Should I add a polish to my lineup??

P

Pennypacker

New member
I ordered a bunch of stuff to detail my car, but I didn't get a polish. Should I add that to my ever-expanding list? The original plan was: AIO, VM, RMG, UPP, and NB.



I understand now that VM has some polishing characteristics. Would this suffice, or should I get a dedicated polish for use with this particular combination of products? Also, since it does do some polishing, is it still okay to put VM over AIO. My paint is in pretty good shape with just some minor swirl marks and surface scratches.



Thanks a lot!
 
It will depend a lot on your washing technique. If you can keep the swirls to zero or very minimal, the VM should be able to polish what minor marring you would get out. I think it's better for the paint if you polish at least once a year anyways, just to get the contiminants you can't see out of/off of the clear coat. If the car is not a daily driver, claying could possibly replace polishing, but a mild polish like SSR1 or FPII is always good to have in the line-up.



If you want to just get by with the VM, you could get some Meg's Sratch-X locally for the occasional and inevitable scratch.
 
A lot of it will also depend on how hard your paint is. For me, VM is too mild to do any correction except for *VERY* minor stuff on my Jag's lacquer. I'd have something stronger on hand for when you need it.



I dunno about using VM after AIO. I don't use both products on the same detail as they're sorta similar in function with VM being (a little) more abrasive and leaving a little wax and AIO being a better chemical cleaner and leaving a (very) little synthetic.



For a good mild polish I'd recommend 3M PI-III MG (05937) but it's getting hard to find since it's been discontinued.
 
As an amateur detail nut, I've learned that even if your car is perfect and swirl-free now, that in a few months, the normal use of the car will induce some surface defects. At some point in the next 6 to 12 months, if your car is a daily driver, you will HAVE to polish your car to keep in perfect.



I picked up the Poorboys line: SSR 2.5, followed by SSR 1, and the Optimum Line: OCC followed by OCP. Both are great. At some point I'll probably try out the Menzerna line as well -- hopefully when the new replacement for 85/106 come out.
 
lol nice combo! I would really pick up a dedicated polish. I find it easier to run a true abrasive polish over the surface and then follow with your LSP's then to use a combo type product like VM. Besides, if you have a bad day or something and your car gets even moderate swirling or something like that, VM isn't going to be able to handle it.
 
Thanks for the input. I went ahead and bought PB's Professional Polish. This was prior to reading all your suggestions, so I'm not sure..perhaps this was the wrong choice. My intuition was to not get something too abrasive since the paint is already in pretty good shape. It's had multiple coats of Zaino on it for a while. Also, I don't have a PC. Everything's going to be done by hand and so I'm thinking that the more particulate there is in the polish, the more difficult a time I'm going to have. I thought about 1ZPP as that seems to be a popular hand polish, but it has some wax in it which I thought might be problematic when used in conjunction with these other products. Have no idea really though..



Thanks again
 
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