DETAILING 101 - Paint Polishing - Everything You Need To Know

[Music] pain polishing can be a scary process given all the misconceptions and people are usually scared that they're going to burn through the paint or burn through the clear coat but in reality it's quite safe if you know the basics and it can be simple and fun so in this video i'm gonna share all the information and knowledge that you guys need to start polishing your car at home and get some awesome results so together we're gonna go over all the basics and all the information from machine polishers to compounds and polishes also the isopropyl alcohol mixes or paint preps masking tape of course the polishing pads and microfiber towels even things like how to keep your pads clean with the brushes how to inspect your work with some inspection lights and also at the end some cool tips like paint depth gauges so how everything works and of course well you're going to get all that info by the way i don't want you to worry about specific products tools or equipment i'll drop links to those in the description under the video for you guys to check them out so all you have to do is sit back relax and enjoy the show what we're doing today is making sure you get all the information to understand what paint polishing is so let's dive right into it i know you guys are excited by the way this is a multiple part series i call it detailing 101 where you learn every single step of the detailing process so make sure that you're subscribed to my channel by clicking the subscribe button that's found under this video and that way you won't miss my future videos and i'll also include all the videos from that series so washing your car decontaminating your paint machine polishing and the application of a protection at the end so you'll find those links in the description under the video once again so what is paint polishing it's also known as paint correction because basically you're removing defects from your paint so defects are things like swirls scratches oxidation light marring some holograms even water sanding or sanding marks that are left on top of your paint basically imperfections that you want to remove to help to increase the depth and clarity or the color popping on your paint and also increase gloss and by the way machine polishing is the best way to get the most significant increase in gloss especially when measured with a gloss unit measuring system or a gloss meter the reason being if you're looking at paint from a close-up view especially through a microscope it's not flat it has hills and valleys when you look closely at it and what happens when you get scratches or swirls through either the washing phases when you're hand washing your car or when you're towel drying your vehicle if you bring it through an automated car wash with those brush rollers that are brushing using brushes to remove snow during winter time basically there's a bunch of ways you can induce light scratches or deeper scratches over time on your paint and that has its toll on the clear coat because the way the light is reflected well it's not perfect reflection anymore and you get to see those all those defects amplified especially in the sunlight and so to remove those well basically you have to remove a bit of that clear coat to get it down to a point where you're removing those jagged edges that make a poor light distribution and that you're seeing all those defects and when you're doing the paint correction while you're removing a bit of that clear coat to make the surface flatter and truer and that way not only have you removed the defects or oxidation but you're also allowing the light to reflect in a more perfect manner hence you're increasing the gloss so it's a better way to have an increase in gloss compared to applying a carnauba wax or pain sealant or a ceramic coating yes paint protectant protection does add a bit of gloss that is measurable sometimes with a gloss meter as well but really the biggest increase once again is going to be through paint correction or paint polishing so well polishing is all about compounds and polishes as well right so you have the machines we'll dig into that in just a few seconds but first there are two types of polishing compounds or fluids that contain abrasives so of course think about it if you have your base metal so that's the surface to which the primer is going to be applied on the paint then you have the base coat which is the color coat the actual color of your paint and on top of that sits the clear coat so it's way thicker than the base coat and it's quite durable because it has uv protection or uv inhibitors as well inside and that's the transparent glossy thing that you see so that's the clear coat on all modern cars pretty much that is what you get so if you're going to correct that and remove a bit of that clear coat you need some abrasives so there are generally two forms the first one being a compound so that's the one that is considered the more aggressive and has the bigger abrasives inside there so see those as little grains of salt or little grains of sand if you want so basically polishing abrasives that are inside the compound that is going to help to remove those defects so again scratches swirls oxidation holograms sanding marks left maybe from the factory or from some repainting job that you had on your vehicle and that's going to cut the paint so remove a little bit of that clear coat and basically allow it to be truer and flatter and defect-free so you get things like this this one here is the heavy cut so this is a compound from koh kemi so a german company again don't focus on the products quite right now that's not what's important here it's the principles so the compounds because they are more aggressive they cut faster and they correct deeper scratches swirls and defects well they're usually the first step of the paint correction and then you're moving on to a refining stage after that to remove the sanding marks that you left with the compound or the marring or the haze left behind with the compound because don't forget this is an aggressive cut so inside there you get those abrasives and they're going to leave some effect on the surface so yes you are removing defects but you're traditionally going to get some hazing left and to further improve depth and clarity remove all that haze and further jewel