DETAILING 101 - Paint Polishing - Everything You Need To Know

Painful

polishing

can be a scary process because of all the misconceptions and people are usually afraid of burning off the

paint

or clear coat, but it's actually pretty safe if you

know

the basics and can be simple and fun. So in this video, I will share all the information and

know

ledge you guys

need

to start

polishing

your car at home and get amazing results. So together we will go over all the basics and all the information, from mechanical polishers to compounds. and polish isopropyl alcohol mixes or

paint

prep tape, of course, polishing pads and microfiber towels, even things like how to keep pads clean with brushes, how to inspect your work with some spotlights. inspection and also at the end some interesting tips like paint depth gauges so how it all works and of course well you'll get all that information.

I don't want you to worry about specific products, tools or equipment. I'll leave links to those in the description below the video. for them to see, so all you have to do is sit back, relax and enjoy the show. What we're doing today is making sure that you get all the information to understand what paint polishing is, so let's dive into it, I know you. Guys are excited about how this is a multi-part series, I call it

detailing

101, where you learn every step of the

detailing

process, so make sure you are subscribed to my channel by clicking the subscribe button below below this video and that This way you won't miss my future videos and I will also include all the videos in that series on how to wash your car, decontaminate your paint machine, polish and apply a protection at the end, so you will find those links at the description below.

Watch the video one more time, so what is paint polishing? It is also known as paint correction because you are basically removing defects from the paint, so the defects are things like swirls, scratches, oxidation, light ruining some holograms, even wet sanding or sanding marks left on the part superior. basically paint blemishes that you want removed to help increase the depth and clarity or color highlights in your paint and also increase the shine and by the way machine polishing is the best way to get the most significant increase in shine , especially when measured with a unit gloss measurement system or a gloss meter, the reason is that if you look at the painting from a close-up view, especially through a microscope, it is not flat, it has hills and valleys when You look at it closely and what happens when you get scratches or it spins through the washing phases when you wash your car by hand or when you towel dry your vehicle if you run it through an automated car wash with those brush rollers that brush using brushes to remove snow during the winter, there is basically a There are many ways that you can induce light scratches or deeper scratches over time in your paint and that has its effect on the clear coat because the way it reflects well the light is no longer a perfect reflection and you can see all those defects amplified, especially in sunlight and therefore to remove them well, you basically have to remove a little bit of that transparent layer to get to the point where they are removed those jagged edges that create poor light distribution and you see all those defects and when you're doing the paint correction while you're removing a little bit of that clear coat to make the surface flatter and truer and that way you're not just removing the defects or oxidation but you also allow the light to reflect in a more perfect way, therefore increasing the shine, making it a better way to increase shine compared to applying carnauba wax or pain sealant or a ceramic coating.

Yes, paint protection adds a little shine which can sometimes be measured with a gloss meter as well, but really the biggest increase will once again be through paint correction or paint polishing, so the Polishing also has to do with compounds and polishes, so you have the machines, we'll get 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 that if you have the base metal, so that is the surface that the primer will be applied to over the paint, then you have the base coat, which is the color coat of the actual color of your paint and on top of that you put the clear coat, so which is much thicker than the base coat and is quite durable because it has UV protection or UV inhibitors on the inside as well and that's the shiny clear stuff that you see.

That's the clear coat on all modern cars, that's pretty much what you get, so if you're going to correct that and remove a little bit of that clear coat, you

need

some abrasives, so there's generally two ways, the first is a compound so the one that is considered the most aggressive and has the largest abrasives inside so think of them as little grains of salt or little grains of sand if you want basically polishing the abrasives that are inside the compound that will help eliminate those defects. again scratches swirls holograms of oxidation sanding marks maybe from factory or from some repaint job that you had on your vehicle that is going to cut into the paint so remove a little bit of that clear coat and basically allow it to be more real, more flat and with defects -free, so you get things like this, this is the heavy cut, so this is a koh kemi compound, so a German company again does not focus on products at the moment, that is not The important thing here is the principles, so the compounds because they are more aggressive, cut faster and correct deeper scratches, swirls and defects well.

