After spending hours, or even days, on a paint correction project, there is no better feeling than doing the final polishing pass to clean up any remaining haze, revealing a crystal clear finish. No matter how repetitive it begins to feel, we always enjoy the final polish that reveals the real results of our hard work.
Over the years we have worked with many, many finishing polishes with the goal of producing an incredible finish. A lot of these products are still kept on our shelf as we enjoy using a variety of products. CarPro Reflect is one we have grown to enjoy quite a bit.
I say “grown to enjoy” because this product took a little bit of coaching in order to produce the results we were hoping for, but once we were able to understand the proper process, we’ve had great results!
When I first started using Reflect, I was priming my pad, and using a few medium sized drops of polish for working product, making 3-5 passes at a moderate speed, and I would frequently experience marring or a hazy finish. This was not at all what I expected with this fine finishing polish. After speaking with Corey at CarPro-US about my issues, he explained the proper way to utilize this product for best results, and as I mentioned, once we understood this process, we have loved this polish!
Here are the tips we were given that really helped us maximize the performance of Reflect.
- Use very little product! Do not prime the pad, instead apply a thin line of product or 4-5 small dots of product to a clean, dry pad for your initial section and then just 2-3 small dots for subsequent sections.
- Use a firmer polishing pad to help the abrasives break down quicker. Our favorite pad to use with Reflect is the Rupes Yellow Polishing pad. It produces the best results for us with this particular product. I would not recommend softer foam like Lake Country Black or Blue pads.
- If possible, use a long throw machine like the Rupes Bigfoot to help break down the abrasives quicker.
- Make 2-4 passes, and do not overwork the product. This polish has a short work cycle. Start by spreading the product out with a slow speed and no pressure, then begin your working cycle by making 2 passes with slow arm speed and a machine speed around 4-5. Use firm, but light pressure for these first 2 passes. Finish with another 1-2 passes at a slower machine speed and no pressure. There should be very light residue left on the surface and it should wipe away effortlessly.
- Clean your pad after each section with a brush, and switch pads as needed.
Below is a ‘before’ photo of a Porsche Cayenne that was previously featured on the Ask-A-Pro Blog (click here to see the article). The vehicle was full of heavy swirls and scratches, and looked quite bad under our inspection lights.
Heavy compounding was needed to level the majority of the defects, but this soft jet black paint was very susceptible to marring and haze during the correction process. As you can tell, all but the heaviest scratches have been removed, but the finish is very dull and hazy. This is where a quality finishing polish comes into play.
CarPro Reflect was used with a Yellow Rupes Polishing Pad to eliminate the haze and easily restore the clarity to the paint.
CarPro Reflect has produced outstanding results on many vehicles of all makes and colors. The product is easy to use, very glossy, and saves us a fair amount of time compared to polishes that require long working cycles to completely break down. If you’re looking for a new finishing polish, I would highly recommend CarPro Reflect.