What do they do?
We bought a 98 S70 for a commuter car
Its mechanically sound and rust free but the body has some pretty serious scuffs and scratches.
And so begins my journey through car body detailing land
From whatI understand they did not clear coat back then but maybe I'm wrong.
First we tried a scratch remover but it did nothing. we then went to a paste wax and buffed it with a rotary buffer.
This seemed to work great and filled more scratches then the scratch remover but the next day it was taken through the car wash and alot came off and the scratches were visible again.
So we learnt it will be touchless or hand washed from now on.
I have been doing spots with a Turtle coloured polish and paste wax.
I've got 3 coats on the back end so far and it looks good but is there something elseI can try to make the fix more permanent.
By winters end it won't look too good

I think that they have been puting clear coat on for quite some time but I would get a catalouge from Griots garage I purcased a wagon for the same function and thought that some areas of the paint were unsalvagable but the Griots stuff as it has always done continues to amaze me. I have used it on both of my Mercedes and they both look amazing. Unless it is a safe orbital, buffing with some atachment from the auto parts store will actuall do more harm then good resulting in more swirl marks and more polishes which will come off in the car wash and make the car look terrible.

ORIGINAL: fegield

What do they do?
We bought a 98 S70 for a commuter car
Its mechanically sound and rust free but the body has some pretty serious scuffs and scratches.
And so begins my journey through car body detailing land
From whatI understand they did not clear coat back then but maybe I'm wrong.
First we tried a scratch remover but it did nothing. we then went to a paste wax and buffed it with a rotary buffer.
This seemed to work great and filled more scratches then the scratch remover but the next day it was taken through the car wash and alot came off and the scratches were visible again.
So we learnt it will be touchless or hand washed from now on.
I have been doing spots with a Turtle coloured polish and paste wax.
I've got 3 coats on the back end so far and it looks good but is there something elseI can try to make the fix more permanent.
By winters end it won't look too good


Best way to see if you car has clear coat is to take some polish and a clean soft cloth and rub the paint and see if any color came off onto the rag. If so it is single stage.

You don't want to "buff" a wax witha rotary buffer. The swirls are going to come back regaurdless because all you did is fill them with a wax.The only thing your process is doing is masking the problem.

Go with a good set of polishes and get yourself a random orbital polsiher. Not a Kmart cheapo either. A polisher is about the only way to really fix the problems. If you REALLY want to do it by hand go with the 1Z polishes. They work great by hand.