They are usually the first step of paint correction and then you move on to a refining stage to remove any sanding marks that you left with the compound or the damage or haze that is left with the compound because don't forget this is an aggressive cut, so on the inside you get those abrasives and they will leave some effect on the surface, so yes, they are removing defects, but Traditionally, we are going to leave a little haze and, to further improve the depth and the clarity, we remove all that haze and further adorn the surface, that's why we call that polishing or adorning the surface where you're going to end up with a polish, so this one here from the same company, Kokemi, German company, this is their cut fine, so it's a polisher, so it has smaller abrasives, they're not as big and it won't cut as fast, that's why we use it as a polisher, so you're basically perfecting. the finish to get that mirror shine look at the end, so it has once again compounded the most aggressive to remove deeper scratches deeper swirl marks intense oxidation oxidation by the way, it's that milky white look that you'll see especially on the red cars, right?

They tend to turn pink over time and have that milky white appearance when exposed to a lot of sun outside of the harmful UV rays, so if you have rust, a great way to remove it is to start with a compound and then finish with at the end with a polisher to refine it to a mirror-like finish to increase the depth of shine and clarity of the paint and of course to remove the haze left by the compound now if you have a newer vehicle or if the paint is in use. Pretty good shape and only has very light swirls or light scratches and almost no oxidation.

You can skip the compound and just use a polish like this to do the job, so you always have to decide what combination you are going to use based on all the defects you have on your vehicle and also what type of paint, but we will talk about the types of paint later in this video you will of course see some demonstrations done on screen so you understand. how the process works, but before we get into the machine polishing steps, there are a few steps that we talked about in the previous videos in the series that explain how to get to that point.

Step number one of course is going to be washing the entire vehicle using a ph neutral car shampoo, uh, no wax, so there's no protection in that shampoo, you just want to use a basically pure shampoo to clean your vehicle, then You'll move on to chemical decontamination using things like iron removers or tar removers to remove embedded contamination like brake dust, of course, which generates a lot of iron particles and also industrial waste. If you have tar adhesive or glue marks in the paint as well as those black tar spots, you will use a tar remover and then when you are done with the chemical decontamination stage you will move on to the mechanical decontamination stage using a stick. of clay, i.e. a clay mitt or clay towel, basically a clay medium that will help remove more contamination embedded in the paint. that the chemicals weren't removed can also remove excess paint, they can remove tree sap, a little bit of leftover bug guts and that sort of thing, so basically it will help make the paint as smooth as possible and free of embedded contamination.

It's key, especially the clay stage, before polishing, always decontaminate your paint because you want to work with contamination-free paint. Why, when you're polishing, imagine that you now have your pad and your compound or polish that's spinning and you're running. that on top of your paint, well if there is contamination left, it's usually a sandpaper like material or some sand or heavy contamination in the paint as you pick it up and sink it even deeper into your paint and go to create even more swirls and scratches, that's why we always wash and decontaminate the paint before we go ahead and do the paint polishing steps, by the way, paint polishing is the general term we'll use today that includes compounds and polishes, so the two forms of liquids that you are using to correct the paint so yeah that's it so we prepared for that and now you are ready to start polishing before polishing which is always recommended especially now don't forget all these tips are for Beginners Yes You are a professional and haven't polished it in a long time.

By the way, this is a great way to brush up on your knowledge or at least see if you're up to date on the latest and greatest techniques, so this is a great tutorial, be sure to share it, by the way, share this video with friends and family who could benefit from it. It's always good for people to get out home and enjoy taking care of their vehicles, so step number one before. You actually start polishing after, of course, you've washed and decontaminated your car, you're going to mask the sensitive parts, so things like grills, the surrounding plastics and that kind of stuff you're going to want to apply some kind of masking tape to it.

Here is the 3m precision which I like because it doesn't leave any residue or glue type material and is gentle enough to be used on any paint without damaging it but basically things like painter's tape you will want to use and mask off all the edges of your trim , especially the plastic material, because you don't want to leave any white enamel residue and potentially stain your molding, so be careful and always start with taping, the more time you spend preparing the paint, by the way. The more fun the process is, the more efficient it will be and the better results you will get, so give yourself a few hours depending on the level of defects.

By the way, people always ask how long it takes. Case by case it depends on how bad your pain is, what state you are in, what kind of neglect you have experienced, but expect it to last a few hours, so it is a slow but important process, so put it aside at the less. Take half a day to a full day to do this and that way you'll be happy you did it right. Now that we're done masking off the areas that you're going to want or you're going to need a polishing machine, now this is where all the myths need to be broken because I'm going to recommend things, of course, we're looking at a tutorial for beginners, but even a person like I, who has been detailing cars for 25 years, still use a dual action polisher, so there are some rotary polishers that exist are those where the disc rotates in the same circular motion at very, very high speeds.

