Just took a few pictures and this one shows the swirls the most. I'm pretty sure if there is swirls on the bonnet, there would be swirls over the car. So I have all the polishes, but not sure whether to use swirl or amigo for this job. Do I need to clay the car before I polish it? Which clay bar is good? But right now I just would like to which polish is fine for the swirls on my car.

Thanks in advance

 

if that was my daily driven car, i would just use amigo and fill them.

on a weekend car, definitely use swirl and remove all that hazing and
swirls.

im having great success with DP's prima clay.

 

Are you polishing by hand or PC?? Using Amigo alone wouldn't satisfy me for this level of swirls. But that's just me. A PC and Swirl on an Orange or a White pad will do wonders.

 

I completely agree.. and I was going to say exactly that (only add that I like the 3M swirl remover) with a yellow pad. The 3M and the yellow pad work beautifully and will remove virtually all your standard swirl marks. I just did my car and the hood of my wifes car (it had a few big hard water spots) this past weekend and couldn't be happier.

Before I tried the yellow pad I had a standard white pad and didn't get the results I wanted. The yellow pad, for me, worked really well and didn't require much, if any, pressure at all with the PC. The weight of the PC was enough pressure to do most of the swirl remover. It might be a little abrasive if you used it a lot in once spot along with an abrasive cleaner. I just kept the PC moving and kept a decent amount of swirl remover on the surface. I then followed it up with a decent wax. My favorite "everyday" wax is Tech Wax because it goes on easy and comes off easy and required very little buffing to get even..

Good Luck!

 

Need? Well technically you never need to use clay. However you will want to use clay so that your finish is nice and smooth and your wax (whatever system you choose) has a good clean surface to bond to. This will help with the durability of the wax and make your MINI oh so much more pretty!
I use the DP clay because it tends to be firmer that the other clays out there. I like that, but some don't. It also has just enough stick to it that it will stay in my hand but not leave clay all over me. The DP clay also hold up well using either soapy water or diluted QD as the lube.
So choose to clay - it won't be wasted work and you might be surprised with what you actually remove from your paint.

 

Rich - are you using the DP (Lake Country) pads? If so I would say that the yellow pad is by far too aggressive. The most I use on the MINI is the orange pad. I have used the yellow pad on a badly oxidized Ford PU but only because the paint on Fords is so hard and the oxidation was so bad.
I'm afraid that the yellow pad - even using Swirl - would leave haze. I guess you could just step down a pad to remove the haze, but I still don't think you need to be so harsh on your poor ol' MINI.

 

You may be right there.. It was kind of like using a booozka when I needed a a sling-shot. I knew it was going to be kinda rough.. so I didn't use much pressure at all.. The hard water spots on my wifes Mini didn't want to come out with any of my other pads.. and I didn't really want to use the medium-cut cleaner I had.. Luckily I didn't get any haze.. I should've said "Don't try this at home"..

 

Some of us are not rich enough to have seperate DDs & Weekend Cars & we like our DDs to look as good as rich peoples' fancy schmancy weekend cars so us poor folks also like to remove swirls from our DD's not just fill them

 

<= hahaha!


i meant it as i would not spend too much time on it as it will get
rained on and dirty in no time. it's more of a haze from a daily driver
perspective. my Legacy is starting to look like that.... kinda hazy with
light swirls. im going to have to polish it out this weekend.

i went online shopping yesterday morning for Amigo, and some pads,
and plugged-in overnight freight so that i can have it today in prep
for my 4day weekend... the freight came out $58. so, i
guess im not in that big of a hurry. lol will use griot's Polish3
this time.

 

If it gets dirty can us poor folks not clean it?
If it gets rained on can we not dry it of?

 

Have to agree with "tt" on this one, Ken.

I've been keeping my daily drivers as clean and shiny as I possibly can. The weekend motoring car will get no more nor no less detailing treatment (quality-wise--quantity-wise, the commuters will get lots more attention).

Sorry... if you're and OCDetailer, you're just as insane with your daily commuters are you are with the weekend toys.

 

^ +1 Well said. Some of us have to drive our cars and like them clean as in not settling for the excuse "Daily Driver".

 

lol! too funny.

CR&PW&JB- man your name is hard to type now.

if you have the time and energy to detail 3 cars exactly the same
way i do on my MINI, then you got super wealth of luxury.
cause i dont have that kinda time.
<=

 

Well, Ken... I also spend time raising my 11-year old, keeping my fiance happy (read that any way you want ), doing my landscaping and gardening, watching an occasional baseball game, etc, etc....

But if I keep at the daily drivers with the QD and mf towels along with some clarity and glass cleaner, it only takes about 30 minutes a day to keep them looking great. And then on Saturday morning around 6:30, while my son and fiance are still sleeping like lazy-bones , I'm doing the weekly thorough detailing, which takes about 45 minutes per MINI.

It's not all that tough... really.

Oh yeah, almost forgot: You can type "Chili Red & Pepper White & Jet Black" if you find that easier.

 

And here I thought DD was daily driver not Daily Detail...

 

yah, sometimes i just wish i could say i let my wife do all the work and
i just play with my cars all day.

that would be very nice.

so from that perspective, i think we're all in the same boat.

 

We can dream, right ?!?!

 

wait, you're not dreaming about a CR&PW&JB&IB?

 

My need for daily QD has dropped dramatically since I got a car cover for Father's Day. Since I have to park in the driveway, it was a chore to keep the MINI looking good each and every day. Now though it is only bothersome during rainy weather and I'm guessing snow time.
So much to do and so little time. Guess that's why I detail mostly in the wee hours.

 

No I think he's dreaming of CR&PW&JB&HB

 

In honor of THE SIMPSONS movie coming out today...

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.... Hyper Blue ! <<drools>>

 

Yeah, just ordered a car cover for the JB 'vert yesterday. Since I'll be detailing it this weekend, I'd say the cover is a necessity. It was either a $175 car cover or a $15,000 addition to add another garage stall.

The car cover it is !!

 

Silly, silly kenchan! You should've called us. Yes, when you order online overnight shipping is $50 plus whatever the regular shipping tier is. It is setup that way because the online system has no way to know how much everything you're buying will weigh... so we aim on the high side if a customer wants this expedited service online. We had been burned sooo badly on overnight shipping costs before we did it this way. (even still, some orders are so big that the customer is still getting a really good deal at $50 for overnight!)

That said, if you want to overnight something small and/or light in weight, please call and get a custom overnight quote. We'll never charge you more than the online automatic amount (for delivery in the continental US, anyway) but we are happy to charge you whatever the actual DHL charge is for overnight service. In other words, I would bet that an Amigo and a few light pads to a metropolitan area like Chicago would not cost anything close to $58. (my rough guess is around $25-30)

I know it's too late for this weekend, but remember for the future to give us a call if you need anything overnighted to you. It may be less than the online amount!

-Heather

 

Shwoo! I'd say you were extremely lucky that you didn't create a good bit of hazing, especially on a MINI, with that yellow pad. I'm actually very surprised! Consider yourself very lucky and don't to that again.

The yellow pad is very aggresive and in most cases (especially MINIs) is way overkill. The pad, even without an abrasive chemical, can be abrasive itself. Using the yellow pad will almost always cause hazing. That said, there are some cases when it's the only thing that will work. Just know that if you use the yellow pad, be prepared for 1 or more followup steps to clean up the mess it makes as it fixes problems.

-Heather

 

Thanks, Heather!

Actually I was in a meeting yesterday and could not call from a landline.