damn swirls

[roylevitt]

My dealer i purchased my MO from sucked. Did a real crappy cleaning job and I have come to notice my paint seems to have large swirls in it.

How can i fix this?

I also have white marks that appear on my Black MO when dry, but disappear when wet? (Below rear doors and behind door handles)

Any thoughts on this one?

[esemes]

welcome to the board


swirls suck


this place rocks; several are complete finish (dont call it paint, mkay??) experts..........

i know they'll be happy to explain the how-to's on this..... and soon


i jus spent friday aft/eve remving them from my car (the day i picked it up it was COVERED in swirls from the poor detailers..)


time consuming, indeed, but well worth it to have a mirror-like finish.......(on a new car)..........

[hfelknor]

OK. White marks that go away when wet.
Probably calcium deposits from hard water.
If you live in an area of hard water, you must be very anal about drying the car completely. You must not allow water to set up on the car.
If you want the quick and easy way out, try a "glass polish" on the affected areas. But be careful. Some glass polishes are abrasive and will microscratch your paint.
Try Windex first and rub hard with 100% cotton cloth.
BTW Coca cola may get it off, again with strong rubbing with a 100% cotton cloth. But make sure you rinse ALL the coke off immediatly after you are done.

If you want to do it right, the car needs to be clayed. Read thru a few of the threads here. We talk about Clay bars here a lot.

Now the swirls.
There two ways to handle swirls.
And it depends on how deep they are.

But basically you can hide the swirls or remove them.

To hide the swirls you need to buy a wax/poly treatment that is designed to do just that.
I use ZAino (www.zainobros.com).
This is a complete system to detail your car.
THeir Z5 is a poly coating similar to their Z2 but it has properties that will cover minor swirls. You just keep adding coats until the swirls are no longer visible. Sometimes that is 1 or 2 coats, sometimes it is 10 coats.

If the swirls are deep, you won't be able to hide them.
I've had that on a couple of used cars that I have bought.
You need to use something like Meguiars Medium cut, followed by Meguiars Fine cut, using a random orbital buffer.
3M also has some products that will work just as well. It's just that I have used Meguiars.
These ARE abrasive and WILL cut your "paint".
If you have never done this before I would practice on something else besides a new Murano.
Or you can take it to a pro.
Talk to the dealers. (Not just Nissan...go upscale and talk to Caddy and Lexus dealers) they may know a guy who is really good. I can assure you that even with a random orbital, you can put your own swirls in if you are not good.

Read some threads here about waxing and claying etc.

Hope this helps.

Homer

[turbodog]

And, I know it's too late for you, but for anyone who has not yet taken delivery of their new Murano, or are taking it in for service:

DON'T LET THE DEALER WASH IT.

Face it. They are paying some guy minimum wage to wash cars, he probably never changes out his rags, and they crank a fair number of cars thru. It's a disaster waiting to happen. That guy will NEVER put the care into washing it that you will.

I closed my deal late in the day, and the dealer didn't have time to do a 'full prep' (This also prevented them from slapping their dealer badge on her rump). Thank goodness. They gave me a certificate to come in and get a 'detailing'. I couldn't throw it away fast enough.

[HuskyFan]

If the dealer polished the car with a wax/polish and used a buffer this could have caused the swirls. In hard to reach places the wax may not have been removed which usually show up as a white haze.

[Chezman29]

I HATE those stupid dealer stickers they put on their vehicles.

That was one of the first questions even my wife asked. Can you please remove that stupid sticker off the rear of our new SUV. The salesman laughed and knew what we were talking about.
He said they didn't have time, but that it comes off easily.
It does. It was one of the 1st things I did.
Chez

What comes next is the stickers the manufacturer puts on the visors. The caution and warning stickers. They are a pain to take off, but it looks a hell of a lot better when they are off.
The best way I have found to do it is to use tweezers and scrape back and forth until the sticker sort of disintigrates off, it takes a good half hour per, but it looks a lot nicer when they are off and you don't have them catching your eyes since they are right above your head.
After I did it to my 4runner, someone even asked, what happened to those stickers they always put on the visors, I said I had a six pack and about an hour and a half and took them off.
He said it sure does make a difference on the look of the interior.

[dalascby]

How exactly do you get those dealer stickers off the rear? Do they just peal off or is there some "procedure" that needs to be done?

[Mr3Putt]

Originally posted by dalascby
How exactly do you get those dealer stickers off the rear? Do they just peal off or is there some "procedure" that needs to be done?

It depends on the sticker..... I've had 3D nameplates and logos just lift right off and then removed the glue with bug and tar stuff. I've also seen the 3D type riveted to the car. No hope for those. The newer type are decals and they can usually be peeled right off. I guess you could very carefully use a razor blade to get under the logo to get it started. Then you could use Goo Be gone to get rid of any glue residue. The best thing to do is tell the dealer you will refuse delivery if any of that crap is on YOUR new car.

