William Ford
Today, we’re going to be going into the top 10 polishing mistakes and we’re saving the best till last or the worst till last. This is a article Ivan, a podcast if you’re listening on a podcast platform for anybody who is afraid of touching their paint with a polisher for somebody who’s never done this before and for someone who actually does this for a living. These are. These are tips that you have learned over 40 plus years in auto detailing in paint polishing, and they are going to help you. I promise you folks, no matter how much you know, you will learn something in this.
I think a pretty wellth thought out list that we came up with number one mistake I would say in in paint, polishing or paint correction is going for Perfection folks, I can speak on this. Having done it, not only is it stressful, but there is no such thing as perfect pain. I’Ve spoken to Jason Kilmer, the Sandman man he’s done all these highle show cars at really the highest level, and he told me. I believe that he’s never once seen perfect paint, no perfect paint doesn’t exist and, if you’re polishing for yourself that’s one thing, if you’re polishing for a customer, it’s even more important to not go for Perfection. Cuz.
Your customer’s idea of perfection and your idea of perfection may be completely different, a lot of people. They buy a brand new car. They pick it up from the showroom and to them that is perfect paint. So if you’re, a professional detailer, your customer asks you for their paint to be perfect. Ask them what perfect paint is to them.
It doesn’t mean perfectly flat, glassy, uh, no orange peel, etc, etc. When you’re polishing for Perfection, you may end up being a loser. Really, really quick by burning through the paint it’s traumatic. When that happens, it’s no fun and, as you said, there’s no such thing as perfect paint before we get to number two. Can we just talk about what’s happening when we polish paint, when we remove defects, essentially we’re leveling the clear coat right?
It’S all about how the light reflects and refracts, but maybe for someone who really hasn’t done this before what what do they need to know about polishing and the goal of polishing in the first place right. So polishing is an abrasive process and that abrasion is removing clear, coat. We’Re not taking clear coat from point A and bringing it to point B. That’S not how it works, we’re not filling in the scratches by removing a little bit of clear coat over here and depositing it in the scratch over there. That’S not how it happens, we’re literally removing paint.
So if you have a scratch, that’s 10 microns deep. In order to 100 % eliminate that scratch, you need to 100 %, eliminate 10 microns of paint and or clear coat and clear coat on today’s Vehicles is roughly around 40 to 50 microns thick there’s not a lot there. So imagine if you’re taking 10 microns off you’re, taking 20 % of your car’s protection off of it and putting a ceramic coating on it is not going to add back that depth that you’ve taken off and having burned through clear, coat myself like anyone. Who’S really done this for a while yeah is done and we try to not have it happen and when it does it’s, it’s really stressful and sad. So just listen to us folks, um!
You go through the clear coat and it leaves this Mark and you’re like well, I messed up. Can I just spot correct that? Can I do something? It’S like no you’re repainting the whole panel right Ian. Can you talk about what happens when you burn through the clear coat and why we try to avoid that yeah?
Well, we try to void it because you’re ruining the paint but uh when you’re burned through the clear coat or burned through the paint I’ve seen people go right down to the primer uh. Then you have a really big issue and you may be able to get away without spraying the whole panel, but it takes a talented uh painter to do that to be to be able to do a spot repair, but generally yes, uh most body shops will either Do at least the whole panel or they might blend into different panels because of the color and they’re having a problem matching the color. So you might have taken a spot out on the the front fender and you may need to. They may need to reclear the door and the hood while they’re at it bottom line. Is it’s expensive right yeah it is.
I SM lowered the value of the car because you no longer have the factory paint on it absolutely and so we’re trying to avoid that and so uh mistake. Number two is polishing in direct sunlight yeah, so it can be done, but it shouldn’t be done and the reason for that is we’re creating a lot of surface tension with the Heat and the Polish is diminishing faster. The carrier liquids of the Polish are, you know, dissipating faster, etc, etc. So you end up with stickiness and if you have stickiness, then you need to add a little more pressure, maybe when you’re wiping it off. So those are things that you want to avoid, and any detailing operation should not be done in direct sunlight other than observing the paint to see how well of a job you did yeah.
