The story of the guy who scratched my car is on NAM. He buffed the scratches out (he said he buffed the entire hood), but there are areas that reflect light differently...they're in circular patterns. I'm assuming these are swirl marks from the buffing. I'm going to try some Z-5 on it tomorrow. If that works, I'm wondering about the area under the bra. I'm having a ProForm bra installed next weekend. (it will cover the entire front end) I'm going to ask the guy if I can try to take care of the swirls before he installs the new bra. The thing is I know that he has to remove all waxes, sealants, etc. to install the bra. Since Z-5 is non-abrasive, I'm not sure how it removes swirls, but I'm guessing it fills them some how. If this is true, when he goes to remove the polish to install the bra will the swirls return? I hope this isn't a dumb question. I'm new to this stuff.

 

if it's just a filler, then yes, it will return when he strips off the wax.

you need to polish it out, then apply the clearbra.

 

I was afraid of that. I'll go buy something else to take care of it then. I've seen that quite a few people on NAM use Scratch-X. Is that pretty good stuff? Another thing is, I took my car to the dealer yesterday. I didn't realize they would wash it. Well, they did, and it was awful. Nasty water spots everywhere...it almost looked like all the soap hadn't been rinsed off. And there are little scratches everywhere.(so apparently I have a lot of work to do today ) The scratches that are most noticeable are on the shiny plastic parts on either side of the windshield. Will Scratch-X work on these parts too, or will I need to find something else to do the job? Thank you.

 

Scratch-X is a great product, however, plan to set aside A LOT time if you plan on using it on your whole car. If you have access to a Porter Cable Dual Action polisher, this would be your best method to get rid of all the issues you talked about. Where are you located?

 

I'm in southern Oklahoma. I don't mind using today to get rid of scratches and swirls. If it takes a lot of time though, I probably won't be able to take care of the swirls under the current bra before he installs the new bra. (The installer's in Dallas) The swirls under the bra will need to be a quick fix. I don't want to make the poor guy wait around on me all day. And that's only if there are any swirls under the bra. I didn't notice any yesterday, but then again I didn't look. I'll check later. Anyway, I didn't notice the swirls on the hood until yesterday either, which means more than likely they were caused by the dealer's wash job. (Sorry, I didn't think about that until now.) I hopes that's the case.

 

If you want to swing by Little Rock on the way to Dallas I can polish them out for you if my schedule allows. Can you post a picture of the defects?
Sounds like you have holograms left from a poor rotary job. A little time with a PC or my cyclo should fix it up. You want the hood defect free before having the bra installed.

 

Why the bra? That's guaranteed to cause surface scuffing (that will certainly take care of the buffing swirls) unless you are driving in a class 100 cleanroom environment. If gravel chips are a concern, go with the invisishield instead. I'd rather suffer the paint chips than the dull surface. In hindsight, I wish I had gone with the scotch tape (invisishield).

If you are going for the bra looks, don't worry about the swirls underneath (those will be the least of your concerns).

 

Meguiares swirl remover #2 works pretty good for light scratches and swirl marks. You can do it by hand, a rotary will do it faster. If your doing it by hand just be sure to rub back and forth on the bonnet, not in circles.

Zaino will do nothing for the scratches, and no use waisting it if its going to be striped off right away.

Mark

 

Actually Zaino does make a polish. It's a brand new product:
New Zaino Z-PC

 

The bra I'm having installed is a clear bra. I've never heard of scotch tape. I've already paid for the ProForm bra design, and I think I'll be pretty happy with it. "Holograms" certainly describes what I see on my hood. I wish I could swing by Little Rock. My Dad actually lives in Russellville, but I don't have time to make a run over that way before next week. Is there anything I can do to take care of them myself? I appreciate your help. Thank you.

-Seth

 

Do you have a machine polisher and pads?
If not you can try to do it by hand but I have little patience for that.
Call up your installer and ask if he/she can provide this service.
Also you could post a request on autopia.org for a Qualified Detailer to meet you in Dallas or your area to polish out the hood (or whole car) for you prior to the installation of your clear bra.
Polishing a black car with a rotary and not leaving holograms is not an easy task. Many follow up afterwards with a PC or cyclo to remove the holograms with a light polish.

 

I agree... this task is really best (and possibly the only answer) resolved using a PC (aka Porter-Cable Dual Action Orbital, like the 7336SP or 7424) or Cyclo. If you don't have one or can't borrow one, I would look for a good detailer. The problem is, as pt91 alluded, it is difficult to find a good detailer! Most will just make the problem worse.

