Styling Swirl marks removal

[cooperman]

Has anyone used a orbital polisher to remove swirl marks off their panda?

I’m Interested in getting one and seen some videos on YouTube which marks it look not very complicated, was just interested to hear anyone’s experience with them as obviously I don’t want to make the paint worse!

 

[koalar]

Measure the paint thickness first

Make sure it's maliciously clean first

Use a dual action polisher, I wouldn't use a standard orbital polisher unless you are experienced

Never, ever polish on an edge

Don't let it get too hot, pretty impossible with a DA polisher

Pretty sure there's a wheeler dealer episode that goes into it properly, mike takes the car to one of the industry top detailers that charges a ridiculously high fee, can't remember which car unfortunately

As with everything, it's easy if you do it day in day out

YouTube videos are misleading, depending how it's filmed it can still be rubbish in reality but looks fine on film

Can't find the episode online

Here reference to it

https://www.detailingworld.co.uk/threads/anyone-see-the-detailer-in-wheeler-dealers-trading-up.304669/

 

[jrkitching]

Make sure it's maliciously clean first

That. Do not even think about polishing until you've clayed the car first.

Measure the paint thickness first

That too, but remember the paint has a clearcoat; punch through the clearcoat and the only possible recovery will be to respray.

Given that the Fiat clearcoat is well known for peeling in later life, on a car as old as a 169 must be by now, I'd not risk it.

A synthetic resin polish will do a decent enough job of filling minor swirls; I'd try that first. And if that doesn't have much effect, then it's likely too badly swirled to polish out.

 

[The Panda Nut]

Sound advice from Koalar and jrkitching. I have a DA polisher. I would not use a straight rotary polisher as they are prone to creating swirl marks. The DA both rotates and has a secondardy movement of the drive spindle which softens the action. You need to look at U tube videos and pick out the salient points. Be careful not to linger in one spot, keep moving. Keep the polishing pad damp or it burns sticks and disintegrates. Try and finan old car / panel to practice if possible. Use different grades of polish as this does make an impact. Dont go heavy on the sharper edges of panels. DO be prepared to finish with some hand work. I find Farecla G3 fine is quite enough to remove light swirls without going too deep. This compound is good quality and if kept moist in use it does its work and eventually disappears completely leaving a high shine. Keep the polishing pads clean by washinmg if they become clogged or change for a new one.

I have used 2500 and 3000 grade discs on paintwork as well and these are scary, leaving it looking dire, but the polishing compounds bring the smooth surface back with patience. I repainted the side my mothers car. The DA did an excellent job leaving it almost perfect, Certainly better than new!

G3 fine is my go to polish but as per the comments above you must clean and then clay bar the car to get rid of fine grit and contamination before starting or you will make things worse not better. DO the minimum needed to restore the paint and as said dont go right through the clear coat at any cost.

I have probab;y spent 20 hours doing this on a variety of cars and think its a job most people can tackle. Patience is the key. There are good instructonal videos available. Our Pandas responded will to the polisher. I followed the cleanand polish with DIamond bright paint sea;ant and top this up with AUtog;ym Gold every 6 to 12 months which means additional polish is hardly required.

I will say that on a Panda it adds nothing to the value and is an awful lot of work for relatively little return. Be warned.

My DA polisher packed up after 1 use and I was despondant as a new one was then £100 more than I paid. It seems they have a habit of breaking the power cables. Mine was just this and a new wire sorted it out. You might just get a second hand one that needs this doing very cheaI will conclude by hsaying I feel that removing the outer layer of the laquer does leave the paint more vulnerable to weathering and future swirl marks. Pandas seem to have a good paint finish which helps but the whole process is a risk.

 

[jrkitching]

Pandas seem to have a good paint finish

I'd agree., with the exception of Pasodoble Red; this colour seems particularly prone to chipping and lacquer peel.

 

[koalar]

I'd agree., with the exception of Pasodoble Red; this colour seems particularly prone to chipping and lacquer peel.