I would only recommend it for more experienced detailers who have more experience in paint correction and of course just know how to operate those machines and yeah. the machines give what they do basically we call them dual action or random orbital why because the plate here is the backing plate it's going to rotate on itself but it also makes a figure eight motion so see it as a motion 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'll see it on camera, like thiswhich you will see how it moves up and down at the same time as it rotates so that is the random orbital and Dual Action because it does the figure eight and rotates so the advantage of this is that it is super safe for paint , there is no need to worry about burning off the clear coat or burning the painters, 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 lifetime you're not going to burn off the clear coat, just be diligent, take your time, do things right and you'll be fine with these dual action polishers. don't generate too much heat and I remember watching a video on YouTube from my friends at the rag company.

They were testing different types of polishes and they basically wanted to see if you were basically reckless and trying to damage your pain and burn the clear coat, how could you do it right? It was almost 12 minutes staying in the same place on that hood on the test panel that they had polished and not moving from there and it took them more than 12 minutes staying there in the same place before they actually burned off the clear coat, so it's a Wives story you have to worry and burn yourself on the clear coat, this is not going to happen, these modern machines work very well and they have polishing compounds that have lubricating agents inside and it is very safe, they do not generate tons of heat or remove that amount of material, if you only do a few passes and do your normal pain correction, you would have to do many forms of pain corrections on the paint over the years before you would really worry about burning off the clear coat now.

Your vehicle is assumed to have never been repainted, never damaged, and to have relatively healthy paint, so always use common sense of course, so this is the dual action polisher. Now they generally come with variable speeds, let's talk about that. in a few minutes, but you have this dial on the side that you can turn from speed one typically to speed six and that basically changes the speed at which the plate rotates and you will have different versions of machines, so This one here has a plate five inch rear. This is a cordless version, by the way, most polishers are corded, but now you can have cordless versions with batteries that allow you the freedom to move around.

I'll leave it by the way. I have some recommendations, so not only the products that I'm presenting, but also some recommendations for basic products for beginners because this one is quite expensive, it's one of the best companies, it's from Flex made in Germany, but I'll leave it. Recommendations in the description for beginner polishers which I know work great for you, by the way, you don't have to spend a fortune to start polishing machines when I started 25 years ago. All I had was a Porter 7424 basic entry level pad with some compounds and polishes and the important thing is to go out and start gaining experience, you will enjoy the process and obviously see the results and then you can start thinking about what better pad, what better polisher or what better compound you can buy and do a deep dive there because you can go down the rabbit hole pretty quickly, but by the way, I have a separate video on my favorite compound and pad polish combinations so you can check it out in the description.

Below the video, in different sizes, you have five inch backing plates, six inch backing plates and, yes, you also have smaller polishers because a lot of people ask how do you get into the tighter areas or the more intricate areas to have polishers with one. one inch or two inch heads, here you have this one with a three inch head. This is a mini polisher, so it really depends on how much paint correction you are going to do, but the most versatile ones are, of course, the standard ones. I'll be doing 85 percent of the work with this one here, so you'll need a 5 or 6 inch backer board to do most of the work and this is really for the mirrors, side pillars, and small intricate areas. front bumper or rear bumper that kind of thing so you can equip yourself with different size polishers so the next step once you've set up your polisher you're going to use some polishing pads so there are different types again we're not going to delve into all the types and colors of pads available, but mainly there are wool pads, more advanced users we will not talk about that today, but we will talk about the two main types of pads that you will see.

Microfiber pads and foam pads, so what's the biggest difference in the first place? This is usually a generality, but microfiber pads tend to be more aggressive and will cut faster. Now there are different types of brands, different types of styles, as well as well, but usually a company has its own code, so go to a company that you like, check out their website and see what types of pads they have, so these They are classics enjoyed not only by beginners but also by professionals. This is mcguire's data. correction system pads, so we have the cutting disc that has this red backing, it's made of microfiber and we have the finishing one that is thicker and has this black backing, so this is your finishing disc, so that you always get one that is more aggressive for the compound. stage and another one that's a little bit lighter on aggression for your polishing stage so that was for microfiber and then you move on and of course there are different sizes depending on the size of your backing board so you'll use whatever corresponds to the size of backing plate you have, so if you have a five-inch backing plate, you will want to have a five-inch pad, if you have a six-inch plate, you will want a six-inch pad, and so on if you have a With a three-inch backing pad like the smaller polisher, you'll want a three-inch pad like this one here.

