Hi everyone,
Here is a thread in which we can share our car polishing techniques and products. There are many products and product manufacturers out there that make polishing combinations almost infinite. There is still lots for me to learn.

I have spent considerable amount of time researching polishing products and techniques. I started by joining meguiar's car polishing forum and reading many treads. On their website, they have many products available that normal retailers don't carry. The products I use in my technique are easily purchased at retail stores. Also, I'm sure that other product makes are very good, but I chose meguiar's. Meguiar's has a dual action polisher, but I don't have experience with it, so my technique is all by hand. I only use micro fiber towels.

Step 1 - wash car (either by car wash wand or bucket)
Step 2 - clay bar ( howto - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfEfLGL59GI )
Step 3 - meguiar's cleaner
Step 4 - meguiar's # 7 show car glaze
Step 5 - meguiar's tech wax 2.0

Going forward, step 5 once a month to maintain shine.

Your techniques, thoughts or opinions are welcome on this thread.

Who's next?

That's the easy part and technically not really polishing. I start with 800 or 1000 grit wet and dry and work my way down to 2500 grit. Going over the entire car with either a stiff rubber block or a piece of stir stick. Being extra careful not to burn through the paint. Then I start with the Norton car polishing system on my electric polisher. Starting with the wool bonnet and progressing through to the medium then fine foam pads. If the colour is dark, then I do the car again with 3M ultra fine polish. Once you've got to this point your car is polished. Most cars don't need anything as aggressive as the wool bonnet. The rule of thumb is to use the least aggressive method possible for all polishing.

Then finish with a good coat of wax unless the paint is fresh, then wait for a few months for the paint to off gas first.

Hi 122_Canuck,
Your methods are much more advanced/superior to mine.

More like compulsive and crazy.

Don't think I could've put it better myself...

You put into words what many were thinking ... and some of us are also guilty of

Everything has its place? I'm guessing you would agree Craig that your "buff 'n stuff" technique is probably only necessary for a very old or a very new paint-job. I'm scared to cut and polish my car; I might cut through an edge and it all has to be even, with no spots missed. I cut and polished an old wagon by hand once, and it was like a new paint-job. No-doubt a lot easier with a buffing wheel, although I think you said you do part of it by hand.

I have bought a polisher though, (electric) to take scratches out of my 4x4's (trees, bushes....) and have taken the scratches out of a few neighbor's cars. If I was a kid, I'd start a parking-lot business removing scratches and scuff-marks..... I took a $700 scratch and made it almost invisible in 5 minutes.

Jimbo

I don't want to jack, but would it be Ok to ask if anyone has had a protective plastic film put on the nose-panel? I don't know much about it, but probably will have that done to the 122 Wagon - I have friends who live on dirt roads, and I've seen two paint-jobs get the measles from such. Heck, there's enough gravel on my street to qualify as a dirt road right now. I'll do it myself if I can.

(Call it car-protection, a relative of car-polishing, at least)

I will happily pay any of you more experienced guys to polish my car! I don't have the patience, equipment, or back to do it myself anymore.
That one step wax stuff that doesn't stain trim that Ian introduced me to a couple of years back is as far as I go.
I was thinking about getting Darth done professionally this year...

I would have to agree with Jimbo that Craigs wet sanding is for extreme use only and is not what would be considered regular detailing that you were asking about. I think the steps you have laid out are a great start and exceed 90% of the rest of the cars on the road. However like Craig said it's not really polishing in that the Meg's cleaner polish by hand is so mild you aren't doing much if any correction, if I'm not mistaken it's a chemical cleaner with no abrasives so if the finish is swirled at all it won't fix much.

You really need to consider getting a DA polisher and some medium polish, say Meg's M80 Speed Glaze and step up to machine polishing. Unlike a rotary it's almost impossible to burn through with a DA unless you sit in one spot too long or really roll over an edge with a lot of pressure. The results are worth the investment in time to learn how to use a DA as it's obviously far less work and you can achieve a far better finish than by hand. Add to this the fact that Volvo clear is pretty hard and you really need a machine to achieve any kind of a result.

I started on the Meg's forum as well and used their products. It's a good site with lots of great info but it's obviously limited to Meguiars products. I would recommend http://www.detailingbliss.com/ or http://autopia.org/ as detailing sites that discuss everything under the sun not just Meg's products.

As far as what I do it really depends on the condition of the finish. I recently did our latest 240 and the paint was hammered, absolutely the worst I have worked on, swirled, scratched and just plain abused. Here's a rough order of what it took to get it presentable for a DD but not perfect as I left some of the deeper scratches in as they would have required wet sanding and my rotary died on me. All of this was done with a Porter Cable 7336 (same as what Meg's sells, it's a rebranded PC made for them) and would have been much faster with a rotary and a better final finish.

- wash 2x and clay on second wash
- 2-3 passes with Optimum Hyper Compound on a Lake Country Purple Foamed Wool compounding pad
- 2 passes with Optimum Polish on LC Orange cutting pad
- 1 pass with OP on a LC White polishing pad
- 1 pass with OP on a LC Black finishing pad
- washed to remove all of the compounding/polish dust
- waxed with Collinite 476 x2 by hand
- wiped down after wax cure with Duragloss Aquawax

EDIT: Best place to get a DA polisher and pads is http://www.eshine.ca/, they have the Porter Cable polisher with a backing plate and assortment of pads for $209 and shipping is free over a $150.

Not much for pics but here is a couple of in progress 50/50 shots:

I think Craig's point was just that waxing is not polishing. Polishing is to remove material from the paint, and AFAIK glazes don't do this, they just fill in the scratches. Waxes don't even do that - they just seal the surface temporarily. I agree that it's for resurrection of a bad surface or preparation of a fresh surface, and should be considered a fairly extreme measure. Unless you KNOW how thick your paint is (as in, you put it there yourself), you should probably avoid wet sanding entirely. Modern paints are mighty thin...

What you do depends on the type of paint and how thick, and of course what kind of condition it is in to begin with.

240s have fairly thick enamel paint, and in enamel can be blocked and sanded (extreme) and polished and waxed.

Personally, I don't see the point of polishing a car like that. Paint is there to protect metal in my eyes. You can get all OCD trying to make it look as smooth and shiny as possible or you can leave some margin for future small scratches not make it so shiny that you worry about every stupid little ding the car ever got.

I focus more on getting the car even with the electric and doing some parts by hand, get the swirl marks out of it and make sure all the areas that can trap dirt or rust are taken care of and then seal it up. The specifics would vary a lot.

If you were for example painting a car one might:
Start with a straight rust free car to begin with
Prep all surfaces carefully. Take care of any seam sealing or primering.
Shoot the paint on it in ideal conditions (or have someone else do it).
Wet sand it.
Polish it in various steps.
Seal it.

It is a compromise...paint too thick means it is easier to crack and be subject to vibration damage or cracking in sharp corners from expansion or contraction or aging/drying (paint is always drying and heating and cooling really). Too thin and it will flex, but it won't leave much protective coating to work with.

If you have an old nice car that is OG and oxidized, I'd take the oxidation off it and make sure it doesn't rust or get damaged, but I wouldn't fuss over getting every little scratch out and making the paint real thin.

That was my point. If done correctly, 2500 grit wet and dry is not that bad and won't remove orange peel etc. I wouldn't recommend that people do this unless your paint has gone too far and is either heavily oxidized or needs a lot of scratch removal. What the OP was describing was waxing his car, not polishing it.

That being said, I really should go out and wax my cars - maybe even dress the tire if it doesn't snow.