Correct, red and black are the only one that I have seen with lacquer peel

Cars of these age are likely to have at least one replacement panel or bumper in its life, which can be of a different thickness and or hardness

It's also quite likely the surface has already been cut back at least once in it's life in readiness for a forecourt sale,

In general car use less paint and is softer than it days gone by, cost and environmental and all that

 

[FiatMatt94]

When I had my black Panda I used to set a day aside for fully detailing but with my Seicento I can do it in about 3-4 hours, also as stated above always wash & clay the car first, I usually use a iron contamination remover before snow foaming every time I wash the car weekly to help with the process & reduce the amount of times a clay bar has to be used, after washing the car if polishing I'll clay bar prior to drying the car as it works & saves a little time, I find if you clean your car on a regular basis you can clay bar quite quick in about 15-20 mins only if it needs doing, it doesn't always need doing if kept on top off so run your fingers across the bodywork & if it feels rough it needs doing. When it comes to polishing I don't like to use a cutting compound unless it's really absolutely necessary such as if paint has faded etc as it can leave marks which have to be polished out. On my old black Panda which is the worst colour for marks & imperfections I used to use Meguiars Swirl remover with a DA which produced good results prior to polishing instead of a cutting compound as it was better on the paint as it doesn't leave marks like some compounds can, polish is a personal preference but I like either Autoglym, Meguiars or recently I've come across Farecla G3 polish when it was on offer in Halfords & for an all in one product I was quite impressed with it although you have to work quick with it as it will start drying quite quick, wax is also a personal preference, I don't tend to take any notice of the times they claim it lasts as I do this regularly but the 2 I've had the best results with are for light colour cars I use Bilt Hamber Double Speed Wax which apparently lasts around 6 months but on dark colour cars it tends to bloom so for dark colours I use Soft 99 Dark & Black wax although they say it doesn't last long but I've had 4 months out of the Soft 99 before through winter & it held up, both these waxes are very cheap at under £20 each & long lasting, here is a link from 2021 when I cleaned up a family friends old 131 & posted it on here https://www.fiatforum.com/threads/1983-mk3-131-mirafiori-1600-cl-paint-revival.487993/, this was the first & only time I've ever used a cutting compound but this 131 really needed it , both rear quarter panels took 3-4 attempts to bring up to the standard of the rest of it

 

[porta]

Correct, red and black are the only one that I have seen with lacquer peel

Cars of these age are likely to have at least one replacement panel or bumper in its life, which can be of a different thickness and or hardness

It's also quite likely the surface has already been cut back at least once in it's life in readiness for a forecourt sale,

In general car use less paint and is softer than it days gone by, cost and environmental and all that

I’ve seen it on the metallic green, flat baby blue, and the sickly yellow…strangely never on the bright ‘sporting’ yellow

 

[The Panda Nut]

Correct, red and black are the only one that I have seen with lacquer peel

Cars of these age are likely to have at least one replacement panel or bumper in its life, which can be of a different thickness and or hardness

It's also quite likely the surface has already been cut back at least once in it's life in readiness for a forecourt sale,

In general car use less paint and is softer than it days gone by, cost and environmental and all that

My Golf was metallic blue and the laqeur more or less all come off.... Funny how this happens. Red is just a problem colour.

 

[koalar]

My Golf was metallic blue and the laqeur more or less all come off.... Funny how this happens. Red is just a problem colour.

