Attempt at Filling Swirls

[Donutz]

I haven't had the chance to pull the trigger on a Porter Cable yet, but I thought I'd take a shot a trying to fill some pretty bad swirls on my wife's civic by hand. Since I'm planning to buy a PC shortly I didn't want to waste my time trying to do any levelling so I went with filling products.

So here we go... Today wasn't ideal in terms of environmental conditions but I gave it a go anyways. This was a test on a small part of the trunk before I expand my efforts to the entire car. Also, along the way I learned some things that I will change up when I perform this process on the entire car.

Products:
- ONR
- buckets, lamb mits, mf towels, zymol pads
- Riccardo yellow
- Meguiars QD
- Autoglym SRP
- NXT Techwax paste
- PB Natty Blue

I started by washing the trunk with ONR (2 bucket method), then claying the test spot. Check out the swirls and etching:

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t32/sagexp/Car/th_1aStart.jpg (http://s156.photobucket.com/albums/t32/sagexp/Car/?action=view&current=1aStart.jpg)

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t32/sagexp/Car/th_1bStart-Etching.jpg (http://s156.photobucket.com/albums/t32/sagexp/Car/?action=view&current=1bStart-Etching.jpg)

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t32/sagexp/Car/th_1cStart-EtchingandScratches.jpg (http://s156.photobucket.com/albums/t32/sagexp/Car/?action=view&current=1cStart-EtchingandScratches.jpg)

And on to the Autoglym SRP:

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t32/sagexp/Car/th_1dAutoglymandRiccardos.jpg (http://s156.photobucket.com/albums/t32/sagexp/Car/?action=view&current=1dAutoglymandRiccardos.jpg)

5 coats of autoglym:

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t32/sagexp/Car/th_2a5coatsautoglym.jpg (http://s156.photobucket.com/albums/t32/sagexp/Car/?action=view&current=2a5coatsautoglym.jpg)

And on to Techwax:

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t32/sagexp/Car/th_3aTechwax.jpg (http://s156.photobucket.com/albums/t32/sagexp/Car/?action=view&current=3aTechwax.jpg)

After 2 coats of Techwax:

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t32/sagexp/Car/th_3c2coatstechwax.jpg (http://s156.photobucket.com/albums/t32/sagexp/Car/?action=view&current=3c2coatstechwax.jpg)

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t32/sagexp/Car/th_3b2coatstechwax.jpg (http://s156.photobucket.com/albums/t32/sagexp/Car/?action=view&current=3b2coatstechwax.jpg)

And the PB Natty Blue (must not eat... smells so good!):

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t32/sagexp/Car/th_4aNattyblue.jpg (http://s156.photobucket.com/albums/t32/sagexp/Car/?action=view&current=4aNattyblue.jpg)

After 2 coats of Natty Blue:

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t32/sagexp/Car/th_4b2coatsnatty.jpg (http://s156.photobucket.com/albums/t32/sagexp/Car/?action=view&current=4b2coatsnatty.jpg)

And the money shots (test spot next to untreated):

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t32/sagexp/Car/th_5a-leftright.jpg (http://s156.photobucket.com/albums/t32/sagexp/Car/?action=view&current=5a-leftright.jpg)

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t32/sagexp/Car/th_5bleftright.jpg (http://s156.photobucket.com/albums/t32/sagexp/Car/?action=view&current=5bleftright.jpg)

And just for comparison, the begining and end results:

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t32/sagexp/Car/1aStart.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t32/sagexp/Car/4b2coatsnatty.jpg

Not all of the swirls are filled, but as you can see there is a big difference between the beginning and my end results. Also, I didn't have time to let some products set up properly, but it gives me good indication of the potential. I have also learned a few things that I will improve upon when I expand this process to the entire car. I'm pleased with the results and this is acceptable as a stop-gap until I can pick up the PC. Thanks for looking!

[insaini]

wow!

[ST3ALTH]

look really good man, i have to do that to my black car this summer.

[m_bisson]

cool beans...
Total time spent?

[Donutz]

On a 12" by 12" spot, just about 1.5 hours (it would have taken pretty close to the same amount of time to do the entire trunk, maybe 10 - 15 mins longer, total). It should have taken longer but I didn't let all of the products cure completely.

[aris]

Nice work

[Manpreet]

that doesnt look to bad, atleast it got majority of the swirl marks out, but it still looks better

[philipfreire]

Nice! But filler.. its going to come back!

[Donutz]

Yeah, I fully expect it to come back. I'm hoping it will hold up for about 8 weeks.

[sas]

Good job Jaison, I would say even great for 1.5 hours of work. With the porter cable this process will be less painful. To remove swirls completely better to ask Kaval. Every micron of paint worths its weight in gold. You will need in orbital machine and big amount of additional things. I think there is no sense to hold all this stuff for work performed once per 7-10 year.
I spent gigantic sums for different compounds, paints, primers. Now they are standing on shelves and a big part of them is unusable to use.

[Mazda3X2]

Nice! But filler.. its going to come back!

Yeah, it seems like a shame to do all that work just for the swirls to come back. I would look into getting a two step compound before continuing to do the rest of the car. Get rid of them all together.

Kaval knows his stuff. He did my car twice and does an amazing job.

I finally bought all the things I will need to do this for myself and am going to go for it for the first time in the spring. I figured it will be worth it as I plan to do both our vehicles once a year at least.

Looking much better though. :)

[m_bisson]

who is Kaval? i want my car done lol.

[distr0]

who is Kaval? i want my car done lol.

use to be a sponsor..but check him out at makeitshine.ca

[p-o-g-i]

Nice job Jason. Looks good!