Whether for the sake of aesthetics or in the name of the good reflex of the car enthusiast, the maintenance of the bodywork of your car has the merit of making it look great, especially when it shines or sparkles at its most beautiful. Glow. One of the most popular and best products to bring out the shine of your body paint is car polish. Undeniably, choosing it well and using it appropriately will reveal all the glitz of your car. What are the elements to take into account when buying this product with a varied range? How to use it and what are the best recommendations in this area? We tell you everything in this guide!
What is the difference between polish and luster?
There is a kind of amalgam (maintained by the world of marketing), about the luster and the polish, which we could, with a little humor, qualify as false brothers.
In reality, car polishes are products containing more or less strong abrasives, and whose manufacture makes it possible to correct, remove scratches, micro-scratches, swirls, oxidations and defects on the paint. In other words, they are not intended to protect the paintwork, increase its shine or increase its depth (although the removal of micro-scratches will necessarily increase the feeling of shine.)
Polishers are non-abrasive products designed to strengthen the varnish, and “artificially” enhance the shine and depth of the paint. In other words, the shiner makes the bodywork shine and protects it against UV rays. They apply to paintings that do not need correction or that have just been “polished” (thus in the best possible condition).
As you will have understood, the boundary between the polish and the luster is tenuous. As a result, one could ask the question of knowing in which cases and for what reasons one should opt for polish.
Why use a car polish?
With regard to the previous clarification, the use of polish reveals its effectiveness in erasing all kinds of traces and giving a facelift to the bodywork. Thus, the polish is rather suitable for micro-scratched antiquated paint or in poor condition. Moreover, because of its abrasive effect, it is not recommended to use car polish on paint in good condition, at the risk of inducing a counter-productive effect. Let us now focus on the specificities that should motivate the choice of the product.
How to choose your polish?
Choosing the right polish is a determining factor in the effectiveness you would like to get from it. A double classification of polishes can be established by considering them according to their degree of usefulness and according to their composition.
Classification according to the degree of usefulness
Indeed, according to their degree of usefulness, we can distinguish:
- renovating polishes (considered the most abrasive) intended to remove large scratches ;
- finer polishes intended for the treatment of small defects;
- Finishing or ultra- finishing polishes whose application of the coat is essential for the treatment of dark colored bodywork.
Classification according to the abrasive component
However, we can also afford a completely different classification based on the composition of the polishes. We would then speak of abrasive polishes and non-abrasive polishes.
The abrasive content of the product has the ability to remove a very thin layer of paint. It therefore goes without saying that the choice of abrasive or non-abrasive polish will depend on the defects to be corrected. Scratches corrected with a non-abrasive car polish are limited compared to the level of performance that can be achieved with an abrasive polish. In the first case, the treatment should therefore be considered temporary and will have to be repeated. All things considered, the ideal would be to opt for an abrasive product while taking care to use it following the rules of precaution, since abrasion reduces the layer of varnish on the treated surface.
Classification according to presentation format
In the end, we could also establish a categorization of products according to their presentation. Thus, there are polishes in liquid form, when other car polishes are in the form of a paste (generally contained in tubes), not to mention the varieties available according to the colors and the polishes delivered with application accessories (applicators). Now let’s look at how to polish a car.
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