hand polishing car

**GT500** · 06-13-2012, 10:37 AM

Hey guys, I was wondering if there is a polish that is better than others when applying by hand. I do not have a DA or any kind of polisher. I will be buying one over the summer but for know I would like to polish and wax my car by hand. Is there a polish that is specifically for hand polishing or is there a reccomended one??? Thank you

**rider9195** · 06-13-2012, 10:38 AM

I would wait until you get your machine this summer. Just keep the paint protected until you can polish.

**HDDetail** · 06-13-2012, 10:51 AM

I could never imagine polishing without a DA. Probably take 5 days and all of your deltoid muscles would be dead.

**GT500** · 06-13-2012, 10:55 AM

Yea i recently tried on my other car with Nu Finish polish that I found at Walmart and it took a few hours to finish the whole thing and to my surprise, it came out looking really good. Obviously if I get a DA and good polish from AG, it will look much much better because I was just messing around when I was bored. The next day, my arms were absolutely killing me lol.

**Mazda.Mark** · 06-13-2012, 11:42 AM

Agree with posters, wait until the summer. Just keep a coat of fresh wax on the vehicle and staying on top of cleaning to help with prep this summer.

Also, what is the state of the car?

**JonnyB** · 06-13-2012, 11:42 AM

Ultimate Polish works well by hand. I have done hand polishing but you won't get the results like with a machine

**Paul Mitchell** · 06-13-2012, 11:49 AM

I'm not sure a hand applied polish would really help. I once had a black 2007 Toyota Avalon that had holograms from poor detailing by the dealer and later by a body shop after the car was rear-ended. At that time I didn't use a machine. I bought the Mothers Car Care System that included a paint cleaner (#1), a sealer-glaze combination (#2) and carnauba wax (#3). The sealer-glaze worked well by hand and covered up the holograms and the wax was applied over the sealer-glaze. You have to be careful with their products as they will stain trim. I basically used just #2 and #3 as the paint didn't need cleaning but I did use the cleaner on some family members cars and it also works well. You won't hear too much about Mothers products on this site but they work well and are reasonably priced. Polishes work really with an R/O but you probably wouldn't see much improvement applying them by hand.

**SkateForGirl** · 06-13-2012, 12:10 PM

Dont do it. Until you have a DA dont bother. The work it takes to do in 12 hours with a DA would take 5 days by hand and your arms will fall off too.

Mike Phillips · 06-13-2012, 12:16 PM

I have a number of articles on polishing paint by hand as it relates to technique in my article list.

As for products, for a neglected finish its pretty hard to beat Meguiars Ultimate Compound. My article "Man vs Machine" goes over all the steps in detail.

I would post the links but I'm using Tapatalk while driving to Knoxville.