The direct sunlight is a great final light check right to sort of MRI, scan your job and see if you miss something under the shop lights or whatever, but yeah. If you can uh find some shade and you have to detail Outdoors, try to do that. Make weather work for you by doing this out of direct sunlight and whether you’re inside or outside, Ivan such a genius method that I doubted, even as we were doing, articles at first, which is take a towel, put it in your rinseless wash bucket. So at 256. To1 our standard dilution ring it out and have a rinseless wash dampened towel.
As your polish removal step, it will cut through the Polish in such an amazing way. It’S helpful Outdoors or indoors exactly and if you have to polish outside so you’re doing a spot repair or something like that. Uh. You have no choice: you’re, a mobile detailer. You can actually cool the panel down first using the rinseless damp and towel.
You don’t even need to dry it off start polishing when you’re done polishing wipe it off again, but you’re have to short cycle your polish meaning polish shorter Cycles between cleaning the pad in between wiping off the Polish. Is that because of the heat yeah exactly did I tell you guys out there that You’ learned something? Even if you thought you knew paint correction and detailing because I just learned something: that’s a genius method Ian! Thank you, sir okay. Uh number three mistake: using too much polish Ian, we teach folks one spray of the gold standard.
Polish is all you need on a moving pad, so it disperses all those droplets and it’s like is this all I really need, but then you use it. It works great, we teach just one spray of Polish. Why is too much polish an issue so too much polish is an issue in a lot of ways. First of all, you’re going to gum up your polishing pad and gumming up your polishing pad means it’s not cutting effectively and it’s not working as it should. Secondly, too much polish, it uh, it starts breaking down and creates dust, and there used to be a popular thing.
I think some people are still doing it priming the pad, which means they would take a whole bunch of Polish spread it all over the pad to make sure the pad didn’t, have any dry polishing areas and then they add more polish. On top of that to start polishing, yes, it can work, but it’s a great way of wasting polish first of all. Secondly, it’s a great way of creating dust, because now you have all this dry polish residue in the pad and you’re, not allowing the pad to do its job using a cool damp pad so straight from the pad washer.
And if you don’t have a pad washer. We have articles on how to clean your pad without the need for a pad washer, but a clean damp pad works a lot better and the dampness in the pad will prevent the dry polishing or the dry buffing that the P pad priming uh technique takes care Of so you’re saving yourself there and also polishes are not cheap, so putting too much polish on is wasting your money, uh and example the you know.
We have our gold standard polish one spray of the gold standard polish is equivalent to about a psize drop. So imagine everyone is telling you to use three four five. Sometimes even six psize drops on your pad we’re only telling you to use one now, if you’re, using a traditional polish that comes in a cream form that you dispense from a bottle through a cap, then yeah you’re, going to have to put a little more on The pad just to get it spread across the prad. The spraying aspect spreads the Polish completely over the pad. So, instead of having three or four drops on your pad, you now have a thousand little drops that prevent that dry polishing as well.
It’S interesting because people want to take some of these techniques and adopt them with their own products that they have just sitting in their garage. So it’s not like. They don’t want to use our product, but they’ll often ask us hey, I I don’t have your product line, but can I do this with this and it’s like? Could you put a sprayer in whatever polish you have, for example, and then it’s like well, can I use this method if I don’t have a pad washer Ian? How do you tell people who ask all these allart questions about polishing when they don’t use our system?
How do they adapt that for their world so spraying unless the Polish is designed for a sprayer, no uh, the the carrier mechanism of the the abrasive is very different in a spray polish than it is in a cream polish, so you might be able to get It to spray, but it’s not going to perform as well as it should the other aspect of that uh. What was the other part of your question? Just sometimes they’ll ask if they can. You know do this without a pad washer right, you can do it without a pad washer, but you still want to have a clean, damp pad, which means take a rinseless wash bucket put your pad in there squeeze it out a little bit put it back on Your machine put it in another bucket and spin it out, and that’s going to give you the proper dampness of pad and, at the same time, you’re going to have a clean pad and the pad should be cleaned after every section that you do so never put Clean polish on a dirty pad – and that goes to number four so going for Perfection – was one polishing in Sun too much polish was three and somehow we had this beautiful segue to don’t use a dirty pad right. Thou shalt not put clean polish on a dirty pad talk about the importance of a clean pad for every section pass of the polishing step.
