Polishing the body of your automobile is an important task to perform several times each year for avid car owners and drivers. Polishing your car will extend the lifespan and aesthetic quality of its paint and overall exterior. Polishing is an often forgotten car maintenance step between washing and waxing, but if you do it properly, it will revitalize your car’s finish and remove any surface contaminants or minor paint defects. Below, we take a look at the proper way to polish a car.
Step #1: Preparation
Before you start polishing the body of your car, it is absolutely necessary that you thoroughly wash the vehicle first. It’s important to remove all of the dirt and contaminants that accumulate on the surface from every day driving. While you are washing the outside of your car, use a clean absorbent car sponge along with an applicable automotive cleanser to prevent scratching on surfaces. If there are any affixed foreign materials, like tar or tree sap, on parts of your car, be sure to remove them using a bar of detailing clay.
The next thing to do is dry your vehicle. You could allow your vehicle to air dry, but that may cause some unwanted water spots. It is best to use an auto-friendly chamois cloth (shammy cloth) and dry the car by hand. After, make sure that there are no pieces of lint or additional foreign materials on the car left over from the cloth. Now, it is time to polish your car.
Step #2: Execution
Polishing a car will require some supplies. You will need a light abrasive car polish, a dry polishing cloth, another chamois towel, and a single foam applicator pad. First, squeeze a thin layer of the light abrasive car polish to the foam applicator pad and gently apply it, using the pad, to the surface of your car. If you are polishing the entire car, you will need to reapply the polish onto the applicator several times. The mild abrasives in the car polish will assist in removing any marred areas of the paint surface and restore its factory finish, making it ready for proper waxing procedures.
Now take your polishing cloth and work the polish into the surface of the vehicle one section at a time. Rub the cloth in concentric circles and various overlapping strokes to assure that the polish is getting evenly distributed and that any subsurface defects are sufficiently evening out from the polish abrasives breaking down. The more you buff the surface of your car, the more the polish will become transparent and the body will reveal its original shine. Once you are done working in the car polish with the polishing cloth, buff off any remaining polish residue with your dry, clean chamois towel. Now you have successfully hand polished your car!
So go forth, and polish your car today! For more DIY car tutorials, be sure to visit Eastwood.com.