Automotive Polishing and Waxing

Polishing and detailing your vehicle can be a daunting task. With a little bit of knowledge and the right tools, you can bring the paint and exterior finish of your car back to a better then new look. You can get that show room shine and finish yourself without having to invest the money for a professional detailer to do it for you. Although I am a detailer, I am kinda telling you now not to come see me…. I might loose some business, but that is ok.

Paint Surface Preparation

The first thing that you are going to want to do is prepare the surface for polishing. An improperly cleaned paint surface will have dirt, grim and build up that will cause further scratching when you go to polish it. First step is a proper wash and dry. Use only car wash soap, 2 bucket system. This is having a soap and water solution in one and rinse water in the second. Before each pass, you rinse your mitt, then gather the soapy water, wash a small section, then rinse again. This helps keep the wash mitt clean. Wash the car from top down only. Change your water if needed half way through the process. Next is to use some detailer’s clay and lubricant. This removes the road grim, rail dust that builds up on your. If you run your hand along the surface and it feel rough, you need to use a clay bar. Once that step is complete, you will then need to remove the wax or sealant that was from the previous detailing session. You can use dish soap in this case only, a dawn type soap will remove this build up. Or a paint cleaner polish will also work well.

Exterior Automotive Paint Surface Diagnosis

Polishing the car’s paint surface requires a little diagnosis first. You need to determine that type of paint, single or dual stage, thickness and condition of the paint. Look for the type of scratching, can you catch you nail on it ? if so, then it’s deep and you might need some paint to fill that in first. Filling and wet sanding a scratch is a little more work, but may be necessary if the scratch is through the clear coat and/or paint layer.

Automotive Paint Polishing Process

Once you have determined the level of damage to the paint surface, you can select the tools and products to complete the job. Product selection will be varied, each paint brand, color and type will react differently to polishes you apply, some paints and clear coats are harder then others and need a heavier cut to do the same job as a mild cut on a different car. You should start out with a mild cut and a mild pad, if you do not get the results you want, move to the next heavier pad or product. Start mild and move up to the heavier cuts until you find the combination that removes the scratches and marks in the paint surface. Then work back to the mildest cut and glaze to complete the process. This normally takes between 2 and 4 passes on a single vehicle to go from a dull, scratched surface, to a crystal clear, rich, deep color finish.

Waxing and Sealing the Paint

Once you have polished the paint and removed the imperfections, scratches, halo’s, swirls, etc. Then you can wax or seal it. Waxing a car works very well to improve the look, as does a sealant, however, a sealant will last longer. Expect a good wax to last 4 to 8 weeks, were a sealant can last you 3 to 12 months. Environmental factors and how often you wash your car affect how long each of them will last.

Anyways, detailing your car and polishing it properly will help protect the paint and keep it looking new for years to come.

The history of Automotive Detailing

You can't polish a car without a car... so we have to start with the invention of the car. Way back in Germany, 1886, Karl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Mayback patented the first car. The DRP 37435 patent is the official birth of the car. A few years later, Gottlieb founded Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, which became Mercedes Benz.

Let's skip ahead a bit to the Ford Model T, it was painted black for almost 20 years. This paint was based on the lacquer used on earlier horse carriages. By the 1930's an acrylic resin, or enamel was invented, along with an application method using an atomising spray gun. Soon thereafter, a hand made wax was developed in Zurich to protect antiques and lacquers.... well, the inventor soon found that it produced great results on the paint finish of automobiles as well. This wax, made by Anwander is still in use today by Mercedes and Rolls Royce. This wax was brought to America and the formula was changed for mass production and distributed by Turtle Wax Company until Zymol company was founded in 1980. Zymol is sold today. Another popular auto detailing supplier called Menzerna was already developing car care products by the 1950's and again, is still selling top quality products today.

In the 1950's a polisher was discovered by the automotive world, called the cyclo machine and was a huge success in paint restoration and correction. However, just before this, Meguiar's was already making foam pads for the rotary polishers, which are still in use today and are still the best tool for polishing cars. Meguiar's started out as a furniture finishing manufacturer in 1901 and is now on of the leader car care product manufacturers in the world. Also in the 1960's , Klasse ( Car-Lack ) was starting to use polyethylene instead of wax and as of today they produce one of the best car sealants in the business.

By the 1970's, Japan and Europe were using metallic based paints with a clear coat, this clear coat system produced outstanding hardness, gloss and long lasting color. This process migrated to the United States with some problems... many early 70's painted cars were having issues with clear coat failure within 2 or 3 years... it a quality issue.

The 1990's saw a surge in automotive care products and tools, including the random orbital rotary buffer. This machine, produced by Porter-Cable become one of the most used polishing tools in the market, and still is today. By this time, the painting systems had developed into the common 2 stage system with oven drying. This also was the time that a wider variety in paint color started to appear. This is mostly due to an increase in water based paints. This era also introduced us to Detailing Clay, one of my favorite products. This clay bar started in Japan and was used to remove all the contaminants from the paint surface, overspray, dirt, grime, tar, etc. It is also a key product for any professional automotive detailer today.

From 2000 to now has been incredible for the detailing business, many more products, tools and technology has gone into the industry. Micro fibre cloths became widely available and is the primary cloth used by all enthusiasts and professional detailers. Among the established manufacturers of car wax , polish and other various car care products, many new companies started developing and manufacturing their own products. By now, there are over 100 different wax products alone available throughout the world, however, the leaders were still Meguiar's, Menzerna, Klasse, etc. Paint clear coat technology was developing and products such as CeramiClear was made available and was the first to use nanoparticle technology. This product was very durable against day to day abuse, acid rain, UV radiation, etc. The same company also started to produce the coating technology that gave us the pearl, mica, light refracting pigments, color changing effects, aluminium flakes, etc.

The most recent developments include new automotive surface protection that are no wax sealants and fluorine-type clear coats. These new clear coat finishes have been put on luxury model cars, such as Infinity and must be treated differently then most other clear coat finishes. Typical polishing and waxing the newest cars may no longer produce the same results on these high-tech finishes. Consulting the automobile manufacturer is advisable.