Difference in wax and polishing?

It's 2 completely different things and it doesn't help that some of the manufacturers continue to "mislabel" their products for the average joe. There are some waxes/sealants that are referred to as a polish, even though they're not. Waxing refers to applying a layer of protection to your car. Polishing refers to using some light abrasives to remove light swirls, cobwebbing, scratches, oxidation, etc.
 
What he said ...



Another way to think about it is that polishing improves the surface of the paint using chemical cleaners or small abrassives while wax lays on top of the paint offering some protection. Both have some effect on the final appearance, with polishing usually making the larger impact.
 
The only time something can be described as both a wax and polish is if it is a one step product, which is a fine polish mixed with a wax/sealant
 
Since polishes remove tiny layers of your car's surface (where do those swirl marks come from anyway?). Will too much polishing over time be bad for your car since it is eating away at it, or will it take an insane amount of polishing over an extremely long time that this just isn't a concern? And are polishes the same as glazes? I've seen a lot of different product types on here over the years.



Which product (like polish, glaze, wax, that's all I know, but I bet there's more) is responsible for making your car shiny and reflect like a mirror? I've seen people's reflections in their detailing jobs look as though they were looking in a mirror, and others they seem kind of fuzzy in their reflection. I'm not sure if that's because of the car's paint color or the quality of the detailing or something else though.
 
MikeWinLDS said:
Since polishes remove tiny layers of your car's surface. Will too much polishing over time be bad for your car since it is eating away at it, or will it take an insane amount of polishing over an extremely long time that this just isn't a concern? And waxing is the one that makes the water bead off your car, right?



Which one is responsible for making your car shiny and reflect like a mirror? I've seen people's reflections in their detailing jobs look as though they were looking in a mirror, and others they seem kind of fuzzy in their reflection. I'm not sure if that's because of the car's paint color or the quality of the detailing or something else though.
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It would take quite a bit of light polishing to remove a significant amount of paint. Where you run into problems would be excessive compounding. Compound being like a polish that is much more aggressive (larger abrasives). You just need to be aware of the product/pad combo you are using. Also refine your wash techniques so a major polish isn't really needed more than once or twice a year. I guess I should add that you might have problems if the paint was compounded to a point where it was getting thin before you got the car. An ETG is about the only way to know for sure, and some of the professional detailers here take readings over several body panels before they get too aggressive. Even factory paint jobs seem to vary somewhat on the uniform thickness of paint from panel to panel.



Paint prep (polishing) is what makes a finish look good. The fuzzy look is often the result of "orange peel" that many paint jobs have......... instead of being perfectly flat like a mirror, the surface rough or bumpy like the peel on an orange. Even that can be corrected by wet-sanding, compounding, and polishing, but you want to know what you're doing (and the paint thickness) before you tackle something like that.
 
Polishes and glazes sometimes get confused with each other. A glaze contains kaolin clay that fills some minor imperfections that remain after polishing and contains oils to give the car a shinier, wetter look. The disadvantage to this is that the oils usually don't allow LSP's (Last Step Products, ie. wax/sealant) to bond properly to the paint. I believe some glazes have a very small amount of cutting power, but I'm not positive. Most OTC "polishes" are just crappy glazes. They contain fillers that fill the swirls in and make them appear to be gone, but after the first wash/rain they are there again. I've heard that the Danase Wet Glaze actually bonds to the paint and doesn't interfere with LSP's, but I'm not entirely sure if that's true.
 
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