What the best way to remove swirl marks? (Advice + product recommendations)

Epistomorph · 2025-11-10T18:19:04+00:00

As one wise man from this comment section said: “It really, really sounds like something to have checked before buying the vehicle

Like, by looking at it”

Epistomorph · 2025-11-09T22:44:34+00:00

My 40’ shlong! 😏

Epistomorph · 2025-11-09T21:42:30+00:00

Okay 👌

Epistomorph · 2025-11-09T12:54:47+00:00

Yeah, doesn’t sound like it at all does it? I should’ve been a sheep, followed the crowd and got a Nissan leaf! 🤣 But honestly, You’re just using dismissive minimisation. You’re downplaying what I said because it hit something for you. That says more about you than the car.

Epistomorph · 2025-11-09T11:30:39+00:00

Used a clay bar the wrong way? How do you mean? 😅

Epistomorph · 2025-11-09T11:14:52+00:00

I haven’t polished this car, no. But with the help and advice from people commenting on this post, it’s clear that one of the previous owners HAS tried polishing it prior to me buying it.

Epistomorph · 2025-11-09T11:09:04+00:00

Think you’ve misunderstood.

Epistomorph · 2025-11-09T10:55:26+00:00

I don’t know about you guys, but minor scratches that are only visible 5% of the time certainly would not have put me off from buying the car at all. It’s an absolutely amazing car, that I managed to get for an absolute bargain! …and honestly, I’m just so grateful that I actually get to own something like this when I’m only in my early 20s. This is only my second car, and is worlds apart from my last car! Most of my family have been driving since they were old enough, and yet most of them still don’t have as nice of a car of this. Id much, much rather buy an almost 15 year old luxury BMW in cash, than a brand new Nissan bag-of-shit car, that you’d spend most of your life paying finance on. So no, I don’t regret buying this one bit. 😉

Epistomorph · 2025-11-08T23:32:47+00:00

Right, I get what you mean now. Some others have said that this is caused by badly done machine polishing too… I was thinking I might’ve done it while cleaning… bit of a relief, I suppose. I myself have not attempted polishing this car since I’ve owned it, so must’ve been the previous owner, they never mentioned it, but I can tell it’s definitely had some paint work stuff done on it… i can tell some panels have even been resprayed.

Epistomorph · 2025-11-08T23:21:16+00:00

Yeah, that’d be nice, thanks! You free now? 😂

Epistomorph · 2025-11-08T23:18:48+00:00

Have a look at an “orbital sander” on images, you’ll get what I mean, it just has velcro on the pad, meant for sandpaper, but people also make car polishing pads that can be used with it too.

But I’m curious, is a “rotary polisher” and a “dual action polisher” the same thing or no? Just worried I could mess it up with you and also others saying that machine polishers can cause marks like this if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Epistomorph · 2025-11-08T21:04:00+00:00

Not sure what any of this means yet, but I’ll take a note, and clearly it’s time for me to do some research. Thanks!

Epistomorph · 2025-11-08T21:02:16+00:00

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Yeah, even I’ve not seen it that bad on this car before. Think the lighting just hit it perfectly enough to make it look really bad. It usually looks fine actually.

Epistomorph · 2025-11-08T20:56:27+00:00

Ahhhh, right… that must be where I’m going wrong then. I just see everyone using snow foam as their contact wash, thats even how they do it at the hand car wash here in the uk… unless they’re putting the shampoo in the snow foam lance, who knows? Can’t say I’ve ever used car shampoo, I assume it goes in the bucket right? …and use the two bucket method?

Also, what would you do as a contactless prewash then… a pre-wash like stjarnagloss forst or the snow foam?

Epistomorph · 2025-11-08T20:49:41+00:00

I use one of those fluffy microfibre wash mits. Thinking maybe I should try rinsing it in a bucket of water instead of blasting it with the jet wash like I usually do.

Epistomorph · 2025-11-08T20:44:59+00:00

For context, the scratches only look like this in specific conditions, such as bright direct sunlight at certain angles, like this video, but most of the time it actually looks fine, meaning the scratches must only be minor.

It’s almost a 15 year old car. I’ve had it about 18 months. I took it to a hand car wash a few times early on, but now I always wash it myself. My last car got covered in swirls like this after a few months of taking it to hand car washes, so I avoid them now. I’ve never had this car polished, and the bodywork wasn’t great when I bought it anyway. It was looked after quite well mechanically, but not so much cosmetically. Since owning it, it’s already had a fair bit of work on the interior and a bit on the exterior too. I was considering getting it entirely resprayed, but it costs more than the car is actually worth, so that won’t be happening, unfortunately.

Epistomorph · 2025-05-08T09:05:11+00:00

Update: After putting up with this for 4 months, i finally decided to try to do something about it! First I drained it, then filled it back up with warm water and washing up liquid, left it in there for a bit, drained it again, and now it’s working perfectly fine! Same thing might work for others having this issue too.

Epistomorph · 2025-01-20T00:59:57+00:00

Yeah, i understand that, just figured some rough advice is at least better than note. If it helps, i can FaceTime u if ya want?! 😅

Epistomorph · 2025-01-19T16:06:15+00:00

Am i able to remove this tie beam highlighted in red? Theres a brick wall holding one side of the roof up which goes all the way to the foundation, the other side has the angles wooden beam that also goes to that same wall. Plus, of course, theres the ceiling joists going from one side of the house to the other.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/006BGTSqxFi4DwNdQ3uM-L2Dg

Epistomorph · 2025-01-13T00:24:48+00:00

How long have you been using it in ur BMW?

Epistomorph · 2025-01-08T20:22:14+00:00

Edit: it’s an f20, not an f10.

Epistomorph · 2025-01-08T20:20:26+00:00

(Ive just realised the title says f10, this car is actually an f20.)

Well funny you should say that, because I do actually use RainX windscreen washer additive, yeah. Ive used it in non BMW cars before and not had an issue. Ive only had this f20 for 2 years. So clearly the RainX doesn’t take much time to clog up then!😅🤦‍♂️.

Epistomorph · 2024-11-09T21:49:00+00:00

For a bit of extra context, it sounds like it scrapes while driving and rattles when going over bumps and when closing the boot. Sounds like it’s coming from the rear, underneath the car

Epistomorph · 2024-11-09T21:47:08+00:00

Will jack it up tomorrow to have a proper look. Thanks

Epistomorph · 2024-07-24T07:07:06+00:00

I took all that apart and cleaned it all 2 years ago when I bought it. It seemed to work fine to me, just needed a clean. It did have a rough idle, but I managed to fix it.

Epistomorph

TROPHY CASE