The Advantages and Disadvantages of Car Polishing

Advantages of Polishing

Your vehicle's paint isn't smooth. It has a texture to it, and if it has been washed with harsh detergents and dried improperly, it may even have minor surface scratches.

The Advantage to using polishes after washing is that because they are slightly abrasive polishes will remove oxidized paint, remove minor scratches, and smooth imperfections in the paint. Where wax lays down a layer of protection, polish removes material to reveal clean smooth paint. The smoother the paint, the shinier the surface.

Disadvantages of Polishing

The major drawback to using polish is the fact that as you polish, and remove old dead paint and pesky surface scratches that dull the paint job, you are also removing the wax layer that has been applied over time. Exposing the paint to the elements like this will cause rapid oxidation as the solvents in the paint evaporate off.

Most polishes today have a wax in them to protect the paint, but the solvents in the polish weaken the wax, making it substantially less durable then wax alone.

Summary

The purpose of polishing or waxing your car is to keep it Looking its BEST.

To do this it is best to polish the car to remove old wax, paint, and residue. This restores the surface to clean paint and smooths the paint surface. After this, polishing is only needed every now and then to keep the paint clean and smooth.

After polishing, protect the paint with a good quality carnuba based wax every few weeks.