the surface that's why we call that polishing or jeweling the surface where you're going to finish with a polish so this one here from the same company kokemi german company this is their fine cut so this is a polish so this has smaller abrasives in there they're not as big and it's not going to cut as quickly hence why we use it as a polish so basically you're perfecting the finish to get that mirror shine appearance at the end so you have compound once again the more aggressive to remove deeper scratches deeper swirl marks heavy oxidation oxidation by by the way is that milky white appearance you're gonna see that especially on red cars right they tend when exposed to a lot of sun outside the damaging uv rays they tend to become pinkish over time and have that milky white appearance uh so if you have oxidation a great way to remove that is to start with a compound so then you finish at the end with a polish to refine that to a mirror-like finish to increase depth gloss and clarity on the paint as well and of course to remove the haze left behind by the compound now if you have a newer vehicle or if the paint is in fairly good shape and it only has very light swirls or light scratches and almost no oxidation you can skip the compound and only use a polish like this to get the job done so you always have to decide what combination you're going to use according to all the defects that you have on your vehicle and also to what type of paint but we're going to talk about the types of paint later on in this video of course you're going to see a few demos done on screen so you understand how the process works but before we start the machine polishing steps there are a few steps that we spoke about in the previous videos in the series explaining how you get to that point step number one of course is going to be to wash your entire vehicle using a ph neutral uh wax-free car shampoo so no protection in that shampoo you just want to use a basically pure shampoo to clean your vehicle then you're gonna move on to chemical decontamination ewings using things like iron removers or tar removers so to remove embedded contamination like a brake dust of course that generates a lot of iron particles and also industrial fallout if you have tar adhesive or glue marks on your paint as well those black dots from tar you're going to use a tar remover and then when you're done with the chemical decontamination stage you're going to move on to the mechanical decontamination stage using a clay bar right so a clay bar clay mitt or clay towel basically a clay media that's going to help to remove further embedded contamination from the paint that the chemicals didn't remove can also remove paint overspray it can remove tree sap a bit of leftover bug guts and that kind of thing so it's going to help to basically make your paint as glass smooth as possible and free of any embedded contamination now it is key especially the clay stage before you polish always decontaminate your paint because you want to work on contamination free paint why because when you're polishing imagine that now you have your pad and your compound or polish that is spinning and you're running that on top of your paint right well if there's contamination left that's usually a sandpaper like material or some grit or heavy contamination in the paintwork while you're picking that up and you're digging it even more into your paint and you're going to create even more swirls and scratches hence why we always wash and decontaminate the paint before we go ahead and do paint polishing steps paint polishing by the way is the general term that we'll use today that includes compounds and polishes so the two forms of liquids that you're using to correct the paint so yeah that's it so we prepared for that and now you're ready to start polishing before you actually polish what is always recommended especially now don't forget all these tips are for beginners if you're a professional out there and you haven't polished in a while this is a great way to brush up on your knowledge by the way or see at least if you're up to date in the latest and greatest techniques so this is a great tutorial make sure you share this by the way share this video with friends and family that might benefit from it it's always a good thing to get the people go going out there in their homes and enjoying taking care of their vehicles so step number one before you actually start polishing after of course you've washed and decontaminated your car is going to be mask the sensitive parts so things like grills your surrounding plastics and those kinds of things you're going to want to apply some sort of masking tape this one here is the 3m precision that i like because it doesn't leave any residue or glue type material behind and it's soft enough to be used on any paint without damaging it but basically things like painters tape you're going to want to go around and mask all the edges of your trims especially the plastic stuff because you don't want to leave any of that white polish residue and stain your trims potentially so be careful and always start by taping that the more time you spend prepping your paint by the way the more enjoyable the process is going to be the more efficient it's going to be and the better results you're going to have so take a few hours depending on the level of defects by the way people always ask how long does it take that's a case-by-case basis it depends how bad your pain is what state it's in uh what kind of neglect it has seen but do expect for it to last a few hours so it is a slow process but an important one so set aside at least half a day to a full day to do this and that way you'll be happy that you did okay so now that we finished masking the areas you're going to want or you're going to need a machine polisher now this is where all the myths need to be busted because i'm going to recommend things of course we're looking at a beginner's tutorial but even a person like me who's been detailing cars for 25 years now i still use a dual action polisher so there are some rotary polishers out there those are the ones where the disc spins in the same circular motion at very very high speeds i would only recommend that for more experienced detailers that have more experience paint correcting and of course well just know how to operate those machines and yeah the da machines what