Fine Scratches in Paint! Need Advice

I have some fine scratches (swirl marks) in the paint on my 996. After I have cleaned (clayed), polished, and sealed the paint the scratches are minimized. But after a few weeks the scratches are quite noticeable again. What product have you found that yields the best results to hide or minimize the scratches? Thanks for the advice!

Scratch-X

What's scratch X? XOXOXO Jim

Meguiar's. In a black tube. They have it pretty much everywhere (Shuck's etc)

3M Perfect It-II Swirl Mark Remover for DARK cars and if you can, apply it with a dual-action polisher instead of by hand. If the scratches are too deep for that then go with 3M Perfect It-II Rubbing compound (fine cut). In either case your scratches will be gone and not just hidden. The Rennlist of paintcare seems to be Autopia and is definitely worth a look!

I agree with Jason on the 3M SMR for dark, but I wouldn't directly jump to 3M Perfect It Rubbing Compound - to abrasive IMO to go from SMR to Perfect It. Try SMR - work it with a Dual Action like Jason said. If that doesn't work, try 3M Finesse it III; not as abrasive as Perfect It but more so than SMR. I have been a member of Autopia since it first opened it's doors - lots of great knowledge there about how to remove swirls. Go check it out and happy detailing!

There are all kinds of solutions for this. It just depends on what you want. Hide vs. Remove is the question you will have to decide. Realize with a color like Lapis Blue you are going to notice these "imperfections" rather regularily, especially on a daily driven car. Your wash and dry technique can go a long way to minimizing these type of swirls. As suggested above check out the Autopia forums. Do a search for "two bucket" method of washing. Just, realize that on Autopia there some who take detailing to the extreme so don't be put off by some of the extremely time consuming procedures some use. Read and then decide what parts of their techniques you can live with. Product wise there are dozens of choices for what will work. What your final protectant is will help you decide what products to use. Final polymer type sealants like Zaino, Rejex and Klasse require no oils, fillers or waxes to bond correctly. This will limit you to pure polishes (no fillers, oils, waxes, etc.). For example Menzerna and Poor Boy both make some excellet pure polishes. Or in the alternative you can use any polish and just use an alcohol wipe down to remove the oils, fillers, and waxes. Einszett makes some extremely user friendly polishes, however they contain some wax. None of this matters if you are using a final product like P21S which is a carnauba based wax. True "waxes" don't bond like the sealants. The Einszett products work extremely well with metallic flake paing like Lapis Blue as they really seem to bring out the "pop" of the metallic flakes.

Completely agree with everything that bet has to say. But if you have the time, why hide them when you can completely remove them? Swirls are most often caused by improper washing technique and in most cases the types of 'tools' that you are using. Not all 'towels' are created equally (IMO). It may take some time up front to remove the swirls but maintenance of your car's paint is easy afterwards. I have to respectfully disagree with bet that the last stage product, i.e. sealant or wax, determines what type of 'polish' you will use. The products that you would use to remove swirls do not contain the amount of wax or fillers that will affect proper 'bonding' of the last stage product.. If you are using something to simply hide the swirls and fill them in, i.e. a glaze, that is a different story completely and will most likely affect how a product bonds because it is not the actual paint that the product is adhering to. The reason you see swirls and scratches is because there has been damage to the clear coat of your car and the light is catching the damage, causing you to see the swirl or the scratch. A polish will dull the edge of the imperfection (or if you work long enough remove the imperfection completely) to the point that the light is not caught and you won't see the swirl. That's why swirls and scratches are more pronounced underneath direct light, i.e. sun, parking lamps, etc. and are minimized in low light conditions. In the end there are a ton of products to use. But as I have learned, 90% of a car looking good is due to preparation while only 10% is due to the products that you use.

Just adding my $.02. The visibilty of swirls depends alot on what your final layer is i.e. wax or sealant. Wax will not last as long but will hide swirls in the beginning with the swirls becoming more pronounced as the wax wears off. Sealants tend to be a lot more revealing of swirl marks. Most swirls on my ocean blue paint were reduced to not visible by just completely working a good polish in with a dual rotary like the porter cable. You really need to work the polish in so that it is almost completely gone. Everything above is good advice, just don't get to crazy a good rule from autopia is the 5 foot rule, "if not visible from 5 feet away leave it alone".

As far as which polish to use is only depends on the type of wax/sealant is true and false. Only the real finiky sealnats can't adhere to a polish. Ziano is notorious for this as it does not bind very well except bare paint. I would check with the forums at Autopia.org for which product you can and cannot use. Many actually polish the car then do a quick spay and wipe with a 50:50 water and alcohol wipe to apply Ziano. Yes you can hide swrils with a glaze/ polish like Meguiars #7, Mother seal and glaze, and some waxes do it like Meg NXT. This however will appear again as your top layer of wax washes off. The best way is to polish them out with a cleaner/ polish like Meguiars Scratch X or #80, Mothers Power Polish. The 3M SMR is rather weak and fills them more than removes them. You can do this by hand, but you'll spend lots of time and get an Arnold work out. I would go out and buy a Porter Cable and get some good pads. There are plenty of good polishes out there that you won't find at Pepboys. My favorites are Menzerna and Einszett, but if your getting it at Pepboys I like the Mother Power polish.

Guys - Thanks to all of you for the great feedback and advice. I REALLY do appreciate your responses. I have already decided to get a Porter Cable 7424 polisher. I will try it first on my daughter�s '98 Rodeo. The hood on her car could use some polishing anyway, so that will be a good "training ground." Once I get done with "boot camp" I'll move on to the P-car. I anticipate that I can report back on the results in a couple of weeks. Thanks again, Guys!

A strong bit of advice for the Porter Cable: ALWAYS HOLD IT BY THE HANDLE. ask me how I know this... 3M three step(Swirl remover,compound,hand glaze) did a great job on my previous black car.

OK, I'll ask! How do you know that you should "ALWAYS HOLD IT BY THE HANDLE"?

The other bit of advice on the PC...don't turn it on until you have the pad against the surface....if not you will have polish on everything except the pad and the car. The same is true turning it off....turn it off with the pad still on the car.