Clay Bar/Swirl Marks

Dibidoolandas · 02-10-2011, 01:26 PM

I'll try to make this short. Recently I clay barred my white I2 because I was seeing a tooon of little rust spots (brake dust/rail dust/fallout) and it was making me anxious as Hell. The next day I waxed it. I now notice that my car has some fairly significant swirl marks, and I'm not sure if they're due to the waxing (since some seem to be more circular in shape) or if the clay bar got too much debris on it.

I'm wondering if there's a good way I can fix it, if I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, or if I should just take it to a body shop and have them buff the living Hell out of it, since I'm not at all convinced at this point I won't make matters worse. I'm attaching a picture I just took in my parking lot with my cell, apologize for not being able to see much but I was pretty blinded by the Sun.

**Jayemtee** · 02-10-2011, 02:45 PM

The first rule of clay bars is NO debris. Zero, zilch, nada. NONE. This includes washing your hands and your squirt bottle. This includes buying top quality clay that is cleaned better than the cheap clay. This includes throwing contaminated clay away and using new clay.

It is important to know whether the swirls are in the wax or paint and i guess you don't know. The next step would be to remove the wax. This is done easily by washing the car 2 or 3 times with Dawn liquid dishwashing soap and rinsing throroughly. This stuff eats away the wax very well. If done properly, the paint will be squeaky clean when your clean fingers grip the paint tightly....as opposed to a good wax job where your fingers glide across the paint.

If you remove the wax and the swirls are gone, that's great. Just rewax with a zero tolerance for debris.

If the swirls are there, re-clay gently until all of the swirls are gone.

Patience is your friend in this task. Instant gratification is your enemy.

Dibidoolandas · 02-10-2011, 08:26 PM

Hm... I'm not even sure it was the clay bar debris at this point... Maybe it wasn't lubricated enough. I looked at it at a different angle and though it's hard to see they look more like light scratches at this point. I'm going to take it into the dealer and see what they recommend, but I'm guessing a buffing at the body shop and/or rubbing compound.

Anyone ever had to get this done or have an idea of how much it would cost?

Cobb · 02-13-2011, 11:03 PM

You use mechanical car washes? I find the turtle wax scratch remover works well. It looks like white tooth paste and does wonders.

Like posted above, only use quality clay, fold it over frequently, use lots of spray so it glides over vs sticks to the surface. Check it frequently for black dots, thats dirt you need to fold it over again.

amcdonal86 · 03-11-2011, 08:25 PM

Likely you will need to buy a dual action polisher such as the porter cable 7424 or similar to remove the swirls

ATS*SOL · 04-14-2011, 02:26 AM

x2 with those swirls you wont get it out with clay and wax MAYBE a hand polish but your better off with a PC7424

**Mark Elvin** · 04-14-2011, 03:00 AM

As a one time pro detailer (had to give up due to health issues) I speak with some knowledge here.

What you most likely have is something called clay marring. It can be caused by using too hard a clay, or by using insufficient lube when claying.

What brand of clay did you use, what did you lube it with?