Porsche Polish

I use Farecla G3 cutting compound on my cars - the G3 isn't too harsh, but there are other versions available that are coarser. I've found it better than T-Cut, but you need to make sure you use it damp. (I saw Ed China using it on Wheeler Dealers, which gave me the idea !). Andy

I have polish swirls on my car, I bought some original TCut to polish them out but was told by someone not to use it as it is to harsh to use on my car, they said that Halfords do one that isn't as harsh, I went in and asked the question but they didn't know of any such polish. So what I am asking is does anyone know of a suitable polish to use. Thanks in advance for any help. Regards jb1

T-cut is long outdated at this stage but if the car has a lot of swirl marks you are better, depending on how handy you are, buying/borrowing a decent polisher and doing a paint correction on the car. Given that you were mentioning t-cut and no offence intended there is a fair learning curve involved so personally I’d recommend finding a GOOD local Detailer and let them do it. car will look amazing afterwards then just get some advice on maintaining it.

Whilst I don’t really have a problem with swirl marks on my Porsches since using my Maguiars Dual Action polisher and taking great care washing, I was keen to try out a relatively new product from Maguiars, Maguiars G17616EU Swirl Remover on a car with swirl marks, applied by hand. I found it easy to use and it worked remarkably well. This product may rid your car of swirl marks as a cheaper alternative to using a good detailer. I enjoy the satisfaction of doing it myself. Having tried several polishes including Swissvax I like the finish achieved with Meguiars G18216EU Ultimate Liquid Wax. Some may scorn but I get lots of compliments about the finish and my 944 has won 2 x Firsts and 1 x Third in PCGB Concours this year.

The problem is even if you remove the swirl marks are you prepared to only wash your car 'properly' from now on to stop the swirl marks returning? That's a big undertaking and a slippery slope (snow foam, 2 bucket method etc etc) [ ]

This is the best advice you have had!

The Autoglym Super Resin Polish is a mild polish and will remove mild/medium imperfections using different pads; course thru mild - I restored my light lenses using this product. You will need a polisher such as dual-action head as mentioned. For swirl marks you may need more aggressive polishes. Various brands such as Meguiers or Scholl that are applied in stages. Afterwards you will need to protect using a good wax. A good resource is detailingworld.co.uk, although be careful as you'll find the advice like a 'black art' and more confused by the array of products all claiming to be the best. Also check youtube as there are huge amount of tips.

+1 on that

No offense but if you're that green about what and how get a professional detailer to deal with it. it willprobably look like new after. The water based Porsche paints are very thin to be messing and learning with. Paint will never really shine untill those swirl's are gone, some coatings can do quite a good job of hiding them e.g ceramic but careful not to get ripped off. Sorry forgot to add, you'll never remove swirl's by hand either, you will need to do it with a polisher so all the more reason to get a professional as you could really do some damage.

Ditto to all of the above! Firstly, if you don't feel confident about DIY, yes, get a detailer, but you are on a slope (as mentioned) in then keeping your car washed properly. That, or you budget a detailer every year IMO! Personally, since 911 ownership, I never knew how much there was to learn about paint, paint correction, what wax, polish, ceramic coatings, resins etc do, what the two bucket method is, when to polish, when to wax and when to compound! I personally found it interesting in learning about it all (mainly online forums, videos etc) but it's made me think about going into detailing, as I do love the satisfaction of doing it right. If my car or 911 goes to any garage, I request them NOT to wash it. No way will they ever do it right. I test everything I do on my A3 first, or the Mrs Merc, as thats a company car. Secondly, I taught myself polishing on a neighbours '06 Polo he bought for his au pair (she lasted a month, maybe it was the Polo?! ) He was keen to get in in tip top shape, he did the mechanics, I prepped and cleaned it. Sold it for £400 more than he paid for it If you are able to practice polishing or products on another car (or go to your scrap yard and buy a ****ed up bonnet) and try products and polisher yourself on something else first. Thirdly, any 'quick wash hand wash' that your local EU residents may offer for £5-£10 may shine for now, but how clean is there equipment? Also, the products they use will likely mask or hide the swirls better, but they are not repaired. This is why you use a detailer to correct the issue. I know you didn't ask about this, but thought it was worth mentioning. Whatever you do, I wouldn't use TCut personally, as said above, it's very outdated and things have come a long way. I use a range of products, but most of my body work stuff is Meguairs. HTH

A very good point - I wouldn't let these guys near any of our cars. However, in an absolute worst case scenario, you could ask them simply to jet wash (with no products used at all) just to get any heavy muck off. Then go and clean, polish, wax etc yourself at home or get a pro in to do it on a regular (annual?) basis. Definitely another thumbs up from me on the Meguiars stuff. Gives very good results.