So if you’ve ever polished, single stage paint and any detailer, it’s polish single stage paint will tell you the pad changes color. So your pad is yellow and now your polishing, a red car, all of a sudden, your pad turns red and the immediate response for most people is. I have to clean my pad when we’re polishing, clear coat. You get just as much transfer on your pad. It’S just you, don’t see it because it’s clear and what’s happening is you’re.
Clogging the pores of the pad the pad is creating more heat. It’S cutting less and you’re poent, potentially marring the surface. So you have all this against you, whereas if you keep your pad clean, what’s happening is you’re, basically using a new pad every time now some people have the strategy of using 10 or 15 or 20 pads when they’re polishing a car which is fine but they’re Still working with a dry pad and we want a damp pad for polishing, at least with our system, and I’ve tried many many many polishes over the years and they all work better with a damp pad. You think so yeah, it’s just you know, you’re creating less heat and also that dampness is providing a little more lubrication for the pad. It’S sliding long and off we go.
There are some companies that sell a pad priming solution or a pad conditioner, and it’s basically you know you can use just about anything to do that. It’S just a liquid. You know our yellow waffle pad. It feels like you can just work that with the gold standard polish forever, like the working time is insane. So if you know you know, if not give it a try, it is a real joy to work with.
Actually, our gold sard polish is easier to wipe off the longer. You work it now when, when you swap to a wool pad, which is our higher cut pad and our whole system is pad dependent, so it’s one liquid multiple pads, mostly wool and then the yellow waffle. And then we have a rotary jeweling pad the red thick foam. If you have a rotary, it also works on a short stroke da. But essentially, you have two pads a lot of times if you’re, using in a dual action, polisher and what’s different with the wool Ivan, is that you don’t want to overwork it.
It doesn’t give you that long working time and so number five here was overworking. The Polish can be a big mistake when you know it’s time to clean your pad, come in and have a look. First of all, you can see it on the pad. It’S quite dirty. It’S quite gummed up and all I did was this small section here, but look at the residue that how it leaves it on the paint when it looks like this.
That’S fine! That’S what you’re looking for when you start looking gummy and bunched up like this, then it’s time to clean your pet. Can you talk about what’s happening with the wool versus the foam and what folks should look out for so our polish is a combination of diminishing and regular abrasives, so non-d, diminishing and diminishing abrasives are basically abrasives that they start out as a big rock. If we can imagine it that way and as we’re polishing, that rock is rolling a little bit and the sharp edges are breaking off, so it becomes eventually a nice little ball, that’s a diminishing abrasive, so it’s a another way of scientific term is a Frable abrasive. So basically, it’s just breaking down and as you’re working it with the wool pad it’s working to polish a lot more than the foam pad.
So it’s using as much of that polish as it can possibly do and when you get to a point where it’s not cutting anymore, what happens? Is you actually get on the surface and you you’ll see it especially on a dark car? It’S starts getting sticky and and really weird looking so normally as you’re spreading the Polish and you’re working with a foam pad. It just looks as if you just spread the Polish there and when you’ve breaken broken down that abrasive too much now it starts clumping up on the surface when you see that stop you’re, just wasting your time continuing on polishing. So the cycle time with a wool pad or a cutting pad, is shorter than with a polishing pad.
So, even though we’re using the same liquid and it’s very pad dependent with the polishing pad, you might be able to do, you know left right up down left right, uh, sorry with the wool pad, whereas with the polishing pad, you can do left right up down. Left right up down, left right and just keep going for hours if you want to, but it’s with the wool pad. Eventually, you break down the abrasive enough that it doesn’t do anything anymore, the Wool by itself. So if you just take a damp wool pad, it’s going to cut the surface and if you take a damp foam pad you’re going to cut the surface, you don’t need the Polish per se. The Polish just helps it along and makes it a more efficient process.
