MainelyA8

I picked my car up from a local detailer yesterday, and he did a great job for the most part. I did notice that there are still a ton of swirl marks all over the vehicle (previous owner neglect), even though he was supposed to machine buff it.

My question is, if he did this, those marks would definitely be removed, correct? I don't want to raise too much of a stink, but removing those light scratches is 90% of the reason I took it to him in the first place. I can wash/wax/clay bar myself.

GDI Tech

For a DIY fix clay-bar. If you have a decent buffer, then a fine polish/glaze should remove them. If you look closely, they are fine scratches left by to coarse of compound/wrong pad.

3M has compounds in several grades, but they easiest is the A,B,C steps. Use mix B and C and that should leave no swirls. Remember, factory clear coat is not that thick and you don;t want to burn through it if using a buffer.

Good luck!

MainelyA8

Clay bar will remove swirl marks and light scratches?

uberwgn

No, polishing and thinning the clearcoat removes that issue.


You really should be working with a paint thickness gage if you're going to get carried away with additional correction.


There are some products that hide/conceal better than others.

MainelyA8

It's not so much that, as me not believing that he actually used a machine buffer on it. There aren't a ton of light scratches/swirl marks on it, so I figured if he had then those would have disappeared after the job was done. I trust myself to wash/wax/claybar properly, but this isn't the car I want to learn how to use a two-stage buffer on.

uberwgn

Well, if it just doesn't look right, I think you've got to go back and approach the person. How did you find them? Are they a real business?

MainelyA8

I think I am going to give him a call. The car looked great otherwise, besides that. I got a Groupon as a gift, and used that. He runs the business out of his house/garage which made me skeptical, but he has nothing but positive reviews on every site I could find the business on.

uberwgn

Dare we ask what you've inve$ted so far? I mean, it's takes hours to correct some cars.

MainelyA8

Didn't cost me anything. I received a gift certificate for an exterior detail as a gift.

I spoke with the guy today, who said that he did machine buff the vehicle. As well as clay bar the entire surface. He said that despite all of the light scratches, that the paint was still in great shape for it's age and having spent it's life in New England. I asked about any further steps for paint correction, and he said he has some methods, but that he didn't think that it would be worth it for me to spend the money based off the results he expected to get. He also said that he and his assistant worked on it for 6 hours.

I don't know a whole lot about auto paint, but I'm a little disappointed that I was essentially told that I am being too nitpicky. If I had to spend $100+ to get the scratches removed, it'd be worth it I think.

NYCA8L

You need a detailer to do a paint correction