Understanding a little bit about your car’s paint and the products that you put on it will go a long way in protecting your investment.
This HowTo will cover some of the methods to restore and improve older paint. If you are working on fresh paint see our other HowTo for additional information.
It seems that every year some company comes out with a new product that is suppose to be the best thing ever made for protecting and restoring your cars finish but what they don’t tell you is that many of these products can give you a quick shine that will destroy your paint right down to the metal and you will never know it for months to come.
The products that I am talking about are silicon based shine enhancers and they last about as long as the gloss you get when your car is wet in a rain storm. Once these chemical shines wear off so will any visual appeal they provided but the fun doesn’t stop there. Because all paint is porous at the microscopic level it will allow penetration of chemical products.
Waxes and compound polishes will not normally penetrate because its particles are larger. Wax sits on the top of the paint and fills the small cracks on the surface which make paint look dull but even a good compound and waxing will not cure bad paint.
So now that we know to always check the label and stay away from oil and silicon shine enhancers what products are safe to use on our vehicles?
Compound Polish is used to remove imperfections and should be used with care. Manufacturers usually offer grades from 1 to 10 with 10 being the least abrasive. Cutting compound used after painting fresh clear on a car can be used in conjunction with 1000 to 4000 grit wet dry sand paper to remove runs and orange peal.
If you have light imperfections you should always start off with soap and water then a regular carnauba wax first and see if you can remove the problem. If you can’t then try a compound polish but again be careful with it even hand compounding can remove whole layers of clear and base coat.
Remember Compounding is not something you do all the time it should only be used right after a paint job to perfect the work and then sparingly throughout the life of the car to restore oxidized paint. If you just have bugs or light scratches use a carnuba wax and a buffer you will be amazed what you can fix with a little elbow grease and some soap.
Preserving your paint
When you are trying to keep your car in its best condition and no damage has yet happened the best product is a carnauba wax. Carnauba wax can come in paste or liquid form but the application is the same.
Waxing and even washing your car should always be done in the shade. Your car should never be hot or warm to the touch and you should always clean all dirt from the paint with a mild soap or it will just end up being forced into the paint as you apply your wax.
You start your application on the hood or roof of the vehicle and work your way around the car moving lower as you finish. A good method is to finish the last bottom foot of the vehicle last because this is where any dirt you missed is most likely to be. If you were to catch some of that dirt behind a wheel opening and then proceed to the rest of the panels you may end up leaving scratches all over your car.
For hand waxing use the applicator that came with your wax or a soft sponge applicator to apply the wax in a circular motion. Apply just enough wax to lightly coat the surface without buildup. The wax should be thin enough to seem almost transparent as you apply it and as it drys it will haze over to a white powder appearance.
The one good thing about hand waxing is that by the time you finish applying wax to the whole car the part that you started with should be hazed over and ready to polish and remove.
To remove the wax you should use a 100% cotton cloth, an old bath towel will work really well. Natural fibers are always best when working on your paint because they are less likely to cause swirl marks that poly fibers do. Remove the wax in a circular pattern just like you put it on. Remember to repeat these words (wax on …. wax off) and flip or unfold the towel often to use a clean area as you work.
After you have finished removing the wax this is just something I do… Clean the interior of your car and this will give the remaining wax on your car to haze over in spots you missed. Go back and hit those areas and make sure you remove all the excess wax because leaving built up wax on your car is probably about as bad as not waxing it at all.
Machine Waxing
Waxing and Polishing with a buffer is a skill that you really need to be taught in person but since hand waxing is pretty hard on the back I will try to cover some of the tips you need to know to keep yourself out of trouble.
The first thing you really need to know is that there is a HUGE difference between professional buffers and sander / buffer devices you buy for $20 at sears. The first and most important thing is the speed of the buffer. If you end up buying a sander buffer it needs to have an adjustable speed or at least a low speed which will probably still be pretty fast. If you buff paint too fast you will burn it if you don’t burn it you will cut through the paint and can actually go all the way down to bare metal on sharp edges. If you are lucky not to burn or cut through your paint you will probably end up with swirl marks. Swirl marks are trails that buffers leave and they are pretty difficult to get out especially in black paint.
So, you are still brave enough to give it a shot? Well really its not that bad but if you can practice on an old beater first and not your 10 day old mustang and stay away from edges and just buff the large areas with the machine. Even if you completely try as hard as you can the first 20 times you use a buffer to not hit the edges you will end up doing it often enough that they will polished by the time you are done.
Unlike Hand Waxing you always want to work with wet wax when using your buffer. This means you need to use a liquid wax and it should be in a bottle with a flip up spout that way you can apply it to the car and then make passes over it with the buffer.
You should also learn to use as little wax as you possibly can because using too much will just end up with wax shooting all over you and everything else but as you learn it is always better to use more then less to make sure that the surface is always wet.
Clean Up
It is always important to check your car the next day for any wax you might have missed and remove it. Wax buildup can attract dirt and road salt in the winter. After you are happy with your results don’t use soap on your car unless you are also willing to re-wax it. Although a light duty car soap might not strip all the wax off your car you will still need to go over it by hand to make sure your paint is still protected.
Buffing and waxing can be applied to many surfaces around the home. An electric buffer can recondition your kitchen countertop or restore shine to fixtures and other metal products. Some wood finishes can be buffed with an electric buffer.
Check the YouRepair Store for all your polishing and Paint Care needs