But when you’re doing that, you have the problem or not a problem, but with the wool pad it is taking the most of the abrasive possible. So it’s using as much of that abrasive as possible. It’S breaking it down faster. Also, the wool as itself is more abrasive, so we’re removing more clear coat. So now we have that slurry of Polish and clear coat combining on the pad on the surface and that’s what causes that gummy sort of feeling and look to it and when that happens, you’re just wasting your time.
You’Re, just listening to the machine you’re not doing anything more and a little caveat on our wool pad. It is designed for a DA it can be used on a rotary, but it’s not the most efficient use of that pad. Uh you’ll get much more cut with a 21 mm stroke da than you ever will with the rotary. This is one of those where I know it. When I use it and folks out there, you may feel the same way but sort of the explanation of it.
All is something that’s really fun to listen to from you Ivan, so mistake. Number six Ian polishing at too high of a speed right so too high of a speed is a common thing and has as human beings. We equate, if I add, more speed, I’m going to get more cut and unfortunately, that’s not true or fortunately that’s, not true. Uh you’re doing is creating more noise, so your polisher gets louder, you’re, creating more heat and you’re breaking down the Polish faster, so you’re not getting the result you want and as human beings again we have this feeling of. If I put more, if I do more, it’s going to cut more in reality with a Polish or a compound, the the less you try to work it, the better.
It will work for you, so less pressure, uh, less speed is going to do a better job for you than that high speed and high speed. Also, it’s just annoying the machines get loud as they’re they’re, spinning at higher speeds and vibration and all sorts of different things. So, basically on a dual action machine you just want to maintain backing plate rotation. You don’t need any more speed. So, if you’re, if your car is relatively flat, you’re, not putting too much pressure on and you’re getting backing plate rotation at speed, two go forward at speed.
Two uh speed: three is sort of my comfort zone and the maximum I’ll ever go a speed. Four and that’s around really curvy areas where that backing plate rotation is a little more difficult now backing plate rotation on a DA is not necessary, but you lose polishing efficiency when you don’t have the backing plate rotation so that backing plate rotation adds normally about 15 Or 20 % more cut to the polishing system, then without backing plate rotation, yeah. And if you want to know, if your backing Plate’s spinning, you can put little lines and permanent marker on the backing plate. I know a lot of folks do that uh. Sometimes that can uh help you just keep track visually as to know is my backing plate, spinning or not, but speaking of the backing play, we’re talking about tools here and one polishing mistake is just using the wrong tool and using the wrong tool.
Big mistake for well using the wrong tool so, like we said using, you know a 3-inch polisher to do that or inversely trying to use a six in. You know a 6 in or 8 in or 9 in pad on a rotary uh to do fine little minute details. It can be done, but is it the most efficient use of your time? No, and do you have more risks in doing that? Yes, so basically find the tool for the job and if you only buy one polisher buy somewhere around a 5 in backing plate and that’s going to allow you to do some details at the same time, uh uh get in you know efficiently.
Do the whole surface of the vehicle, so you want to try to stay in that 5 to 6 inch range. If you can with rotaries, we can go up to 10inch pads and we can go down to a 1inch pad. So if you only have a rotary, you can buy different backing plates and a lot of people. This is a question we get. A lot is: oh, this rotary, I’m looking at comes with a 7inch backing plate, but you guys don’t sell 7inch pads.
Well, the backing plate. Just literally screws onto the machine, takes a couple seconds and a rotary. You can change from a 1 in Pad 2 in 3 in 5 in 6, in 7, in 8, in and 10 in, so your backing plate is very adaptable, with a rotary with a DA you’re, pretty much stuck with the size it comes with. So that’s just something you be careful of and be mindful of, and if you’re shopping for a polisher look at one. That suits your needs.
