Swirl marks

[Tpep22]

Damn swirl marks. Got my jet black 1er and have had to deal with these swirl marks since about the first month. Can they be buffed out and what will that do to my clear coat? will it be even thinner than it already is, allowing them to reappear even easier than they already have? I really cant stand the sight of them anymore. I have taken it to a detailer to have them rubbed out with their "rubbing compound" but that only led to nasty hazing that magically appeared a week or two after they had supposedly taken care of them!!!!

[Quick1 TO BE]

they can be buffed out with a very hard wax bar that they use. it will take that righ toff. Ill check with my friend as he does this for living and let u know. most likely u need to get someone to do it the first time so u can watch and learn and maybe do it urself from then on. shouldnt be more then $75.


Ash

[JohnL135I]

Do you hand wash your car or take it to a car wash?

You need to invest in a good polisher and some good polish. Do a search on the forum and check out the detail section.

Jet Black will swirl, its just a fact of life. You can remove them, but they will come back.

Extra care has to be taken with the paint to minimize the swirling.

[creepy coupe]

My Le Mans blue 3 series suffered badly from swirl marks, even though I tried to take great care of the paint, BMW water baed clear coats arn't as goos as some.

I had a guy come out to correct mine, but they came back after a while.

[tbird]

"How" did you get the swirl marks? There are quite a few posts on here about preventing the dealer from washing the car.

If you really want them gone, you can go to a body shop and have them do their special buffing. It should be about $300 or so, but it will smooth out your paint.

After that, remember the following rules
1) Never let the dealer wash your car. Never take it to an automatic wash.
2) Use only microfiber cloth for washing/drying/waxing your car
3) Never under any circumstance use any wax that says "will remove scratches and buffs paint to a shine". It does that by using abrasives to sand the paint, and the circular motion of the the abrasives causes........swirl marks!
4) Use only a polymer wax. Never silicone, and preferably not carnauba (too much work). Many people swear by Zaino, and one day I will try it, but I have used "Liquid Glass" for years and it is easy to put on, easy to buff off (literally), and it doesn't scratch paint at all.

Good luck.

[BlackjackMulligan]

There's a ton of threads on swirls in Jet Black, try a search.

It's a major problem. I just polished my whole car for Cars and Coffee and it looks great but I know it won't last......

[haglem]

a good resource too is http://www.detailedimage.com i bought alot of stuff from them. Including a random orbital buffer with a light cutting paste to remove swirls. Works wonders I have to say. But there is tons of info on how to detail your car and what products to use.

[BForbes]

Moving to Detail/Waxing section....

[Greg@DetailedImage]

Yes you can remove the majority of the swirls without harming the clear coat or reducing it drastically. The first detailer probably didn't do a very good job of polishing and the glaze or wax they used temporarily covered up the haze. As it faded the problems underneath it became more visible.

To remove a lot of the imperfections I would recommend a good medium and light cutting polish applied by a buffer. Polishes require a lot of heat and pressure to be properly worked in to the surface. Both the Porter Cable 7424 and Flex XC 3401 VRG are great examples of very safe and effective buffers for anyone to use. First time detailers have gotten great results with these buffers and I'd be happy to help you through the buffing process if you are interested. You can do it by hand but the results will be somewhat limited.

I recommned a medium and light polish combination like the Menzerna PO83 and the Menzerna PO106FA. This is one of the premium combos on the market because it does a great job of removing imperfections and finishes down smoother and more optically clear than any other polishes I've tested. If you apply them with a buffer I use the PO83 first with an orange pad and follow it up with the PO106FA and a white pad. Upon completion the majority of light swirls, oxidation, hazing, etc. should be gone.

After you are done with that I recommend a quality sealant and/or wax to protect the paint and enhance the shine. If you need any recommendations or advice for these steps I'd be happy to help as well.

