Introduction to Machine Polishing
Polishing, whether done by hand or machine on paints or even gloss plastics, is simply the mechanical (or physical) elimination of imperfections by surface abrasion. Polishing may be done on various surfaces, including paintwork and gloss plastics.
Abrading the top layer to remove a negligible quantity is the primary step in the procedure. This, in turn, evens out the surface by eliminating the imperfections and making it flatter. This also allows light to bounce off in a more consistent direction, which levels the optical finish, giving the surface the appearance of being deeper and shiner.
Polishing is thus somewhat like giving an automobile a facial!
Many people consider machine polishing to be the shadowy side of detailing, or at the very least, a shadowy art within the field. It is true that this is where a lot of professional detailers make their living, but it does not imply that you cannot master the method and almost immediately produce excellent results. It’s not quite as difficult as most people believe it to be, anyway.
Keeping the paintwork on a car in great condition is a difficult task that requires a lot of time and effort. All too often, it is marred by swirls generated by improper washing procedures, scratches caused by bushes, etching caused by bird droppings, and even markings caused by the downfall of acid rain.
The removal of these imperfections by hand may be very labour-consuming, and the removal of some of these flaws requires the involvement of a machine for polishing. Machine polishing can also remove flaws that cannot be eliminated by hand.
Machine Polishing Progress with Advances in Technology
Advances in technology have made it possible for even inexperienced users to achieve professional-looking results in a process that was previously reserved exclusively for professional detailers. As a result, machine polishing has become increasingly popular among individuals who are passionate about car care.
In this article, we look at the many different kinds of flaws that are likely to be met, as well as the various kinds of machine polishers that are available, so that we may deal with them in a way that is both safe and effective.
Paintwork
Your car’s paint job is done in stages, each one adding another layer to the final product. Before the bare metal body panel can be painted, it must first be covered with a primer, normally a greyish-white colour.
This is done to guarantee that the paint will stick to the surface more effectively and to boost the paint’s longevity. After that, the base coat (colour) is applied above everything else, and
the overall thickness of this layer varies depending on the manufacturer. After that, a clear coat or lacquer is placed on top in order to shield the colour pigment underneath it.
This results in the production of a sealant that is transparent to the human eye, which improves the appearance of the colour as well as the gloss and helps prevent the base coat from being scratched or oxidised. Importantly, the clearcoat also has UV protection ingredients, which are meant to prevent the fading produced by the sun’s ultraviolet radiation.
The UV protection components are lighter than the other sealing elements, and when the clear coat dries, they tend to settle towards the higher layers. It is crucial to keep this in mind during machine polishing, as it will affect the results.
Types of Machine Polisher
Two types of machine polisher are present.
Rotary Machine Polishers
The ability of these products to swiftly fix paint imperfections makes them a popular choice among professional detailers. The polisher head is connected in a straight line to the driving mechanism, which makes the head rotate clockwise.
This effectively creates heat, which enables a more aggressive cutting action; nevertheless, in the hands of someone who is not educated in its use, there is a great danger of “burning” through the paintwork and exposing the primer that lies below.
In the case of severe flaws or clearcoats resistant to scratching, rotary polishers are superior to ordinary dual-action polishers in terms of their ability to remove faults quickly and efficiently. The Dodo Juice Spin Doctor, the 3M Rotary Polisher, and FLEX’s famous PE14-2 are all examples of rotary polishers. In the hands of someone who is appropriately skilled, rotary polishers are capable of successfully removing almost any kind of paint flaw.
Dual Action Machine Polishers
These machines, which are also known as DAs or random orbital polishers, were first created for use by amateur vehicle care enthusiasts because of their working mechanism, making them naturally safer to operate. Because of this, they were initially designed for use by the amateur.
A Dual Action Machine Polisher has a head that revolves in a concentric circular motion on a spindle, which rotates in a larger circulating motion itself. The oscillation that is produced as a consequence generates a “wobble,” which prevents an excessive buildup of heat on the surface, hence reducing the likelihood of the paintwork being charred.
The absence of heat generation has traditionally limited their usefulness for eliminating paint flaws to those that are less severe; however, recent developments in technology have rendered this limitation obsolete.
As a consequence of this, the next generation of Dual Action polishers has gained a lot of popularity among professional detailers as a result of the fact that they are simpler to manage, generate less vibration, and yet deliver good results. Most contemporary DAs can eliminate
all but the most challenging flaws if the appropriate pad and compound are used in conjunction with sufficient amounts of time.
Conclusion
If you are thinking about beginning machine polishing, choosing a machine polisher will come down to a combination of many different factors, and it can be challenging to know where to start.
This is especially true when you consider the extensive wide of polishing pads and compounds available on the market.
A range of popular machine polishers with appropriate, easy-to-use pads and compounds into convenient machine polishing kits to make the procedure simpler and more convenient.
For those aficionados who already own a polishing machine, there is also a selection of polishing kits available, each of which has pad and compound combinations that have been tried and proven effective.