Thanks to you all for your replies. What a can of worms it all is. I really didn't realise how involved it can all be. I am really not looking for a concourse job with rosettes at the. I do know about needing to wash dust and grit off with a spray hose before washing the car, the rest I do agree I am rather green about. Before I polish the car I would like to remove the swirls, if possible then polish and wax as necessary. I do think though getting it detailed first is probably a good idea. jb1

The polish (as in the action, not the product) should remove the swirls. Where are you based? I can recommend an excellent detailer of you're anywhere near me (Gloucestershire). Used him 3 times for a machine polish with spectacular results. Cheers, Bryan

I am in Cambridgeshire so not very helpful. jb1

Contact our very own Cliff Wilkins. He should cover your area [link]https://www.porscheclubgb.com/forum/Profile/3729/[/url]

Yes, it can be a (very shiny) rabbit hole that you disappear down. Ultimately it's up to how happy you are with the swirl marks but there will be lots of support on here. Best of luck with however you proceed and I'm sure we'd all like to see some pics of the finished article!

Depending on what you would describe as 'concours', a detailer will have many levels of price, and options to remove swirls, offer different after coatings etc. I'm not saying a detailer wouldn't make it look concours, you or I could make it look shiny for 5 minutes, but, what you have to remember is, you are trying to (for now) repair the paint, in correcting the swirls, then ideally applying some protection to protect it from the elements (rain, mud, snow, UV rays etc) Once you've rectified the basics (swirls) you then want to protect that work and make it easier to maintain, that's where coatings and waxes come in and what a good detailer will talk you through and offer advice on. I agree with you, you're not possibly after a 2 day job rolling into 4 figure sums concours job, but, for paint repair and swirl removal, if paying to get that done, you definitely want to look at a protection job (even if it is you waxing it for example) to protect the paint and that repair.

[nitpick mode]/on Concours (From the French, Concours d'elegance). [nitpick mode]/off [ ]

Yes, you're right I was just following the worded example quoted Now edited

[nitpick mode] Correct code [/nitpick mode] [ ]

When I bought my 996 it had a lot of swirl marks not ideal as it is dark blue I found a great guy in liverpool who corrected it and told me never use a leather or sponge from now on use a wash mitt, and drying towels, and 2 buckets one to clean the mitt one to then wash the car with. I invested in quiet a bit of kit inc Zymol Polish designed for dark blue cars and I can honestly say over 10 years the car has stayed perfect and it gives me pleasure in washing it this way, more time consuming but very satisfying, a good invesment. There is a guy in Hemingford near St Ives who has just done my friends Ferrari he has done a very nice job if you want his details then please let me know. cheers Phil

Hi all, wonder if anyone can confirm which gets used first. Wonder if I've been doing it the wrong way around. i use Autoglym HD car wax and Zymol wax cleaner. i normally coat the car with th Autoglym wax every three months or so And in between this use Zymol wax cleaner after washing the car. Is this correct or should it be the other way around, thanks

Polish or pre cleaners first then top off with wax.[ ]

Sorry Cliffwilkins but I'm unsure as to what your saying. Should I use the Zymol cleaner wax first and then use the hd car wax or are you saying I need another polish? Does the the zymol cleaner wax help promote the Autoglym HD car wax or does it in fact remove the previously applied wax. After all, these products arent cheap.

It's an odd combination your using the Zymol Cleaner wax does two things obviously it cleans the paintwork and leaves a certain amount of wax protection . A coat of wax after will only add to your protection.

