Beginner’s Guide To Polishing Your Car
Car polish is a must have product in your car care inventory. A good car polish keeps your car looking new and shiny. Car polishes not only make your car look fresh, but also help protect the paint and prevent paint failure. Over time, dust, grime, grease, oil and bird hits accumulate on the exterior paint of a car. Just washing your car is not sufficient as most of these contaminants have acids and adhesive agents in them which stick to the car paint and slowly eat through the protective layer of paint exposing bare metal. Bare metal corrode easily leading to rusting of the car, reducing its life and resale value. There are numerous car polishes in the market with a varying number of ingredients. However, most car polishes have abrasive component to help remove the oil and grime marks. Some have fillers too to fill in the scratch marks.
Polishing a car is an involved process, a practiced procedure really. Before applying car polish, your car must be washed thoroughly. This is a two step process starting with plain water, then with car detergent. Never use your household detergents as they are too strong leading to removal of paint. The third stage is to again wash off the car detergent with plain water. Use a chamois leather car towel or a micro fiber car towel to dry your car. Having done that put the car polish evenly with an applicator brush which usually comes with your car polish product. It is important to apply the car polish evenly, making sure you leave no holidays. Leave the car polish to dry off for the time period specified as per the car polish manual of instructions. The last step is to remove the car polish with a micro towel to get a brand new look.
The various components in the car polish perform different tasks such as dissolving and removal of oil and grime by the abrasive part and the shine and protection task done by the wax component. The water repellant property of the wax component helps protect your car paint from water. How often should you polish your car? A two to three week interval is recommended between car polishing. This is because every car polish has an abrasive component which acts by removing microns thick layer of paint to reveal a shiny layer and thus over time leads to the paint thinning and becoming dull. So a sensible interval between polishing is a must.