My paint always kept a nice shine, but there were a lot of noticeable swirls when under light. Rough washing and cleaning techniques in the past could be a probable cause.

While I gave the car a good once-over before, I wanted to hit it with a rotary polisher this time to get the swirls out and bring out the depth. I didn’t have any of the necessary detailing essentials for the job so I figured it’d be easier to just hire someone. I gave the car a rinse and wash in the morning, and a local detailer dropped by and put in a good 5 hours into the car.

The goods:

Masking off the moldings and cracks:

Here’s a shot of the detailer’s nice Acura TSX…

More masking.

Starting the polishing process with an Ultimate Detailing Machine random orbiter:

This shows a little bit of what my car’s paint condition was like before, quite a bit of micro swirls:

My dog did quite a bit of surveying around the garage… I think I even caught him doing a little taste testing of some rubbing compound

Many hours and passes later, the detailing is done! I was very happy with the results. Although there are still a few scratches here and there that couldn’t be taken out, the paint looks a lot deeper.