Many car owners think that they have taken good care of their car, but they continue to see those tiny swirl marks. We may never use automatic car wash, but some swirl marks may still appear on the sides of the car, roof, trunk and hood. We should still consider whether the micro fiber cloth that we use for washing the car still holds onto dirt and various hard particles. They work like a team of filthy, hardy scoundrels that cause swirl marks on paint as we use them. So, while our car may appear bright and clean from a distance, a closer look will reveal those swirl marks.
We should be aware that when we wash the car by hand, we usually use the swirling motion with our soft car brush, washing mitt and wash cloth. Particles of bird poop, dried bug parts, grime and dirt could be embedded in the mitt or wash cloth. This could cause abrasive particles from causing swirl marks on the paint. The same thing may happen to our car when we dry it. In general, we could prevent the formation of swirl marks by using the back and forth motion as we wash and dry our car. We should always use a second rinse bucket. We should dip the wash mitt to the rinse bucket and then squeeze it properly, before we dip it back into the bucket with soap solution.
It means that we need a total of three buckets when washing the car, one for the dirty water or first rinsing, one for the second rinsing and another for the soap-water solution. This may sound like a hassle, but will significantly reduce the possibility of sanding the car paint with fine, but hard dirt particles. In reality, many scratch remover products are slightly abrasive and they are intended to remove tar and bugs from our paint. In reality, these products use a solvent component and it will slightly soften the paint. The wax itself will fill in the tiny swirls on the car paint.
In general, these swirls will be masked by the scratch removing wax. However, the wax may still wear off and some of swirl marks will reappear. In this case, we will need to refresh our wax layer and this should be a good way to prevent scratches from returning. Alternatively, we could add a second, top layer of wax. Carnuaba wax is known as a harder variant of car wax and it will be able to slow down the removal of the inner layer of the wax. We should be able to get these decent polishing compounds in big box stores or big chain auto stores. In general, we should avoid using polishes that are too expensive or too harsh.
We should do enough research and find a polishing product that’s slightly abrasive and has the ability to fill in swirl marks. After the inner layer has properly hardened, we could add the top layer made from harder wax compound. With little persistence and some elbow grease, we should be able to remove these swirl marks.