I was washing my car today, and as i was wiping it down, i noticed alot of swirls. Im just thinkin "where the hell these come from?!" I walk over to my mom and dads lexus and Acura and it seems like their cars have a real high deep gloss coat on their paint, and its prtty much impossible to see any swirls. How come we dont have this deep gloss coat? Is it possible to go out and have a shop put it on?

 

Z's have thin, cheap paint unfortunately. It just doesn't have the depth of luxury car paints. Swirls, however, must be your own doing, no matter how unintentional. You can remove them yourself with an orbital buffer and swirl remover polishes, or you can have them removed by a detailer and from then on, just be very careful whenever you wash/wax it. Sooner or later, they will return, however.

By the way, what colors are your parents' cars? And which color is the Z? Swirls are easier to see on dark paint.

 

You’ll find hundreds of suggestions in the detailing forum.

 

You partially answered your own question as to where the swirl marks came from. Swirl marks are basically caused by the owner when washing and/or drying their cars.

Does mom and dad pay a professional detailer to do their cars? Probably yes if they are totally swirl free (or they could be white/silver/some other light colors).

There are hundreds if not thousands of posts here on how to wash and wax/polish your car as well as posts on how to remove swirl marks.

For starters, sign up at http://autopia.org and download the free eBook "The Autopia Guide to Detailing". It has a lot of good info and tips as does the rest of the site.

 

Actually they dont take their cars to detailers. They wash their cars the same way i do mine. I just took a close look at my dads car, which is like a very dark grey, its and acura, and it has this very thick looking gloss over the paint. My Z is black, KING of swirls, but still my dads car is very dark and barely any noticable swirls. I swear its the gloss that lexus and acura has.

 

i use new microfiber towels everytime i wash my car and i still get swirls haha.

 

Avoiding swirls is about more than just towels . In fact, what you use and how you wash it are probably more important than what you dry it with.

If you use a sponge or something that holds dirt, then you're scraping the dirt across the surface of your car when you wash. Never use something like a kitchen dishtowel or an old T-shirt. There are too many things in them that can scratch your paint (i.e. nylon threads). Use a lamb’s wool or cotton chenille mitt. A good wool or chenille mitt can hold a lot of soapy water and that’s important to flushing away dirt instead of trapping it.

If you use a 1 gal bucket of water to wash the whole car, then by the time you're finished the water looks like chocolate milk from all the dirt. Again, you're rubbing it all over your paint. Use a 5 gal paint bucket - actually two of them. Fill one bucket with soapy water to wash with and the other with clear water to rinse the mitt. Use the process of soaking the mitt in the soapy water, wash an area of the car, and then rinse in the clear water.

Do you use powered detergent? Don't, it doesn't totally dissolve and the solid particles will scratch your paint. Use something that is designed for washing cars, not dish or laundry detergent. They’re too harsh and will strip most waxes or polishes.

Do you wash your wheels with the same mitt/cloth as the car? Do you wash the wheels first? Don't, the brake dust will get into the cloth and your wash water and scratch the paint. Wash the wheels first then rinse everything out before washing the car. Use a soft cloth on the wheels that never touches the cars paint.

Don't wash the lower parts of the car first - they're usually dirtier having picked up road grime, tar, etc. Always wash from the top down.

Drying the car is the easy part to avoiding scratches. When done properly most of the water beads off anyway. What little is left can be absorbed just by laying a WW towel on it. No rubbing - no scratching. Use the “pat dry” method rather than rubbing a towel across the surface.

 

Zaino ZPC and an orbital. You will be amazed!