[hfelknor]

The "chrome" dealer script on the rear can just be peeled off.

Just a couple of things.
IF it has been on for a long time (Many months) it will be harder, and it might leave a bit of "ghosting" behind if the rest of the paint has aged compared to what was under the piece. That will go away with time.

Heat is your friend.
Use a hair dryer to soften the glue.


"Worry" one edge until you get it started.
Once you get it started, pull that piece up at about a 45 degree angle and keep pulling. There's no hurry. It will come off.

After you have the piece off, there will be some glue residue.
Some people like to use Goo be Gone or somesuch.
I just kepp it warm with the hairdryer and "roll" the glue back and forth until the pieces of remnanys come off.

Run a little wax/Zaino over the area and you are done.

Usually takes about 10-20 minutes per piece.

You can do the same thing with the factory pieces if you wish.
They are also glued on.

(Some cars have the pieces held on by pins thru the metal)

Homer

[Chezman29]

I went to a high pressure spray washer and gone it was. Soft sticker not a lot of pressure. Easy to come off for me.

Chez

[roylevitt]

ok... so i paid to have my car detailed mostly to have the awful swirls removed (see thread:damn swirls)... the detailer claimed to have used a compound wax and the MO looked pretty good... for a few days. They pointed out a few rough spots (feels like grit under the paint) above the rear fender and behind two ofthe four dorr handles that they said was "overspray" from the factory.the swirls are back and i am so annoyed.

I am going to my local dealer (i did not buy the car from them) on saturday to do a little freaking out over the fact that the dealer i bought the car from (150 miles away) destroyed my clear coat and that there is overspray.

anyone have advice on how to approach this issue and have nissan fix the finish on my MO?

[hfelknor]

I would only suggest that long persistent applications of honey will probably do better than a violent application of vinegar.

The local guy probably won't be any help.
And why should he? You drove past his store to buy your MO somewhere else........But it's worth a polite try.

But the guy you actually bought it from should at least look at it.
There is at least a 50% chance that the detailer is FOS.

One thing you should know.
The detailer lied to you.

Once taken out, swirls don't "come back". Period.
He "hid" them.
And he hid them with a crap product.
At least Zaino will keep them hid for a few months at a time.

And the detailer may have done more damage.
Overspray? Hmmmnnn. well could be I suppose.........

Well if it truly is overspray, a good clay job applied by an expert should take care of that.

I would make nice with the dealers and NNA.

Good luck.


Homer

[roylevitt]

the sad thing is, the dealer i bought it from, excuse my French, sucks. Sold the car to me with coffee stains in the cup holder, no manual, no gas, and a scratched wind deflector which they would not acknowledge existed until i called Nissan for them to replace and make two 150 mile trips.

So as you can see i've had nothing but problems from the beginning. The only reason i did the deal was they had the color and extras i wanted, when all my local dealers couldn't come up with goods. (SE AWD Black/Black with every extra minus push bars.)

Classic Nissan; all engineering and no customer service!

So now i am left with hoping someone will just represent Nissan and do the right thing for me.

[thecanuck]

Have to side with Homer on this one.

My wife and her brother are about as subtle as train wrecks in matters like this. That's why I'm the one who deals with these things. I'm not what I would call a "sweet thing" myself, but I do have a knack for getting the best result out of bad situation when it serves to benefit me in the long run.

Somewhat like you, I could have received a better deal on my MO if I'd gone to a dealer about 60 miles away. But the savings would have been eaten up in gas with any trips to the dealer. Plus, I'm a firm believer of staying local because it'll pay for itself in the end. Even "bribes" end up to your advantage in the end. Twice now I've had a couple large pizzas delivered to the service dept/local garage as my way of saying thanks. Sure, it's work they had to do anyways, but I got my money back (and then some) through "hey, don't worry about it" free oil changes, free "shiny" stuff, etc etc.

Hell, I even managed to "fix" a spoiled relationship my brother-in-law had with his Nissan dealer. His XTerra had a piss-poor paint job on it, either out of the factory or due to damage in transit. He failed to see it when he took delivery and then went after them after-the-fact. And went after them like someone possessed! Once I was done with them (a few visits WITHOUT him), he ended up getting a free complete paint job. Sure, it's what should have been done in the beginning, but even I would've had difficulty siding with him, the way he approaches things.

This is just me and my world. Good luck with yours, and be patient -- it works.

[Enforcer]

Originally posted by hfelknor
I would only suggest that long persistent applications of honey will probably do better than a violent application of vinegar.

I love it!

So true. Same goes for dealing with service support reps at any company on any product.