The paint on my car is the Victory Red and I am having a really hard time keeping it looking good. The car looks really good in the shade but once the sun hits it, every buff mark and swirl shows. Anybody know of any good product/technique to get rid of that scratched/swirled look? Time's not an issue, I just want the paint to look fresh!

 

use the black magic products that are designed for black vehicles. black usually show those kinds of things the worst and these products are designed to get rid of it. Thats the only thing i can think of

 

Clay bar, polish/swirl remover, wax. Remember to always use microfiber towels/sponges.

 

dont use those piece of **** brushes at the car wash on your paint. i've never heard any good things from that.

 

I will try that thanks. I use the Black Magic Tire cleaner and that works awesome so I'm sure their other products are worth a shot.

This may be a stupid question but what's the clay bar?

Thanks for the input guys. I agree with the worthless brushes at the car wash. During the summer I was my car at the house with microfiber cloths but its kind of hard to do that over the winter. I guess I just need to go shopping and see what they have that looks worth while.

 

Nah, not a stupid question at all. I didn't know what a clay bar was either about a year ago... This link has a pretty good basic telling of what 'claying' is and does:

http://www.autogeek.net/clbaandlu.html

 

first off every wash needs to be pretty precise to me...It honestly doesnt matter what type of shampoo or car wash you use as long as you get enough foam and make it soapy enough for your whole car.... I personally use nxt car wash your meguars gold class....

Always start out with wheels and fender wells but the common mistake here is dont use your same spongue that your going to use on your paint on the car because you will just transfer that grease and grime right onto your paint...

after that go ahead and wash the car down, if you want go buy a degreaser (if you want) and then go right ahead to washing the car... Theres a good tutorial of how to wash a car just go to your search button.... It lets you know that you arent supposed to wash your car and do the common circles when washing the car you need to go straight up and down or sideways and that will firstly start to give you some more shine

The clay bar you can get newhere....take it cut it into 4 pieces take one piece and rub it in your hand till its not that hard nemore and then go over your rough spots on your car( usually the back of the trunk, wing, and even the hood) because of the common build up of grime with this clay bar while moving up and down the paint you need to find a spray bottle for applying water to the paint so your clay bar doesnt stick to the surface

Usually after this if your paint is bad enough you need to invest in a buffer...This had been the case for me a couple days ago because i started seing real huge blemishes on the back of my car right under the wing and the trunk and the back side of my car...I just started buffing using some of my dads "mothers" product and it came right off

You can tell there were huge blemishes because some paint was glossy and then some was really dull and i mean really dull!!! you can also run your finger over it and touch the glossy paint and see how smooth it is and then the dull paint is really rough....but after this process it returned back to glossy haha and saved me 150 dollars for a detail

 

Thanks! That link was helpful. Have you personally used this? It seems to me like it could cause damage if used the wrong way. Any pointers on using it?

Thanks for all the good info! I guess my first step is a good detail. I am going to try the clay bar, it sounds like it should work really well. Then I will be sure to take my own microfiber cloths to the car wash and avoid using all their junk except for basically the water and draining system! You said not to wash in a circular pattern which makes sense, but what about the application of the clay bar? It seems most beneficial to use circular motions with that but then again seems like it would leave swirls too.
Thanks again!

 

When you claybar, use quick detailer to lube up the paint, not water. Going in strait up-down motion does wonders. I just did this week. Good luck!

Oh yea, and Meguiars has a good claybar set that comes with 2 50g bars of clay, a bottle of quick detailer, and a good microfiber polishing cloth. Just break each peice of clay in to 2 parts, and when it gets dirty looking, just fold it in and use again. One peice did my whole car.

Also, I just went and found this link in another thread, and I used it and it helps alot. http://forums.evolutionm.net/showthread.php?t=222157
I didnt do everything, but it breaks it down really well. Good luck!

 

Alternatively, and this may or may not be an option for you.
*I am not trying to be a smart @ss when I say this*

Take it to a dealer and have them clean it up. They are used to doing it, and while I have never done this, I am willing to bet they can make it look showroom new again.

They would probably take you on the price, but, it seems logical and it cant hurt to ask.

