What does car polish do on a clear coat paint?

[bellwilliam]

I've always read that car polish will remove top layer of paint so you can get next layer of shiny new paint.but how does this work with clear coat paint. since the coat is clear, why would you remove the top layer? also why does so called "paint enhancer" work, if there is already a clear coat on top of the paint, how is it possible to bring more "richer" "deeper gloss" color to the bottom paint?the so called 3 step systems: first to polish, second to condition the paint, third to wax. how does this work on a clear coat? since almost all cars now has clear coat, why would anyone buy polish or rubbing compound?thanks for all your help !!

[Stang2Vibe]

Ok, a lot to address in this post. I'll try to do my best here.--Polish does not remove the top layer of paint/clearcoat. It is neither a chemical or physical abrasive. It is mainly a gloss enhancer and some polishes have additives that enable them to smooth out the surface a little more on a microscopic level.--Clear coats can dull and/or yellow. Dulling is usually caused by surface contamination or abrasion of the surface. Yellowing is caused by aging and environmental conditions. Sometimes it is desirable to intentionally abrade the surface of the clear coat to remove scratches and/or surface contamination (these are the primary uses of rubbing compound). After using a rubbing compound, the surface of a clearcoated paint job will be noticably dull, like somebody wet sanded it with a very high grit sandpaper (which is effectively what rubbing compound does). You would then have to restore the surface gloss with another agent, like polishing compound, which contains microscopic sized abrading components. It's like sanding a piece of wood, the higher grit you work up to, the finer the finish will be. If you start out with too fine of a grit, it will take you forever to sand that wood, so you want to work your way up. As for yellowing of the clear coat, there is usually little that can be done at that point other than a new paint job because the yellowing is usually caused by overexposure to the sun and penetrates all layers of the clear coat, not just the surface. Fortunately, newer clear coats are very resistant to the effects of the sun and they are getting better all the time. It will take many years now to yellow most modern clear coats even with minimal care of the surface. So this should not be a factor with newer cars.--You are correct that products that are called "paint enhancers" usually are not exactly that. The product will never touch the paint and, therefore, not actually enhance the paint. It enhances the look of the paint by enhancing the clear coat.--A few words about clear coated paint jobs. The layer of the paint job that you are referring to as paint is technically called the "base coat". When metal, plastic, or fiberglass surfaces are "painted", there are actually several coats of different products being applied. For simplicity's sake, I will comment only on automotive finishes. Bare metal has to be treated so that rust will be deterred from forming. This is usually done with one or more coats of metal primer (typically the first layer of a car's finish). For plastic and fiberglass, which will unevenly draw in a base coat and make it blotchy, a surface sealer must be applied to make it non-porous. After the surface is primed or sealed (depending on what material you are painting), a base coat is applied. This is usually applied in several layers for more surface protection and even application of the base coat. The base coat is what gives the finish its' color. For metallic paints, very small metal flakes are actually mixed in with the paint and color pigments to give the metallic sparkle effect when the job is complete. When the base coat has dried, the finish is pretty dull and will not be durable. That is why the clear coat is applied. Clear coat is also applied in several coats to build up more layers of protection and give the finish its gloss. There are several different products that can be added to the clear coat when it is mixed to give it various degrees of hardness and gloss when the paint is cured. Clear coat itself will take a very long time to harden on its own, so a hardener must be used. Gloss enhancers do just that and are mixed in with the clear coat and hardeners to give the desired finished look. Most modern finishes are then heat cured. They are put into a chamber where high heat is used to "dry" and harden the finish. Heat curing also usually increases the surface's durability. Now, hopefully, you better understand the effort that is put into every car's finish and how the different layers all have to work together to do the job.