Auto Polish

Auto polish is one of many areas of auto detailing and car paint care that is especially confusing. So many different terms are thrown around by so called experts and enthusiasts; it is hard even for an expert like myself to keep track!

• Car polish


• Car wax


• Compound


• Sealer

Follow along as this detailer takes twenty-plus years of experience, and begins to teach you more than 95% of the so called professional detailers out there even know themselves! I am even going to take this much confused area of auto detailing, and simplify it down so that you can start getting the professional results you are looking for on your own cars.

Car Paint Car and 5 Points You Need to Know

Auto polish is just one of the 5 critical points of proper paint care. Understanding these specific points will not only help you to become an informed and educated consumer, but once again, raise your knowledge higher than most other detailers out there.

Washing

Washing is the first and most basic step of proper car paint care. In order to do anything else, you first must remove the surface dirt that accumulates on a daily basis. When we talk washing, I am referring to the traditional process of washing your car with car soap and water.

• Wash your cars weekly
• Use a quality car wash soap only; no dishwasher soap allowed here!
• Using a quality car wash soap will actually enhance yours cars finish, and extend the wax protection on your cars paint.

Cleaning

Often interchanged with washing, cleaning refers to the process of removing contaminates from the paint that remain after we have washed our cars with a quality car wash soap. These contaminates can either remain at the superficial level, or become embedded into, and below the level surface of the paint. These types of pollutants are often referred to as industrial fallout. While there are a few ways to deal with the many forms of airborne pollutants, use of a surface prep bar, commonly called the clay bar, is the professionals choice of attack.

• Use the clay bar to remove the gritty feeling on your paint, as a result of airborne pollutants.
• Use a quality clay bar as often as you start feeling any form of "texture" to the paint.
• Clay bars are effective for use on fall-out (the tiny rust spec looking spots on your car), paint over-spray, bug guts, etc.
• I generally use every 2-3 months to keep a cars paint smooth as glass.
• Despite what the other so-called experts say, you needn't worry about using the clay bar to often. Like I said, I come with much experience!
• Use prior to waxing.

Polishing

Finally we have reached the area of auto polish and it only took getting to point number 3 on our list! Polishing your cars paint is used for the following reasons:

• Restoring luster and shine
• Removing imperfections of paint
• Removing dead, or oxidized paint

Using auto polish can be done by hand or machine. Many people are misinformed and think that polishing your cars paint by hand is the preferred method, and that you should never touch your cars paint with a buffer; this is both incorrect and bad information! For optimum results, trying to polish a cars paint by hand will always prove to be inferior to that of using a buffer; most notably, the rotary, or high speed buffer.

Protecting/Enhancing

Editors Note: The car care industry is constantly re-formulating and improving. What works today, may not be the best solution for tomorrow. The following are rules to be learned and applied knowing that to every rule, exceptions will always exist.

• Sealers are a generic term for any product used as a final step; usually synthetic in nature.
• Paste wax as a general rule, will provide the best in finished visual results.
• Synthetic polymers are more durable than natural carnauba wax products.
• Even 100% natural carnauba wax products must be blended with other synthetic ingredients to make useable.
• With advances in chemical engineering, we now have hybrid wax products with both natural and synthetic polymers.
• Despite what other so-called experts say, it would be hard to wax a car too much.

The topic of auto polish gets complicated quickly; refer to my other pages on the subject to become more and more educated.