Hi guys - another 380 member here! Picked up a 380GT with 29,000kms recently - pretty impressed so far. My previous cars were a Falcon FG turbo, VE SS and an Accord Euro. For what it is the 380 is heaps of car for the money. I paid just under $18k on the road which is a bargain I think - especially with almost 3 years warranty remaining. Purchased privately from the original owner.

The paint work was in very ordinary condition as the previous owner didn't wash the car properly. The swirls were terrible and everywhere.

I spent literally all day today with the random orbital getting the swirls out - here are the results. I am bloody tired but happy with the results. Should have taken some before photos to show you how bad the swirls were.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v456/yfin/IMG_6572.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v456/yfin/IMG_6573.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v456/yfin/IMG_6575.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v456/yfin/IMG_6588.jpg

very shiny. Out of curiosity, what products were you using to remove swirls and bring the paint back up?

Welcome to the club! Nic car dude! Loooks hot!

thanks mate - products I used today:

Poorboys SSR2.5 with a medium pad

Poorboys SSR1 with light pad

Poorboys pro polish with polishing pad

Meguiars NXT applied by hand

I also applied 303 Aerospace Protectant on the sunroof trim and all the rubber / plastic bits and pieces

edit - I also clayed the car after the wash too to remove all the pollutants on the body

Welcome to the 380 forum, very nice looking car. Let us know if your keen to do some light but effective mods & we will point you in the right direction.

where can you get this poorboys stuff from in auz?

i pretty much get everything from www.waxit.com.au

First of all welcome to the "Clown House". Secondly nice looking car mate....very SHINY!!

Welcome Rpro and nice car! It sure shows the work you've done on it.

Welcome aboard,
Just been reading the website of the products you use. May have to venture over that way as mine has a lot of swirls on it but i also have a paint protection on it that they say i cant use any products on.
Trying to find out how to get this product off so i can go about bringing it back to a nice shine. Black is great once cleaned but the do show up the marks

nice car!

as a detailer, im personally not that fond of poorboys SSR compounds.. i prefer to use the menzerna range, but hey! if it works for u then thats all that matters..

car looks excellent!

curious to know why you went from an FG turbo to a VE SS to a Euro Accord and ended up with a 380.. dont get me wrong, 380's are a great package for the price, but personally I think I'd take just about all 3 of the cars u have owned over a 380 anyday..

nice car!

as a detailer, im personally not that fond of poorboys SSR compounds.. i prefer to use the menzerna range, but hey! if it works for u then thats all that matters..

car looks excellent!

curious to know why you went from an FG turbo to a VE SS to a Euro Accord and ended up with a 380.. dont get me wrong, 380's are a great package for the price, but personally I think I'd take just about all 3 of the cars u have owned over a 380 anyday..

Will have to give the menzerna range stuff a go. Still got heaps of the poorboys stuff left from when I purchased the bottles a while ago. Thanks for the tip. :thumbsup:

In terms of cars - the Euro Accord is something I had from 2004-2006. Brilliant car and spent heaps modifying it. Then I got a job that presented a new and cheap VE SS as a company car. So I sold the Euro. After a year the SS was changed for the FG turbo. Unbelievably fast car but not sure whether I would buy one as I had quite a few warranty issues in the short 6 months I had it. Bang for buck it is brilliant.

Fast forward to this year - and I changed jobs again. Handed back the company car. My new employer only has novated leasing which is not effective for me as I don't drive many kms.

So I started a hunt for a car on the second hand market with a $20k budget. Budget was low as we are planning to upgrade and buy a bigger house this year. Was actually planning to buy another Euro I liked it so much. Problem is that the price of second hand Honda Euros is very high - not many Euros under $20k with low mileage (and many are 5 years old now!). And no warranty remaining.

So I discovered the 380 as a compromise. It drove smooth and I have the comfort of the warranty for almost 3 years. It also fits the bill in terms of the size we were looking for, low kms, etc. The luxury features like leather and sunroof are a bonus.

So yep you are right - the other 3 cars are better cars for enthusiastic 'drivers' but the 380 was the best value (in family size) I could find under $20k. To be honest - now that I have it - it is a much better car dynamically than I was expecting. :D Long story but there you have it....

Once you do some easy and extremely cheap modding you'll find it even more satisfying.

Great finish on your car mate, I would love to get mine looking like that so will have to invest in the kit. Is there a goog guide you know of how to do this properly, I usually don't get further than a wash and wax!!

Great finish on your car mate, I would love to get mine looking like that so will have to invest in the kit. Is there a goog guide you know of how to do this properly, I usually don't get further than a wash and wax!!

On that waxit site there is a DIY guide to using a random orbital. There are lots of others too. I use a Bosch PEX 400 AE - cost $149 from Bunnings. You can then buy the pads you need from waxit.

The good thing about random orbital machines is that you are less likely to do damage because they do not generate much heat on the paint. That said they do not have the cutting ability of a rotary polisher. I wouldn't recommend a rotary unless you were a professional.

The other thing to keep in mind is that it is great to remove the swirls from the paint but there are ways you can minimise the chance of swirls being a problem in the first place. Don't use the brushes they have at the DIY car washes. Don't use automatic car washes. USe a separate mitt for wheels and lower parts of car.

Due to water restrictions in Melbourne I need to wash my car at those DIY car washes. But all I use there is the high pressure hose. Once the car is hosed with the high pressure I move the car and pull out my 2 buckets from the boot and wash the car by hand! My own mitt, shampoo, my own water. I then rinse and drive the car home - which allows it to air dry a little - and then hand dry it at home carefully.

If you do this sort of thing you can really minimise swirls in the paint.

eg:
http://107codf.blogspot.com/2007/09/cleaning-guide-how-to-avoid-swirl.html

unfortunately rprodrive, many cars that have swirls is from previous owners using rocks or something to wash the car with :rant: i find my random orbital to be an excellent took for applying both wax and polish, just got to be careful, making sure all wax is cleaned off with another wash and shampoo.

cut and polished mine today looks mint. takes for ever but worth it.

p.s. your car looks the goods.

On the car care wagan i was at our sprite car club meeting last night and we had a speaker from Bowdens. Product seemed very good and all aussie made.
Can be purchased through Autobarn

Rprodrive - thanks, I'll check those out. Not sure I'll get the glass finish you managed but my cars white so wont show so much.... ;-)