they do basically we call them dual action or random orbital why because the plate here this is the backing plate it's going to spin on itself but it also does a figure eight motion so see it as a movement of a hand that's doing a figure eight plus that circular rotation so let me show you here i don't know if you're going to see on camera so you see how it's moving up and down at the same time as it's turning so that is the random orbital and dual action because it does the figure eight and it spins so the advantage of this is that it is super safe on your paint there is no worry to burn through your clear coat or burn through your paint guys especially if your car is in relatively good condition or even if it's an older vehicle if it hasn't been polished in its life you're not going to burn through the clear coat just be diligent take your time do the things properly and you're going to be fine these dual action polishers do not generate lots of heat and i remember seeing a video on youtube from my buddies over at the rag company they were testing different types of polishers and they were basically wanting to see if you were basically reckless and trying to put damage to your pain and burn through the clear coat how could you do it well they were almost 12 minutes staying at the same spot on that hood on the test panel that they had polishing and not moving from there and it took over 12 minutes of standing there in the same spot before they actually burned through clear coat so it's a wives tale that you have to be worried and burned through clear coat this is not going to happen these modern machines work super well and you have the polishing compounds that have lubricating agents inside there and it's very safe you're not generating tons of heat and you're not removing that much material if you're doing just a few passes and you're doing your normal pain correction you'd have to do many many forms of pain corrections on your paint through the years before you actually worry about burning through clear coat now this is assuming that your vehicle was never repainted it was never damaged and that you have a relatively healthy paint right so always use common sense of course so this is the dual action polisher now they usually come with variable speeds we're going to talk about that in a few minutes but you have this dial on the side that you can rotate so from speed one typically to speed six and that basically changes the speed at which the uh the plate itself spins and you're gonna have different uh versions of machines so this one here has a five inch backing plate this one is a cordless version by the way the majority of the polishers are corded but you can have cordless versions now with batteries that allow you the freedom of moving around i'll leave by the way uh some recommendations i have so not only the products i'm presenting but some recommendations for entry-level products for beginners because this one here is quite expensive it's one of the top of the line companies it's from flex made in germany but i'll leave recommendations in the description for beginner polishers that i know works super well for you guys you don't have to spend by the way a fortune to get into machine polishing when i started 25 years ago uh all i had was a porter cable 7424 xp so shout out to all the uh the uh advanced detailers out there you probably started with the same one back in the days so it was an inexpensive hundred bucks i think uh was the the price at the time you get a basic uh entry-level pad with a few compounds and polishes and the importance is to go out there and start gaining the experience you're going to enjoy the process and you're obviously going to see the results and then you can start thinking of which better pad which better polisher or which better compound you can purchase and do a deep dive in there because you can go into the rabbit hole quite quickly but i have a separate video on that by the way for my favorite pads polishes and compounds combos so you can check that in the description under the video so different sizes you have five inch backing plates six inch backing plates and um yeah you have smaller polishes as well because a lot of people ask how do you get into the tighter areas or the more intricate areas so you have polishers with one inch or two inch heads you have this one here with a three inch head this is a mini polisher so it really depends on how much paint correction you're going to be doing but the most versatile ones are of course the standard ones you're going to do 85 percent of the work with this one here so a 5 inch or 6 inch backing plate is what you'll need to do the majority of the job and this really is for like the mirrors the side pillars the small intricate areas on front or rear bumpers that kind of thing so you can equip yourself with different sized polishers so uh the next step once you established your your polisher you're going to use some polishing pads so there are different types again we're not going to dive into all the existing pad types and pad colors but mainly there's wool pads more advanced users we're going to not talk about that today but we're going to talk about the two main types of pads that you're going to be seeing so microfiber pads and foam pads so what is the biggest difference first of all typically now again this is a generality but the microfiber pads have a tendency to be more aggressive and they'll cut quicker now there are different types of brands different types of styles as well but usually a company has its own code so go on a company that you enjoy check their website and see what types of pads they have so these are classics right that are enjoyed not only by beginners but by professionals as well these are the mcguire's da correction system pads so we have the cutting disc which has this red backing this is out of microfiber and we have their finishing one which is thicker and has this black backing so this is their finishing disc so you always get one that's more aggressive for the compound stage and one that's a bit lighter in aggression for your polishing stage so that was for microfiber and then you move on and of course there's different sizes depending on the size of your backing plate right so you'll you'll use whatever corresponds to the backing plate size you have so if you have a five inch backing plate