Swirl removal help

[toastboy]

I've recently taken delivery of a Porter Cable polisher and have tried it to remove swirls on a Ford Puma with little success. I have used an orange cutting pad and Poorboys SSR2.5 but this doesn't seem to be making much impression on the swirls. I am applying a little pressure and moving the PC about 1 inch per second and keep going until the polish is starting to produce dust. Is SSR2.5 strong enough for the job or am I doing something wrong? I'd rather stay on the safe side of things rather than go too abrasive and damage the paint. After using the SSR, I've been applying P21S wax. Is this a good combination? It seems to work OK but I'm not getting the glasslike finish I've seen possible. Any ideas?

[Neil_Sc]

toastboy said:

I've recently taken delivery of a Porter Cable polisher and have tried it to remove swirls on a Ford Puma with little success. I have used an orange cutting pad and Poorboys SSR2.5 but this doesn't seem to be making much impression on the swirls. I am applying a little pressure and moving the PC about 1 inch per second and keep going until the polish is starting to produce dust. Is SSR2.5 strong enough for the job or am I doing something wrong? I'd rather stay on the safe side of things rather than go too abrasive and damage the paint. After using the SSR, I've been applying P21S wax. Is this a good combination? It seems to work OK but I'm not getting the glasslike finish I've seen possible. Any ideas?

Your best to focus on your technique first before looking at the product.

Your technique seems to be nearly there, try putting more pressure on the pad, if you put a mark with a marker pen on the backing pad you should be able to tell more easily how many times the pad is rotating, try firm pressure, not OTT, but firm enough to slow the spin down to about 2 turns a second, keep the pad flat.

Move slowly, an inch a second sounds ok, maybe a little slower.

Make sure the polish is fully broken down. The polish starts to go clearer when it is breaking down.

Work a small area, maybe 2 foot by 2 foot, don't try to work an area too large or you'll have no impact.


I use the Menzerna ceramiclear line of polishes and these are very effective indeed. If you have no success with your technique with the SSR 2.5, you may need to make a switch.

I tried SSR 2.5 on my Audi and it made no impact whatsoever. However Audi's tend to have fiendishly hard paint and I was today using a cutting polish to remove very very minor marks in the paint as nothing else will touch it.

[Taylots2k]

Maybe try Megs scratch x - thats pretty good stuff.

[m3evo2]

3M do some good products for this. I've found to reduce swirls with a machine is to move the mop slowly. I've seen people rushing a job and then having to correct afterwards due to swirls. As said nice and slow, keep it moving and small areas at a time.