I have some minor swirls and scratches. What would be the best polish/glaze to hide these defects. How long does this last and would you put wax on top the polish/glaze? I see blackfire has one that is polish and glaze

 

You should have them polished out. Hiding them is just going to put a band aid on them.

Never the less, if your set on just filling them. I would suggest Danase Wet Glaze.

 

Your best bet would be to buy a buffer and a cutting polish to remove the swirls. I use a Porter Cable...works great and because it is a random orbital, you don't bear the risk of burning your paint as with a rotary. I like the cost and effectiveness of Menzerna IP for a cutting polish. I hear Menzerna SIP is a great product if you have a little more coin to spend. I use FPII for my finishing compound. As far as pads go, you should use an orange pad with the cutting polish and a white pad with your finishing polish. Good luck!

If you are looking to just fill in swirls by hand, the IP will work...though not as affective as if applied by machine. Also for light swirling the Blackfire Compound would likely be more useful than the polish with glaze fillers...I believe that is intended to be used as a finishing polish.

 

I would like to polish them out but the 2 people that polished the car before took too much clear coat off. I do not want polish any more and risk getting the paint to thin. It is already thin enough. The detail people are no longer around.

 

I good detailer can take readings to determine how much clearcoat is left and how aggressive they can go. Ask Greg for some recommendations.

 

I too would tell you to have the swirls buffed out. but if you are against having it done you should try some Zaino. Tons of people on this forum love Zaino and most people who try it like it. it seems to be a great swirl masking system. My friend uses it and it does a very good job for him. especially since he's too lazy to machine polish. You might want to reconsider how you take care of you're paint between details too If two different professional detailers thought you're car was soo bad they needed to polish out you're clear soo much that you are questioning the thickness of you're clearcoat..it mght be a red flag that either you're cars not being taken care of properly or you live in a windy desert. You're propably underestimating how much clear you still have left too. Have a professional use a paint thickness meter to check the thickness of you're paint if you're somewhere around 100-200 microns i say machine polish away. good luck i hope that helps also depending on what glaze sealant you're planning on using i would still throw on some carnauba wax.

 

you should really have the car taken to a proffsional and have them take a paitn reading of your clear to see how much is left. even if thre is more then 80mills you would be ok with them doing a light polish witch will take out most swirlls and leave a nice shine while it may not take out all the rids though. but that is what i would say now if your car has more then 100 mills then there would be no problem buffing the car real good. BUt if you dont like that option then like said above if filling is what you wanna do then zaino z5 is your best bet it has some of the best filling proprties around and would work the best for you aslo it has great shine and great duribility.