How To Polish your car

Hi and welcome to Shuswap Concierge a multi service company that provides auto and marine detailing as well as snow removal and house watch for the Shuswap area.  Today we are going to discuss how to polish your car and why you need to know this info.

Why Trust Us?

Here at Shuswap Concierge we have many years of professional training and expertise working on a variety of vehicles.  Our vast knowledge from working countless hours to perfect a finish is why you can trust us.  It is our mission to deliver perfect paint finish when we polish a vehicle.  Whether it’s single stage paint or base / clear, we have worked on both in many scenarios.

Starting Point With Your Paint

The first thing you need to do is assess your paint that is clean and in good light.  So make sure your vehicle is washed thoroughly and dried.  See here about how best to wash and dry your vehicle.  After your vehicle is dried you need to be in good light or have a good bright light to look directly into the light to see all of the defects.

From there wipe your hand gently over the surface and see if you feel any grit.  If you don’t feel the paint as a perfectly smooth, and there is some roughness then you need to decontaminate the paint.  Decontamination is environmental debris that comes from the air and roadways.  These things include oils, metals and other fine bits that can degrade your paint to the point of causing rust if not dealt with.  These also cannot simply be washed off with the regular soap and water washing.  You need to clay bar the surface.  If you are not sure about clay bar servicing, then see here for more info before you proceed.  Once this is completed then you are ready to polish mechanically or by hand.

Polishing Important Points

Now that you are at the stage of being ready to polish there are a few more things you need to consider.  At this point you need to review your paint and assess how bad it is.  Does it have light swirl marks?  Does the paint have medium depth scratches and marks?  Or is the paint heavily scratched and marred that will require heavy polishing?

Generally the starting point is that with a polisher you have 3 levels of polish that work from fine to heavy cut scratches.  But there are also varying pads from harder to softer along with different pad textures such as foam to wool.  So this is why it is best to hire an experienced detailer like us to know what myriad of tools to use to get the best results while removing the least amount of paint.

There is a difference between polish and compounds.  If you have heard of these terms but not sure about them, there is a big difference and should know what they mean.  A compound is a heavy cutting liquid material that has bigger and more aggressive cutting bits in the liquid to cut aggressively.  These are used for heavy scratches and but still may leave swirls or lighter scratches that can be removed by more finer polishes.  A polish is generally a fine cutting liquid meant to refine a surface for very high gloss and clarity.  If you think of gems like diamonds, people discuss the clarity and high shine.  You want it to look perfect like a mirror.  With auto detailing business doing polishing this is the same goal.  We are ultimately wanting to work towards perfect clarity, shine and reflection.  Just like a mirror.

Don’t Go Too Far

When polishing, some people may get over zealous and polish too aggressively and go too far.  You really want to remove only as much paint as needed to get the result you want.  There are cases where you have to stop short of your goal to save the paint.  This is part of the assessment in the beginning and know how bad or good the scratches are.  With base / clear paint, the clear coat is a protective coating which is clear with no pigment in it.  It simply provides the shine and protection to the base colour below.  If you cut through the clear coat then you have gone too far.  The base coat would then be exposed to environmental damage and is much harder to protect.

The clear coat is a relatively thin coating and because not all clear coats are the same thickness, a depth gauge is ideally used before polishing to verify how much material you are working with.  This then gives the worker an idea of how far they can go and what they are dealing with. So it is therefore important to not just start with the most aggressive compounds, pads and highest speed on a polisher in every circumstance and work the same every time.  It is always a careful balance of working each section of a panel the right way and taking care to manage your cut.

Even using different types of polishers can cause problems, or be just the right solution depending on the job.  Knowing the difference and how to use them properly is important.  See here to find more about polishers and the difference between them.

Now To Paint Protection

The last stage once you have finished polishing is to protect your hard work.  From polishing now we want to put a coating over the paint for protection.  Read here to find out which protective coating is best for you.  Apply your coating right after polishing and ideally indoors or out of direct sunlight.  Once it has cured and has been buffed off you are all set to enjoy your shiny clear paint on your vehicle.

Conclusion

In conclusion, polishing the paint on your vehicle really is a science to get the best results without damaging your paint.  With the information we have provided and practice you can achieve great results on your vehicles paint.  It does take a long time to truly achieve expertise with so many variables in automotive polishing.  With the high value of many vehicles these days and the high cost of repainting, we strongly advise you to hire a professional to prevent damage and achieve the best results.

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