arturobandini

About two days after I received my C7 a year ago I noticed some small 1/4 inch swirl-like marks all over the car. I was surprised to see them on a new car. Isn’t the paint supposed to be perfect?, I wondered. I called a local auto detailer to take a look at them and he said it was normal and part of the GM paint process. He called it “crazing.” About six months later I got in a minor fender bender and when I got the car back, the swirl marks were worse. I won’t go into detail but the body shop did such a poor job that I didn’t want to go back there. So I called my detail man and he spent about an hour “polishing” the car and told me the swirls were gone except for the “normal” crazing. Later that night, with LED lights on in my garage I was horrified to see the swirls still there. This time I called a different detailer who confirmed that the crazing line was crap and the first detailer couldn’t possibly have removed swirls in such a short of time. This weekend he spent nearly two days correcting the paint and now it’s perfect. If the first detail guy had of given me an accurate diagnosis in the first place I could have complained to the dealer. But the second detailer said the swirls were probably the result of a bad wash and polish at the dealership. Lesson learned. At least I now have a reliable detailer to take my car to the next time.

WICKEDFRC

Glad you found a good detailer to correct not only the first detailer's mistakes, but also GM's.

cowboy casey

Crazing or scratches are not suppose to be on paint but GM and every other manufacture and all dealerships will say anything to you so they will not have to fix something... any way they can spin it so you walk away is great for them...

Now that you have done 2 stage paint protection you really have to take care of your paint.. ceramic coating or wax is a must, ceramic being a better option as it will actually put a layer on the paint.. You do not want to go through this again as you clear coat has been taken down to get rid of the scratches.. (this explanation is not exact) Say you had 50 mils of primer, paint, and clear total, say the clear was 20 mils, he just took about 10 mils off to get rid of the scratches leaving 10 mils left... That is why your need a coating to protect your paint now... Ask the guy who just did your paint correction if he also does ceramic coating

Also when washing your car put 10 to 20 microfiber towels in your wash bucket and only use 1 towel per panel or 2 towels for larger panels like the hood.. once you have used 1 towel set it aside and get a new one... once used it never touches the car again..

Hope this helps

Vetteman Jack

Good that you have found a trusted shop to take care of your car’s appearance needs.

rrepp

Perhaps you should have asked the dealer about the swirls? I ordered mine from the factory with courtesy delivery and it has no swirls. I would suspect the dealer of improperly washing the car causing some swirling. Just a thought

p3pilot

I had swirls in the paint on a factory ordered Corvette once. That's why I always ask the dealership not to let their detailers touch my car when I take delivery or when I take it in for maintenance. Minimum wage folks using the same bucket and rag all day long.

KenHorse

Get it corrected and cover it with something like Xpel Ultimate Pro

You'll never have swirl marks (or light scratches) ever again

arturobandini

Thanks. Yes, I had ceramic put on after the correction. From now on I’ll use a foam gun and blow dry it. Then use microfiber towels to dab up a few wet spots. One per panel. Griot’s makes a good towel that soaks up water without any back and forth movement of the towel. I may get several more, enough to cover the whole car!

kennyjames21

I took my car off the truck last year (told the dealership not to touch it) and it had no swirls marks at all. If your car had swirl marks, I'm pretty sure something messed with your paint after it left the factory.