Depends how it's store in shade in bright sunlight

Depends how it's looked after, wash and wax seals small holes

Depends on colour red is the worse as it adsorbs more UV, also some manufacturers such as Toyota anything other than red is a cost option, meaning they are from the cheap end and often less looked after

Manufacturers are different, old Vauxhall's often had the bonnet pealing

Paints keep evolving, and sometime there's just a big mess up for a particular manufacturer and or colour combination

I haven't seen many fiats peeling one red, one black, so I'd say compared to vauxhall there pretty good, you see less now than years ago but that could be because of the quantity of silver and white cars

Very few dark colours except black nowadays

 

[The Panda Nut]

Depends how it's store in shade in bright sunlight

Depends how it's looked after, wash and wax seals small holes

Depends on colour red is the worse as it adsorbs more UV, also some manufacturers such as Toyota anything other than red is a cost option, meaning they are from the cheap end and often less looked after

Manufacturers are different, old Vauxhall's often had the bonnet pealing

Paints keep evolving, and sometime there's just a big mess up for a particular manufacturer and or colour combination

I haven't seen many fiats peeling one red, one black, so I'd say compared to vauxhall there pretty good, you see less now than years ago but that could be because of the quantity of silver and white cars

Very few dark colours except black nowadays

White is a noble colour for a panda. LOL

 

[cooperman]

It’s never been machine polished so going to give it a go, I’ve got my eye on the auto fitness swirl remover pack, doesn’t seem to be to aggressive also.

 

[Tomferrari517]

I had mine polished using a coupon a while ago and as said above, Black is the worst color to show swirls and imperfections but it also seems to be the prettiest when it's new or at least clean when seen from a distance.

I just have a doubt about this, the garage that polished mine did a decent job on the paint but seems they didn't mask the body plastic trim pieces too well (if they did that is) Which of course, as a bummer left the outermost parts of the black plastic trim slightly white and faded as they accidentally polished it, it's not too obvious, but does anyone know any good or "guaranteed" method to try and restore these? Most videos and forums online will only show either the classic lighter trick, but that seems like it'll last for a week before it ends up looking worse later, or they'll recommend these black plastic restorers, but many of these sound like snake oil or shoe shine that won't work...

Has anyone any experience restoring these?

 

[irc]

You could try a product called Owatrol Polytrol.
I used it to revitalise black plastic trim on a Panda that had turned streaky grey, and it is still black after 2 years.
Its mostly used for restoring colour on doors and windows, and I had some left over.

 

[FiatMatt94]

With my old Panda which I had from new I tried them all back to black, g techniq which was expensive, pretty crap & definitely not worth the £40 it cost but the one thing I found that worked best out of everything & lasted quite a while was the cheapest black pigmented car polish you could find, I found this worked better than all the rubbish trim restorers & as I used to use black pigmented Turtle Wax polish on the Panda so I just polished the trim with the car

 

[The Panda Nut]

I had mine polished using a coupon a while ago and as said above, Black is the worst color to show swirls and imperfections but it also seems to be the prettiest when it's new or at least clean when seen from a distance.

I just have a doubt about this, the garage that polished mine did a decent job on the paint but seems they didn't mask the body plastic trim pieces too well (if they did that is) Which of course, as a bummer left the outermost parts of the black plastic trim slightly white and faded as they accidentally polished it, it's not too obvious, but does anyone know any good or "guaranteed" method to try and restore these? Most videos and forums online will only show either the classic lighter trick, but that seems like it'll last for a week before it ends up looking worse later, or they'll recommend these black plastic restorers, but many of these sound like snake oil or shoe shine that won't work...

Has anyone any experience restoring these?

No in short. have imptoved this with clay bar. The best thing I have ever tried is armoral shield. Its the longest lasting and most effective stuff I have tried. Srub with an old tooth brush and some shield.

 

[Tomferrari517]

Thank you all for the suggestions, might give a shot to the Owatrol and the Turtle Wax for now, they both seem to be going for cheap right now and maybe I'll apply both on different trim pieces to see which one works best.

 

[irc]

With the Owatel stuff, less is more... it worked best for me by lightly applying with a cloth, waiting a while, and then buffing the residue off. Its not a coating, it actually seems to raise the original pigment.
Also worked really well on a 80s Peugeot grey unpainted bumper section. I had forgotten that they actually looked good when new, as I've only seen grubby almost-white ones for 30 years or more.