Can you over polish your paint?

W

weegee

New member
Just curious whether more regular polishing (albeit with milder polishes like GEPC, IHG, etc.) would cause paint damage?



Seems like most people polish 2-4 times a year, including a couple of swirl mark removing/heavier polish in the mix.



If you wanted to polish every 2 months say, is this ridiculous? unnecessary? damaging?



thanks for your insight.
 
Well... the fact of the matter is that whenever you polish your car, you are removing paint.



Just so long as you don't compound or wetsand and use mild polishes for swirl removal and such, you shouldn't worry about once every 2 months.
 
weegee- Oh, BTW, is that user name a reference to the photographer by any chance?



As far as polishing, *I* am sorta conservative, generally preferring marred original paint over having to REpaint after years of polishing in an attempt to attain perfection. That said, if you use MILD products, and use them right, you should be OK.



Why would anyone really NEED to polish all that often anyhow? Polishing is generally to remove marring/oxidation. Both of which come from the paint's being abused in some way. So don't abuse the paint and you won't need to polish enough to worry about. Some of us Brad and myself, for example) have cars (his S4, my S8) that simply don't get swirled or otherwise marred so they don't need polished.



IMO, if you need to use anything stronger than PI-III MG maybe once a year, something's wrong.





As for the products you mentioned, GEPC is SO mild *I* can't imagine it ever being a problem. IHG is basically non-abrasive (check its ingredient list, just oils and solvents). You could use THAT any time you want, no problem.
 
Accumulator,



no reference to the photographer. Didn't even know there was a photog by that name. It's a nick name of mine because my name is Luigi.



I'm also a fellow Audi owner, 2003 A4 1.8T. Loving it so far. I think I'm going to chip it soon to get the extra HP boost.



As for why I would do more often: part boredom, part I really enjoy detailing the car (oddly enough, it's kind of relaxing), part it's black and I want it to look it's best at all times, part I just did a SMR routine by hand and wasn't impressed by the results so I want to re-do with a PC (that'll be arriving any day now), part it's in the california sun most of the time, except at night in a garage.



That being said, I think if I get the light swirls off with my PC (and can keep them off), I probably won't polish as often. More like the 2-4 times a year that most people do. But I will probably Blitz Wax every other week, just because (see above reasons : )



thanks for the replies.
 
Accumulator said:
As far as polishing, *I* am sorta conservative, generally preferring marred original paint over having to REpaint after years of polishing in an attempt to attain perfection. That said, if you use MILD products, and use them right, you should be OK.
Click to expand...



Me too. I'd rather fill swirls with a glaze (or my favorite technique, lots of layers of Klasse SG) than have to level down the surface each time. Only exceptions would be a concours or prepping the car for private sale (as I am doing now for my wife's soon-to-be-gone Civic).



I have figure at some point this will catch up to you. Probably not in 5 years, but definitely by 10 years. (Although you could make a strong argument that most paint would die of inevitable accident repairs, road grunge, or sunlight by the 10 year mark anyway)
 
Polish when you need to, more than likely it would be a mild product if you polish often.



I have gone nuts polishing (once a week) and never had a problem with eat through the clear so I'm never too worried about it.
 
again, many thanks. it's just that the car sparkles and feels so smooth right after you polish. It's very tempting not to do more often.



I guess I'll use the SMR occasionally as needed (maybe 2-3 times a year) and stick with IHG and GEPC in between.
 
weegee- I was showing my age with the "photographer?" bit. He was an old-time press photog who did lots of crime-scene shots.



On the Audi, be prepared to REALLY work at it to remove the marring. I just did an A6 4.2 where after HOURS of polishing (starting with many passes with FCRC/cutting pad), the marring is still visible in certain lighting conditions. Really needed a rotary for that one, but as often as the owner swirls it, the clear wouldn't last long if I got it perfect anyhow.



If properly cared for, paint can last a LONG time. The 80% (?) of my Volvo that's still original paint is now twenty years old, and that car was used and abused far beyond the norm for over 17 years before I got it (original owner said: "washed? In the winter I rubbed it down with snow a few times. Waxed? You don't need to wax Volvo's special paint"). Even now, *I* leave it outside 24/7/52. Not perfect by any means, certainly not by Autopian standards, but it gets a LOT of compliments.
 
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