you're gonna want to have a five inch pad if you have a six inch plate you're gonna want a six inch pad so on and so forth if you have a three inch backing plate like the smaller polisher there you're gonna want a three inch pad like this one here these are from rupez so italian company they are known for not only super high quality polishers but they make their own compounds and polishes which i'm going to get into in a few moments but also i absolutely love their foam pads so here they have many different colors depending on the cut level you're looking for but the two classic ones are the blue which is for the compound stage and you have it in the back see it's color coded so you have coarse so because this one here has the bigger abrasives so this is for the compound and then you get this one here this is their fine the yellow one because this is for the you guessed it polishing stage so again you'll notice five inch backing plate five inch pad you look through the centering hole to put that on there and you apply it through the hook and loops through hook and loop systems so basically when you're having the pads on top of your backing plates let me show you this up close so this is close up here so you see those little hooks this is basically like a velcro it's called a hook and loop system and the pads on the back have this kind of foamish material so you apply the pad on your backing plate you secure it and there you go you're ready to start polishing it's that simple so typically i recommend that you guys start off with uh two types of aggression for pads so the majority of the companies have some for polishing and for compounds so look into the system that you're buying into and get some appropriate pads by the way you'll need a few of those because i highly recommend that you switch pads often typically when i do a compound stage i'll have five or six pads for the entire vehicle and the same for the polishing stage i'll have five or six pads for that uh you want to switch pads often and work cleanly that way you don't accumulate as much of that spent clear coat onto your pad and that spent polish residue and it's also important to work very cleanly so when you're working every time you're done with a section pass by the way a section pass we're going to talk about that too but it's you're going up and down and left to right right with your polisher so as you're applying your polisher on the surface and you're polishing you're doing movements of up and down and left to right to make sure you get even coverage and over time when you're done with that pass and you work in small sections two by two sections you take your pad and you're gonna clean it now the basic way of cleaning it is using pad brushes like these so this one here hopefully you can see this on camera there you go it's basically like a big toothbrush and it's made to brush the pads so imagine that they're sitting on top of your polisher and you got your pad so you're basically scrubbing that off you can spin your pad as well with the polisher you activate the trigger and then you leave the pad on the the brush on there and you brush your pad that's basically to remove any polish residue or spent compound to have always the freshest and cleanest surface possible to work with now another way to keep your pads clean by the way that was one brush this brush here is one from lopez that they make so this is their bigfoot claw so you have the brush on one side and you have kind of a buttering knife edge on this side so you can spread the polish or compound on your pad that's pretty cool and you can also lift the pad from your backing plate with this tool to remove that safely so i think that's pretty cool and so you're always it's always important to keep your pads nice and clean when you're working because well the cleaner the pad the more cut you're getting when it becomes too loaded with polish or compound it becomes inefficient at doing its job the pores of the the discs become clogged up and you're not doing any cutting anymore hence why it's important to clean them now there's many ways to clean your pads as you go as i said some brushes here i know a lot of people like to use forced air forced air for me is fine on microfibers however you got to take care because many foam pad manufacturers will tell them that use compressed air forced air onto the pads can break the gentle foam structure or cells that are in there so i would be more careful to not really use forced air but there are pad washing systems that you can use this one here is from the detail guards so basically it's a manual action that you have so it's a tool where you put your um pad on this kind of plate and then you have a pumping system in a wash bucket and you go up and down and for a few seconds with the cleaning solution that they supply and you can clean that or there's some other classics that are a bit more expensive but things like this uh the system 4000 by lake country they're a manufacturer that makes fantastic paint polishing pads by the way great a lot of experience so basically it's a bucket with a pumping mechanism on top you're going to set your polisher you activate it it's going to spin and you're pumping this pump up and down and it shoots liquid to clean it on your pad and it keeps your pad clean while you're polishing your vehicle so i have tutorials on these on my channel by the way again i'll leave links on how to clean your pads in the description under the video but work very very cleanly that is very important so always work with fresh pads and when you're done one or two panels switch to a fresh pad so again the fresher the pad the better cut you're going to get the more efficiency you're getting out of them as well and always prime your pads before use right and some of them have special ways so for the rupes foam pads for example you can place an x pattern with your polish you're going to set it on your paint at low speed for 10 to 20 seconds and activate it this is going to start like pushing all that polish inside your pad for microfiber pads a lot of guys what they do is you put a bunch of swirls of the compound in there you can take either your finger or this buttering tool and you're gonna make sure you cover all the fibers so that's how you prime some microfiber pads out there but again make sure you have the information on how to properly