These are from rupez, so the Italian company is known not only for their super high quality polishes, but they also make their own compounds and polishes, which I'll get into in a moment, but I also love their foam pads , so they have a lot of different colors here depending on what level of cut you're looking for, but the two classic ones are blue, which is for the composite stage and you. You have it in the back, look, it's color coded, so you have coarse, because this one here has the largest abrasives, so this is for the compound and then you get this one here, this one is fine, the yellow one because this one is for him, you guessed it. polishing stage, so again you'll notice a five inch backing plate, five inch pad.

You look through the center hole to put it in there and you apply it through the hook and loops through the hook and loop systems, basically when you have the pads on. top of the backing plates let me show you this up close so this is close to here so you can 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 type of foam material, so you apply the pad to your backing plate, secure it and voila, you are ready to start polishing.

It's that simple, so I usually recommend that you start with two types of aggression for the pads, so most companies have a few. for polishing and for compounds, so look at the system you are purchasing and get some appropriate pads. By the way, you will need some of them because I recommend that you change the pads frequently when I do a compound stage. I will 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. You want to change the pads frequently and work cleanly that way you don't accumulate as much of the worn clear. layer over your pad and the worn polish residue and it's also important to work very cleanly so when you're working whenever you're done with a section pass, by the way, a section pass, we'll talk about that too, but It's you go from top to bottom and left to right with your polisher, so while you're applying your polish to the surface and you're polishing, you're doing up and down and left to right motions to make sure you're even. coverage and over time, when you're done with that pass and you're working in small sections, two at a time, you take your pad and you're going to clean it now.

The basic way to clean it is to use pad brushes like these, so this one here. Hopefully, you can see this on camera. There you have it, it's basically like a big toothbrush and it's made to brush pads, so imagine they're on top of your polisher and you have your pad so you're basically scrubbing it. You rotate your pad as well with the polisher, you activate the trigger and then you leave the pad on the brush there and brush your pad, which is basically to remove any polishing residue or spent compound to always have the freshest, cleanest surface possible to work on. now there's another way to keep your pads clean, by the way, that was a brush, this brush here is one Lopez that they make, so this is their big foot claw, so you have the brush on one side and you have kind of of knife edge smearing on this side so you can spread the polish or compound on your pad, that's great and you can also lift the pad off your backing plate with this tool to remove it safely, so I think that's great and it is always important to keep your pads nice and clean when you are working because the cleaner the pad is, the more cutting you will get when it is loaded too much with polish or compound, it becomes inefficient in doing its job, the pores of the discs become clogged and you are no longer cutting, so it is important to clean them now.

There are many ways to clean the pads as you go, like I said, some brushes here. I know a lot of people like to use forced air. For me, forced air is fine. However, you have to be careful with microfibers because many foam pad manufacturers will tell you that using compressed air and forcing air on the pads can break down the soft foam structure or the cells found there, so you would have Be more careful not to use forced air, but there are pad washing systems you can use. This one here is from the detail guards so it's basically a manual action that you have so it's a tool where you put your pad um on this type of plate and then you have a pump 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 are some other classics that are a little more expensive but things like this, the Lake Country 4000 system, they are a manufacturer that makes fantastic paint polishing pads by the way, a lot of experience, so basically it's a bucket with a pump mechanism on top, you're going to put your polisher on, you activate it, it's going to spin and you're pumping this pump and down and it shoots liquid to clean it on your pad and it keeps your pad clean while you polish your vehicle, so I have tutorials on these on my channel, by the way, again I will leave links on how to clean your pads in the description below the video, but work very very cleanly, that's very important so always work with fresh pads and when you're done one or two panels switch to a new pad, so the fresher the pad the better cut you'll get.

