new car: polish before seal, dumb idea?

[kiteman]

picked up a new car and the dealer didn't touch it, and i even looked at the paint and it looked to be in good condition. i didn't inspect it superbly, but i really didn't notice any swirls or marring of any kind.

i've had a PC forever and my natural instinct was to use a light polish and then seal it, even though the polish wasn't necessary from a paint correction standpoint. i thought/assumed the sealant would bond better with properly prepped paint and that's why i added the step. was i wrong in thinking that?

i used optimum spray polish (light) and followed up with opti-seal. it looks good now but i actually noticed a couple of very light swirls. so light though that i don't think it is worth going over with a PC again to correct right now. then again i didn't inspect the paint thoroughly prior to the polish step, so the marring could have been there before. however it got me worrying i added the polish step unnecessarily and in that step i actually lightly scratched the paint. so i'm trying to figure out if i goofed or not.

maybe for discussion more than advice, did my car need that polish or should i have skipped the step and headed directly towards the OS? do you think the optimum spray polish is a light enough product where i shouldn't worry about the fact that i did use this step anyway?

[Flash Gordon]

If you still see swirls, then yes it needed polishing

Fix it in the Spring

[Setec Astronomy]

Are you sure the dealer didn't touch it? They like to run them through the swirl-o-matic then buff them with some glaze so they look ok until you wash them.

My last new car looked good when I picked it up but this is what it looked like after washing:

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/500/medium/IMG_0333_resize.JPG

[sohail99]

Was the surface smooth? did you clay it prior to polishing?

Could be that the pad picked up some bonded contaminants and caused a few swirls while polishing!

[kiteman]

i ordered the car, plastic was still on when i picked it up. no touching of the car by the dealer. i did the baggie test--no clay was needed. you are right though there could have been one small contaminant that was picked up. though it was one of the first body panels i did, and all the panels thereafter were fine still using the same polishing pad/MF towels. you'd think it would have scratched another panel that followed...

so do you guys think the polish was even necessary/beneficial, or should i have gone right to OS?

[Setec Astronomy]

dealer did not touch it as far as i know. i am well aware of what swirling looks like and i was very pleased at how good it looked. i ordered the car...the plastic was still on it when i picked it up.

Good man! Sorry you picked up some swirls after.

Man, you are the king of the Ninja-edit...you must have changed your post 4 times while I was trying to respond.


so do you guys think the polish was even necessary/beneficial, or should i have gone right to OS?

Yes, it was a good idea to do some prep--whether you needed an abrasive polish to do that is another story.

[kiteman]

hehe, sorry for the edit. i have a tendency to write more than i should, then i go back and edit it to make it less reading for the intended audience :)

do you think the hyper polish is all that abrasive? i thought it is very light so i hope that it did not take too much clear coat off.

[Setec Astronomy]

do you think the hyper polish is all that abrasive? i thought it is very light so i hope that it did not take too much clear coat off.

Nah, you didn't take hardly anything off. It's just a good cleaning like OPC, Iron-X, FK Decon might have been the right choice.