Five Causes of Swirl Marks on Your Car’s Paint
Swirl marks are the bane of car owners and car enthusiasts alike. They make even the best paint job ugly and fast! Read on to find out what the normal cause of these swirl marks is. Also learn how to avoid them to give your car the best finish for as long as possible.
Dirty cleaning cloths
Surprisingly, the number one cause of swirl marks on your car’s paint is dirty cleaning cloths. This includes dirty chamois, dirty terry towels, and cheap microfiber cloths. Often, to save money, people use old clothes or towels to clean their cars. This leads to swirl marks appearing on your car sometimes as soon as your dirty cloth touches the paint!
Eliminate this risk by cleaning your cloths before and after use. You can also use 100% cotton towels that have not worn out too much. As for chamois towels, try using them by hitting them on wet areas instead of cleaning the car with them.
car dusters
Because the feather dusters have gone the way of the dinosaur. The old feathered car dusters for cleaning paint were very harsh on cars painted with a dark clear coat. However, newer products that feature waxed cotton strands work much better.
However, they still do a lot of damage because most people don’t follow instructions when applying zero pressure to them as they slide across the surface of the car. Another habit that causes swirls is using dusters on cars that are too dirty. The effect is that the duster encounters particles much larger than the dust particles that are dragged across the surface.
wash incorrectly
Not enough people wash their cars properly. Often they just dip their wash mitts into a bucket of detergent and start scrubbing. This habit destroys the paint and destroys it quickly. The proper way to wash to avoid swirl marks is to first hose the car down with water to loosen any large particles that could otherwise mar the surface when shampooing.
After shampooing, it is also best to hose it down before drying it to ensure that any particles removed by the shampoo are removed from the car. A film of water from a bucket is also a great way for the water to wash away particles that weren’t removed by the first hose.
dirty car covers
Car covers meant to protect cars are often the cause of swirl marks. This is because car decks are rarely cleaned. Most are neatly nestled with all kinds of mold and mildew growing on them. As soon as the cars get under the covers, they rub against the particles trapped in the covers of the car inside.
Without proper maintenance, car covers will damage the paint more than they will protect it.
Improper use of strong polishing compounds
Polishing a car must be an activity that is rarely done. Since polishing is an abrasive process, it eats away at the valuable clear coat that protects your car’s paint. Due to the abundance of polishing compounds on the market, most people think they need to polish their cars as often as they wax them.
Buffing compounds with harsh abrasives will eat away at paint quickly if done more than twice a year. To be safe, try to only use it once a year. A properly cleaned and waxed car will not need to be polished more than that.
Conclution
Swirl marks are easy to get and hard to remove. It’s important to realize that sooner or later any car will get swirl marks. Your job as a car owner is to prevent them from coming fast. Some cars have swirl marks five days after leaving the dealership. While others that are well cared for don’t get swirl marks until well into their fifth year.
Avoiding the five causes of swirl marks above will give you a swirl-free car for years to come.