By polishing your car, it will help to give a glossy look to it and it will improve the finish of the car. It helps to make your surfaces smooth and in turn reduces the appearance of scratches on it. In sunny climates, it will also help to reduce oxidation layer as well.
All the surface contaminants will be removed and it will enhance the beauty of your car’s exterior. For polishing your car, you might need a polishing wheel but you can also do it by hand and on your own.
Part 1: Prepare Your Car For Polish
- First of all, park your car under a shaded area and let its surface cool. Then wash your car under this shady area because sunlight will make your car soap dry on the surface and it will dull your car’s finish.
- Get all the things covered because it is a messy process. After turning on the polisher, it starts to spin and it may spray rubbing compounds. So make sure that all your things or pets are saved and will not get sprayed with some loose polish.
Keep your children and pets away during this polishing process.
- Use a hose and start rinsing your entire vehicle. With the help of water, try to remove large debris or dirt on the paint of the car.
This process should be done from top to down and rinse the bottom portion especially wheels very keenly because it is the part where most dirt is stuck to the paint.
- If you want to polish your car on the same day that you want to clean your wheels and tires, then make sure that you are going to clean your wheels first and then the polishing process.
There is a chance that you may get wheel detergents on the surface of the vehicle while cleaning wheels, so you will be able to clean it later.
- Now it is the time to wash your car with automotive soap. Fill a bucket full of water and then add automotive soap in it. Take a clean sponge and dunk it into the bucket and start washing your cat from top to down. Clean your car’s paint thoroughly before polish because any dirt or debris can produce scratches on the car’s paint during the polishing process.
Try to use that soap that is polish or wax free.
- Now, use an appropriate compound and pad for your car. If your vehicle’s paint is dark, use a softer pad because they are at high risk to swirl the paint during polishing.
Part 2: Polishing The Car
- First, decide whether you are going to use an orbital buffer for polishing or hand-polish with the help of a soft cloth.
Orbital buffer gives faster results but it is hard to handle. You can create deep scratches if any dirt or debris comes your way. It is recommended to use the orbital buffer on the lowest setting available in order to avoid the too much removal of the paint.
You can have a greater control on hand-polish technique. It is a slow process and it will take more time but it is less expensive and easy to do at home.
- Now apply the polish on the pad of the orbital buffer or a soft cloth and start rubbing it on the car’s paint in circular motion. For the orbital buffer, turn it on after using the pad so that you can rub some of the polish and can prevent splattering.
When you reach the scratched area of your car, apply more pressure on it so that newly polished area can easily blend with the rest of your car.
Move gradually, from section to section and one section at a time. Make sure that your cloth is not drying out and use plenty of polishing paint.
- Keep rubbing or buffing the area and wait for that point when your polish will disappear completely. Before moving to the next section, make sure that you have done your previous section. In this way, your polish would not have a chance to dry out before buffing it away.
Make sure that you are not polishing the shiny paint as it may dull the finish.
- If you are using the orbital buffer, do not press the edge of the pad on any part of your car and move it slowly in order to avoid the burning of clear coat on your paint.
Part 3: Ensuring Car’s Paint Protection
- After polishing every section of your car, wash and clean the polishing pad or cloth and set them aside. Now with the help of a hose, spray the entire vehicle once again and wash it so that if any polishing compound is left behind, it can wash away. After washing your car, rinse it again.
- Now there is a need to dry the paint of your car. You can use microfiber towels for this purpose because air dry can leave small stains on the surface. You should make sure that your paint is completely dried before going for the car waxing process.
- Start waxing your car by using a good quality automotive wax in order to protect the newly polished paint. Apply a suitable amount of wax on the waxing pad and then put it on the car’s paint in circular motion. In this way, wax the entire vehicle section by section. Do not wax your vehicle in direct sunlight.
- Now by using a microfiber towel, polish the wax off from your vehicle after drying. After buffing off all the wax, the paint will have a glossy look along with a brilliant finish and shine.
content source 1 wikihow.com
content source 2 caranddriver.com