How do you get rid of them?

 

Spent 6 hours cleaning the car the other day and it's like new but when i look at it in certain ways i can see swirl marks everywhere.

 

The last owner was clearly lazy and decide to take it through a car wash!

Polish!

 

by either hand or machine.

Polished the car and waxed it by hand and i can still see them.

What polish did you use?

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"polished by hand" - unless there was seriously good amount of time and skill spent, it's very difficult to remove swirls by hand.  I use a machine and would never get the even results (and good results) going by hand.

 

This is my Dad's missus' Audi A3 - A fairly quick machine polish too.

 

 

As Jason states.Swirl removal is best achieved with a machine polisher

Type of polish used is very important. Depending on their compositions, different polishes will do entirely different jobs.

 

Something like AutoGlym Super Resin Polish is a very good 'filler' polish, for example, and many owners' go-to polish for regular cleaning and maintenance of their bodywork. A filler polish could be thought of as clear, shiny polyfiller; it will fill up all the scratches and create a smooth, gloosy looking finish when polished up, but as it is a polish with very few abrasive compounds, the scratches into the clearcoat will still be there. 

 

Other polishes will have labels talking about the abrasive compounds they use and a more abrasive product will take away more of the paint's surface, essentially cutting it back and wearing it down to the level of the deepest scratches, so that the surface really is smooth and glossy again.  This is the principle behind things like T-Cut, although there are better products around now. Obviously, the effort and pressure needed to wear the surface of a hard, modern paint is considerable. It can be done by hand, but you're going to need a good polish and a lot of elbow grease. A machine polisher will get it done more quickly with considerably less effort.

 

I am planning to do a lot of touching up once we reach the summer hols and to take the paint back to a swirl-free surface and meguiars 'Scratch-X' (for swirls) or 'Ultimate Compound' (for deeper inmperfections) have oth come very highly recommended. I have read that decent results can be achieved by hand, but nothing to match a good machine polish.

It's the AutoGlym polish that i'm using followed by the AutoGlym HD Wax.

 

What machine polisher is everyone using? Not wanting to spend too much on one though.

I have an EP801 rotary and DAS6 dual action.  I use each in turn to get the best cut, and then finish.

I have the same Rotary as Jason + Megs v2 DA..but probably going to invest in a more powerful DA soon....ish (Rupes Bigfoot)

Another vote for the CYC EP801 and Meg's G220v2 here.

It's the AutoGlym polish that i'm using followed by the AutoGlym HD Wax.

 

What machine polisher is everyone using? Not wanting to spend too much on one though.

 

AutoGlym SRPolish is an excellent day to day polish, but won't hide swirls for long. I'll let you know how I get on with the Megs Ultimate Compound if I give it a go soon. I bought some at the weekend as my next job on the car is touching up aaaaaaaaaaall the stonechips and blending the paint back afterwards (Borrowing a mate's DA polisher).  If you put a quick search into google about removing scratches you should be able to find plenty of advice on alternative polishes too.

Best of luck.

AutoGlym SRPolish is an excellent day to day polish, but won't hide swirls for long. I'll let you know how I get on with the Megs Ultimate Compound if I give it a go soon. I bought some at the weekend as my next job on the car is touching up aaaaaaaaaaall the stonechips and blending the paint back afterwards (Borrowing a mate's DA polisher).  If you put a quick search into google about removing scratches you should be able to find plenty of advice on alternative polishes too.

Best of luck.

 

Just a piece of advice, take care with the Meg's Ultimate Compound it is not diminishing as a polish meaning the (SMAT) abrasives continually have the same level of cut so it wont 'finish off' like some products and it will do it's cutting very quickly, it is also very aggressive with only slightly less level of cut than their 105 machine polish.

 

I know of a good number of cases of people falling foul of this product.

 

Of course I may have just taught you to suck eggs if you know all this, apologies if that is the case.

Just a piece of advice, take care with the Meg's Ultimate Compound it is not diminishing as a polish meaning the (SMAT) abrasives continually have the same level of cut so it wont 'finish off' like some products and it will do it's cutting very quickly, it is also very aggressive with only slightly less level of cut than their 105 machine polish.

 

I know of a good number of cases of people falling foul of this product.

 

Of course I may have just taught you to suck eggs if you know all this, apologies if that is the case.

 

Not at all, I appreciate the advice. I've used lighter cutting polishes by hand before, but not attempted anything this aggressive so it's a learning curve.  Just had a read up on the differences between diminshing and non-diminishing polishes - interesting stuff.  It sounds like the megs will be okay for my purposes, but I might give it a go by hand before jumping straight to the DA machine. It might be that on the small areas I'm looking at that a bit of elbow grease will be sufficient to cut back the sanding marks.

Thanks.

 

I'll stop derailing now and let the thread go back to the OP

I fear it is a bit of a dog of a polish to use by hand and will leave you with a finish that will require machining to refine the swirls the polish itself will introduce.  If you are borrowing a DA, work a small area and start with the least aggressive pad and polish combo and check how much swirling you remove, if you cannot lift the swirls work upwards until you get the cut you need, then work back down the polishes to refine, you may get a good finish from a less aggressive combination than you think, or you might need to step right up to UC on a heavy polishing pad to rid the swirls.  I have found a DA with Autobrite Cherry Glaze which is a light all in one polish and a CG white hexlogic pad able to lift moderate swirls (inspection done after IPA wipe because I was curious)

 

I would recommend UC to be used on a DA, but if you are not overly experienced then a paint thickness gauge would make me feel safer, if you need to cut via hand polishing then Gtechniq P1 would be a better bet for me.