Polish. how often?

[BAD DAB]

How often can I polish my car without damage to the clearcoat? I will be using Adam's fine machine polish. Would once a year be to often?

[Oldtimer426]

Polish does not hurt the clearcoat you can polish it every 2-3 months depends on how you want your car to look.

[CamaroSpike23]

wow... I misread the title of this thread.

[The Stig]

Well polishing does actually damage your clear coat. As when you polish the car you are cutting away the damaged parts of your clear coat. So, if you were say to use a rotary buffer and leave it in one place for 10 minutes, you would most likely have cut your way through the clear coat and you're now into the base coat.

[Camaro_Corvette]

Took this off of Adams website

Adam's Fine Machine Polish is so fine that you can use it several times a year to maintain perfect gloss, without thinning your paint.

The word "Fine" is where it bothers me. Meaning to me that there is a level of grit or abrasiveness in the polish. (keep in mind, I have never touched this product, So I can't comment exactly on the feel of the polish) I have also been wondering how many times can you do this before you start to see damage. If I was a life time user of Adam's Fine Machine polish, then how do I use this year after year and the effects of the polish not add up?

I mean, if you keep taking from the cooler, eventually you will run out of beer.

[Adam's Polishes]

Originally Posted by Camaro_Corvette

Took this off of Adams website

The word "Fine" is where it bothers me. Meaning to me that there is a level of grit or abrasiveness in the polish. (keep in mind, I have never touched this product, So I can't comment exactly on the feel of the polish) I have also been wondering how many times can you do this before you start to see damage. If I was a life time user of Adam's Fine Machine polish, then how do I use this year after year and the effects of the polish not add up?

I mean, if you keep taking from the cooler, eventually you will run out of beer.

FWIW - any "polish" is going to have SOME abrasive properties by definition. The only time you see variation from this is the use of the word 'polish' to name some of Zainos products. But in the technical definition of the term it has to contain an abrasive to be a polish.

That being said - fine machine polish is as fine a super tiny abrasive as you'll find... you could polish from here till next year and not worry about it 'damaging' anything.

The stock clear coat is thick enough to go hundreds of times thru the entire process of SSR/SHR/FMP before 'strike thru' would even begin to be a concern. If working only with FMP then we're talking THOUSANDS of times.

You have to understand that the amount of material removed with our products and a PC is microscopic... extremely extremely EXTREMELY small amounts are removed with each pass so its not something most people will ever be concerned with, especially if you follow solid maintenance/washing techniques correction shouldn't be needed more than 2-3x a year if that except for maybe a few spots.

[Camaro_Corvette]

Cool, thanks for the clarification Dylan. So polish away

[BAD DAB]

Thanks alot!

[Junkman2008]

Originally Posted by stieger

Well polishing does actually damage your clear coat. As when you polish the car you are cutting away the damaged parts of your clear coat. So, if you were say to use a rotary buffer and leave it in one place for 10 minutes, you would most likely have cut your way through the clear coat and you're now into the base coat.

It definitely doesn't take 10 minutes in one spot! Ten seconds is more realistic with the right compound, a wool pad and the rotary turned up all the way!

One thing that I always preach about constantly polishing your paint. Adam's Fine Machine Polish is the only thing that I have to use to touch up a spot here or there because my paint has been fully corrected. However, I never have to constantly use the more aggressive polishes on the market because I know how to care for my paint. If you have to constantly break out a bottle of M105, Z-PC Fusion or Adam's Sever Swirl Remover, then you are totally touching your paint in the wrong manner. Those products should be a one time event in your paint's life unless some accidents happens.

There's where proper washing comes into play.