New car to detail, no swirls.

heatgain

heatgain

Neutral & Detached
The other day a co-worker brought me his wife's new '08 Toyota Camry to detail. Metallic gray.
To my surprise there were no swirls at all on the vehicle. None. That's a surprise to me because when I took delivery of my then-new '07 Saturn Aura last year, there were dealer-induced swirls all over. Maybe Toyota has a harder better clear coat?
Anyway....my question.
I washed it, clayed it, applied DWG, and 2 coats of Ultima UPGP....looked great....flakes popping...BUT, I thought I should have (or could have) "jeweled" it first. Would it have been a good idea to do that with a finishing pad and Ultrafina before the glaze? Or use some other "jeweling" product? If faced again with an unswirled car, what product (if any) should I use to bring it up a notch before the glaze and/or sealant?
 
heatgain said:
The other day a co-worker brought me his wife's new '08 Toyota Camry to detail. Metallic gray.
To my surprise there were no swirls at all on the vehicle. None. That's a surprise to me because when I took delivery of my then-new '07 Saturn Aura last year, there were dealer-induced swirls all over. Maybe Toyota has a harder better clear coat?
Anyway....my question.
I washed it, clayed it, applied DWG, and 2 coats of Ultima UPGP....looked great....flakes popping...BUT, I thought I should have (or could have) "jeweled" it first. Would it have been a good idea to do that with a finishing pad and Ultrafina before the glaze? Or use some other "jeweling" product? If faced again with an unswirled car, what product (if any) should I use to bring it up a notch before the glaze and/or sealant?
Click to expand...

I'm kind of new here but what is "jeweling"

Also some dealership buff cars out and surprisingly some have good detailers...
 
heatgain said:
..........BUT, I thought I should have (or could have) "jeweled" it first. Would it have been a good idea to do that with a finishing pad and Ultrafina before the glaze? Or use some other "jeweling" product? If faced again with an unswirled car, what product (if any) should I use to bring it up a notch before the glaze and/or sealant?
Click to expand...
Menzerna Final Polish II (or PO85RD for the ceramic clears) is a favorite among many who jewel or burnish the paint. Ultrafina on a finish pad (or the blue 3M pad) should also work pretty well, although I haven't tried it yet.

As to the question should you have done it? That depends...... I wouldn't mind going over the car to jewel it but I wouldn't spend hours on it like some do and I doubt that your co-worker or his wife would have noticed the difference if the finish was really as nice as you say. I think it would take a pretty special car (or your own vehicle) to rate the time and expense of jeweling the paint.

Beemerboy said:
I'm kind of new here but what is "jeweling"..........
Click to expand...
The term jeweling or burnishing has been around a while but is now getting a bit more popular again (especially for some who detail the exotics).

The basic idea is you remove big scratches or defects by a product that leaves smaller scratches until you get to a point that the paint looks LSP ready. The theory at this point is even though the paint looks good to the naked eye, there are still fine scratches in it. If you spend some time with a very light polish and a finishing pad you can minimize those to the point the finish will look even better. I've read where some guys have literally spent hours "jeweling" the paint.

Can you really tell a difference? In pictures posted on the net I doubt it would be possible, and while I have went over a finish with a fine polish and a finish pad I haven't spent "hours" on the process.
 
Eliot Ness said:
Menzerna Final Polish II (or PO85RD for the ceramic clears) is a favorite among many who jewel or burnish the paint. Ultrafina on a finish pad (or the blue 3M pad) should also work pretty well, although I haven't tried it yet.

As to the question should you have done it? That depends...... I wouldn't mind going over the car to jewel it but I wouldn't spend hours on it like some do and I doubt that your co-worker or his wife would have noticed the difference if the finish was really as nice as you say. I think it would take a pretty special car (or your own vehicle) to rate the time and expense of jeweling the paint.

The term jeweling or burnishing has been around a while but is now getting a bit more popular again (especially for some who detail the exotics).

The basic idea is you remove big scratches or defects by a product that leaves smaller scratches until you get to a point that the paint looks LSP ready. The theory at this point is even though the paint looks good to the naked eye, there are still fine scratches in it. If you spend some time with a very light polish and a finishing pad you can minimize those to the point the finish will look even better. I've read where some guys have literally spent hours "jeweling" the paint.

Can you really tell a difference? In pictures posted on the net I doubt it would be possible, and while I have went over a finish with a fine polish and a finish pad I haven't spent "hours" on the process.
Click to expand...


I understand now what that is...I've done that on some non-metallic cars..like my JB BMW they are unforgiving of any swirls in the paint...This is why I started using glazes with fillers to mask those tiny marks...then when to LSP...I think as a detailer you have to know when enough is enough IMO
 
Beemerboy said:
I understand now what that is...I've done that on some non-metallic cars..like my JB BMW they are unforgiving of any swirls in the paint...This is why I started using glazes with fillers to mask those tiny marks...then when to LSP...I think as a detailer you have to know when enough is enough IMO
Click to expand...
Yeah, most people know what it is but just aren't familiar with that terminology (jeweling) when used in the context of polishing a vehicle.

If you've got a JB BMW then my hat goes off to you :bow...... I'd be nervous if there was one in my neighborhood ;)
 
YOu can use Menz final polish to jewel the paint but the process is pretty time consuming. A lot easier and cost effective to use a glaze. If this was a show car or similiar then jeweling the paint would be worth it. But for an everyday car I do not see the need.
 
heatgain said:
Hey Anthony!
I was shocked! And he's washed the car before too. NO swirls. Maybe this is a new Ceramic coat? Not one swirl.
Click to expand...

Under what kind of light?

Halogen is unforgiving of the paints finish..I've not seen one car under that light that you could not see some swirls
 
It can happen, the detail dept we have here does a great job on cars. Very rare do I see one leave with swirls.
 
Why polish it at all...if there were no swirls when you got it and then none after you washed it then clayed it then add a glaze in there and put on your LSP. Save the poloshing for when it does get swirls...
 
Stephan said:
Why polish it at all...if there were no swirls when you got it and then none after you washed it then clayed it then add a glaze in there and put on your LSP. Save the poloshing for when it does get swirls...
Click to expand...

That's what I ended up doing....
Wash, Clay, Glaze, Seal.
Just kinda felt guilty that I didn't polish. :)
I'm going to offer him a 3rd coat of UPGP this weekend and check out the finish under halogens as suggested.
I can't get passed seeing no swirls.
 
Beemerboy said:
...I think as a detailer you have to know when enough is enough IMO
Click to expand...


I love this comment. I burnished paint once. The car was in awesome shape, but I figured I would give it a go. It was very time consuming and I felt that unless I'm getting paid for 2 extra steps (thats how long it took me) I would not be doing this for people as msot will not notice the difference. I agree that we all need to know when to stop especially when you're doing it for money.

A clean even job is much nicer looking than a job where the paint is "jeweled" yet everything els eis a mess. I've gotten the opprtunity lately to see some of my local detaielrs work, and although their polish work is top notch, almost everything else is seriously lacking as far as clean work.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top