rmira

For those that have dark color cars, are very fine scratches, only visible at certain angles in bright light unavoidable? I have a midnight blue TT, like most dark colors, beautiful when clean and freshly waxed, but a bitch to keep clean.

TT Surgeon

Try a clay bar if swirl marks are what you're talking about. But, I'll tell you I rejexed mine when I got it x3 and there's not a mark on it, even after the track.

E55AMG

micro-marring is tough to avoid, even with the best intentions. Your midnight blue is metallic so that should help as opposed to a flat black. If you can keep the marring to a minimum you will be able to pretty easily polish them out once or twice a year with a porter cable. You should not need to go with that aggressive of a polish either.

The best way to prevent any marring is making sure your wash technique is as good as possible. Two-bucket wash method and HIGH QUALITY MF towels and wash mitts. Lots of choices but lots of cheapo stuff out there that WILL scratch your car.

For more info. than you could ever want visit autopia.org A great site dedicated to car care.

mastiffdog

Chris has it right. Washing it incorrectly is the most popular method of introducing swirls and light scratches. They will come out if carefully polished.

My buddy, UZJ100 came over to the house and we used Menzerna Intensive Polish and a PC Orbital and everything came out beautifully. We then put down some Zymol Concours wax after the polish.

The key to prevention is to obviously wash it properly, and NEVER LET THE DEALER WASH YOUR CAR!

Eric - Plug Guy

#1 reason. Bingo. When I took delivery of my C4S Cab it was ordered to be driven home covered in paper, glue, foam, etc, and I guaranteed them the survey questions would be answered as if they detailed it perfectly. 3 years later it still looks like it was painted last week. And yes, I'm a Rejex guy.

cabman4007

When I got my black 996 the dealer had already prep it, washed it thru a machine and in bright sun light looked horrible with lots of swirls.

I told Porsche of Melbourne not to spend time washing my car, just peel the white protection off and rinse it off with water and i ll do the rest.


My guards red in direct sun has no swirls or marks on it. Its 180 degrees diff from the 996 black cab.

I never let anyone touch the body of my car.

I clay bar ed the black cab to death, nothing helped get those ugly spider webs off the paint,, only visable in the bright sun. It looked gorgeous at sunset. But most events were in the sun and it always embarassed me.

But,, thats history!!

Don

Terry Adams

+1 on the clay bar and the proper wash method. I will give Rejex a try when my car comes in.

E55AMG

Just to clarify something. Clay bar's main purpose is to remove surface contaminants not to remove scratches. you need a polish and a PC for that or rotary for a finish that's even more damaged.

rmira

Thank you for all the input. I think I'll invest in a PC and start out with a very light polish. Has anyone purchased the Ultimate Detailing Machine? I saw it on Autopia's website.

I don't think my car is that bad yet, the scratches are very fine and only visible in the sunlight, and then only at certain angles. Most people I show the car to do not notice it. I try to point them out, and still some say they can't see them. My question is, are some very fine scratches as I describe above unavoidable?

E55AMG

Unless you are absolutely fanatical (and even then not always) in your washing methods and make certain you are using the best MF towels (I like pakshak.com) and wash mitts there is a pretty good chance you will introduce some micro-marring. However, if you have to hold a halogen light to see them, then I'd say you are doing a pretty good job LOL

Like I mentioned earlier use two wash buckets and do one panel at a time, then clean out the mitt and do another panel. I also use a separate mitt for the lower part of the car so i'm not dragging all the nasty stuff across the paint.

Remove the nozzle and Use the hose to sheet off the water to help dry the car - remember, the less you touch the car the better off you'll be. Use A good Waffle weave MF towel to finish up drying the remaining water.

Don't make yourself too nuts or it won't be fun for you. Invest in learning the right process and right products and you'll be fine.

Given the right "conditions" you'll find issues with almost all paint so just try to minimize the truly nasty stuff, polish once or twice a year and you're all set.

Terry Adams

Anybody use paint sealant? I did it on my wife's pewter metalic CLK when new, instead of the dealer's $800 "PermaPlate". It seemed to help. Not sure if it would reduce the swirl marks on a 10 year old car.

Whoopsy

What year was your wife's CLK? MB start using nano-paint sometime in 2004 and these paint resists swirl marks quite well. My CLS55 had them and in 2 years it only had very little swirl marks.

Terry Adams

2007 delivered Jan '07

Whoopsy

So your CLK do have the harder nano-paint, then I guess that 'sealant' is kinda becomes a questionable step to protect the paint but then again one can never be protective enough.. Porsche's paint however are extremely soft compared with the MB one.

24FPS

fwiw: give the newer machine polish 4 by Griot's a try... amazing for black & dark colors... imho. (no aff'l etc.) i use that & follow w/ best of show carnuba.