prime your pad before use and then it's a matter of you're not using a lot of product after that once your pad is properly primed you're only going to need three or four pea-sized drops that you're applying on the surface of the pad itself and that's how you're going to do your pass when you're polishing your paint okay so next let's move on to using the appropriate polishing compounds so again there are two types typically so this is a general rule you have compounds again the more aggressive type with bigger abrasive and you have the polishes which is the refining stage to remove the hazing left behind by the compound stage and to give that mirror finish increase the depth clarity and gloss on your paint because the polishes have smaller abrasives so again that's the refining stage so there are many many different systems out there the ones i recommend for beginners are from meguiars actually so the maguire's ultimate compound and mcguire's ultimate polish are staples in the industry they're usually readily available at your local auto parts store or your big box store because they're very popular they're easy to use they're very forgiving as well and so and they're inexpensive so you can use that on a more professional level there's things like koh kami so this is their h9 this is their compound they have their f6 fine cut they're a polishing fluid uh car pro has their reflect this here is their polish and they have their ultra cut compound so pretty much all the big brands have their own versions of a compound and a polish so i like to stay um within a system when i'm working so ideally you're going to see like rupez right they make their own polishing pads while they keep it simple the yellow and the blue they also have their own polishing fluids so if we look here again color-coded for that same blue and yellow so you get the blue that's the da course so this is their compound for heavier cut and heavier defect removal the liquid and then you get the same color combination you get the da fine and yellow this is their fine polishing compound so this is for improving clarity gloss again and that refining stage so you would use this is how simple it is yellow pad yellow product this removes all the guesswork out of it and if you're having the blue pattern for the compound stage you have their blue liquid right or their blue compound so you can keep it as simple as that and then when you gain more experience that's when you can start doing a deep dive into which compound is the best one suited for your needs and then which polish you can look into there are tons of different polishing pads and types and brands available out there but that's not the point i digress so that's for another video again i have a video on my favorite compounds polishes and pads combinations in the description for you guys to watch if you go want to go down that rabbit hole but let's keep it simple so stick to a system that you like and often they make their own pads as well coke kenny for example has their own pads the same goes for car pro and as you saw rupez has their own system so you really can't get it wrong it removes basically the guesswork of having to know which polish to pick with which type of pad and that kind of stuff so you primed your pad and now you're ready to start the actual polishing phase so you're going to take your machine with your pad of course it's primed and you've had your two three or four pea-sized drops of your polish or compound let's just call it a polish for the sake of this video uh basically the liquid that that's on there so you're going to apply the face on the surface of the vehicle that way you're not going to splatter all the compound and polish in the air when you're activating this so always put the face down on the paint and then you're going to lower the speed to speed number two on your machine so very slow speed to start off and you're going to start spreading the product on the surface so quickly with your arm speed on this one but at slow speed right for the machine you're gonna spread the product on the surface and then you're going to increase the speed on your polisher to not necessarily the the highest speed but i like speed setting number five and this is where you're going to start doing the cutting itself now it is very important do not apply too much force or pressure on the machine uh you only want to use about 10 to 15 pounds of pressure now what is that basically that's not much imagine you're putting your hand on a pillow well if you're starting to compress you're alway you're already beyond that so it's very light let the tool the machine the pad and the product do the job so very light pressure you're going to always keep the pad as flat as you can on the surface that is key do not angle the machine and do not let it wobble so you want to keep it as flat as possible on the surface because that's how you're making sure you're having the most contact between the pad and the paint and you're going to use steady and slow arm movement this is not a race don't forget to do the correction properly you have to let the machine the pad and of course the polishes do their work and you need some long working time now don't worry the polishing compounds and fluids they come with lubricating agents inside there that's to extend the length that you're working them with and you're going to do a few passes so up and down and left to right that's the cross hatch pattern overlap your passes by 50 by the way so when you're going up and you're switching to the next column well you're going to overlap that first pass by 50 and that's to make sure you get proper and even coverage but again keep the p the pad flat on the surface as flat as possible slow and steady arm speed this is not a race and do not apply too much pressure on the polisher itself let the machine the pad and the product do the job that's how you're going to get the best cut the most efficiency and of course keep your pads clean while you're doing it as we said i also recommend that you work in small sections to start off so until you get enough experience that you kind of understand the relationship between the pad the type of polish you're using and the environment you're working in work typically in two by two sections that's as much as you'll need the smaller the area the better it is for you to control and you won't be