How to Polish Your Car Yourself: Useful Tips

Car polishing is a simple and effective method for eliminating minor imperfections such as scratches, scuffs, and unevenness, as well as protecting the paintwork from corrosion. Regular maintenance not only extends the lifespan of the vehicle but also reduces repair costs. “Dnipro-M” explains how easy it is to polish your car on your own.

Types of Car Polishing

Polishing can be divided into two main types:

1. Protective Polishing: helps safeguard the coating from environmental damage, prevents the appearance of various defects, and restores shine. This is done by applying a specialized protective compound: without abrasive polish, ceramic coating, "liquid glass," and many more. Regular protective polishing will help maintain the car's flawless appearance for a long time and make washing easier.

2. Restorative Polishing: allows for the removal of visible damages and defects (scratches, scuffs, cloudiness), partially or fully restoring the properties of the paintwork, returning initial color brightness and shine. Depending on the degree of surface defects, either soft (for smoothing roughness and unevenness) or abrasive (for hiding pronounced defects in the paintwork) polishing is applied.

Preparation for Polishing

Before starting the polishing process, it's essential to prepare the space where the work will take place: it should be well-ventilated and adequately lit without direct sunlight. This way, you won't miss any minor defects, and the metal won't heat up in the sun.

In the first stage, it's also crucial to prepare the car's body:

1. Wash and clean it from dirt.

2. Degrease and check for bitumen stains, corrosion, and residual dirt.

3. Use polishing clay to remove fine debris, then dry it.

Before beginning the polishing, the car must be perfectly clean and dry.

How to Polish Your Car Yourself

The process of self-polishing consists of preparation, the actual polishing, and subsequent protection. In the first stage, you need to not only prepare the body but also the workspace, select tools and polishing materials. You will need a polishing machine, pads of varying abrasiveness, professional pastes, as well as cloths and microfiber towels.

The quality of the polishing result largely depends on the polishing machine. They are divided into two main types based on their operation: rotary and eccentric. The latter, in addition to rotational movements, also performs translational movements, increasing the surface area being treated, preventing overheating, and speeding up the process.

For working with a polishing machine, you'll need a backing pad and polishing discs of various hardness.

At different stages of polishing, you will require specific discs:

1. White – hard, for coarse polishing of the paintwork.

2. Yellow – for initial polishing, to remove coarse scratches.

3. Orange – universal, for achieving a durable shine.

4. Blue – closer to soft, for fine abrasive and finishing polishing.

5. Black – the softest, for removing "holograms" and achieving a flawless shine.

Polishes can vary in abrasiveness and can be non-abrasive. Choose a product based on the type of polishing, the complexity of defects, and individual needs.

Helpful Polishing Tips:

1. Protect decorative body elements that could be damaged by polishing.

2. Do not apply polish on heated surfaces.

3. Polish the surface using slow vertical and then horizontal movements.

4. Avoid staying too long on one area.

5. Polish small sections, treating areas with defects separately.

6. Remove excess polish with microfiber.

7. Check and replace consumables in a timely manner.

If you want to maintain the shine longer and protect the surface from damage, it is recommended to perform a protective polishing after restorative polishing.