So just because everyone is telling you that this is the greatest polisher in the world. It may not suit your need for what you’re doing if you’re, just wanting to enhance your paint, do a light polish gloss it up a little random, orbital sander from the hardware store, or maybe your basement is all you ever need. But if you’re wanting to make polishing your life, then you need more than one tool. You’Ll need a variety of tools, so it’s just be careful. What you’re buying don’t necessarily fall for the hype?
You don’t need to get everything uh immediately start with one and then add to your collection, as the need goes. If I have a new car I’d, rather have our 20 or $ 30 palm sander from Menard’s spend the money to invest on the Lake Country, pad washer, yeah and just gloss up. My paint constantly clean my pad spray, the gold standard polish boom, it’s onehanded, which is what I love about. Those Palm Sanders get a little bit of cut and a lot of gloss, as opposed to going out and spending $ 250 $ 300 on a nice polisher, which honestly, nobody cares. What polisher you use, it’s all about the the results and you can get extremely glossy paint with the sander so yeah.
I do agree if you’re doing this for a living, though you’re going to need more than that uh yeah. And speaking of that, though, some of us professional detailers guilty of this uh overthinking one of the top paint correction mistakes Ivan yeah. Definitely as detailers. It’S part of our DNA to overthinks overthink things uh, but overthinking. The process is not going to make it easier for you, it’s going to make it more difficult and by overthinking there’s people that they have a shelf and on that shelf they might have 18 different polishes, and one of questions we get is this: a heart paint Is it a soft paint just do it, try it and see, there’s no, no way of saying that all these cars, so all Subarus, have soft paint.
No, not true. All all black GM is super soft paint again not true they’re all made in different f factories and the clear coat. Let’S say a GM vehicle right, the factory, that’s in one city might use ppf or a PPG paint. The factory. That’S in another city might use BASF, it’s whatever they have and they’re not changing out the clear coat because it’s a white car or red car or black car.
It’S all the same clear coat. So it’s just. We see defects a little differently in Black than we do in other colors. That’S why people assume that the black GM paint is so horrible when, in reality, it’s no different than the white GM paint. It’S just the base color, underneath the clear coat is what we’re seeing and we’re working on the clear coat.
So don’t overthink the process. Do a test spot enjoy your life just for the people out there, because people have commented recently. Sometimes I ask the questions that people out there are thinking, so I’m thinking of the people in this Ian someone doesn’t know what softer hard clear coat. Even is you mention it? You act like people know what it is you’re telling them not to overthink it, but maybe they’re overthinking it and we’re going to indulge them.
They want to know what that even what does that even mean hard or soft clear to me, it’s really easy to get a defect out of Subaru paint if it’s quote unquote soft, but it’s harder to finish it down perfectly cuz everything you do affects it in A really visible way, whereas, if it’s hard paint that scratch is going to be harder to get out, but it’s not going to show as many crazy like little ticks as I’m finishing it down with my da exact, we use a rotary to finish out paint here At the iy detail, but yeah just hard versus soft paint, you always give great explanations. Well, you just you just gave one. Okay, nothing add! I feel good guys. I got it.
Uh number, nine, so a Reliance On Tools over technique. I mean this is kind of in the overthinking category. This is kind of in the spending too much money on all the fanciness out there uh tools over technique Ivan this was your idea. Uh go yeah so put any polisher in my hand, any pad and any polish, and I will figure it out to get you a good finish, and that is what you should be going for uh. You know, we see it in our Facebook group.
People ask a question: is oh I’m working on this car and this is the problem I’m having and a lot of people’s first reaction is: go out and buy this go out and buy this go out and buy this? No, you don’t need to go out and buy anything else, just figure out the system that you have uh in my shops. We used one liquid three pads and that’s all we ever used, no matter what the vehicle was, because my technicians and myself we were able to figure out exactly what the paint needed so read the paint and figure out what it is in the paint that is Causing that issue and again you know, I’ve had some people that they’ve polished, 500 cars and all of a sudden one car is giving them a problem and they want to ditch their system and buy a new system. Well, what about the other 499 cars that you did with this system and it worked out beautifully then, all of a sudden, you have one car, that’s causing a problem, and now you’ve got to go out and buy new tools, pads and polishes. No, that car might be the problem, not you not the system, so learn to use your tools and the more you learn to use your tools and your polishes, the better you will become as opposed to relying on.