You will also get more efficiency out of them and always prepare your pads before using them properly and some of them have special shapes so for Rupes foam pads for example you can place an X shaped pattern with the polish you are going to use. set up. Apply your paint at low speed for 10 to 20 seconds and activate it. This will start as pushing all that polish into your microfiber pad pad. What a lot of guys do is they put a bunch of swirls of the compound in there. You can take your finger or this buttering tool and you'll be sure to cover all the fibers, that's how you prepare some microfiber pads, but again make sure you have the information on how to properly prepare your pad before you use it and then it's a matter of don't use much product after that, once your pad is properly prepared you will only need three or four pea sized drops that you will apply to the surface of the pad and that is how you are going to do your pass when you are buffing your paint , so next let's move on to using the appropriate polishing compounds, again, there are usually two types, so this is a general rule of thumb, you have compounds again, the more aggressive type with higher abrasive and you have the polishes, which is the refinement stage forremove the haze left by the compound stage and to give it that mirror finish, increase the depth, clarity and shine of your paint because polishes have smaller abrasives so again, that's the refining stage.

There are many, many different systems, the ones I recommend for beginners are from Meguiars, actually, so Maguire's Ultimate Compound and McGuire's Ultimate Polish are staples in the industry and usually available at your local store. of auto parts or in your big box store because They are very popular, they are easy to use, they are also very forgiving and therefore they are economical, so you can use them on a more professional level. There are things like Koh Kami, so this is your h9. This is your compound. their fine cut f6 they are a polishing fluid uh car pro has their reflection this here is their polish and they have their ultra cut compound so almost all the big brands have their own versions of a compound and a polish so I like to stay um inside of a system when I'm working, ideally you'll see like rupez, right, they make their own polishing pads while keeping it simple, the yellow and the blue, they also have their own polishing fluids, so if we look here again, color. - coded for the same blue and yellow so you get the blue which is the course, so this is your compound for heavier cuts and heavier defect removal, the liquid and then you get the same color combination, you get the gives fine and the yellow, this is your fine polishing compound, so this is to improve the clarity, the shine again and that refinement stage, so I would use that simple.

Yellow pad, yellow product, this takes all the guesswork out and if you have the blue pattern for the compound stage you have your right blue liquid or your blue compound so you can keep it that simple and then as you get more experienced that's when you can start. dive into which compound best suits your needs and then what polish you can consider. There are tons of different polishing pads, types, and brands available, but that's not where I digress, so that's for another. video again, I have a video on my favorite compounds, polisher combinations and pads in the description for you to watch if you want to dive down that rabbit hole, but let's keep it simple so stick with a system you like and often they make their He also has his own pads, Coca-Cola, Kenny, for example, has his own pads.

The same goes for Car Pro and as you saw, Rupez has its own system, so you can't go wrong. Basically, it takes the guesswork out of knowing which polish to choose. what kind of pad and that kind of stuff so you've 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 prepared and you've got your two three. or four pea sized drops of your polish or compound, let's just call it polish for the sake of this video, basically the liquid that's in there, so you're going to apply the face to the surface of the vehicle that way.

You won't splash all the compound and polish into the air when you activate this, so always put the paint face down and then you'll slow down to speed number two on your machine, so the speed is very slow to start. and it will start to spread the product on the surface very quickly with the speed of your arm on it, but at slow speed, suitable for the machine, it will spread the product on the surface and then increase. The speed of your polisher is not necessarily the highest speed, but I like speed number five and this is where you will start to make the cut.

Now it is very important not to apply too much force or pressure on the machine. Now you only want to use about 10 to 15 pounds of pressure. What is it? Basically, that's not much. Imagine that you are putting your hand on a pillow. If you're starting to compress, you're always beyond that. very light, let the tool, machine, pad and product do the work, so very light pressure will always keep the pad as flat as possible on the surface which is key, do not tilt the machine or let it staggers so you want to keep it as flat as possible on the surface because that's how you make sure you have the most contact between the pad and the paint and you're going to use steady, slow arm movements.

This is not a race, don't forget to do the correction correctly, you have to let the machine, the pad and of course the polishes do their job and you need a lot of work time, now don't worry about polishing compounds and fluids , come with lubricating agents inside. that's to extend the length that you're working with and you're going to make some passes from top to bottom and left to right, that's the cross hatch pattern which, by the way, overlaps your passes by 50, so when you go up and you're moving on to the next column, well you're going to overlap that first pass by 50 and that's to make sure you get adequate, even coverage, but again keep 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, let the machine, pad and product do the work, that is how you will get the best cut, the highest efficiency and of course you will maintain the clean pads.

