bulldog24

My 87 951 has never been repainted, and doesn't need it but the hood has some serious staining from these Texas summers and the swarms of black birds that roost down here. I tried to use some regular rubbing compund to remove the problems and it took the stains off, it also looks like it scratched the paint pretty badly. I can see swirls on the hood that weren't there before and the clay bar I used after didn't remove them. I know that this paint is over 20 years old so using cheap compund was pretty stupid on my part; can anyone suggest a better alternative that will help me take care of the swirls and now the residual from the claybar that doesn't seem to want to come off completely?

KuHL 951

I think you will have better results posting in the Car Care Forum of Rennlist. You'll get as many opinions here on wax as "Whats the best oil to use?"

Potomac-Greg

I have two "cuts" of 3M compound, medium and light, and neither one leaves visible scratches. A good, base compounding job with a good wax does wonders. It's important to get all the old oxidation out before you lay down the wax. I did an over-all medium cut compound two years ago, and have kept the car waxed since then. There's been no return of any oxidation.

And find a wax that has NO cleaning/polishing component. No need to grind down your paint every time you wax it.

944Ross

Meguiar's Glaze is worth a shot, too, it's very fine, usually removes swirl marks on dark cars without taking a bunch of good paint with it.

whalebird

Klass products are good.

lovemyp-car

i've had great results with meguiars professional products

http://meguiars.com/estore/product_l...ectionID=31301

Lizard944

You could pay a detailer to polish out the finish, then carefully maintain the finish afterward, or for about the same amount of money, you could buy a good quality rotary polisher and/or a random orbital buffer along with a bunch of supplies. There is a moderate learning curve to using buffers (especially rotary), but once you learn the basics you'll have a valuable skill that will keep you in shiney cars, and you can even do a few side-jobs to make some coin for supplies. Clay bar always has to be followed by a polishing as the clay induces small scratches in order to remove the paint contaminants. It is very difficult to remove swirling by hand as you cannot generate the speed and heat needed to polish it out. Meguiar's and 3M make decent over-the-counter swirl remover products. Meguiar's NXT wax (sealant) contains some fillers which will help hide light swirling. Anything else, you will need to buy at Autobody Supply stores or online. Here is a great website for learning the art of buffing. www.autopia.com No affiliation, just an occasional contributor on their forums. You can also see some buffing techniques by searching Youtube. Hopefully, they're doing it properly!
Cheers. --Lizard

hacker-pschorr

The scratches and swirls are from whatever you used to apply the wax / polish / cleaner etc.... Or it was dirty.
Most swirl marks come from the wrong kind of "towel" to dry off a car, dirty sponge / mit when washing, not fully cleaning out the mit between dunking into the bucket etc... You get the idea.
Or worse yet the paint wasn't very clean before you tried to use the polish / compound / cleaner. That is where the clay bar comes in. Nothing touches my paint until after a full two bucket wash and a clay bar treatment.

Meguiars foam application pads are the only thing I use to details cars when I'm not using a machine.

Clay bars remove impurities in the paint, not swirls. The only way to remove swirls is to also remove a micro layer of paint / clear to even things out.

I will never attempt to remove swirls by hand after buying an orbital polisher - lots of info on those in the detailing forum.

ChazTech

aircraft paint remover

bulldog24

Have the orbital polisher and that was what I was using when applying the cleaner wax the first go. The bonnets were new and clean so nothing was on them and I had just washed the car. I've been using the polisher for a while now on our other cars but the first time on the 951 so I guess I over did it or used too abrasive of a cleaner.