Polishing a car with your own hands during financial difficulties is the best choice of the type of polishing. Today, the cost of these works is a significant part of the average salary of most motorists. The need for polishing the paintwork of the car body over time loses its appeal. Its surface is gradually affected by many different negative factors, including temperature changes, rain, hail, road gravel, leading to damage. As a result, there are chips, scratches and cracks that are not visible to the naked eye. Dust particles accumulate in cracks on the body coating, which reduce the mirror factory Shine on the car. The varnish can be scratched to metal, in the future on this place there will be corrosion.
Often the damage is so severe that polishing the car body does not help, and there is a need for partial or even complete repainting. Application of automotive enamel is a difficult and time-consuming procedure. In compliance with all technological subtleties is not always a full guarantee of high-quality painting.
Possible defects after painting
Caverns and craters of the upper layer.
After drying, the color does not match.
The effect of shagreen or orange peel.
In some areas appear matte spots.
The surface of the varnish is grainy.
Appearance of paint drips.
Such defects are rarely avoided. More than half of the cases require grinding with further polishing. Experts advise before grinding and polishing to withstand about a month for complete hardening of the newly applied automotive enamel. Painting and final polishing – time-consuming work that requires specific skills of masters. If we consider the abrasive polishing of the body with his hands, this work is not so difficult and not too expensive.
How to Polish a car body
If it is possible to avoid deep scratches and chips that require repainting, the microcracks and aging of the metal still make themselves felt. These minute defects occur quietly and gradually accumulate. Economical option to restore the mirror Shine of the enamel of the car is its self-polishing. Multiple scratches that have not reached the primer layer, matte spots on the enamel, roughness and scuffs can be removed without resorting to professional body builders.
During abrasive polishing, the top layer of enamel with a thickness of 5 microns is removed, this is enough to obtain the desired result. At the plant, in the production of cars, the body coating is usually from 100 to 150 microns. So you can safely Polish the body about 20 times. To make sure the end result and not to wipe the enamel to the primer, you need to find data on the thickness of the paint layer for the brand of your car, or measure it with a special device. Making sure the sufficient thickness of the enamel layer, and decided to Polish the body yourself, you must first choose high-quality materials: grinding paste, consumables, tools.
Than to Polish the car?
At selection of polishes it is necessary to consider size of cracks. Deep cracks require the use of highly abrasive compounds. With deep scratches, the optimal effect will be from polishes, which are able to enrich the color of the coating. If your car is bought recently, and on its body there are only small muddy spots, it is enough to buy a reducing paste without abrasive particles.
For each type of paste, a separate grinding wheel is used. Before going to the store for the paste, you need to assess the condition of the coating of the car: if it shows small scratches visible on the washed car in bright light, you need to buy two types of Polish for restoration – abrasive and with a small amount of abrasive. Abrasive polishes just level the coating, removing the thin outer layer.
After that, the body coating becomes more vulnerable, and it is advisable to apply a protective paste on it. Also, we must not forget that to cover the body "metallic" or "mother of pearl" used some specialized tools. In addition to the constituent components, polishes are different in their consistency, scope and cost.
Polishing paste
Their consistency is thick, well kept on vertical surfaces, used for body treatment on all sides. The cost of polishing pastes is higher than other means, but such pastes contain components that increase the color saturation.
Liquid polishes
Such fluids quickly drain onto a vertical surface, therefore they are more often used on horizontal body parts: trunk, hood and roof. The advantage of liquid polishes is that they allow for long-term polishing, without fear of deep rubbing of the varnish to the
Aerosols
Such polishes are quickly applied to the body and convenient to use. The disadvantage is the low content of polishing components, since most of it consists of a solvent.
Surface preparation for polishing
For high-quality restoration polishing, it is necessary to prepare the body surface and the car itself well:
The body must be thoroughly washed and dried.
Bituminous spots and drops of anticorrosive should be removed.
To do this, you can use special tools or white spirit.
When polishing outdoors, it is best to choose a place in the shade, in a dry place and at a temperature of 10 to 25 degrees. If you have a separate box or garage, it is better to refuse street polishing. The room must have ventilation, as polishing produces a lot of dust.
Chips, deep scratches, rubber and plastic surfaces must be covered with tape.
Provide bright lighting. The best option would be fixtures on four sides and a fifth on the ceiling. In this case, the light will evenly illuminate the body.
The result of the preparation should be a completely clean car. The whole process is best done indoors without the possibility of dust, with ventilation, avoiding direct sunlight, as the polishing materials will dry quickly, making polishing difficult.
Continued in the second part......