Article in Autoweek - single stage vs clear

[Joe V]

Autoweek magazine recently had an article about detailing which was interesting....the detailers they featured pushed orbital machines but in every photo they were using rotary machines...probably the article was directed toward people new to machine polishing.

 

Anyway, back to my question. There was a quote from one of the pro detailers that polishes made for older single stage paints contained mechanical abrasives, and polishes made for clear coats contained chemical polishes that basically work by dissolving the clear away in very small amounts.

 

I always thought the opposite was true because I've worked on some old laquer paints that are extremely hard and I thought only heat and a chemical breakdown would work. Additionally, Hi-temp products seem to have been around a very long time and their directions typically say to work the product until it is gone, which indicates a chemical polish that evaporates.

 

Could you shed any light on this without giving away any secrets?

 

Thanks!

Joe

[Anthony Orosco]

From what I remember all polishes have some form of abrasives....even wax can have an abrasive, which is talcum powder. Chemical cleaners can do only so much (called "heat induced") apart from an abrasive.

 

I personally do not know of any chemical cleaner that can remove or level down wet sanding scratches or deep marring out of hard clear which is why most compounds have some sort of mechanical properties to it.

 

If a chemical cleaner alone was all that was needed to "disolve" clear then why not buff with WD-40, after all it cleans through a chemical correct? Now a paint thinner can and will "dissolve" paint but it would take some extreme heat to do so with a buffer and product, which would most likely burn the paint or melt the buffer

 

Abrasives can be very fine. Look at automotive clay, it works by way of a very fine abrasive but you may not see much if any evidence of marring when using a clay bar.

 

Anthony