how often to polish

[Envious Eric]

how many times can you realistically polish your car from the factory lot....brand new, no repaints on it....10-20-30??? how much is too much....when is there the point of no return that you cant polish anymore because you will harm the paint....reason I ask is because I have a friend who wants his black truck repolished because he doesnt take care of it, yet doesnt like the swirls and spiderwebbing all over it....I just polished it up like 2 months ago and now he wants it done again....last time I used #83 and Nxt all over the truck....I was thinking about doing 83 again, but this time around use 80 and souveran on his truck to make it look wetter....but this will be the third time I polished it in less than a year....is he having it done too much???

[4details2win]

Why would he want it polished if he doesn`t take care of it in the first place. Yes there is a point of no return and I don`t know exactly how many polishings it would take. That`s like asking how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop. More agressive polishes of course will strip more clear coat. You need to tell your friend he needs to take better care of his truck.

[ScoobyDrew06]

i don`t know your answer but i`m sure it`s different for every different make of vehicle. For instance I would assume that you could polish an audi`s paint much more than a subaru.

[Envious Eric]

oh I agree with him needing to take care of the truck...haha, but that is why he has me polish it up for him....



I am on the same path though too, I have polished my truck 3 times since december....yeah I know kinda neurotic....but I like a clean truck....and its a dark blue....so its almost like black....shows everything.



so is it really a matter of checking the pad and once I start getting some color on the pad from the truck, its time to stop? This should take a few years and like 20 polishes with just 83 and 80, no compounding right....

[4details2win]

Just b/c your pad looks like it`s takin the color off the car doesn`t mean it`s time to stop. I polished my daytona blue 350Z for the FIRST time and it`s 3 years old and on my yellow propel pad it turned light blue. I also used Optimum Compound. The OP wouldn`t cut it. So I know I don`t have you any closer to your answer but hopefully this is helping. Does he bring his truck through the "swirl tunnels"? ya know, the car washes (not touchless)?

[Accumulator]

The rule-of-thumb for modern basecoat/clear paints is that you`ll get accelerated clearcoat failure if you remove more than 3 mils (that`s .0003" which isn`t much), never mind cutting through to the basecoat. Polishing every few months is gonna take off a lot of paint in not a lot of time.



People who don`t take care of their paint have limited options: a) leave it marred, b) trade in frequently, c) get it repainted when it needs it, or d) drive around with a shot paintjob. There`s no way around this one, you can only take off so much clear before you have major trouble.

[BradUF]

I thought I heard its ok to Polish your car 1-2 times a year and have no problems.

[Accumulator]

There are just so many variables that I honestly don`t think we oughta generalize. I`ve done mild polishing on some b/c vehicles a few times a year for many years with no problems. But I wasn`t *taking out* the kind of marring that I believe most people would be dealing with- I let the deep stuff go and just lived with it. If you`re truly removing clearly visible flaws you`re taking off pretty much paint.



Hit a car 2-3 times with ValueGuard`s Paint Correction Cream and that`s it, no more polishing forever. Hit a car 100 times with 1Z`s MP and you`ll still have lots of clear left. Somewhere in between those disparate extremes lie all the zillions of things people could do.



IMO the only safe answer is "don`t polish any more than you need to" (and I`d add "don`t need to"). If you can`t keep it perfect don`t bother getting it perfect.