Swerls in Paint work

[nutty123]

Hi. I have a California 2016 and just started to notice on a sunny day swerls all over the paint work were the sun is shining, how can i rectify this as it looks awful.
I do have it cleaned at a hand wash near by then once a month a wax by myself but still cant seem to get rid of the swerls when the sun hits ? No sign of them any other time could anyone help.

 

[willwander]

The best way is to polish them out using a machine polisher (DA or rotary), however this takes a bit of know-how and is best done by an experienced detailer, otherwise you can do more harm than good.

If you want to have a go by hand it will take a lot of work, you will need to use a polish with quite a lot of cut, and a lot of elbow grease. For a good finish you will then need to follow up with a finishing polish that has a lighter cut. You can make a decent improvement, but It's a lot of work by hand. Especially on a big van.

 

[willwander]

The swirls (or cobwebs) you see are actually micro-scratchs on the lacquer of your paint

If you are looking for a hand polish, Meguiars Ultimate Compound has a decent cut, Autoglym srp is a great polish and also contains a bit of filler and is a good choice.

Try reduce getting any more micro-scratches in your clear coat, you can do this by having a good wash routine.

Those hand wash guys are not always a good idea, they do loads of washes, one after the other, using the same cloth (usually full of git from the previous car) and are without a care and are probably the cause of most of the scratches you see.

BTW you're not alone, I love detailing and know a little about paint, the amount of new and expensive cars and Cali's I see with really awful paint is incredible.

 

[ArunAlec]

Are the swirls micro scratches or just where the wax has not been buffed sufficiently? If you are waxing monthly it could be the latter.

 

[Jay20cali]

This is the reason I always choose a light colour white/silver ect ...you will always see these in sunshine on dark coloured vehicles no matter how hard you try to get rid of them you won’t unfortunately i suppose if you would of put a paint guard on from day 1 when it was absolute virgin paint you may get away with it ???
but now it would need flatting and buffing and your taking a gamble of breaking through as vw use as little paint as possible on these vans.
I feel your pain

 

[Billywizz]

I would get it stage 1 machine polished then wash it yourself and DO NOT let the dealer wash it either.
I had mine done at £250

 

[Loz]

Are the swirls micro scratches or just where the wax has not been buffed sufficiently? If you are waxing monthly it could be the latter.

That is a slightly different effect known as hologramming.

 

[willwander]

That is a slightly different effect known as hologramming.

Paint Geek

 

[Borris]

I used to own a pearl black Cali. It wasn't my colour choice but having everything else I wanted, I went ahead a purchased this ex demo van. My instincts have always been to avoid dark colours especially black as it shows every mark and scratch, however small, so I knew it was going to be PITA from day one. I wasn't wrong.

Whereas my current Acapulco Blue Beach always looks great, this black nightmare had to be washed with extreme care. I adopted the double bucket wash method and always rinsed with filtered water. This was absolutely necessary as living in a hard water area, every droplet that dried on the vehicle produced a very unsightly and difficult to remove white calcium signature. So towelling off with micro fibre cloths was always essential. In the nearly two years that I owned it I never allowed anyone else to wash it because that would enevitably have meant micro scratching damage.

Despite removing bird lime immediately even that left surface damage which I had to have professionally polished out. The chap that deals with those kind of bodywork issues for me explained that to get a swirl free finish by machine polishing requires both skill and patience in conjuction with the correct equipment, cutting compound and polish. He said that there are many cowboys out there that will run a polishing mop over the paintwork using too many rpms or pressure and that overheats the paintwork causing damage. So find yourself someone that can do a full body mop and polish properly and then afterwards only wash the vehicle yourself. The local hand wash boys and girls might be good but I doubt if they will take the kind of care that darker finishes demand to keep them scratch free.

Finally don't bother with the "we will wash your car for you" offer after you've had it serviced. I've recently had both my wife's car and the Cali washed by the dealers and in both cases they did an awful job. The car came back with several areas that clearly hadn't been touched and the van looked like it may have been washed with a yard broom!

 

[ArunAlec]

That is a slightly different effect known as hologramming.

Sounds like an option VW would charge a lot for! My Cali is fully hologrammed.

 

[Neuon2003]

You can try a glaze which masks the swirls by filling them. I have had great success with PoorBoys Black Hole (for dark paint) and PoorBoys White Diamond (light paint). Easy to apply and quite durable (6+ months) especially when covered by a long lasting wax, such as Collinite 476S

Black Hole

White Diamond

Collinite 476S