Either way though, good luck!

 

Great! Sounds like a basic wax job with a lot better results! I will look into that Meguiars set. How did your car turn out after you did this?

 

Lets just say a friend and I were both cleaning and waxing our cars at the same time, but he didnt claybar, and when he felt my hood, he was at a lack of words . Later he said that he couldnt describe how smooth it was, it was way smoother than a baby's bottom!

 

Yeah I've thought about this. It still is an option for me but I figured I would give it a shot myself before I paid someone else to do it. It's tough to find a trustful dealership that will actually take the time to detail it right though. I know of numerous professional detailers that will charge a couple hundred to have your car sit in their shop for half a day and then spend half an hour detailing it. I will give the clay bar a try and go from there. Thanks for the input!

That's awesome! And as far as swirl/buff marks...

 

I couldnt see any swirl marks on my hood after the clay/wax, just a few very minor scratches. Sometime this summer i will strip the wax and buff the whole car with a polishing compound to get all the scratches out.

 

Sweet that's what I'm hopin for! I'm going to do this this weekend.

 

I wash mine with turtle wax zip wax like once a month and wax it with merguiars nxt tech wax once a month and so i dont have to keep washing it I use merguiars touch up spray brings the shine back to life and u get this result

 

Clay bars work excellent. I use them on the cobalt and my last car and you really can see the difference between those who use them and those that dont

 

I can't really help you out with the swirl marks, but I can at least offer this:





These pics are the aftermath of using the following:

(all products can be purchased at autozone)
Meguiars Gold Class in a mop bucket. Once the foam dissapates, completely empty out bucket and start fresh. Shouldn't need more than 4 buckets. Used recommended mixture (3 cap fulls per gallon of water).
1 autozone brand microfiber wash mitt (green. get that thing covered in bubbles and apply to the surface. Roof = side to side, Hood = top to bottom, Doors, trunk, fenders, bumpers = side to side, then top to bottom. never in a circular pattern, and always double check that nothing that could scratch your paint is stuck in the microfiber)
1 autozone brand microfiber drying cloth (blue with white crosshatch pattern, DO NOT scrape across the surface of the car!! The cross-hatching can leave micro scratches in the paint! I discovered this the hard way! Only use to soak up surface water. Lay it out one section at a time, let it soak up what it can, then lift it off.)
1 autozone brand polishing cloth (yellow, damp, used to finish the drying job)
2 autozone brand microfiber glass cloths (green. one to apply glass cleaner, 1 to dry)
I forget the name, but I used a wheel cleaner with teflon in it, and armorall tire shine.

The method I used was One body panel at a time, starting top to bottom. Completely wash and dry each panel then move on to the next. I swore by this method with my cavalier and it always left a streak and spot free shine.

It looks even better now than when it was new. Gold Class & going crazy in the car wash section of autozone FTW.

 

oh yea forgot to mention 100% microfiber wash mit and the absorber drying thing

 

how do you "buff"

sorry if that is a stupid question it is just something i don't know how to do but want to learn

 

Meguiars FTW

I use Meguiars Gold Class Wax and Meguiars Quick Detailer

Mods: This tread should probably be moved to "Show and Shine"

 

buffing is when your taking the wax off .. circular motions with an 100% microfiber cloth is what I do or there is a buffer that is an actual tool you can use, I would just stick to 100% microfiber cloth

 

I hate the claybar, I tried to use it once, and it was a complete failure.

 

Very sweet. Thanks for the pic...that's my goal! I work so hard to keep my car dent and scratch free but the swirls take away from all of that. Sounds like Meguiars has some pretty good product. I will definitely look for that.

Thanks for the advice. I work right next door to an Autozone and am always in there so I will look at those particular products. What about using a shammy for drying? I haven't had much luck with them because they leave such noticeable streaks. Good advice and much appreciated!

Why what didn't you like about it?

 

Go to your local Fire Department and see if they could sell some fire engine wax. My grandfather used to sell fire equipment and Saulsbury has a Cherry Wet Wax that works wonders. A little 8oz bottle you can wax a car twice. Amazing **** if it can still be found.