New Car

tigerforest

Im getting a new car shortly (not brand new but new to me and will only be a year or two old) and I have just been doing some reading up on how to look after a car. One thing I have been reading lately is about the detailing of the car and in particular polishing. It says polishing will remove some of the paint on you car but why would you want to do this? Surely if you polish a few times you will wear out the paint? Also where is a good place to get some stuff for keeping your car clean and nice and shiny ?

TomMc

TF, if a car has scratches or swirls the only way to remove them or at least make them less visible, is to polish which will remove a few microns of paint. The more abrasive the polish the more paint is removed. Polishing correctly by hand will not remove very much at all. A lot of people also make the mistake of just wiping on a polish and then buffing it off again, like they were applying a wax. This is useless. Polishes need to be worked into the paint so the abrasives break down fully and do their job. A car should only need to be polished twice a year at most. The alternative is to use a product which will fill in flaws rather than polish them away, so not abrading paint or its thickness at all. Autoglym Super Resin Polish does this although it does contain some chalk which acts as an abrasive of sorts as well. It needs to used sparingly or it can dust like crazy. AG Extra Gloss Protection adds a bit more to the look and durability. You can get these in Halfords or most car shops. Sonax Polish and Wax No.2 is a better all rounder, easier to work with and much cheaper as well. You should be able to get it in a motor factors. There are far better products out there but you will only get them online. If your car has no flaws as such and the paint just needs a really good cleansing, you could clay the paint first and then use a chemical cleaning product like Carlack AIO instead of an abrasive polish. This works great at cleaning and polishing without removing virtually any paint at all. Only the oxidisation or layers of dead paint. After cleaning, then apply a sealant to protect the paint fully. There are lots of other products which do both polishing and protecting in one. It depends on the state of your paint, before been able to say for sure, which ones would suit best. PM me if you like.