There's so much out there (here in the Car Care section, and the Internet as a whole) that it is hard to get lost. It's important to know what each product does and how and when to use it, what Cliff was trying to say, was wax is essentially the last step When you say 'do i need another polish' are you using a polish already? A polish is a slight abbrasive, designed to help remove scratches and swirls (if you have lots, a compound or a professional detail will help remove these better) A polish should not be used (IMO) on a regular basis. You would apply a wax to a polished car, to help protect the newly polished car. Dependent on its use, washes and durability, wax should be applied on a more regular basis, to protect the paint. If your Zymol Wax Cleaner (as the name may suggest) is a cleaner/soap/shampoo that contains wax to help (as Cliff suggests) keep/apply wax whilst you wash, to the wax already there. For this reason, I use megusirs liquid wax wash, as it's designed to bond/mix with the meguiars wax I have applied. It may be that, other brands (wash waxes) don't adhere as well to other brands (waxes already applied). This is a trial and error thing for you to know what works best for you (time, budget etc allowing). The reason mixed brands may not work, is then into natural Vs Synthetic waxes and coatings, and you're into a whole new rabbit warren reading up on that! If you want my advice, I hope you find this useful below, others may agree/disagree: 1, Initial car rinse with water to remove dirt (I use a hose, as my car doen't get caked in mud) I would only use a pressure washer for stubborn/heavy dirt 2, PH neutral foam covering to remove and carry any other dirt from paint work, allow to soak in and carry away, but don't let dry. You need PH neutral so that it doesn't remove any previous coatings, such as wax you may have applied already 3, rinse car with water 4, wash car with shampoo of choice using two bucket method (again, actually washing a car can now be a rabbit warren if you're unaware of this method) 5, rinse car You could decontaminate further with an iron remover, and or clay bar now but this really is for dirty/contaminated cars and not an every time step, or required on 'looked after cars', so I haven't given this a step. If you do this, my recommendation would be then to re-wash car, or at least thoroughly rinse) Dry car thoroughly (I could again give details on how to do this, just please don't use a leather chamois) Apply compound to remove deep swirls, marks, scratches. This is not a numbered step, as I am assuming your car isn't in need of huge paint correction (again, not needed every time, and would be for paint in need of correction) 6, Apply polish to help give paint depth. This may remove a wax, so would not advise polishing on a regular basis. Apply a ceramic coating (if wanted, again, a whole other scenario of exploration, so not having it as a step, but a choice) 7, Apply your wax 8, Possibly apply a quick detailer, to remove any finger prints, splashes, water marks etc And congratulations, there's a day gone! I have probably just made this scenario and question worse, but it is important to know what your products do. The term 'polishing a car' gets thrown around a lot and isn't something people actually do regularly, if at all, it gets coined as a term. Hope that helps. Maybe [&:]

Suggest OP reads D911ARK's comments fully - he's spot on. also worth a read is the swissvax manual (pdf free download) - you'll see that it has a cleaner fluid and polish separately - the cleaner fluid removes the old polish and sorts out any micro-scratches (varying levels of abrasive in that), then you polish with a non-abrasive polish. But the old silicone car polishes had both together, and autoglym are maybe separating now into 'cleaning' and 'polishing' separately (as they really should be). first time around this is a huge amount of work (D911ARK says a day, which I reckon is an under-estimate) - then beyond that yes it's a day a time. Personally, I let the professionals do this a few times a year and top up the shampoo bit inbetween. Suggest you give the professionals a first-time run through and see the difference for yourself and then think carefully about how much time you really have to do this week by week - it's an awful lot of work to get things to top notch and keep them there if your car is regularly used.

I wouldn't put one brands wax on top of another brands wax. I tried that. The entire car had blotchy marks. looked awful. Might have just been that combination, but you're opening yourself up to that risk.

People get confused with polish and wax Polish will cut the paint to remove light imperfection hence doesn't need to be used on a regular basis . Wax is a sealant to protect the paintwork and preserve all your hard work preping. People often say to me i regular polish my car my reply is but have you put a wax on top Er no you need to apply a wax on top for protection. Paint cleanser will remove any old products very light imperfections you choose a wax or sealant it will adhere much better. The Zymol Cleaner wax is an all in one there are a few products on the market that do both but the level of wax content won't last as long, just saves time an effort.

Hi Philippe, I live in St Ives so I think It would be a good idea to for me to contact the guy in Hemingford you know, is he a detailer? It certainly would be of some help. Thanks jb1

Hello Jb1 Sorry for the late reply. I have his details at my office so will give you his details then. I know he has done an amazing job on my friends Ferrari. It's not cheap but once corrected it will stay good for a long time as long as cleaned correctly. Can an you send me your email address please or phone number ? Regards Philippe

Thanks for all the advise I have read with real interest. I would also agree that cleaning and waxing a car is far more than a days work for us mere mortals. To clarify, I have used Zymol cleaner wax for many years. It brings out a nice shine on the car ‘zenith blue’ once applied after going through the stresses and strains of car washing and drying etc. It lasts for quite a while, clearly showing that water/rain will simply just run off the car. I use this fairly often, around once every couple of months. The Autoglym HD car wax is what I call an additional layer applied perhaps two to three times a year as a treat. So, neither are polishes as both are waxed. I think my original question perhaps needed to be.... do I need both? The Autoglym is around £48 and the Zymol is around £18. So would I be better off saving money. Very confusing this topic as I suppose at the end of the day everyone has their own favourites