Honda Car Forum

when i wash my black crv and chamois it afterwards the paintwork still looks dirty and they are a lot of swirl marks on it too.I ahve polished it using autoglym deep rasin polish ,makes a little differance but not much.Any one got any suggestions as to what i am doing wrong ar if i can purchase anything else to get that showroom effetct paintwork?

I would suggest taking it to a reputable detailer. They'll take out the seats and clean everywhere, and use very high quality polishes. Worth the money once in a while!

Try using a clay bar to get all of that old wax off. Then wax the car with new wax and make sure it is clean. Try getting a buffer with wax so that you can fill in those swirls marks.

The only way is to use T-cut to buff the surface of your paint work.It is hard work but will bring the paint back to its showroom gloss.Don't go over the top, it should only be done occasionally as it does take off a minute amount of the paint.

Use McGuire's 3 step process. It shows right on each bottle which step is which. Although I have had luck with just using McGuire's Gold Class liquid polish all by itself. It goes on easy and comes off easy too. Use an electric buffer for best results. I used to have a black car and it was fabulous on it.

i don't want to tell you about which brand of polishes to use, but i want to warn you about the electric buffer-if used too agressively it will cause more trouble than you already have. if you don't use a very light touch you can burn through your paint. practice on some old junker car; and until then polish and buff by hand (more labor but you'll enjoy it more with the additional effort ;-)

Removing swirls is a really complicated process that requires specialized products and tools. If you really want to tackle it yourself, you can find some really good info online (autopia.org, showcardetailing.com, etc.). Otherwise, an experienced detailer would be the route to go.

Black is the worst color to work with when it comes to detailing. I imagine the Miguaires (sp.) 3 step process is simular to what I would do back in my younger days when I was a detailer for variuos auto body shops. To get oxidation (junk) off and get down to the finish I would use what we called "rubbing compound" or "buffing compound". This is basicly miro-fine liquid sand paper which is good for slowly removing oxidation w/o removing finish. There are varieing grits, you'll want the fine grit.

Once the oxidation is removed, you want to apply a good protective wax - the brand is up to you. This will provide a layer of protection between your car's paint surface and the environment. You can throw on a few coats if you'd like. Afterward, you'll want to buff the wax with a polishing compound until your happy w/the results. Finish off with a mirror glaze product. It's a temporary glaze that nicely fills the fine scratches you see as swirl marks. You'll want to reapply the glaze after every wash.

I always found that using a maching to buff always ended up with swirl marks. I could get away with it on a white car, but any darker colored cars (esp black) I had to use the good ol' fashon method of hand rubbing the car.

To try and remove swirl marks I'd acutally use the same process as above, you may be able to skip the rubbing compound step, and try and fill the swirl marks w/wax and then polish the wax and finish w/the mirror glaze.

Rubbing compound - physically removes surface mircoscopically
Wax - acts as a barrier to protect the paint finish from the elements
Polish - polishes the wax, ideally to a near mirror finish
Glaze - acts as a temporary filler, to fill in any mirco fine scratches (such as swirl marks).