While you're at it, like we said, I also recommend working in small sections to start, until you have enough experience to understand the relationship between the pad, the type of polish you're using, and the environment you're in. We are usually working in two by two sections, that is all you will need, the smaller the area the better it will be for you to control and you won't be as nervous trying to correct an entire panel at once and of course ,Always avoid polishing in direct sunlight, you won't get a good experience, your products will dry too quickly, the oils will wear out too quickly, you will create more dust and just a lot of problems, so always. work in the shade on a cool surface or in a garage if you can but working in a cool place is also important the less heat you have the more cut you will get if you generate too much heat the pad itself just sticks to the paint and will grip through that clear coat instead of cutting it efficiently, the colder the surface the better the cut and the more efficiency you will get from your pad tool and compounds, so work as cool as possible and also make sure to Keep your pads clean now that you're done with your pass, so what you need to do now is inspect your work, so you'll typically grab a microfiber towel to remove compounds and polishes.

I like 300 gsm type towels. thickness, so it's not too thick, not too plush and not too thin, but 300 for me is in the right spot. I like these edgeless towels from Rag Company. These are the 300 borderless towels again. Links in the description, don't worry about it or use whatever. microfiber towels you guys want, you don't have to spend a fortune on this, by the way, you're just removing some compounds and polishes with these, but you want some quality stuff to not scratch or mess up the paint when I'm trying to correct it properly so that They work pretty well, so you'll buff all that compound or buff depending on what stage you're at, but you'll buff with a microfiber towel and then inspect your work.

How do you inspect your Work now, if you are working in direct sunlight outside, you can take a look, but the best way to do this is to use an inspection light to have them in some ways. Things like this from Scan Grip. This is one of their coincidences. pens that they have, so here you go, it's like a little flashlight, so you'll turn it on and look at different angles, up and down, move your head and look at what you're doing to see if there's still any flaws to work out. delete, see if you did something correctly and there are other versions like this here once again, same thing from Scan Grip.

These are very well known for their lighting solutions for the world of details, so you turn on the light and you can also select different intensities and change the color temperature on the light, as you can see here, this is a more blue tone for more metallic finishes and this one here for lighter colored cars like silver and white, you basically get this color that's closest to the daylight color and then you can rotate it. so inspect your work. Another way to inspect it is to spray once you've polished, spray an ipa solution on the surface so you can make your own a mixture of 30 or 40 isopropyl alcohol, so distilled water and isopropyl alcohol mixture place it in a spray bottle like this one so you can make your own homemade solution.

This is a 40 ipa, you can also use a 30 ipa or if you want to take all the guesswork out of dilutions and spray bottles you can buy one pre-made. version, this is called paint prep, it's basically an intensive oil cleaner and polish, so this is a car eraser, a very well known industry staple, so this is what we call the ipa stage, so So basically when you spray this and wipe it with a microfiber towel, you're removing any possible filler that may contain some brighteners. Now these 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 that may have a polish inside or some type of fillers which can mask if you are actually correcting defects so by using an ipa or a paint prep you are removing those fills and you are actually seeing if you have done something to correct that and also when you did it and now you are ready to move on to the next stage, but before even starting all this, what can you do to know if you have done something to correct that?

Choosing the right combination of paint polish and compound is a test run, so you'll take a two-by-two section in the paint and run some tests to see what combination of pad you need and what combination of compound or polish you need from your detailing. arsenal and see if it gives you what you're looking for in terms of defect removal and overall effect, so if that works then you know you can use that combination of pad and polish for the rest of your vehicle, so now that's it We finished doing all the paint polishing steps and the paint looks flawless since you removed all the swirls and scratches that could ruin sanding marks, hazing and that kind of stuff, and now it's perfected, it's super shiny, it has that mirror type shine and You also did all the paint prep or wiped with ipa to remove any polishing oil or residue that's 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 impede proper bonding of the paint protection that you are applying in the final stage, so when you have finished applying the compound and then the polishing stage, you will perform a complete cleanse, what we call ipa. again with isopropyl alcohol and distilled water or using a premixed paint prep like carpro eraser geon prep basically every company has a paint prep solution and that again will remove all the oils and polish residue and leave the clear coat as clean as it gets possible and free of any type of debris that could prevent proper bonding of the paint protection, so paint protection, you guessed it, is now the final step.

