Was giving my Mini its first bath today, when I noticed that someone had been at the (black) roof with a rotary buffer. Not bad, but definitely noticable, especially with polorized sunglasses. Looked like a rush job as opposed to inexperience with a buffer.

I wonder if this was from the dealer's prep process, or if it was done in England as a post-paint thing. Anyone else notice this on their dark-colored car?

 

mine was filled with swirls when i got mine...

i cleaned it up though with some ScratchX. looks great now.

 

Horizontal surfaces back and forth, vertical surfaces up and down. Stay out of car washes with brushes or those cloth flapper things. 3 step McGuire's (sp?) polish/wax will get out most of those surface swirls.

 

I think some of mine were dealer installed...not sure though.

 

Hmmm. Well I'm a pretty experienced detailer, so the marks are gone. I was just wondering, because if it was a dealer thing, the next black car this guy hits is going to be a mess.

 

No swirl marks here!

 

Well, I am a black car guy, and I don't let the dealer wash it. Rather let them wreck the finish on some guy's 7 series instead! "NO WASH" is in my service writer's history. BTW, for a July '03 build, my black paint came over just fine.

 

yep, mine came with dealer installed swirl marks too. at least they forgot to charge me for them.

 

btw, by "swirl marks" I don't mean the little faint scratches in the paint. This was from a rotary buffer, the kind that almost resemble lightning bolts, and they change shape when you move your head to look at them from a different angle. Hope I'm explaining it right. They come from when someone has left a buffer in place too long and let the heat build up.