High speed machine waxing - Kissing the Finish Technique by Mike Phillips



I shared this technique years ago but thought I'd share a fresh version since I was already doing the work and using the technique.


The technique is called,

Kissing the finish


And it's real simple, when using a finishing wax or non-cleaning wax, (the opposite of a AIO or cleaner/wax), because all you need to do is simply apply a thin layer of wax to all the painted body panels, do this.

Apply some wax to the face of the pad then lightly touch the face of the pad down on a portion of a panel or kiss the finish. This applies a little wax to a larger panel that you're going to come by with your polisher turned on and pick up and spread out.

On a grander scale, repeat this to the entire car. If you need more wax simply apply some more to the face of the pad then continue to work around the car kissing the finish.


The secret is when you're coming up to a dab of wax you kissed onto the paint, tilt the polisher like you see in the pictures below and CAPTURE the wax under your pad. After you move the pad past the dab of wax immediately turn the polisher so the pad is flat again to the paint.


DON'T simply run the edge of the pad into the dab of wax as this can fling and sling the wax everywhere.

Also make sure when tilting the polisher that the trailing edge of the pad remains in contact with the paint. The idea is to only lift a portion of the paint into the air to grab the fresh dab of wax.

Then spread that dab or dollop of wax out real good and move onto the next dab of wax. Continue until you've waxed the entire car.


Let's let the pictures do the talking...



First place some wax on the face of the pad.

Now if you do like a lot of people and simply place the pad against the paint and turn the polisher on you'll waste a lot of product because you'll push the wax inside of the foam.

What I do is hold the pad at an angle when kissing the finish and continually change up the angle at which you touch down the pad/wax onto the paint. This way you accomplish the goal, (spread out dabs of wax), without saturating your wax pad therefor wasting product.






Jay Leno's Garage Hand Wax going down on the old 2-door Chevy...




Have to have a little fun...





This my friends is called,

Kissing the finish

You'll find this technique shared on page 131 of my how-to book, The Complete Guide to a Show Car Shine






Speed setting to spread out a show car wax using the Griot's dual action orbital polisher is low, like around the 2 setting. Pad rotation isn't neccassary because I'm not trying to remove defects, (already did that), BUT pad rotation helps the pad to glide over the paint easier.





Mark your backing plate
Been teaching guys to do this for about 20 years now easy... if you don't know about this little trick then here's what you do. Take a permanent marker and draw a line on the backing plate. This will make it easy for our eyes to see and monitior pad rotation. If you have a dark colored backing plate then use a light colored marker or touch up paint.







How to pick up the splotches of wax after kissing the finish
With the polisher on, lift the leading edge of the pad off the paint but be sure to keep the trailing edge of the pad on the paint. Then run the pad over the splotch of wax and immediately re-adjust how you're holding the polisher to move the pad to the flat-against-the-paint position and then spread that bit of wax out.










That's how you do it!





Looks like the paint has a poka-dots...




Then about as fast as you can slow-walk around the car you can use the above technique to spread out a uniform layer of wax that will dry fast and make wipe-off easy.






Then about as fast as you can slow-walk around the car you can use the above technique to spread out a uniform layer of wax that will dry fast and make wipe-off easy.