I have gotten over worrying over every little swirl mark and waterspot on my paint job, and these boards have helped a lot. The knowledge that most minor wear and tear on the paint can be solved with clay bar, and polishing has helped a lot.

What I am curious about is more preventative, I have the Stratosphere Mica paint job on my 4Runner, which is about 4 months old. Already it is showing a significant amount of swirl marks and it seems that this color is almost as bad as the black for showing the marks.

I use Meguiar’s car wash soap, a lambs wool mitt for washing and micro fiber towels for drying. The mitt and the towels are of high quality, cleaned after every use, and stored in ziploc bags. Is there anything else I could do on a wash to wash basis to keep swirl marks to a minimum?

Thanks.

Use lateral movements when you are washing and drying. Many people do "swirl motions" when they wash. That's very counter productive to swirl mark prevention.

As for water spots, keep washing it as often as possible. Any water that dries on your paint will leave a spot. Any water that dries on your paint when dirty will leave worse spots.

When do you wash your car, do *not* wash it in the sun.

As far as what you use to dry, I've only ever used 100% Cotton Made in the USA Egyptian Thread White towels. Washed with no fabric softener, with nothing else, and stored in a clean plastic bag.

Most swirls are "induced" during washing, so it's very important to use proper washing methods. It looks like you've got the right tools already. You might want to have a dedicated wash mitt for the lower portions of your car, since those are usually dirtier. This will prevent from spreading the dirt collected on the lower panels to the top. It's also a good idea to wash from top to bottom. Additionally, rinse your mitt out after each panel. It's a bit tedious, but don't stick a dirty mitt back into the bucket, rinse out all the dirt you just wiped off the car before putting it back into the bucket. This way, the dirt won't collect in the bucket and be "re-applied" onto the surface again with the next dip in the bucket. When drying, use a small stream of water to rinse off the car, you want as much water to sheet off the surface of the car. Then use a microfiber towel, a lot of people prefer waffle weave microfiber towels because they absorb water much quicker, and blot the water up. You'll want to minimize dragging the towel across the surface as this will sometimes cause swirls. Additionally, don't rub the paint with a whole lot of pressure, use as little pressure as possible.

Typically, the more you wipe the car, the more swirls you'll put into the paint. Just try to avoid any dry touching of the car (ie. dusting with a dry cloth, touching the paint).

It's also not a bad idea to replace your mitts frequently, as they loose their softness and dirt can become embedded into them.

I hope this was helpful. Also check out autopia.org and Detail City for some good advice on detailing. Sorry for the poor grammar in this post, I'm in a hurry to type all this out.

I read in a detailing book to use two buckets, one with the car wash soap and the other with just plain water to use to rinse the mitts every time you use it on the car to clean any particles that may adhere to the mitts and can fine scratch the car...

The type of motion - linear vs circular doesn't matter. "Swirls marks" are not actually circular; if you look closely you will see a bunch of straight lines. It is illumination by a point source of light that makes them appear circular

Occaisionally you will see a paint job that someone has damaged with a circular polisher creating true circular marks but these look much different from your typical swirl mark; over at Autopia these are referred to as "holograms".

That is correct. It will literally freak you out when you see how much dirt winds up in the rinse bucket.

I also have three mitts (one for upper body, one for lower panels, and one for wheels).

Usually you should use a good polish (Meguire's Gold Class Clear Coat Prep works very well) after you wash the car real good and then the 3rd step would be the wax to protect the gloss the polish will give you