The Intricacies Of Polishing your Car
04/14/09
Car polish is a must have product in your car care inventory. The reason is simple; everyone loves a shiny car and a good polish helps you get the brand new look back. 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. Nearly all of these pollutants are acidic in nature, not easily washable and due to their corrosive properties, cause the paint to fail exposing the bare car metal below. Exposed metal leads to corrosion, rust and reduction in the life of the car as also its resale value. Car polishes come in various forms and have varying 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. The first step is to wash the car . This is a two step process starting with plain water, then with car detergent. Detergent used for washing clothes are never to be used as they are strong and may damage your car paint. Having washed your car with a car specified detergent mix, wash again with plain water and let the excess water fall off. Chamois leather or micro fiber towel is recommended to dry the car exterior. Having done that put the car polish evenly with an applicator brush which usually comes with your car polish product. There should be no gaps in the application of the car polish. 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? Well an interval of two to three weeks between polishing is all right. Too frequent car polishing is not recommended for your paint because irrespective of what the advertisement may claim, all car polishes will remove a very thin layer of your car paint which over time results in thinning of the car paint and dulling of the color. So a sensible interval between polishing is a must.
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