People with something to hide tend to get that way.
It's not very much and that's because when you apply by machine, only a very thin coat is applied--which is all you need. With a machine, you use less product, get better coverage, and it will polish your paint without all the elbow grease.

 

yeah, richard is one of a kind. One day, I will take a trip across thecountry, like in a year. When I do, I am going to give the car to rich for a day and have him detail it.

This is my plan for next spring Yup I hope I can manage it. me and my ladayfren, married, doing our thing across the dessert

 

Alright, sweet.

I got paid today so i have enough cash to get the DP starter bundle 1, a bottle of hydro and clay. If i do it right (keyword!) how much clay do i need? I should be able to get away with one bar right?

 

One bar should last you at least three sessions. Cut it into a chunk about the size of a 50 cent piece (as if they were still available), kneed it out so it covers your fingers and get after it.

 

Hey,

I just had another look at the paint today, and the more i look at it the more i thing "wow this car really needs cleaning". One slight problem though is that i noticed a fair amount of swirling on my roof, bonnet and the A panels.

Now i know that the best way (or at least one of the better) to remove swirling is to take something like a Porter Cable (next best choice being buttloads of elbow grease). However i am not in a position to spend that kind of money right now and i have read quite a few horror stories about hand polishing.

So with that in mind, is there any way to get rid of at least some of the swirling without shelling out the money for an expensive tool? If the answer is no then i will just live it for a while.

 

answer is Scratch-X with a foam applicator and elbow grease.

 

Yes, get some Hydro. Or get some Amigo and Hydro. They both have fillers which work pretty well to mask defects.

See these writeups I did (Hand Applied--no machine involved)
HYDRO
http://www.showcardetailing.com/foru...ighlight=prima

AMIGO and Hydro
http://www.showcardetailing.com/foru...ht=amigo+hydro

 

Hydro will help hide some swirls too. If you want to remove them however, ScratchX is off the shelf and works well.

 

Yes, but ScratchX requires plenty of elbow grease---Hydro can be used by couch potatoes! Surprised Ken didn't even bother to take advantage of that Hydro moment.

 

Excellent. That is just what i was hoping to hear. I was planning on ordering some hydro anyway so i should have it covered. This excellent news (can you tell i am happy?).

 

I would actually go Amigo instead of Scratch-X, Epic, and then Hydro I think. For me, they both work about the same, but Amigo is more versatile. And it too fills swirls a little bit.

 

Again, hiding rather than removing. If I wanted to hide the swirls I would choose Hydro. If I wanted to remove the swirls I would choose a PC & Swirl. If I didn't have the cash for a PC and still wanted to remove the swirls I would choose ScratchX and a Power Bar and get after it.

 

Yeah, but for me hiding it isnt that big a deal right now. The swirling is light enough such that something that just hides it will work well enough for my purposes. At this point in time i really just want to restore some of its former look. I am not irritated enough by the swirls that i am about to go out and by a PC or break my arm using Scratchx.

 

Is there a good Mini club in your area? Maybe someone in your area would be willing to help you out. I would but I doubt that you'd want to drive to Souteast Lower Alabama for it - could buy a PC for that money

 

Good suggestion, and definitely something i will look into for the future.

At this point though it doesnt make much difference as i just placed my order and decided to go with a filler for simplicity sake.

 

So long as you are waxing it regularly and claybarring, I dont think it matters. I would agree with the Amigo logic for lightly-unperfect paint. Protects and makes it look better. sounds a lot easier

I will be amigo'ing in the spring after another crap winter. I will do that until a thorough "swirl and orange pad" are needed. I have to get a random orbital too, lots of costs involved and a commitment to learn.

 

I'm not recommending one over the other, I'm just saying that if you choose to remove swirls it will require a different product and approach than if you're choosing to hide the swirls. I prefer to remove the swirls so I use a diminishing abrasive polish like Swirl or ScratchX. Even after that I use Amigo to hide any remaining issues I might have missed. Hiding the swirls is a lot easier in which case you can use Hydro or Amigo or both.
Perhaps you can look for a detailing store like Detailers Paradise that puts on classes and demos. The suggestion about a local MINI club is good or heck just ask the question here on NAM: "Hey, anybody in Connecticut have a PC I can use for a day?"

 

So i did the whole car today. Took me about 3 hours and i had to work into the dark (good thing i have a set of 1000watt worklights i can use for stuff like this).


Basically it was
-Wash: Pretty straightfoward, probably didnt rinse the mit enough but it doesnt seem to have made a huge impact. Of course this made it look a lot nicer as the wax had clearly worn off and it hadnt been washed in about 3 or 4 weeks

Clay: A lot easier then i thought it would be. I used the soapy water i had from washing and that did a great job as a lubricant. I was finally able to get rid of a bunch of tar spots and it took of an insane amount of dirt.

Amigo: I really dont know what to say about this. On the one hand it was pretty easy to do. On the other hand i cant really say if it did a ton of good. As it turns out my swirling is a lot worse than i thought so i dont think a filler is going to cut it.

Wax: Pretty easy. I have only done one coat so far but the Epic has really brought out the shine (and made my paint chips really obvious...).


All in all, the Mini looks about 20x better than it did a few hours ago.

 

Glad you are happy with the results and look forward to pics. As far as Amigo goes, I understand it can be done by hand but yields a lot better results with a PC. If swirls are bad then you might need to move up to Swirl.

 

Yeah I will try and snag a pick tommorow evening, my camera barely works in broad daylight and I find I can get better lighting in the evening.

 

sad when you find you have a lot of swirls :(

well, at least one day, you can erase them. Learn how to never touch the paint while it is unwashed, never bring it to a car wash, wash with a two bucket system and high quality, slippery soap and good wash mitt. Pretty much will freeze the car in time until one day you can get the right gear and knowledge (im lacking in the knowledge myself) of how to do a 100% job on random orbital polishing.

 

Some guy, I'm in the same boat as you. I've had my new 07 mini for about 4 weeks now, I want the paint looking it's best, so I oreder amigo to fill in the swirls (I hope it works!) along with the bundle, I will just have to go for it and see how it comes out. I don't know how much of the problem was created by me or the dealer, but in any case I will learn.

 

The more I look at it the more i think that the Amigo actually did a lot of good. I would use it again, which should say something about it.