Hello NAM

I have a 2007 Nightfire Red MC. I hoping that you fellow Mini owners could help me answer some questions in getting some pretty rough looking paint swirls that I received from the automated brush car wash. Yes I have learned lession, I will never use them again.

I have visited the Prima website, but I am kind of scratching my head wondering which product formulation to purchase. Or is Prima the best product?

I am looking for a product that is easy to use because waxing is not really my thing.

What product do guys & girls recommend? If Prima; what products?

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Mini Hooper

 

Call Detailer's Paradise and talk to Heather or Nick. They'll give you good advice. That being said, I'd start out with one of the starter bundles. As far as the swirls go, best answer is Prima Swirl and a porter cable random orbital polisher - expensive but very useful.

 

+1.

 

To truly and physically remove your swirls completely, you would need to invest in (or better yet... borrow!) a Porter Cable DA polisher or equivalent (Dewalt and Meguairs make something similar).

You can correct some of your swirls by hand although it is painstaking arm work (at least 5 hours worth and up to 15+) and you are likely to improve only between 20 and 50% of the swirls, as a rough estimate. Unfortunately, even those with strong arms, endurance and the motivation, it is just physically impossible to completely emulate the action and torque of a machine polisher.

That said, and keeping with the hand polishing strategy, it really depends on your personal tolerance for anything less than perfection. Say you work the paint by hand with Prima Swirl for many hours and achieve an improvement of about 40%. Perhaps the results, in your eyes, are not too bad. Then, you take a filler/concealer product (ie, Amigo) to fill in another 10-15% of the swirls (and then seal it so it lasts as long as possible). Although you'll always have to keep filling/concealing on a regular basis to maintain your net 50-55% improvement overall, that may be fine for how you want the paint to look.


If you think you'd demand perfection or near perfection, then the PC or similar is honestly the only way to get there. For your situation, I'd bet that you'd need the PC, a white pad, an orange pad and Swirl to do the trick. It would still take several hours but the effort/energy is significantly less than doing it by hand (the polisher does all the work!) and your end result can be perfection.

Obviously I'm biased because I sell all these things, but honestly I also have a lot of experience with both hand and machine polishing swirls and I think everyone needs to understand the pros and cons of both before venturing forth. Otherwise, frustration is guaranteed! I think setting realistic expectations is just so important.

As was mentioned, if you'd like even more personalized service and advice, please do give us a call here. Although I'm about to switch gears to work on taxes with my door shut, Nick is taking phone calls and is happy to help (plus he trained me and knows even much more!).

Good luck!

-Heather

 

i just figured out why DP hasn't taken off full steam yet with regional help desks and a publicly traded stock. they need to stop being so helpful!

you should totally buy your own.
because:
they help you
they sponsor NAM
the PC will save you time... and what is your time worth to you?
their fun
...everyone else is doing it

 

Not Prima Swirl, but this is what a PC and swirl remover, polish can do to paint.




Mark

 

Thank you all for the great advice.

 

Another PC testimonial (with Prima Cut & Swirl no less):


Just try that by hand.

 

I use Prima Swirl as my main polish. In this picture, this is after about an hour of polishing with Swirl and I'm applying Amigo here, before finishing with Epic. The black roof began with major swirls and scratches, and by this time it was 98% flawless.





But if you need more convincing, I love Prima because whether it's in the hands of the professional or the consumer, it's a wonderful product that produces awesome results.

I took this finish of an Aston Martin DB9

And did this side by side test on it


And transformed this

into this


Here's proof that Swirl works--these are micro shots at 50x of swirls along with a deep scratch.


After polishing the swirls out, it looked like this


And after working on that scratch, I was able to minimize it




Here's what Swirl did to this 1999 Miata




Prima Swirl really works!

Richard

 

anyone use Prima Swirl on an older car without clear coat? i have a red car that has swirl on the hood. love the Zaino products and had planned to use Z-pc with a flex polisher--but impressed what is being said about Prima Swirl-any views??

 

All the time. Swirl works great on single stage paints.

 

WOWOOW How long does it take to achieve it?

 

Thanks!!

Depends on your expectations and the condition of the paint and how large of a car, but a spot takes a few minutes, a whole MINI takes about 4 to 5 hours, some cars take as long as 10 hours or more of polishing.

PREP
When I work on a car, I spend about 1.5 hrs washing, claying, and taping

WAX/Final Details
I spend another 1.5 hrs waxing, vacuuming, cleaning interior (That's 3 hours without polishing)

 

thanks! so is your view on a non clear coat car--that prima is a better choice that Z-pc. i already have the zaino but i want to do a great job on the swirls so dont mind buy prima-if it is much better. thanks robert

 

I don't have extensive experience with Z-PC, so I can't say much about how it will work with single stage paints or if Swirl will work better. My experience has been with Meguiar's professional products like M80 and M83 and with Prima Swirl, and I prefer Swirl over Meguiar's Professional Mirror Glaze products.



Richard

 

that a lot of work but the result is astounding... if u r in my area, i would pay ya ot do my car...

 

Would you use the Finish product in any of these steps to remove swirls?

I have swirl but have yet to borrow a PC because i am afraid

But before I start i would like have everything and plan on practicing on my 95 ranger

 

I've never needed to use Finish on a MINI. =)

No need to be afraid to use the PC. My DVD is a good first step.
How-to Use the PC for Show Car Results

Also, while it hasn't been released yet, check out the Second Issue of the NAM Alliance. I've spent considerable time talking about polishes and machine polishing.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.com/alliance
(First issue available now and it's free)

Richard

 

Thanks Richard, i have heard about your dvd that was gonna be my next question.

 

You should feel pretty comfortable with the PC after watching the whole 2.5 hr DVD.

I've got a Prima Conversion "chart" available--have to go find it--but it's basically telling you how the Prima system differs from the Meguiar's system shown on the DVD.

Richard

 

Richard, maybe that could be one of the new stickies.

Mark

 

This guy should stop taking his db9 thru the car wash ! He can pay someone to hand wash it..he's got the $$$

 

who took their db9 throw a car wash? your kidding right?

 

LOL, the pics of the Black DB9 at the top of the page. Must have been a car wash to get swirls like that...alot of them!!!!

 

Aw yes. The new owner purchased it used from the Aston Martin dealership. He brought it home that way, so it wasn't his fault. Fortunately we had a mutual friend that steered him to me to get it fixed. =)

Good idea. Here is the existing thread for the conversion.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=135768