Oh this one isn’t working. Let me try this one, this one isn’t working. Let me try this one and you’ve seen it your shop used to look like this too. You have a Shelf with 18 or 20 or 25 different polishes on it and on one car you might try 10 of them before you figure out which one you want to use kind of an exhausting process yeah. It doesn’t really make a lot of sense if you’re doing website articles.
If you’re Eddie cologne EC details, you know you you can have that you can have that shelf like that, but no, and that was a younger version of myself too, and I I had fun doing it. But I look back and I was like what is my time worth, whereas your methods I have and I’ve learned have nothing to do with like how you feel you’ve just tested this stuff things work, it’s it’s actually not uh, it’s not more than a science right, Like ex yeah, it’s not what you think or feel there’s not magic fairy dust in the air and the sun’s at a certain angle, and you know the moons that and like all of a sudden, you just get that perfect panel. It’S like no! It just comes down to how this stuff actually works. It’S science exactly yeah, it’s you know: you’re using abrasives you’re using pads and you’re, using a machine figure it out.
Okay, we’re going to get to the number one mistake in just a second: I almost went there um, but number 10 of our actual list. Here is not doing a test spot and we recently did a detailing 101 series about this. Not doing a test spot test spots are huge talk about the importance of a test spot and how to do them right. So a test spot is very simple and what you’re doing in a test spot is just confirming what you’re going to be doing for the rest of the vehicle and the test spot is a very simple process start with your least aggressive method. Now some Vehicles we look at and we know we need to go to the wool pad it’s just a given, but if you’re a little unsure as to what you need to do then start with, let’s say our yellow, our yellow pad, so the yellow pad spray.
A gold standard do a little section, wipe it off and look at it is this satisfactory. Is this all I need do I need to go to two steps? Maybe maybe not. Is it giving me the gloss that I want great now? If it’s not giving you the results you want, then you need to adapt or if it seemed like too easy.
Well, maybe go to the the red pad and just try that uh there are some Vehicles I’ll look at them and I won’t even do a test spot I’ll, just break out the red pad and start polishing, and that’s all I need to do because the car Is in great shape and there are other vehicles where we look at it and go yeah. No, this one needs a little more, so a test spot is really just a verification of this is what I think I should be doing on this vehicle. Let me try it out and then, if it works great continue on, if it doesn’t, then I need to do another test spot. One mistake some people make as well is they do all their test spots on the same spot? So they’ll they’ll choose a two foot by two foot section: do a test spot there and do their second test spot on that same section and the third one as opposed to going to another spot.
So you need to have a a fresh, clean spot to do a test spot on, to really confirm what you’re doing I’m going to go back to the overthinker part of my head, though, which is there is a reality that different panels of the car could have Different, oh yeah could be repainted yeah yeah. So then your test spot for one area is not going to work the same as the other area right and there are ways of identifying. If car has been repainted uh visually you can. You can usually spot it uh. If not, you can use tools like a paint, death gate, but again most cars will not have had body work done to them, so you’re safe there, and even if it’s had body work done to it, if you’re just doing an enhancement.
Polish, it’s going to flow and you’re not even going to notice it uh, but yeah. Some repaints are really that bad that that one panel, no matter what you do, he won’t be able to fix it all right. Well, and if that comes up, you have to try to figure out meet the moment. Uh send us a message, we’ll we’ll we’ll try to help. You ask in the detail Facebook group as well.
You could post a pick say: here’s the make model Year by the way the Facebook group super safe spot. Please ask to join if you have an already on Facebook, we got about 48,000 members and it’s just a safe place. People have said recently in the YouTube comments, which is where a lot of people reach out to us. Hey yours and you know this one other group are like the ones where I feel the safest to ask detailing questions. It’S friendly and anyone who’s a bully in there gets kicked out so uh you’re not going to really see any of that.