Greg @ Detailed Image

[EINSER]

Amen to Greg's advice above. I recently got the Porter Cable 7424 and the Menzerna products mentioned above. After staring at them for several days due to my fear of destroying my paint because of my total lack of experience with anything like this, I got up the nerve and did a test polish on the truck lid and I haven't looked back since! Give yourself a little bit of practice to get the right amount of polish on the pad and a feel for the machine and you WILL become hooked. I had agonized over some swirls and holograms left from the dealer prep of my Black Sapphire 135 but those are all gone now and the car looks 100% better than when I first got it. Good luck!

[Tpep22]

appreciate the advice guys. it really is a pain to deal with the jet black paint, but in the end it does look amazing! thanks again.

[04Enthusiast]

Be careful when buying microfiber towels as they are not all equal in quality. I have yet to find a microfiber towel that doesn't put swirl marks back on my Jet Black BMW.

[Greg@DetailedImage]

Originally Posted by EINSER

Amen to Greg's advice above. I recently got the Porter Cable 7427 and the Menzerna products mentioned above. After staring at them for several days due to my fear of destroying my paint because of my total lack of experience with anything like this, I got up the nerve and did a test polish on the truck lid and I haven't looked back since! Give yourself a little bit of practice to get the right amount of polish on the pad and a feel for the machine and you WILL become hooked. I had agonized over some swirls and holograms left from the dealer prep of my Black Sapphire 135 but those are all gone now and the car looks 100% better than when I first got it. Good luck!

I'm absolutely thrilled to hear the products and advice we provided were helpful to your detail. You did everything right by getting the right information, quality products and then the confidence to do something new. If you have any other questions let me know, otherwise keep up the great work!

Originally Posted by Tpep22

appreciate the advice guys. it really is a pain to deal with the jet black paint, but in the end it does look amazing! thanks again.

Black paint does show the most imperfections but if often looks the best when detailed properly. If I can help you any further please let me know.

Greg @ Detailed Image

[Qunadry]

Clay bar the paint, followed by Mother's 3-step system. It will consume most of a day to do this, but it will work. Once done, you should only need to wax every 4 to 6 weeks. I have used Mother's products for years and they are the best and priced right.

Only use 100% cotton towels, in particular to dry the car after washing. Do not use fabric softener when you wash the towels. My wife claims the towels I use on my cars are better than most people use on themselves.

[BlackjackMulligan]

Originally Posted by 04Enthusiast

Be careful when buying microfiber towels as they are not all equal in quality. I have yet to find a microfiber towel that doesn't put swirl marks back on my Jet Black BMW.

+1, I found this out the hard way. I now use cotton cloths to take off polish, wax, etc.

[mrgoochio]

Originally Posted by Tpep22

Damn swirl marks. Got my jet black 1er and have had to deal with these swirl marks since about the first month. Can they be buffed out and what will that do to my clear coat? will it be even thinner than it already is, allowing them to reappear even easier than they already have? I really cant stand the sight of them anymore. I have taken it to a detailer to have them rubbed out with their "rubbing compound" but that only led to nasty hazing that magically appeared a week or two after they had supposedly taken care of them!!!!

detailer obviously didn't do a good job as previously stated.. jet black is difficult to work with and they likely used some type of glaze with filler to "buff" out those swirls. "rubbing compound"? I wouldn't go back to that detailer without really going over the procedure and products that they use in detail.. if youre not familiar with detailing technique and product knowledge then do some research before hand. you can alternatively just find someone else that actually knows what theyre doing.. someone that has worked on bmw's and is familiar with jet black specifically.

[esses]

You want to take smaller steps first and work your way up.

If claybar alone doesn't cut it, apply Zaino PC Fusion by hand. If that doesn't work, then move on to the buffer and Menzerna. I am continualy amazed by what the Zaino product can do with just hand application.

[mrgoochio]

claybars aren't for removing swirls.. if anything, it'll add to the swirling. claybars are for removing contaminants before paint correction takes place..