as nervous to try and correct an entire panel at once and of course always avoid polishing in direct sunlight you're not going to get a good experience your products are going to dry up on you too quickly the oils are going to be spent too quickly it's going to create more dusting and just a bunch of issues so always work in the shade on a cool surface or in a garage if you can but working cool is also important the less heat you have the more cutting you're getting if you're generating too much heat the pad itself just becomes grabby on the paint and it's gonna grab through that clear coat instead of cutting it efficiently the cooler the surface the better cutting you're getting and the more efficiency you're getting from your pad tool and compounds as well so work as cool as possible and also make sure you keep your pads clean now you're done with your pass so what you have to do now is inspect your work so you're going to take a microfiber towel typically to remove compounds and polishes i like towels in the 300 gsm uh type of thickness so not too thick not too plush and not too thin either but 300 for me is the right spot i like these edgeless towels from the rag company these are the edgeless 300 towels again links in the description don't worry about that or use whatever microfiber towels you guys want you don't have to spend a fortune for this by the way you're just removing uh some compounds and polishes with these but you want some quality things so that you're not scratching or marring the paint when you're trying to correct it right so these work quite well so you're going to buff all of that compound or polish depending what stage you're on but buff it off with a microfiber towel and then inspect your work how do you inspect your work now if you're working with direct sunlight outside you can kind of have a look but the best way to do that is using an inspection light so you have them in a few forms things like this from scan grip this is one of their match pens that they have so here you go it's like a little flashlight so you're going to flash that and look from different angles right up and down move your head and look at what you're doing to see if there's still any defects left to remove see if you did anything correctly and there are other versions like this one here once again same thing from scan grip these are very well known for lighting solutions for the detailing world so you turn the light on you can also select different intensities and change the color temperature on the light so as you can see here this is a bluer hue for more metallic finishes and this one here for lighter colored cars like silvers and whites you get this kind of more close to the daylight color basically and then you can turn it off so inspect your work another way to inspect it is to spray on the once you buffed off spray an ipa solution on the surface so you can make your own a 30 or 40 isopropyl alcohol mix so distilled water and your isopropyl alcohol mix that that you put in a spray bottle just like this so you can make your own home solution this is a 40 ipa you can use a 30 ipa as well or if you want to remove all the guesswork of dilutions and spray bottles you can buy a pre-made version this is called a paint prep basically it's an intensive oil and polish cleaner so this one here is car pro eraser a staple in the industry very well known so this is what we call the ipa stage so basically when you spray this on and wipe with a microfiber towel you're removing any potential fillers that might be contained in some polishes now these ones here are pure polishes and compounds so they don't contain any protection they don't contain any fillers so what you see is what you get but there are some products out there that might have a glaze inside or some type of filling agents that can mask if you're actually correcting defects so by using an ipa or a paint prep you're removing those fillers and you're actually seeing if you've done anything to correct that and also when you're so you you did that and now you're ready to move on to the next stage but before you even start all of these what you can do to know if you've selected the proper paint polish and compound combo is to do a test spot so you're going to take a two by two section on the paint and run a few tests see which pad combination you need and which compound or polish combination you need from your detailing arsenal and see if it gives you the uh well what you're looking for as far as defect removal and overall effect so if that works then you know you can use that pad and polish combo for the rest of your vehicle so now that you're done doing all the paint polishing steps and the paint looks flawless right you removed all the swirls to scratches potentially marring sanding marks hazing and that kind of stuff and now it's perfected it's super glossy it has that mirror-like type shine to it and you did your entire paint prep or ipa wipe as well to remove any polishing oils or residue that is key so when you're done using the polishes and compounds because these contain some oils and some type of lubricating agents that can leave a film on the surface and that can impede or prevent a proper bonding of the paint protection that you're applying in the final stage so when you're done doing the compound and then the polish stage you're going to do a full what we call ipa wipe down again with isopropyl alcohol and distilled water or using a premixed paint prep like the carpro eraser geon prep basically all the companies pretty much have a paint prep solution and that again is going to remove all the polishing oils and residue and leave the clear coat as squeaky clean as possible and free of any type of junk that might impede the proper bonding of paint protection so paint protection you guessed it now is the final step you have to select what type of protection you want because don't forget your clear coat is exposed to the elements is exposed to the uv rays so you want to protect it against all of that against acid rain tree sap bird droppings against chemicals against the uv rays you want to make the paint easier to clean during maintenance washes you want those nice hydrophobic properties right water beading and water sheeting making the paint not only look cleaner for longer but making easier to wash easier to dry as well and so you're going to need to