonna make you happier. I've revived some pretty hideous cars. Repaints are problematic at best (MANY people end up dissatisfied). A decent job will cost thousands and then you'll have to find a way to protect it for a month or more before you can apply your protection.



Maybe get a pro to help with the white spots and/or hit it with a rotary. You might be surprised how well it comes out. And you can always tell people "yeah, it was my dad's car. I brought the paint back from the dead. It's all original... pretty nice, huh?" I did something like that and found it quite rewarding. Again, just my $0.02.
 
Consider this if you haven't already: If you're thinking of getting the car repainted, why not try some drastic measures first. Get some really aggressive polish and go at it with the PC with a lambs wool pad. Or, you might even want to try a rotary. You might be surprised with the results you get AND if things don't work and you end up getting the car painted, you have at least gotten some experience working with more agressive polishing methods. A friend of mines 87.5 Audi Coupe GT was in rough shape (real rough) until he took the rotary to it. The car looks so much better now you can't believe it. Yes there are still imperfections (he needs paint, no question) but it looks drastically better. I don't know what methods you ahve tried, but if you're thinking of getting the car repainted then why not try some really serious stuff...if only as a learning experience.



Keeping a car swirl free is tough but possible. Since I have been on Autopia I have modified a lot of my techniques and there has been a big payoff in not having swirls return, and the ones that do return are much smaller and look more like wax streaks than serious swirls. The thing is, at least as it seems to me, that you're always going to get swirls, but the more care you take of the panit the less often they will return and the easier to polish out they will be. It also depends greatly on whether the car is a daily driver and if you have a garage or not. My car is a DD and I don't have a garage, so it's tough, but with some work it's definitely possible to keep the car mostly swirl free.
 
Sorry, but I just don't think that's the case. Nothing I've tried (ok, so I used it with a RO buffer) has TOUCHED these things. I mean, even if something isn't abrasive enough to take something off, it'll definately make it less noticable, but I have never been able to touch them, and the paint feels totally and completely smooth where they are. They're also uniform over the whole body which leads me to believe it's a defect in the OEM paintjob, or something beginning to go bad underneath the paint where no abrasive will touch it. You can see in this unflattering picture what I mean...



Paintcloseup.txt




Those specks are all over the car. I'm not actually convinced they weren't there from the start.
 
3M swirl remover, Megs Swirl remover, and, hmm, one other megs abrasive that was about an 8 on their scale. I mean, I've also really worked areas over with all of these. If it's all showed no change in the specks, they may go below the clear coat, yes?
 
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