When polishing your vehicle, there are essentially only two ways to do this; machine polishing or by hand. Most at home car enthusiasts will polish their vehicles by hand using a paste or spray on wax or polish, while machine polishing is viewed widely as something that is conducted mostly by professionals in the automotive detailing industry.
There are various advantages and disadvantages for both techniques and a number of things you should know before undertaking either. Keep in mind that hand polishing is appropriate, while machine polishing is needed most of time and at other times there should be no polishing done at all.
Hand Polishing
This is the process when the paintwork is polished by only using the moment and power of hands. This process is fairly straight forward and done by simply an apply and wipe off process. In addition to being straight forward, hand polishing is also much more safer, and reduces the risk of possibly burning the cars paint – this happens when polishing is done by machine at very high speeds.
Hand polishing works best for car paints that are not heavily damaged by sun and other exterior elements, yet it can offer the vehicle a fine shine, some protection and it surely will enhance the vehicles look and finish.
Machine Polishing
Machine Polish refers to using buffering machine or sander to polish the entire exterior. Types of buffering machines includes: Dual Action (DA), Obitary, Rotatry. Different machines are engaged for different purposes.
For neglected paints that have taken their abuse over time, hand polishing will not be much of help to eliminate the imperfections. Machine polishing uses the strength, speed and movement to thoroughly work the product into the cars paintwork. Most automotive detailing shops use some form of a rotary traditional polisher.
The head of these rotary polishers rotates at a constant speed and in the process eliminates small amounts of clear coat on the cars paint. This allows the machine to cut through the scuffs and imperfections that are present on the clear coat of the car.
As mentioned above, one downside of using a rotary machine polisher is that if not used properly and at the right speed, it can inflict serious damage on the cars paint with effects such as buffer trails, holograms, and even burning through the surface of the paint.
Hand Polishing Works Best:
Now! Hand polish is easier as the movement is 100% controlled by your own hand. However, please do consider all limitation before deciding further.
Small areas
Door handles
Badges and trim
Areas that machine polishers cannot fit
Sensitive Paint
Antique Vehicles
Single stage polishing
Light contaminants
VERY fine etching
Fine wash marks
Advantages:
- Easier to polish
- Cost is cheaper than machine polish
Disadvantages:
- Unable to remove minor scratches, swirl or hologram
- Clarity is definitely poorer than machine polish
Machine Polishing Works Best:
Large surface areas
Car is swirled and scratched
Dark paint jobs always show the most swirls
Damaged paint by swirled, contaminated, and generally dull
Benefits:
- Well even polish, will not cause uneven paint if engaged properly
- Eliminates swirl or hologram
- Able to clear water spot mark up to 80%
- Eliminates fine scratches or hairline scratches
Disadvantages (If not engaged properly):
- Cause paint burn immediately
- Uneven paintwork resulting in overlapping of paint
Right now, many of you would have came acrossed groomers using hand polish. Of course, hand polish is easier as compared to machine polish. However, there are limitations in engaging hand polish.
Thank you for reading
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