You should tell any potential detailer that you have a black car and then ask him if he can guarantee that there will be no swirls in the direct sunlight. Most inexperienced detailers get scared when you say both of those together! They will reply with something like, "well, I can probably get most of them out." If they're any good, they will be confident in guaranteeing getting the swirls all out (or at least, say, 95% or more of them). It sounds a little harsh to push them so hard to guarantee something like that, but you have to be a little bold or you will get a crapola detail and possibly have paint in worse shape. Expect to pay alot for a good polishing job though... anywhere from $250 to $600 for the whole car. Anyone charging less, in most markets anyway, is probably not a good "paintwork" detailer. It simply takes a long time to do a good job and they'll charge you for that time if they're actually taking the time to do a good job.

Yes, you are right... the Zaino Z-5 merely fills swirls and does not remove them. It will be stripped off and your swirls will reappear. As mitchman said, Zaino has an abrasive called Z-PC which will remove swirls. You will still need the PC or Cyclo to really get them all out though. It would be very difficult by hand.

Good luck!!

-Heather

 

dang it octaneguy, sound like you're making mucho dinero!

 

Hahah Ken. Actually not enough MINI owners call me for help. I get way more black Corvettes and Mercedes, LOL

Finding a good detailer is definitely not an easy task. Especially if you're trying to find one in a hurry. Autopia.org is a good start, and so is Meguiarsonline.com

My own site--www.ShowCarGarage.com will have a detailer locator in the future to assist in finding these quality detailers.

But as far as finding a qualified "detailer", let's change the term a bit.

Do some searching to find a professional Paint Polisher. This will filter out most of the detailers, and if they have no clue what the difference is between a paint polisher and a detailer, then you don't want them.

What I specialize in is paint polishing and that's restoring a paint finish to its "maximum potential" (stealing a line from my partner Mike)

This means removing swirls, and defects in the paint without severely compromising it. I also provide detailer services of washing, and vacuuming the interior, but that's not my main focus.

Polishing paint is an art. Definitely don't bother using Zaino to hide the swirls since they will return as soon as the wax/polish is stripped off. Z-PC is a step in the right direction, but I'd definitely find a NAM member with a PC, my How to Use the PC for ShowCar Results DVD, and some Meguiar's M80 and start polishing. You can have the front end finished in about 15 to 20 minutes using just the PC.

re: Rates
Btw, my rates are $400 to $600 for most cars. You can see the type of work at www.ShowCarDetailing.com

However, I have always offered a special rate to MINI owners (community benefit ), and that's 50% off ($200) for a complete polish/detail with the owner preferably present so he can learn how to properly maintain the finish. Too bad you aren't in California.

Richard

 

Well...if you want to come to Austin (About 2 and half hours away from Dallas) I could take care of it for you...other than that, I would suggest going at it with Scratch X .

 

Agreed! I'd highly recommend you!

Richard

 

skitelluride531, the Austin trip is tempting. Unfortunately, I'm a teacher and I'm currently on Fall Break. I would really need a day off to make it to Austin. Being a band director makes scheduling problems even worse, since we have football games every Friday. I wish I had put this together sooner; I was just in Austin about a month ago. You have a nice city down there. I'm going to give Scratch-X a try. I'm hoping it won't hurt to use it all over the car, because I took a closer look today. The swirls (holograms) are all over the car, not just the hood. I guess this means it was probably done at the dealer, so hopefully it's not under the bra. If it is, I can't see it right now. (Although, it is very cloudy today, so there's no direct sunlight. I had a hard time seeing the ones on my hood today, and yesterday they were as plain as yesterday.) To my knowledge, the rest of my car has never been buffed. What could the dealer have done to cause this? Do they hand wash the cars real fast? Or do they have some kind of car wash they drive them through? Anyway, I had all this stuff I was planning for the Mini this weekend, but a cold front came in. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the cold (about 60 degrees or so), it's the wind that's a killer. When the Oklahoma wind kicks up, it's pretty much impossible to do much as far as detailing a car. It doesn't take long before the entire car is covered in dust, and I figure trying to do this stuff with dust flying around could only do more damage. I have one rock chip I need to fix before the bra can be installed too. We'll see if things calm down. Maybe I can do this tomorrow afternoon. Thank you for all your help.

 

Hope you are familiar on how to use ScratchX properly. If not, go to my site and watch the ScratchX teaser.

www.ShowCarGarage.com

Just a note, you have to work the product in until your fingers hurt, the knuckles are cramped, and you're sweating like mad. Then repeat this as many times as necessary--4+ times. Wipe it off after each time--don't let it dry. Be thankful the MINI is small. This advice isn't meant to discourage you but make sure you realize that ScratchX isn't a product you apply, let dry, then wipe off, as many people believe.

