I have a new OB, its only a month old. I spent a lot of time reading about the detailing options, here and on autopia, there are a zillion different products and its all a bit overwhelming. A few weeks ago I did my first carwash at a friends place, new MF towels, took a lot of time and care. In the end I still have swirls and a few water spots.

I'm sure this is because of my inexperience, but I can see this becoming a problem. I wanted to apply sealant once the wash was done but I can't want to over all the swirls. As it is the car only stays clean for a day or two at most.

 

It's extremely difficult (if not impossible) to avoid swirls in your finish. It happens with all colors, but it's just that black really shows them more than any other color. Lighter colors tend to hide them.

 

check out the Detailing Guide at Detailed Image Auto Detailing Guide - Detailed Image . Some of the swirls might have existed before you got the car. Key to drying is to use almost no pressure and use some QD to get rid of streaks rather than trying to rub them out when you're doing the drying...

 

If you get a lot of swirls, the swirls kind of dissappear, and you can say your car is really dark gray with a sweet motion effect

 

WtF???Attachment 83885

 

I should have put a smiley.

I made that comment in jest.

 

Because Black looks amazing when its clean... Almost all the cars you see in
TV commercials feature a dark color. Mercedes uses black in almost every commercial

 

Washing the car wont get rid of swirls, and its very possible that the car had the swirls before you bought it. The only way to remove them is to polish them out.

And every car gets swirl marks, its just that black will show them more than a lighter color does.

My BO when I bought it brand new had some very light swirl marks also, but I just waited a few months, did a very light polish detail on it and it got rid of all the very minor swirl marks, then I slapped sealant on it.

I just spend an hour this weekend doing a wash, a quick hand touch up on minor swirls, and then put another coat of sealant on it.

 

^very true!

another thing to be careful of is you can actually cause more swirls when you wash the car depending on what medium/products/method you are using when you wash. If you aren't using the 2-bucket method, try using it just once and see how much crap is in your dirty bucket when you are finished and then imagine all that being dragged across the paint

 

Ok since I don't have any polishing tools and don't plan to buy them, I think the best thing to do is get it detailed by someone who does. After that I can add sealant and do regular washes.