You need to select what type of protection you want because don't forget that your clear coat is exposed to the elements it's exposed to ultraviolet rays, so you want to protect it against all of that, against acid rain, tree sap, bird droppings, against products chemicals, against UV rays, you want the paint to be easier to clean during maintenance washes, you want those nice hydrophobic. The proper properties of water droplets and water sheets make the paint not only look cleaner for longer, but also make it easier to wash and dry, so you will need to apply a form of paint protection so that, once Once the paint is completely washed off, decontaminate it.

You continued with the painful polishing stages, you cleaned your ipa well to remove the paint polishing oils, now it's the paint protection stage and by adding paint protection you are also helping to replenish the UV protection because don't forget if you are By removing a portion of that clear coat you are removing a portion of the UV protection that comes inherent with your clear coat, so once you have done the polishing steps and an ipa cloth to apply your form of protectionpaint, traditionally there are three types. Sorry, there are four types of pain protection, so there's traditional carnauba wax which usually lasts two to three months, it's organic based, it has a nice warm glow, then you have a synthetic paint sealant which usually It provides protection for five to six months and has a cooler appearance. but it's still very nice and shiny, more recently, in the last five or six years, ceramic coatings are the best.

So many years of protection. Greater chemical resistance. Better hydrophobic properties. Self-cleaning properties, meaning the vehicle is much easier to wash compared to other types. pain protections and an evolution of that recently, the fourth is a graphene coating which usually has graphene oxide or reduced graphene oxide rgos included with a ceramic base as a ceramic coating, so they are suitable coatings to protect the paint for several years, so ceramic coatings and graphene coatings. By the way, I made a video highlighting the differences between those four types of paint protection to help you choose which one is best for you, so again I'll leave a link to that video in the description below this video.

Not all paints are made equal, you've probably heard this before, there are softer paints and harder paints, and that's why we made harder clear coats and softer clear coats, so traditionally companies like BMW, Audi and Mercedes, those German brands have a harder type of paint. clear coat, meaning that while they are more resistant to swirls and scratches, however if you get some, they are harder to remove because the clear coat is much harder, and also traditionally brands like Porsche Toyota and Honda have clear coats smoother clears, so that means they are much easier to correct or quicker to correct with paint polishing, however the flip side of this is that they are also much easier to scratch and turn, by the way, even inside of a brand if They were used to it a few years ago and knew that, for example, Toyota had softer paint, although it may happen that they change the painting processes, change the type of paints they use and the type of clear coats they use and things They evolve so that the state of hardness or softness can also change even within a brand within the same year, sometimes those processes can change and you will have different types of paint, so again it is crucial before starting the polishing stages to do a test spot for 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 like a puzzle where you're putting the pieces together to see what works better and what kind of defect elimination. will work better on your painting and that will give you the results you are looking for, don't forget that we are not always looking for museum quality results or concours d'elegance type results, true, we are not looking for 100% pain correction that takes many days and it costs a lot of money and just isn't practical for everyday use, so if your car is a trailer and kept in a museum at all times, then yes, you can go ahead and do or aim for a 100 pain fix, but on a daily driven vehicle, anything between 85, 90, 93 or 95 is more than adequate, especially from a few yards away, look at your paint if it shows.

If it satisfies you enough, then you'll know you did a good job. Give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done again. We do not strive for perfection. I know there are many videos out there where you will see experienced detailers striving for perfection. You've seen my videos. I do some close ups of the painting and they are immaculate, but that's a lot of time, a lot of experience, a lot of years in the industry doing this and of course as they pay clients they expect more perfection. 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 with the pain correction stages, is to see dramatic improvement, so what you're looking for is to improve dramatically. the finish to a point where it looks brighter, the paint pops more, you removed a lot of the flaws, swirls and scratches, those heavier things and you got over it with a pain correction of 75 80 85 and you should be very happy and here's how By the way, once again, I can't emphasize this enough.

Before applying pain protection, the best way to achieve the biggest increase in perceived gloss, whether with your eyes or even if you measure with a gloss meter, is by machine polishing so it evens out. surface removing some of that clear coat making the surface truer and flatter removing those defects and oxidation will make the light reflect much better and brighter the paint will have more clarity more depth the paint color will pop regardless of what color you have on your vehicle and it will look much brighter and much better, then you apply the cream, the frosting on top of the cake, which is the paint protection, which just enhances it a little bit more and just gives it a more impressive to the eyes, so yes, improve the shine, the best way to do it.