Swirls are most visible under direct sunlight. Often a bright flashlight will show them as well. Us detailers use a bright Xenon flashlight for this. But most any bright pin point light source will work.

Finally, remember that swirls can be caused by dealerships as well as owner neglect. Whether you wash your own car, hire somebody, or take it to a car wash, swirls can or will appear.

My local dealer has a bay they use a pressure washer to rinse off the cars. Then they all get pulled out under the sunlight and a dirty towel is used to dry them off--dirty in that it's been used on lots of other cars already. Often times they sit there for 30 minutes or longer before they get wiped off. They aren't going to buff your car or apply a wax during a maintenance visit. But they will before you pick up your car for the first time.

 

Thanks OctaneGuy. I've done a lot to try to prevent swirls. I use all MicroFiber stuff for washing and drying. (MF sponge and towels from MicroFiberTech) I used a 100% cotton towel for buffing. I suppose it might have been my MF sponge, but I've been pretty **** about keeping it clean as I wash. I've thought about buying one of the plastic inserts that goes in the bottom of the bucket, but I'm not even sure what they're called or how effective they are. I know I've seen it, but I don't remember where. As far as using Scratch-X. It sounds like I have a lot of work to do. We'll see how far I get by Monday. I have a friend who offered to let me borrow his orbital a while back. I'm sure he still wouldn’t mind, but to be honest I've never used one...and I'm scared to make my first attempt on my Mini.

 

My attempt at being clever. I was refering to the MINI InvisiShield. Perhaps similar to what you are contemplating.

 

That's good that you're being careful. Don't forget that contaminated MF towels will also cause scratchs or swirls! Leaves or small specs of contaminants can get stuck in the fibers and don't wash out in the washing machine--they can only be extracted by hand or with tweezers.

Also not all 100% cotton towels are truly safe for paint.

The plastic insert is known as a Grit Guard. It's an essential step to reducing the potential for putting on dirt back on your car as you wash it. Used properly they are very effective. Check out the washing video on my site--seems you still may have not visited it.

www.ShowCarGarage.com

re: Orbital
I'm assuming this is a Porter Cable Dual Action orbital polisher? If not, don't even bother using anything else, as it won't solve your problem. If it's truly a PC, then make sure you get proper instruction, or once again, either buy a copy or find someone nearby with my PC DVD to see how to properly use it, as improper use won't give the results you're expecting.

Richard

 

That video is priceless! Thank you! I'm going to need to re-evaluate my situation. I need to figure out what I'm going to do, and I don't want to rush things. After I Scratch-X the paint, I was planning to give it a couple of coats of Zaino before winter sets in. Will it hurt the paint if I use the scratch-x throughout the week as I get time after work and wait to use the sealant until after the bra is installed? That way I can clay bar and wax the entire car all at once. BTW...does anyone know whether or not clear bra installers clay bar the area the bra is going to cover?

 

I've only known a couple of clear bra installers and neither did much prep other than just spraying on a solution to clean the paint surface. I doubt they would clay the area, much less even know how to do it right.

re: video
Glad you liked the video.

re: ScratchX
Sure you can use it throughout the week. As long as you use it on a clean surface it'll be fine. Just remember that it's a paint cleaner which means you first want to clay the surface to remove bonded above surface contaminants, then you want to use ScratchX to deep clean the paint--removing light scratches and swirls. Then you need to protect. I know you plan to wax all at once, and going a few days without full wax coverage isn't going to do any harm.


Richard

 

OctaneGuy- I'm glad you pointed this out!

I second that. I sometimes see people write "orbital" and it concerns me... I wonder if some are assuming that means a PC and others are assuming non-PC orbitals. I wonder if we all think we're talking about the same thing when really we're talking about two completely different things!

My suggestion... if someone is talking about the Porter-Cable (PC) Dual-Action (DA) orbital, then they should say "PC" (or even "PC-DA" or "DA" to avoid confusion with the PC rotary polisher). If not, it should be assumed that "orbital" means a non-PC orbital. Maybe we can give this a try?

It's really an important distinction... there is a BIG difference between other brands of "orbitals" and the Porter Cable DA Orbital... completely different leagues. We should all be careful that we are talking about the same thing. Acronyms and shortened names are convenient but can be confusing too! Consistency will help us all understand each other better, and ultimately, will help us help each other better!

-Heather