Swirl

U

utforme

New member
I know this must sound like a dumb question. But i'm new to car detailing and i was wondering exactly what causes swirl marks, is it the way a car is wax the first time or the paint itself?

Thanks.
 
washing mate. wiping a sponge or mitt across dirty paint with a wash solution thats not lubricating enough, using too much pressure, circular motions with the wash material and also only using one bucket and not cleaning or changing to a clean mitt regularly throughout the process.



Also caused by drying with chamois due to the surface friction of the chamois and the speed and pressure at which it's being applied plus using it on a not totally clean section.

Machine polishing a car and having a section of the pad raised above the paint too much.
 
^^^^ What he said!



Washing technique will cause 45% of the swirls on your car. Drying will cause another 45%. the other 10% is reserved for things like people sitting on your car, bad buffing towel, etc etc....



Jim
 
SVR said:
Machine polishing a car and having a section of the pad raised above the paint too much.
Click to expand...



Why does this cause flaws? Are talking about applying uneven pressure? Can you elaborate -- I didn't know about this issue. Thanks!
 
utforme said:
.. what causes swirl marks?
Click to expand...



Bigger view: something that's harder than the paint (dirt, synthetic wash/dry media, abrasive polish, etc.) gets pressed against the paint and is then moved *across* the paint under pressure.



felthove- All sorts of things can go wrong when using a rotary polisher (much less likely with PC/Cyclo/hand work). The resulting swirls often come from the "imperfect" breakdown of the abrasives or the wrong degree of pressure being applied to a concentrated area. Too steep of a pad angle results in more pressure that the point of greatest pad/paint contact and that can cause problems, from the initial bite of the abrasive to the way it breaks down.



But then there are people who always tilt the pad and still get perfect, swirl-free finishes :nixweiss Rotary work can almost seem like voodoo at times...what works for you works for you (or doesn't).
 
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