hariku821

I have an 03 nfr and of course its got swirls... By what i have read you must polish it to get the swirls out. Can you polish a car with out an automatic polisher? My father had a 350z a few years ago and i found what i believe he used on his. Its a 10 inch polisher but it has a foam disk that spins and you put these specially made rags over the disk. It seems kind of cheap and one of the rags has the texture of a dish rag and it seems like it may scratch the paint.

If im able to get the swirls out how long before they come back and what can i do to keep them from coming back.

Thanks.

8_ball

Here is a link to a great guide, written by one of the gurus of s2000 car care. In short, you can't generate enough heat and friction by hand to effectively remove swirls, you need a buffer. Once they are out, there are ways to minimize their return, again all covered in this guide. Good luck.

http://thedetailinghandbook.com/default.aspx

krshultz

8 ball's suggested reading is a great place to start.

Sounds like you've got something like the Craftsman polisher that I had as my first machine. Unfortunately my advice to you is to throw it away. I found mine pretty ineffective, and very large and unwieldy to move around. I also HATED that foam pad and the notion of covering over it with bonnets. They seemed to fly off that pad and across my front yard very easily. The Porter Cable 7424 is a great polisher - very safe, very easy to use, and very effective. It's the best $130 you can spend to get started with detailing your car.

Do a lot of reading. Detailingbliss.com is a great forum with a lot of pro-level guys on it. Meguiarsonline.com, autogeekonline.com, detailingworld.co.uk, and autopia.org are all great too. Lots of information out there on products and techniques, as well as threads where people post pictures, before and after, of their detailed cars, including detailed lists of what products they've used. Product reviews are also really useful - lots of those on detailingbliss.com.

Once you've got the finish perfected, be careful with your maintenance habits and you'll be amazed how easy it can be to maintain it. Use two buckets when washing - one for the shampoo, and another as a rinse bucket. This way, you don't drag all the dirt you just washed off your car back onto it with your mitt, which introduces the same swirls you just worked so hard to remove.

Good quality towels are a big part of it too. If you're using old, throwaway household towels, throw them away and invest in some quality microfiber. Your paint will reward you for it. Every now and again, Phil runs a sweet sale on microfiber, which makes it affordable to get started with "the good stuff." His "Uber" towels are very nice.

Hope that helps.

Jay2000

Autogeek.net is running a sale microfibers now. I have both phils and theres, they are about the same in quality. They definitely help with wax removal.

I also use bj's, costco microfibers (they are cheap price wise)for interior, glass, exhaust etc..., anything except paint.

hariku821

I have a question about microfiber. Walamrt sells them in little bundles for 5-10$ im assuming those arent so great..

krshultz

Hard to say without actually seeing and touching them first hand.

Probably not something I'd use on paint. Although sometimes you can luck into something really nice at places like Wal Mart and Target. Target has had some microfiber drying towels that I'd stack up against anything else. Nice and thick, super plush, and inexpensive.

The "cheap" microfiber doesn't need to be avoided altogether though. Stuff like that is fine for interiors, door jambs, window glass, that sort of thing. Far superior to using paper towels, and more environmentally friendly too.