What’s The Point Of Polishing? For Those Who Think All Of The Swirls Will Come Back

by Rodney Tatum

A lot of people tell me there is no point in doing a paint correction because in their minds the swirls will always come back. That is not necessarily true. Whether they return is often up to the owner. After you get your car back to like new, if you care for the car properly then you will see a return on investment. With very good maintenance you may see swirls, but they will be mild and not accumulate nearly as frequently. You may not see any swirls at all.

Ideally, you want to put yourself in a position where a 1 stage (milder) correction will bring your car back to where it was after a two-stage (aggressive) correction.

This 2015 Ford Mustang is a prime example, being the second time I worked on this car.

This car had very mild swirls and few isolated deep scratches. To most people, it could pass as a recently polished car. In some areas, the marring from the clay bar I used would be deeper than the wash induced marring.

In regards to how the owner maintains his car:

He does not own a pressure washer.
He did not use what I would consider a great bucket and grit guard set up. He had two of the wash buckets with grooves built-in that you would purchase at an auto parts store.
He didn’t, in my opinion, have the best wash mitts.
He used a good car soap you could find on Detailed Image or sold locally.

What he did was he always give his car a good rinse with a hose. Occasionally if his car ever got extremely dirty, he would take it to a facility to have it pressure washed, then drive home and proceed to wash his car gently with a wash mitt.

I believe the condition of this car is evidence that you can maintain the appearance of the paint even on daily driven vehicles, which this is.

I used Wolfgang Uber Rinseless to wash the car. Presoaking with a waterless ratio of Wolfgang Uber Rinseless. P21S Total Auto Wash was used for wheels, tires, and as a spot treatment for bugs.

I also used the Uber Rinseless waterless ratio as a clay lubricant, when clay bar treating the car.

Most of the car received a single step of polishing with Menzerna 3500, which is a very mild single step polishing process.

A few areas were spot treated in a two-step with FG400 using a 3in orange Lake Country SDS pad followed by Menzerna with the 3500 white SDS pad.

The defect above was not removed but made significantly less noticeable. After removing the polishing oils with Carpro Eraser I applied Wolfgang Fuzion Wax to the paint.