Polish good paint?

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chadcj7

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If my car does not appear to have any swirls or scratches and the paint looks good does it make sense to polish the car? I ask not only because my car appears this way but because I only see posts on here mentioning swirl removal, paint correction, etc.

Thanks
 
It is a judgement call but an AIO-type polish or chemical-based pre-wax cleaner would be good IF you had to do something. Even though the paint may not have scratches on it, there will likely be embedded dirt. You will know there is dirt when the applicator pad used shows the dirt getting picked-up.
 
Would you still start with a orange pad or something less aggressive?

I will be using Iron x and claying the car as well
 
Most AIO's either use chemical to remove decontamination or contain only a slight amount of polish. The only one I'm aware of that I would recommend using a more aggressive pad is CarPro Essence. But when I use other AIO products I always start with a finishing pad and then step up from there. And if I had to much higher, I move onto using a dedicated polish.
 
How old is the car?

There is a great post by Mike Phillips here from a few years ago on a similar topic. In the post he is working on a bright yellow hot-rod. The paint appears to be in respectable condition, but the biggest differences in the before/after pictures is the depth of the color. Polishing will not only get rid of swirls, but a an AIO, mild polish, or paint cleaner will get rid of years of built up LSP and other deeply embedded crud. The result will not only be a little extra shine, but the color will be deeper and more like it was when the car was new...if not better. I first used a paint cleaner on my gray Mazda about 3~4 years after I first bought it. Even though there were only a few faint swirls visible, I was quite surprised by how much better the color and flake "popped" after I worked on the car. The difference was quite noticeable.

If your car is only 2~3 years old and looks good, I wouldn't worry about it. If older, I'd look at the possibility of a paint cleaner or AIO simply to spruce things up a bit and deep clean the paint.
 
I'm going to answer this post you made in reverse...


chadcj7 said:
I will be using Iron x and claying the car as well
Click to expand...

Then YES you want to do at a MINIMUM one machine polishing step to remove any dulling and haze caused by the chemicals and the claying.


chadcj7 said:
I will be using Iron x and claying the car as well
Click to expand...

I would try to get away with a foam polishing pad and skip the foam cutting pad otherwise you're going to have to do two step,

Compounding step
Polishing step


What are you using for chemicals?



:)
 
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