Keeping it simple, how do I get rid of swirl marks?

I've got a 2005 Black magic Fabia, it's been machine polished by the previous owner, but the paint work is hideous, I'm actually quite embarrassed sometimes when the sun hits it because it looks so bad and dirty even though I've washed it.

Paint work is nice and clean, nice and smooth etc but you can see where the polisher has been up and down left and right.

How can I get rid of it?

Will try and get pictures tomorrow if possible

Paint work is nice and clean, nice and smooth etc but you can see where the polisher has been up and down left and right.

 

 

"Take me down to hologram city where the paint is bad and the polish is all s**tty"  

 

Holograms.  Caused by polisher being too dry / moving too quick.  Simply has marked the surface,.

 

The solution is to machine polish properly - especially the refining stage.

 

This is a Type R door that had been polished by a local outfit.  Ouch!   :(   I sorted it though.  

 

As Jason says

It will need a light machine polish to remove the buffer trails and holograms

Do you have access to that equipment or know a local detailer?

Thanks for the replies, I was worried it might have been worse than that.

I have basic detailing equipment but no DA or anything.

I don't have a local detailer either I'm afraid! I did ask a bodyshop how much to machine polish the car and they wanted £60 which I think is reasonable if it will sort it out.

Just tell them to go slowly.  It will be about a 4 hour bit of machine polishing minimum to do a car properly, so I think £60 to them is probably less than a couple of hours....

They are a major bodyshop, seem quite big and have been around for a while.

Bodyshops are a hit or miss when it comes to polishing cars, more so black cars, they usually hate it.  £60 is cheap so essecially they will probably spend about 1 hours on it.  Most bodyshops work under florecent lighting, so they struggle to see hologramming in the paintwork.  Usually they will go from a cutting compound like 3M Fast Cut Plus straight to a refining compound, like 3M ultrafina.  What they dont realise is that the refining (finishing) compound has filled any hologramming with the high oil contents within the compound.  They will usually check it under an inspection light and again it looks good to them, with a high gloss finish.  But then your car goes outside into the sunshine and the oils evaporate and the hologramming will reappear.  I cannot recommend anyone in your area as im not sure who could be close to you, or where you are....but remember you get what you pay for.

Took it to the bodyshop today to get it booked in, they said if it's purely just the swirl marks I want taking off to clean the paint work up take it to a local detailer.

Went to see him and got a price and some advice. He basically said a full machine polish would sort it, drop it off at 9 and collect around 1'ish. Would cost £50 so going to give him a try, I don't think it would get much worse.

That's pushing it in that time, if hes on his own

£50 is too cheap IMO....we shall see

Can you photograph some before and after pictures please ?

Yep I will do, want plenty of pictures for my project page anyway so will get some 360° tomorrow when the suns out.

Well that is now also not an option, very frustrating trying to Greg somebody you trust to polish your car.

I can get access to a polisher now though, my brother has one which I didn't know about.

Is it something I can do myself without making it worse. I've literally never picked up a machine polisher befor.

Then not really, bit of an acquired art. You need lots of patience and experience to get black right. Patience, the correct choice of polishes / compounds, pads and speed/ pressure are all key.

My attitude is if you dont give something a try, how will you learn something new? I know some would consider this attitude wrong for the higher end detailing and paint correction tasks but I had never picked up anything more than a bucket of water and shampoo until 2008 which is when I bought a black car with paint defects. Have a look, may be useful to you and provide an idea of products I used... (note that Ford paint will be slightly different to work with but the principles are the same)

 

Although this is more than you'd need to do, this is what really got me into detailing and paint correction.

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/351022-my-little-run-around-a-modified-fiesta-16-tdci/?hl=%2Bfiesta+%2Btdci#entry4285066