The Art of Polishing...

[MagRed Mike]

What I want to know is "The Art of Polishing".

What I'm beginning to understand is for years, even with a wool polisher... really truely all I did was compound & wax cars, never really polishing a cars finish to its ultimate gloss.

I know ask the question, How do I learn this Art?
I'm all ears... and really want to know now how to change my process & build on my effort to get the prize.... depth, gloss, clarity of reflection, you know..."nice wax job mister!"Feed back please

[Guessless]

Buy Mike Phillips's book, the comple guide to a show car shine.

[custmsprty]

Watch all of Mike's videos, by his i book and Practice, Practice, Practice.

[Dereksdtail]

Read,watch videos, and experiment!

[MagRed Mike]

How many steps ? 105 then 205, then what? polish? What about Glaze?
Then a top coat?
And then waxing is just to protect the "work" you've just done right?

[allenk4]

You have lots of reading to do, it will be fun, embrace the challenge

[custmsprty]

Menz FG400 and Menz SF4000

[rodneypierce]

Menz FG400 and Menz SF4000

This right here is my go to setup for badly swirled vehicles. I always start off with a white pad and just SF4000 to see if it will get the job done. If there are severe defects, the FG400 and orange pad comes out, followed by SF4000 on a white pad.

Love there products!

[Alansr]

I'm a fan of the meguires twins. Both 105/205 and uc/up.
Both are great products and so far there hasn't been anything I couldn't fix.
I'm always looking and buying different products to see if I like anything else but so far the twins are my favorite.

[Audios S6]

Years with a wool pad and rotary could be good or bad. It depends if you got 20 years of experience or 1 year of experience 20 times over.

This will potentially be a big adjustment for you. That said, there are people out there that have perfected polishing & jewelling with a rotary. Those people are few and far between.

To answer you question, the number of steps needed will be determined by the desired result and your test spot; 1 compounding and 1 polishing step is typical, but you could add a jewelling step. Then on to LSP.

[Paul A.]

The magic of perfecting whatever particular paint you are working on could take maybe hundreds or even thousands of variables. The key for me has been training my eye over experience to recognize subtle improvements ON THAT VEHICLES PAINT and mastering my "jewelling" technique. Hopefully it's a 2 step process but sometimes its a 4 step. Then LSP.

With that said, i have never only done a wool pad/cut compound only on any vehicle. That dramatic of a cut was to level the paint of defects but it inevitably leaves room for improvement to maximize total gloss and shine.

As others have suggested, practice and experience but while doing that, train your eyes to see how you can improve it further. Welcome to the insanity but i have enjoyed the living heck out of it!