How To Polish A Car w/ Harbor Freight DA Polisher - Car Detailing and Paint Correction!

what's up guys and welcome back to stauffer garage on today's episode i'm going to show you how to polish your paint remove scratches swirl marks any oxidation on the surface and bring back that original shine if you like today's video smash the like button let me know in the comments below what video you'd like to see next and if you haven't subscribe and let's jump right into it all right guys so this is the civic you guys have seen in previous videos but man it is in need of some tender loving care if you look at the paint there is multiple areas will see oxidation discoloration compared to certain body panels you know this is a 25 year old car it needs a lot of correction and it probably needs a full respray but that doesn't mean that with some simple polishing you can't bring it back to its original clarity and make it look really dang good for being 25 years old so first step wash the car i'm using the two bucket method here if you guys want to know about washing your car more i'll leave an icard up in the corner about how to wash your detail your car more specifically where i use the foam cannon and the two bucket method but for right now i do a simple wash rinse off the soap and then we're going to jump into the next step which is the clay bar [Music] so my recommendation is to go out to the store if you don't have any but buy some brand new clay bar usually it comes with a pack of two i'm using meguiars here in particular but any clay typically works but you want to start out with a fresh bar of clay that way you don't have any contaminants already in the bar and you can actually see what you're pulling from the paint so now that your car is washed grab your clay bar and this is when you're going to grab off a small section of the clay and you're going to start to need it to soften it up a little bit and create a small flat disc like surface so then you can begin claying your paint you can use specific sprays for this but i usually just use the same soap and water that i had from washing the car left over grab the clay bar flatten out across your fingertips and you're going to glide it across the soapy water on your paint and you'll actually feel the rough edges and the rough surfaces as you do it to know where the contaminants are you're going to do light pressure you're going to glide it across and let the clay bar do the work to remove those contaminants [Music] here you can see all the contaminants that i've collected on this piece of clay make sure after you've done one section of paint fold it over to seal in those contaminants and then you have a fresh new surface to begin the process over again on the rest of the vehicle [Music] i can't stress enough how important this step is clay bar can seem time consuming but it removes tar it removes surface contaminants and grit that is essentially bonded to your paint so that when you polish your car the pad doesn't so when you're polishing your car the pad doesn't ingest these contaminants and then in turn scratch your paint [Music] typically when you clay bar your car the surfaces that have the most grime and that need the most care is kind of on your rocker panels right behind the wheel whales where dirt gets flinged up from the tires the front bumper the hood the roof is usually the least amount it just depends but for the most part you can quickly run through probably a whole vehicle and clay bar in about i would say about 45 minutes if you're going pretty quickly [Music] once you've done clay bar on the car give it one more rinse and then dry it off completely and then the polishing process will begin [Music] today i'm using pads from lake county these are three different types depending on what kind of process you're doing i'm using optimum polishes here to remove the swirl marks from my paint [Music] by the way guys this polisher that i got is a random orbital polisher that i picked up from harbor freight for dirt cheap it is a little noisy but besides that i can't say it's much different than the old porter cable that i used to have and for any hobbyist that's trying to do this job it's a perfect tool that's going to last you quite a long time compared to maybe some of the professional ones that cost a ton more [Music] first step is grab your pad and then spread some polish around in different little circles what i try to do is put several dime spots across the pad initially because it needs to have some sort of compound in it at first because it is a dry pad when i saw you i would lose before you turn on the polisher make sure you dab it around in the area that you're planning to work first so that way you don't fling any of the product around start off in a three foot by three foot section and turn on your polisher at a low speed and begin working the product around and once it's spread out i recommend cranking it up to probably it depends on your polisher but about half speed of what your polisher is capable of and then slowly work it into the panel that you're working on depending on the severity of the scratches of your paint and oxidation you might have to do this in two different steps or jump up to a more aggressive pad or polishing combo it just kind of depends on it so it's it's gonna have to take some some time for you to figure that out but after you've gone through one panel or one section like i'm doing here you'll be able to assess how much more aggressive you have to be with the rest of the paint once you clean off the dried off polish [Music] grab a clean microfiber towel and wipe off the excess polish and assess where the paint is [Music] [Music] one thing to remember is let the polisher do the work you don't have to do a ton of pressure you need to make sure that you keep it flat and horizontal with the patent you need to make sure you keep it flat and horizontal with the surface you're working on but you do not need to use a ton of pressure hello [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you can see the amount of pressure here that i'm actually applying i'm holding the cord in the back and my front hand is more or less guiding the polisher around so let it do the work for you let it do its job the way it's supposed to a place where we don't know [Music] [Applause] [Music] so as i mentioned in the beginning of this video make sure you start in a small section at a time to slowly work the polish around if you try to go in too large of a surface area you'll run out of polishing compound to do the job but also it'll dry out in different areas so start in a three foot by three foot section and work the polish in that area before you move on to the next panel [Music] [Music] depend on the type of polish you have certain ones are dustier than others the optimum polish that i'm using is actually pretty dust free it's actually quite nice but in general sometimes you do need to tape off your black molding of your car certain polishes will cause staining in my case this optimum polish is one that i have not had an issue with actual dusting or causing discoloration of it once i had to wipe it off with a microfiber towel came off really easily and made cleanup really really painless [Music] take my hand we'll make it somehow we can't miss out i'm done living life with the lights outside as you're polishing your vehicle if you do have spots of polish that do not come off right away grab some quick detailer and just spritz some quick detailer onto the body panel and wipe it off it'll help a ton and make it a lot easier so you don't have to use a ton of pressure so now that the polishing process is done i am following up with the optimum sealant this optimus can be applied with a typical handheld pad or by rotary or by a dual action polisher in my case but this is the sealant compound that you place across the entire vehicle and you want to let it dry to a haze so whatever panel you start with just kind of work your way around the car and by the time you come back to that first panel it'll be time to remove it [Music] but using the polisher on a low to medium speed uh dress a brand new pad that's more for a buffing or a a wax compound if you will so this is the least aggressive pad that i have [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] hmm [Music] so polishing your paint can have two impacts in your vehicle one if you have oxidation or minor swirl marks you can bring back that original shine but if your car has been re-sprayed before and it has panels that are painted newer than older ones you might not be able to get them to completely match just by polishing and bringing it back you might still need a respray so it isn't a complete fix at all for everything but i will say if you do have scratch marks or swirl marks just from typical daily driver use and your car is one color and it's not been resprayed multiple times you can bring it all back take that into consideration i would say that polishing a vehicle as long as the paint has clear coat still on it you can bring back 90 of the original shine [Music] do [Music] the polishing is done here are the after shots of the car itself you can see that there is a much better shine across the whole vehicle much more uniformity across some of the panels in the back that are older than the ones repainted in the front but overall the cart turned out great now you have a sealant coat that protects the paint as well and also all the swirl marks have been removed so thank you guys for watching today's video like i said at the beginning if you liked today's video hit the like button below subscribe if you haven't already for more detail and videos and let me know in the comments below what detail and video you'd like to see next thanks for watching guys see you next time [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Stauffer Garage

Views: 1,477,273

Keywords: how to polish a car, car detailing, how to polish your car, how to polish, polish a car, buffing a car, polish car, car polishing, clean your car, harbor freight DA polisher, harbor freight polisher, how to clean your car, car paint, auto body, detailing, stauffer garage, james stauffer, clay bar, how to, auto detailing, car, how to detail your car, how to clean, diy, paint correction

Id: 6xJxvOc5qUE

Length: 14min 1sec (841 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 17 2018