apply a form of paint protection so once the paint is fully washed decontaminated you went ahead with the pain polishing stages you did your ipa wipe down to remove the paint polishing oils well now is the paint protection stage and by adding paint protection you're also helping to replenish uv protection because don't forget if you're removing a part of that clear coat you're removing a part of that uv protection that comes inherent with your clear coat so you have absolutely once you're done the polishing steps and ipa wipe to apply your form of paint protection traditionally there are three types of four types sorry of pain protection so there's your traditional carnauba wax that typically lasts two to three months it's organic based it has a nice warm glow to it then you have a synthetic paint sealant typically five to six months of protection it has a colder appearance but still very nice and glossy then more recently in the five to six last years ceramic coatings are the thing so many years of protection higher chemical resistance better hydrophobic properties self-cleaning properties meaning the vehicle is a lot easier to wash compared to other types of pain protections and an evolution of that recently the fourth one is a graphene coating which typically has graphene oxide or reduced graphene oxide rgos included with a ceramic base kind of like a ceramic coating so those are multi-year paint protectant right coatings so ceramic coatings and graphene coatings i made a video highlighting by the way the differences between those four types of paint protection to help you choose which one is best suited for you so again i'll leave a link to that video in the description under this video by the way not all paints are made the same you've probably heard this before there are softer paints and harder paints and by that we made harder clear coats and softer clear coats so traditionally companies like bmw audi and mercedes those german brands they have a harder type of clear coat meaning that while they're more resistant to swirls and scratches however if you do get some they're harder to remove because the clear coat is a lot harder uh and also traditionally brands like porsche toyota and honda have softer clear coats so that means they're a lot easier to correct or faster to correct with paint polishing however the opposite side of this the flip side of this is also that they're a lot easier to scratch and swirl so even within a brand by the way if you were used to it a few years ago and you knew that for example toyota had softer paint while it can happen that they change paint processes they change the type of paints that they use and the type of clear coats that they use and things evolve so the state of hardness or softness can also change even within a brand within the same year they can change those processes sometimes and you'll have different types of paint so again that's why it's crucial before you start your polishing stages is to make a test spot so pick a 2x2 section and run a small spot with a combination of pads and polishes and see what works best to correct the defects so it's kind of like a puzzle you're putting together the pieces to see what works best and what kind of defect removal will perform best on your paint and that will give you the results you're looking for don't forget we're not always looking for museum quality results or concourse of elegance type results right we're not looking for 100 pain correction that would take you many many days and cost a lot of money and it's just not practical for an everyday use so if your car is a trailer queen and kept in a museum at all times then yes you can go ahead and do or aim for 100 pain correction but on a daily driven vehicle anything between 85 to 90 to 93 or 95 is more than adequate especially from a few feet away look at your paint if it looks satisfying enough to you then you know you did a good job uh pat yourself on the back for a job well done again we're not striving for perfection i know a lot of videos out there you're going to see experienced detailers aim for perfection you've seen my videos i do some close-ups on paint and they're immaculate but that's a lot of time a lot of experience many years in the industry of doing this and of course while paying customers they expect more of a perfection right especially if you're paying for a service but if you're doing this for yourself what you want to do especially if you're starting out with the pain correction stages well it's to see a dramatic improvement so what you're looking for is to dramatically improve the finish to a point where it looks more glossy it the paint pops more you removed a lot of the defects and swirls and scratches that heavier stuff and get it over 75 80 85 pain correction and you should be very happy and that's how by the way once again i can't stress this enough uh before applying pain protection the biggest way to have the biggest increase in perceived gloss either with your eyes or even if you'd measure with a gloss meter is by machine polishing so leveling that surface removing a bit of that clear coat making the surface truer and flatter removing those defects and oxidation will make the light reflect a lot better and brighter the paint is going to have more clarity more depth to it the paint color is going to pop regardless of what color you have on your vehicle and it's just going to look that much more shiny and that much better looking then you apply the crea the icing on the top of the cake which is your paint protection that just bumps it up a little more and just gives a more uh awesome appearance to the eyes so yeah to improve the gloss the biggest way to do that if there's one lesson you can keep today is that it's through machine polishing also keep in mind that there is a point where you can go too far right so if the scratches are too deep and how do you know that well run your finger on it and if your fingernail catches itself on one of the ridges and you can feel that scratch usually that means that it's probably too deep it probably went through the base coat sometimes all the way down to the bare metal especially if you had a key job right somebody keyed your car usually that's it goes through the primer and always to the base metal so you can correct paint that's not there anymore the best you can do is lightly improve that by rounding