How many times can a car be polished??

[inkked]

How many times can a car be polished, till u start to damage the clear?

how often do u guys polish ur own cars?

[imported_themightytimmah]

Depends on the level of polishing... you could polish hundreds of times with GEPC or PB`s Pro Polish and a finishing pad... 20 + with FPII, 3 or so with a twisted wool pad and ultra cut compounds.



My current car has had: wool pad/OHC once, Cyclo/Powergloss once, orange pad/HTEC once, IP on a polish pad 3 or so times, and FPII or another finishing polish many, many times. Still got clear left, although it`s thinning on the spoiler, trunklid and hood edges.



I`m at the point now where glaze and 1Z MP keeps me happy. I do miss being able to polish to filler-free perfection though.

[SVR]

Once a year per machine polish.

In it`s nine years of life, it has been treated with menzerna intensive polish, menzerna FP 1, Clearkote Vanilla and Red Moose and Prime Acrylic (one job in late 05)

And since then Menzerna 106, Ultra gloss superpolish and Driven to Perfection with a lake country black pad in 06 and earlier in 07



I`ll be finishing the 07 job off with left side skirt of bodykit and both right side doors with the same combo with white and black pads.

The previous owner didn`t do much at all bar wash and wax it by hand



The next treatment is set down for mid next year

[noooorb]

I`d like more input on this topic...

[ben_r_]

Same here...

[stiffdogg06]

Also depends if you had a repaint, or wet sanded.

[Jngrbrdman]

You can polish your car with a PC quite a bit before you have to worry about anything. If you are really concerned, or if you don`t know how much the paint was polished before you got it, then you can always get a paint thickness gauge and track your progress.



What you have to realize is that when you polish your car you aren`t actually removing clearcoat. It isn`t like sanding a table where you are taking the top layer off. What polishing does is remove anything above the surface and then round off the edges of scratches and swirls. Swirls are pretty shallow marks in the paint anyway, so rounding off the edges is all it takes for them to disappear completely. So the amount of clear that you are removing is seriously microscopic if you were to collect it all and try to measure it. I polished the surface of my Integra probably ten times a year for several years. It was my test bed for new products and I always tried to prep the surface just as I would any car so that I would have the right result. After polishing it dozens and dozens of times I still had plenty of clear left. I didn`t have a paint thickness gauge of my own, but when I had some body work done I asked the shop to measure it and see how I was doing and they said it wasn`t in any danger of being polished off anytime soon.



Again, that all depends on the quality and thickness of your paint to begin with. If you are at all concerned then you should get a paint thickness gauge and keep on top of it. Be careful on edges and areas where the paint is bound to be thinner. Don`t use polishes that are more agressive than they need to be and you should be fine. :bigups

[Glossy McGlosserton]

I`d love to have a paint gauge, but $$$.



Has anyone on the board done before and after paint guage measurements for various combinations, just as a rough guide?



For example, combos I`d like to see tested and measured:



-OC on an orange LC pad vs. yellow LC vs. green?

-Menzerna product comparisons with various pads

-Z-PC with various pads



I just did my SO`s `98 green civic. It was in very rough shape, never before detailed. I used OC on a white DAC Scratchbuster 3 times with the UDM on the trunk lid and hood, followed up with Menzerna FP II. It would be great to have an idea how much clear that was likely to have taken off. I hear that Hondas have soft clear.

[Accumulator]

If I have to polish out marring once a year I`m disappointed with myself- must`ve been careless with the washing.



I polish as often as I need to but I don`t always remove deep RIDS. We keep some of our vehicles a *LONG* time and it`s not a problem.



OTOH- Before I figured out the wash regimen, I polished the Jag`s soft ss lacquer a *lot*, and now I can`t correct it any more :( I took off a *LOT* of paint on that car over the years. And I`ve (just barely) cut through the ss black paint on the MPV`s window frames (after *three* ~gentle corrections by PC!) but that`s pretty unusual IMO.



Sherri Zann- I wouldn`t worry about the clear on that Honda. The clear on my Mazda is *VERY* thin, but it`ll withstand a lot more than what you did.



themightytimmah- Heh heh, the 1Z stuff is mighty seductive, huh ;)

[Glossy McGlosserton]

Accumulator, when you get to 20k posts, we`re going to have to have some sort of celebration. I always like it when you chime in, too. Your posts are much appreciated.

[David Fermani]

I think it all depends on the product being used. I`ll be you can wool pad and polish a car 3-4 times a year for over a decade without any kind of problems.

[Accumulator]

I think it all depends on the product being used...



And the paint in question. You`d kill the MPV`s clear with the wool/thrice-a-year in no time. I have to be a *little* careful with just the PC/Cyclo (that`s the one where I damaged the clear with the PC/4"/ 3M 05933).



I used the Cyclo and fairly mild products to over-polish the Jag and I did it maybe four times per year. Yeah, that is ss lacquer, but still...



On the vehicles we keep for a long time, I sure wouldn`t want to polish aggressively more than once a year. The lessons I learned on the Jag made a real impression...they`re only original once ;)

[P1et]

Personally, I`m with some of you that I keep my vehicles for quite some time. I did a deep polish on my truck last year and with careful washing and drying the paint is only showing very minor spider webbing.