Fine scratches/swirl marks

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Happy friday!

I started at the bottom of the barrel in hopes of removing the surface scratches and swirls on the Buick.

The turtle wax scratch remover seemed no more abrasive than car wax. It was very smoothe feeling.

I didn't see any noticeable difference in the before/after on the test patch.

What happens to be your favorite for manually removing or lessening cosmetic scratches on your clearcoat? I'm leary of using
A power buffer and doing further damage.
 
You have to wash, clay bar it, then polish with a real machine. Start with the finest polish to get the hang of it. The fine polish will help you assess the damage. Sometimes the swirls are light enough to go away with fine polish. Yep, more aggressive polish takes out deeper scratches. However you only have so much clear coat.
 
I should add that if you get a PC 7424 or similar it is hard to damage the paint.
 
Yeah id prep surface as mentionned above and start with least abrasive to test it out and work your way to more abrasive. I like the Meguiars pro line stuff in beige bottles.
http://www.meguiars.com/m-en/products?tags=1542,1543,1544&displayText=Defect+Correction

Id go with m205 and see how it looks after and go to M105 if necessary.
 
OTC version of 105 is ~ Ultimate Compound and OTC version of 205 is ~ Ultimate Polish, the OTCs are a little less aggressive which I think is a good thing.
 
You really need a machine to remove swirls / scratches, especially over a large area. If you must do it by hand, you will probably need a more aggressive product such as a compound (Meguiars Ultimate Compound) to get anything done. Even then though, I wouldn't expect results. I got a dual action polisher and pads from Harbor Freight. A lot of people knock HF but those products work just fine for me.
 
Originally Posted By: gregk24
You really need a machine to remove swirls / scratches, especially over a large area. If you must do it by hand, you will probably need a more aggressive product such as a compound (Meguiars Ultimate Compound) to get anything done. Even then though, I wouldn't expect results. I got a dual action polisher and pads from Harbor Freight. A lot of people knock HF but those products work just fine for me.


I bought a hf polisher and used meguairs m205 to polish my Sienna. It came out nice.
 
Well, polisher it is then. I didn't see 205, but there was a Meguiars with a similar level of cut based upon the little chart from the bottles online,

They had 105, but at $25, I'm going to see how well it does after I give it a few rounds with the bottle I got. I don't mind waxing, so if I have to redo it later, my feelings aren't hurt.

Thanks everybody!
 
Definitely needed the 105. 4 passes of that, and scratches weren't visible any longer. Did a 2nd pass with the Meguiars 2 Fine-cut cleaner, and I'm just taking a breather before putting down a coat of wax.

Definitely worth 3 hours of sweat and water.
 
Originally Posted By: gregk24
You really need a machine to remove swirls / scratches, especially over a large area. If you must do it by hand, you will probably need a more aggressive product such as a compound (Meguiars Ultimate Compound) to get anything done. Even then though, I wouldn't expect results. I got a dual action polisher and pads from Harbor Freight. A lot of people knock HF but those products work just fine for me.


Harbor Freight DA and Maguire's Ultimate Compound worked wonders on my SLK. Easy and safe. Use orange pad. Had Ultimate Polish but didn't need to use it as finish was flawless. Then finished off with Klasse All-in-One Paint Cleaner & Polish, then Klasse High Gloss Sealant Glaze.

Super glossy wet look finish now.
 
Originally Posted By: Stevie
Originally Posted By: gregk24
You really need a machine to remove swirls / scratches, especially over a large area. If you must do it by hand, you will probably need a more aggressive product such as a compound (Meguiars Ultimate Compound) to get anything done. Even then though, I wouldn't expect results. I got a dual action polisher and pads from Harbor Freight. A lot of people knock HF but those products work just fine for me.


Harbor Freight DA and Maguire's Ultimate Compound worked wonders on my SLK. Easy and safe. Use orange pad. Had Ultimate Polish but didn't need to use it as finish was flawless. Then finished off with Klasse All-in-One Paint Cleaner & Polish, then Klasse High Gloss Sealant Glaze.

Super glossy wet look finish now.


The exact same products I use. The only issue I had was with the HF pads. The velcro part of the pad was smaller than the circumference of the pad itself and despite cleaning it throughout the process, keeping the pad damp and not overheating it, it started to come apart (could be user error). I've heard that they up-sized the velcro to cover the entire bottom of the pad. I have about 6 coats of KSG on my two cars. Great stuff; glossy and slick. I use Ivan Rajic's (Detailed Image) method of applying and removing the KSG and it makes the job easy and quick.

KSG Detailed Image
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: JC1
Originally Posted By: gregk24
You really need a machine to remove swirls / scratches, especially over a large area. If you must do it by hand, you will probably need a more aggressive product such as a compound (Meguiars Ultimate Compound) to get anything done. Even then though, I wouldn't expect results. I got a dual action polisher and pads from Harbor Freight. A lot of people knock HF but those products work just fine for me.


I bought a hf polisher and used meguairs m205 to polish my Sienna. It came out nice.


+1 105 and 205 is a great combo. Always start with the less abrasive (205) and see the results. It also helps to do an IPA wipe down to make sure the polish oils are gone and the results aren't being hidden. Work slow and methodical.
 
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