off the edges of those scratches and swirls and improving the appearance but you don't want to remove too much of that clear coat because first of all while you don't want to eventually burn through the clear coat if you're doing that too much or too repeated or too often but you also don't want to remove too much of it of the clear coat because the clear coat itself let's say there's a certain thickness well the majority of the uv inhibitors that are built in the clear coat are near the top because that's where they migrated to so when you're removing that clear coat you're removing a few of those uv inhibitors and the deeper you go the less of those uv inhibitors you'll get so you want to be careful don't remove too much clear coat now what is a way to know if let's say a car is new to you if your car is brand new from the factory you can polish it many many times before being able to start to worry or having to worry about removing or burning through the clear coat but if you had let's say you purchased a used vehicle that's new to you and you don't know the history you don't know if it's been repainted uh you don't know the thickness of the paint and you want to dig deeper into that without breaking the bank right you can get something like this next ptg next diag this is a paint depth gauge that connects wirelessly to your mobile device so whether you have an android or an iphone and you put this on top of your paint and what it does it takes measurements basically of the depth of your paint so on the metal surfaces because it has to be it doesn't work on plastics you have to apply this on metal surfaces it's going to measure basically from the primer all the way up to the clear coat how thick you have either in mils or microns depending on which measurements you want and it's going to send a reading to your the the app on your smartphone and you're going to be able to measure that depth and then as you're polishing you can keep on measuring the depth and see how much clear coat you've removed so ideally you want to stay over four mils for sure typically paints these days come anywhere from three and a half to five and a half mils depending on which brand you're using so clear coats are getting thinner and thinner however they're improved in performance as well so they give you better gloss better uv protection better scratch resistance as well so things have evolved and one way to know if your paint has been repainted also is usually it's going to be a lot thicker so if you get an average let's say a reading of five mils on all your panels and then you get a fender where the reading is seven or eight mils there's a huge gap right or a huge difference well that usually tells you that there's a panel that's been repainted because the uh repainters while they typically repaint repaint them by hand and it lays down a thicker layer of paint compared to where they're done from the car manufacturer by robots spring it on very thin and evenly that's how you know if there's been damage maybe on a car that you purchased if you see that huge discrepancy in measurements on a given panel and it's way thicker than you think well there's a high chance that panel has been repainted so you can look into the paint depth gauge is it mandatory to have this absolutely not because if you're doing this as a diy and just for fun again you can you could go through many polishing sessions before even having to start to worry about burning through clear coat i want you guys to remove that out of your heads if you use common sense you use the appropriate tools products equipment polishes pads you work diligently and you're careful and you do things right it would take you would need to be on that spot again for like 10 to 12 12 minutes on end on the same spot applying a lot of pressure before you even burn through the clear coat so go out there enjoy polishing your cars you have all the basic information now to start polishing your vehicles and yeah i just want everybody out there to to enjoy doing this stuff and as you saw again we spoke about the machine polishers we talked about the compounds and polishes we spoke about the polishing pads the masking tape we talked about the microfiber towels the brushes the inspection lights the led lights to inspect the ipa solutions or paint preps even the pad washing systems to keep your pads nice and clean and uh yeah when you're done polishing you gotta clean your pads again you're gonna have the tutorial on how to clean pads in the bottom so check that out i hope you enjoyed this series go check out the previous videos if you haven't done so yet so on washing your car iron removers and tire removers how to clay bar your car as well today you saw the paint polishing the video for the um the next final step is going to be to apply the paint protection so they're already available on my channel you have a chance of how to apply a wax or a sealant on your car or how to apply a coating so either a ceramic coating or graphene coating and that's the final step so check that out smash the thumbs up button to show me your support by the way i'll leave all the links to the tools equipment and products in the description under the video share this video with family and friends send it over to them get them to understand the basics of pain polishing and pain correction so they can go out there and enjoy uh pain correcting their cars and making them look glossier and awesome and defect free as well and if you haven't done so yet consider clicking the subscribe button that's found under this video and that way you'll subscribe to my channel and never miss my future videos so guys in the meantime don't forget keep it tight keep it clean and i'll see you on the next one you

Channel: Pan The Organizer

Views: 1,807,721

Keywords: detailing 101 paint polishing everything a beginner needs to know, paint polishing for beginners, paint correction, paint polishing tutorial for beginners, machine polishing, paint polishing techniques, how to polish a car, paint polishing compounds, paint polishing pads, paint polishing machine, how to polish paint properly, car detailing, remove swirls, scratch removal, pan the organizer, how to polish a black car, polishing car paint, how to remove scratches from a car

Id: ustTEVGMOTI

Length: 46min 32sec (2792 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 23 2022