--Now that you understand that the color is actually under the clear coat and that the colored base coat has little if any gloss to it we will approach how we make the paint look "richer" and have a deeper gloss. What we call "gloss" is the human eye's perception of how light is reflected from a surface. The more reflection, the glossier it looks. To increase the clearcoat's reflective qualities, you want it to be as smooth and clear as possible. To achieve this, we use products to clean and polish the surface. Cleaning the surface is easy to understand--we simply remove the surface's contaminants. To smooth out a surface on such a fine level is more complex and can be approached in several ways. Exactly how each different product goes about making the surface smoother and therefore more reflective is usually a trade secret and protected by patents, etc. Each product uses different chemical compounds and additives that try their best to adhere to the surface and smooth it out on a microscopic level to give the best and deepest shine.--The look of the surface's gloss or shine will also be affected by the type of ambient lighting that is present. Professional detailers that work on show cars will actually take into great consideration the type of lighting that the car will be shown in. They have different products that they will use depending on whether the car is to be shown outdoors or indoors. If it is to be shown indoors, they will use different products based on the type of light bulbs being used to light the building. (This is actually true, I saw some professional detailers discussing this a bit on a Sunday cable TV automotive show and read about it in magazines). Exactly what is used for what type of lighting is determined by the pros and even they debate amongst themselves over the specifics of what to use. In general, wax is used for outdoor shows and polishes are preferred for the indoors. Beyond that, these guys will probably never tell the general public exactly what they prefer to use in each lighting condition, so I can't really tell you much more about it because I don't know myself.--With a "3 step system", each step has a specific function to achieve the overall goal. With the first step, the goal is to clean the surface as thoroughly as is possible. This is the most critical step to the whole process because it forms the foundation for enhancing the surface. When the surface is properly cleaned, it will not have the most glossy look to it and will not feel slippery smooth like when you are done waxing. The surface will feel sort of dry and have some shine to it, but it will not usually have a deep gloss to it. The second step is to build up the shine and deepen the look of the clearcoat. This is usually done with a polish and glazing product. The surface is made as smooth as possible on a microscopic level to enhance the gloss. Think of this like looking into the shallow water on a lake. If the surface is very smooth, the water looks shiny like glass and when you look into it, you can see pretty deeply into the water. If the surface is rippled, it loses its' glassy quality and you can't see very deeply into it. This is because of the way that the light entering your eyes is reflected. The same pretty much holds true with the clearcoat. Once the surface is smoothed to enhance the gloss, we now want to protect the surface because a lot of work has gone into it to get it to look good so far. The primary effect of the third step, the wax, is to protect the finish and preserve it. At this point, you don't really want to use a cleaner wax because you would be stepping back toward step one. A pure carnuba wax is usually recommended because it is very effective at protecting the finish while not removing the glaze you applied in step two to smooth the surface. If the wax layer is maintained, most of the work you did on the surface will be preserved. However, building up too many layers of wax is not good either. Overwaxing will also dull the
surface because the reflectivity of the surface is reduced. That is why after a while you need to strip off the wax and go all the way back to step one where you are left with the clean, pure surface to achieve the best shine.Sorry this is all so long but it is hard to explain things so someone will understand without telling the whole story. Hope all this helps!

[piffy]

Good Lord! King of Long Posts is right. This is the first one I've had the privilege of reading. Very informative, thanks for the insight. Makes me want to go out and wash/wax my car every weekend to make it all shiny and new.

[bellwilliam]

thanks, very informative !!!!how about when someone says the paint is oxidized, are they talking about the base coat or the clear coat?

[Stang2Vibe]

When one says that the paint is oxidized, that always refers to the top layer that is exposed to the atmosphere. With a clearcoat paint, it is the clearcoat that gets oxidized. It makes the clearcoat look dull and is usually easily removed with a clay bar or by doing the 3 step process. When paint oxidizes, such as with an enamel or other finish (non-clearcoated), generally the paint coloring pigment falls out of the surface layer and it gets dry. If you run your fingers across such a surface when it is dry, you will get a chalky residue on your fingers that looks tinted a pastel version of the car's color. Some also refer to this as "dead paint". This condition can usually be cured by using a high speed electric buffer and some rubbing compound or Imperial Hand Glaze, depending upon the severity of the oxidation. In some extreme cases, such as cars that sit in a desert junkyard for a few decades, the paint can be ruined most or all the way through and just has to be repainted.