So it’s a really safe spice to ask questions. If you don’t necessarily want to reach out to us directly uh you asked for for it. You got it the secret sauce, the number one most important mistake in paint correction Ivan, and that is something you’ve talked about many times too much heat yeah. The paint doesn’t like heat. No, so let’s back up back in the 60s 70s we had lacquer base paints.
They reacted well to heat and the techniques that a lot of people still use are still referring to that lacquer based paint. We don’t have lacer based paint anymore. Thankfully, we have clear coat, doesn’t much better job, but that clear coat is a plastic and what happens when you heat plastic. It gets soft and that softness means that the Polish isn’t doing what it’s supposed to do. You’Re getting false results as well, because once it cools back down, it may not be the same as when it was swollen and hot uh.
If you have a paint thickness gauge, you can very easily see the adverse effects of heat, and that is Polish. Put a little bit of pressure on your machine, maybe turn the speed up. You’Ll create extra heat when you create extra heat. If you taken a measurement before and then I use a laser pointer for this, so a laser pointer on a stand off the car. So it’s you know not moving pointed at one spot.
That’S where I put my paint thickness gauge measure it again right after you finish polishing and not after you, polish, for half an hour, but you just did the test spot well, you might have went from 105 microns to 108 microns in that test spot, but you’ve Been polishing, what you’ve done is you’ve swollen the paint and heat causes swelling just in like in our bodies. It’S the same thing and it’s the same for paint. So when you have that swelling you first of all get a false effect. Secondly, when you soften that clear coat, your abrasive isn’t working as well as it should so. Heat is not going to help you in polishing.
It’S actually going to hinder you uh, and you know we go back to that rock that we had right in the abrasive. If we Imagine That Rock And when we’re polishing, if the paint stays cool, that rock is gliding across the paint and shearing or taking off a bit of that clear coat when we heat that clear coat a little bit and it gets soft and rubbery now what Happens is that rock instead of gliding across and cutting as it should be, is digging in and rolling and digging in and rolling, and when it’s doing that you’re, basically reducing the cut to zero, but as human beings. We have the impression that if I just add a little more pressure to the machine or I turn up the speed just a little bit more, it’s going to cut more wrong uh. You know when I uh when I had my employees, and I see someone doing that because intuitively as human beings, that’s what we do, the result isn’t what we want. Let’S add a little more pressure.
Let’S add a little more speed and I’d walk by and I’d see an employee. Do that I’d, say whoa! You need to get this job done faster, so slow down the slower. You move the faster you work and the slower your polisher moves, the faster you work as well. It’S, like I say, counterintuitive, but give it a try and you’ll be pleasantly surprised and, at the same time, you’re not working as much so.
Everything that creates heat and polishing is a bad thing, and that is excessive speed, excessive pressure and dirty pads, all three of those will create heat and when you’re creating heat you’re, not polishing correctly well Ivan. I encourage folks who disagree to chime in on this YouTube. article, If you’re, not watching us on YouTube uh, we do answer the comments there uh, but do leave us a f star review. If you could on your podcast platform or or subscribe or whatever it is, you can do to support us. It’S free and it’s a way to continue uh us helping you, because when we get support, we can continue on as well.
But I I know a lot of people are still going to use heat, they’re still going to use pressure, and I just encourage them to uh to listen to you, because I used to be that person as well. Sometimes I crank up the heat and I’m like what am I doing like it’s a natural instinct, I’m like I’m getting the result. I want so I’m going to do this, but I know I’m swelling the paint, so whatever I’m seeing is a temporary fix and I’m like I, I don’t even know why I’m doing it and that’s again listen to Ivan cuz. Sometimes you go by the Nick thing, which is like I feel like this is working and Ian just like uh, there’s logic here: there’s science, there’s chemistry like just trust me: I’ve been doing this longer than uh you’ve been alive. So I encourage folks just I’ve learned my lessons and I I encourage give it a try, give it a try, uh and if folks want to learn more.
We have an entire playlist about the gold standard polishing system. So we’re going to put that right in the center of the screen Ivan. They should go over there and and do what well click on it. Follow it enjoy.
