Basic machine polish

Quick job and machine polishing don't go together. The major factor when detailing is experience. A gloss enhancement detail would probably cost around 300 to 400 which will remove around 60% of swirl marks.

Prep work is important like washing,de-tar, fallout remover, clay and an ipa wipe down. You can buy a polisher like a das6 pro and using something like Koch chemie one cut and finish with their pads to go with that all in one polish, it will give you decent results if you spend the time on it. It's not a difficult job but it's time consuming. I'd probably pay someone to do it unless you planned on keeping the detailing up in the future

There's no such thing as gentle and strong in the detailing world, the more you need to remove, the more aggressive pad/compound you need. And the more aggressive you go, the more steps are needed.

i.e a very abrasive compound will remove deep scratches, but tends to leave a haze which needs to be polished off with a polish, and maybe even a lighter 3rd step depending on how hard you went at it.

What you're looking for is an all in one polish/compound which is basically designed for a 1 step polish.

Meguiars ultimate compound yields good results, or ultimate polish for a lighter version and both can be used as a one step routine and will leave a nice gloss finish, just make sure to always apply wax afterwards. Use the hardest pad you can find, small sections at a time, light pressure and move slowly.

Swirl marks aren't as easy to remove as the front of polishing bottles will tell you, I've made multiple attempts over the years and has only improved the paint slightly, my car is black though.

I think you will find after doing your one stage Polish that the prices people are quoting aren’t ridiculous. :-D

what car is it? Not all car paints are the same , or used not to be anyway.

last time I did an A6 I owned. Took me 2-3 days and I didn’t do the roof or any of the bumpers or intricate parts.

that was with proper decontamination of the paint, ( detar, iron x, clay bar , ect).

Ok

Im sure one of you neighbours will be looking out the window having a laugh Alonzo Chubby Telecommunications spending 400euro, all day washing and polishing the car , when a circle K car wash can do the same job :-D

each to their own I suppose.

My point was you are saying someone else doing something is OTT , when the guy going to circle K is looking at you and thinking your OTT.

but yea whatever, you asked for advice, you were looking for the detailing forum and you’re saying detailers are OTT, that’s why it’s called detailing.

If you want the car to look marginally better just use Meguiars cutting compound and then go over it with Autoglym super resin polish. You can do it by hand with two different microfiber clothes and it will only take a couple of hours and will cost less than €30

Cool , yea that car was a couple of cars ago, i don’t have the patience now either tbh.

it’s a slippery slope, when you get the paint shining you’ll be looking at the wheels thinking they could be shinier and then the blacks won’t be black enough and so on.

good luck with the Polish.