If there is one lesson you can learn today it is through machine polishing. Also keep in mind that there is a point where you can go too far. Well, if the scratches are too deep and how do you know, run your finger over them and if your nail catches on one of the ridges and you can feel that scratch, usually that means it's probably too deep, it probably went through the base coat. sometimes it goes down to the bare metal, especially if you had a key job, someone put the key in your car, it usually goes through the primer and always down to the base metal so you can correct the paint that is no longer there as best you can .

It's slightly improving that by rounding 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, you don't want to burn the clear coat if eventually you're doing it too much, too repeatedly, or too much. frequently, but you also don't want to remove too much of the clear coat because the clear coat itself, let's say it has a certain thickness, well, most of the UV inhibitors they are. The ones built into the clear coat are near the top because that's where they migrated, so when you remove that clear coat, you remove some of those UV inhibitors and the deeper you go, the less UV inhibitors you get.

You have to be careful not to remove too much clear coat now. What's one way to tell if, say, a car is new to you? If your car is new from the factory, you can polish it many times before it can start. worry or having to worry about removing or burning off the clear coat, but if you had purchased a used vehicle that is new to you and you don't know the history, you don't know if it's been repainted, uh, you don't know. You don't know the thickness of the paint and you want to delve into that without having to spend a lot of money.

You can get something like this next ptg next diagnostic 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's basically taking measurements of the depth of your paint, so on metal surfaces because it has to be that way, it doesn't work on plastics, you have to apply this on metal surfaces. Basically it will measure from the primer to the clear coat how thick it is either in mils or microns depending on what measurements you want and it will send a reading to your smartphone app and you will be able to measure that depth and then as you As you polish, you'll still be able to measure the depth and see how much clear coat you've removed, so ideally you want to stay above four mils, so typically today's paints come anywhere between three and a half mils to five and a half thousandths, depending on the brand you are using, so the clear coats are getting thinner, however, they have also improved in performance, so they give you better gloss, better UV protection and better scratch resistance. things have evolved and one way to tell if your paint has been repainted as well is that it will generally be a lot thicker so if you get an average of say a five mil reading across all of your panels and then you get a fender where the reading is seven or eight mils, there is a big gap, or a big difference, well, that usually tells you that there is a panel that has been repainted because the repainters, while they normally repaint them, hand repaint them and deposit a layer of thicker paint compared to where they are made by robots from the car manufacturer, they lay it down very thin and evenly, that's how you know if there has been damage, maybe on a car you bought, if you see that big discrepancy in the measurements on a certain panel and it is much thicker than you.

Think carefully, there is a high probability that the panel has been repainted, so you can look at the paint depth gauge. Is it mandatory to have this at all? Because if you're doing this as a DIY and just for fun again, you can go through a lot. polishing sessions before you even have to start worrying about burning off the clear coat, I want you to get that out of your head, if you use common sense, use the right tools, products, equipment, polishing pads, work diligently, are careful and they do it. To get it right, you would need to be in that spot again for 10 to 12 12 minutes straight in the same spot applying a lot of pressure even before you burn off the clear coat, so get out there and enjoy polishing your cars. all the basic information now to start polishing your vehicles and yeah, I just want everyone to enjoy doing this and as you saw again, we talked about polishing machines, we talked about compounds and polishes, we talked about polishing pads, masking. tape, we're talking about microfiber towels, brushes, inspection lights, LED lights for inspecting ipa solutions or paint preps, even pad washing systems to keep them nice and clean and, yes, when you're done with polish, you should clean your pads again.

You'll have the tutorial on how to clean the pads at the bottom, so check it out. I hope you enjoyed this series. Go watch the videos above if you haven't already, as well as how to wash iron and tire removers on your car. to put a clay bar on your car today you also saw the paint polishing video for the um the next final step will be to apply the paint protection so they are now available on my channel you have the opportunity to know how to apply a wax . or a sealant on your car or how to apply a coating whether it's a ceramic coating or a graphene coating and that's the final step so check it out.

Hit the thumbs up button to show me your support. By the way, I will leave all the links to the tools, equipment and products in the description below the video share this video with family and friends send it to them so they understand the basics of pain polishing and pain correction so they can go out and enjoy correcting the pain of your cars and making them look more shiny, impressive and flawless, and if you haven't already, consider clicking the subscribe button below this video and that way you will subscribe to my channel and You'll never miss my future videos, so in the meantime, guys.

Don't forget, keep it tight, keep it clean and I'll see you next time.