Keeping a well maintained car looking it's best: chemical polish or abrasives?

[rhavyn]

My plan was to buy a couple different polishes and try them to see which works best with my car. My PC came with three hex logic pads, a white one, a black one, and an orange one. Is a white Lake country pad equivalent to the white hex logic?

[glen e]

A black car needs to be coated. Polish it, get it right then put a coating on it and black becomes like every other color to maintain. The gyeon synchro system seems to be getting rave reviews on black cars.

[PaulMys]

My plan was to buy a couple different polishes and try them to see which works best with my car. My PC came with three hex logic pads, a white one, a black one, and an orange one. Is a white Lake country pad equivalent to the white hex logic?

On harder clear, I'd go with the Orange LC's. My Ram's clear is what I would classify as on the hard side, but from what I've read your clear may be harder.

That said, always start with the least aggressive approach. If that doesn't do it for you, switch it up.

Start with least aggressive pad/product. Next, try more aggressive pad with same product. Next, try more aggressive product with less aggressive pad........ and so on. It takes some experimentation, and it's a learning curve.

[rhavyn]

On harder clear, I'd go with the Orange LC's. My Ram's clear is what I would classify as on the hard side, but from what I've read your clear may be harder.

That said, always start with the least aggressive approach. If that doesn't do it for you, switch it up.

Start with least aggressive pad/product. Next, try more aggressive pad with same product. Next, try more aggressive product with less aggressive pad........ and so on. It takes some experimentation, and it's a learning curve.

Thanks, I will definitely work a test spot to make sure the pad and polish combo works.

I guess the other part of my question is around frequency. My understanding is a paint job has a finite number of polishes in it before you fatally compromise it. I also know that the only safe way to really know is to buy a paint thickness gauge and track how much clear you’ve removed. But if I’m just trying to be conservative and I’m not trying to remove every defect, is one or two polishes a year within the realm of reasonable or should I be losing in pure chemical polishes to be completely safe? (Or does someone know of a good gauge that doesn’t cost many hundreds of dollars?)

[rlmccarty2000]

On normally hard BMW paint 3500 is the finest polish I would even bother with. I like to polish my BMW once a year and live with any marring that occurs until my next scheduled polish. I’m on the coating bandwagon too. Don’t be intimidated by coatings. Watch videos and read stuff online. If you can apply a sealant you can apply a coating. Don’t be afraid of buffing on your BMW. You really can’t hurt much with a PC and a mild polish on new paint. Just do your research and take it slow.

[glen e]

I asked this question about how many times you can polish about four years ago here and one of the professional detailers came back with this response which I think makes sense ...not sure if it was Mike or not but it was somebody with great respect here:

How many times polish:

"Most all cars have at least 50 microns of clear coat on them.

So even if you compounded the hell out of your car on the initial paint correction, and removed 5 microns of paint, you could use a finishing polish (removes a micron) once a year for the next 45 years before you even had to worry about going through the clear coat.

That being said my Cars see my orbital about once a year, At the Max two times per year, no more. Also, I wont wash more than once a week.

[spazzz]

Once a year for a light polish step is no big deal.
Now cutting every year is something that would give me the willies and no doubt some burn through.
Do it once and it will all become clear.
I know the Optimum Hyper and Menzerna 3500 work for me with no haze. Now M205 that's a different story.
I used all 3 a couple of weeks ago on my Black Grand Prix with a Flex and a white Force pad.
All I wanted was to polish off the Gloss Coat after 2 years and to clean the paint and smooth the paint.
I wanted to move quick.
M205 looked like I hacked it with buffer haze. It made me chuckle to myself.
I used the same approach with Hyper Polish and the 3500 and after close LED inspection it was all good.
I ended up using the 3500 because I had more of it than the Hyper Polish.

I don't have the patience for M205 anymore.

I don't know the hex logic pads, sorry.
I know when I use my PC I break out the Lake Country flat pads.

[spazzz]

On normally hard BMW paint 3500 is the finest polish I would even bother with. I like to polish my BMW once a year and live with any marring that occurs until my next scheduled polish. I’m on the coating bandwagon too. Don’t be intimidated by coatings. Watch videos and read stuff online. If you can apply a sealant you can apply a coating. Don’t be afraid of buffing on your BMW. You really can’t hurt much with a PC and a mild polish on new paint. Just do your research and take it slow.

What do you use, product wise, pad and machine when you do your BMW?

[PaulMys]

I agree with spazzz. Ditch the Hexes. Go with LC flats.

[DetailedByPrecision]

Hey congrats on picking up the DA. Im from san Francisco as well. Feel free to reach out. I will do my best to help out and i have alot of different pads and compounds and polish you can try out.


Lim