Well I made one of the biggest boneheaded mistakes last night, when I ONR'd my car in the garage with minimal lighting. Apparently one of my drying towels caught some kind of debrit in them and I ended up swirling the hell out of the entire car Didn't even notice until I went to the gas station and saw the hood and was like 'omfg.'

I'm like, severely depressed lol. My question is...how often is too often for polishing? Since these are very light swirls (no deep imperfections) but are all over, I was thinking just doing Sonus SFX2 on a white pad over the entire car, and maybe SFX3 to finish it off (though I dont really think I'll need to). I also have Meguiars Professional Polish #7 but I'm not sure if that has more cutting power than SFX2.

Last time (and only time) I machined polished my car was like 4 months...but I'm just curious how often is too often or considered unsafe? Or should I just bite it and use NXT often to hide the imperfections until summer and give it the full treatment? I'm pretty sure nxt will hide most of the swirls since it does have pretty good masking properties...but it just doesnt last worth a damn.

Anywho, any advice would be greatly appreciated...and bad lesson learned on my part

 

There is no difinitive answer to your question because you don't know how much clear you removed the first time ..

I shy away from polishing neglected cars more than twice. My own because they don't get that way I have polished out every spring and spot polished issues.

What you did is exactly the reason I'm leary about washing the car in this mannor. Matter of fact in the winter I only spray it off or a proper hand wash at home when the temps. are in the mid 30s or higher.

 

Probably your best option............

 

We are talking about twice a year right?

 

No..twice.

 

Geez...really?

Polishing is that harmful?

What do you do after you've polished twice?

 

Dale just meant really neglected vehicles I think.

I only polish my vehicle once a year and do some touch-ups here and there if I really need to.

 

Oh ok...thanks Denzil for the clarification.

 

Ya I was meaning customers cars ... some are pretty neglected ..

 

Cool...

Wonder what mine would be considered...probably neglected...ha ha

 

Thickness - a clear coat has a thickness of 1.5 – 2.0 Mils, removing more that 0.4 mil (0.0004") of clear coat will cause premature paint film failure. As a point of reference two sheets of Saran wrap placed on top of each other measure 1.5Mil (0.0015") a surface scratch that will `catch' your fingernail is approximately 0.004" deep and will usually require wet sanding and refinishing. There comes a point when you must judge wither removing a scratch will compromise the clear coat and if so you’ll have to ‘live’ with the imperfection

Using a moderate to light polish; and utilizing a rotary polisher will remove approximately 0.000025 Inches (0.635 Microns) from the paint surface (they are many variables such as polish/compound and speed / pressure used that may affect the paint removed)

 

Wow...

That is helpful information.

 

Yeah I made the mistake of polishing my car too many times and I am paying for it. My clearcoat is slowly going. I am going to have to repaint the whole car anyways so it did not matter too much to me.

 

Alternate between a paint polish and a paint cleaner (which is non abrasive).