waxing, polishing, buffing? whats the difference?

whats the difference between all of them? what do i need to do them myself?

OK, after working at a detail shop I think I can handle this one.

The most basic is waxing. You can do this in a variety of ways. Some perfer an orbital waxer. At our shops we had air-powered orbital hand held waxer...you stuck a wax pad to it and applied wax after the car had dried. After the liquid/pasty wax turned hazy, you remove it, either with a lint-free cotton towel, or a microfiber towel (microfiber has even less lint and is available at any autozone or pepboys...but isn't really necessary). Basically, there are plenty of waxes. I stay away from the spray on wax-as-you-dry products, as I don't think they are as good. I like a liquid or paste. You can check out the detail section under cars in general section to get recommended products. Meguiar's is good, turtle wax is a classic, etc. Basically you all you really need is cotton towels and the wax. This will do a basic protection for your paint and make the paint feel smoother and shine. You want to do this once or 2x a month or after every wash...I tend to do it every 2 weeks at least.

Buffing...you need an oribital air powered or electric powered buffer and pads and compound. This is done for 1 of 3 reasons.
1) to remove swirls or very small scratches in paint
2) to get crap off your paint...such as sap sometimes
3) simply to renew your paint and bring it back to as close to new as you are going to get, by removing a layer of oxidation.

This is not something you want to do too frequently though, as you are literally taking off a layer of paint and the clearcoat. This can be a little overwhelming and I do not consider myself an expert by any means. There were plenty of people at my shop ALOT more experienced at this than I, so basically, if you want to learn good techniques I would seriously suggest checking out both the detail section of AF AND http://www.stealth316.com/2-paintrestore.htm

Anyway, once you buff the car with a cutting compound, you will leave marks, so you switch to a polish and difference pad to finish the job.

Seriously though, buffing if done incorrectly can damage your paint, this is not said to scare you, simply to advise you to check out hte detailing section to get their professional advice as they have alot more knowledge than I do.

Also just a heads up, almost all waxes/compounds/polishes ruin black rubber and plastic trim. If they get on it and are allowed to dry, they leave white crap on there that is next to impossible to get off. My suggestion is get a toothbrush or paintbrush (wrap ducttape arround metal base of bristles so as not to scratch anything) and use that and windex or some all-purpose cleaner and get any wax off any black trim as quickly as possible.

Also while washing and before waxing, using a claybar is a great idea...which Yogs actually wrote a tutorial for in the FAQ, so I'd check that out as well.

...You want to do this once or 2x a month or after every wash...I tend to do it every 2 weeks at least.

Vert, you wax your carevery 2 weeks? How long does it take you to do that every session? Cause when I do my car, it takes me close to 4 hours just to wax and take off the wax. Am I just slow?? :rolleyes:

haha, well i work(ed) at a dealership detail center, so whenever we had a car come in for a wash and wax, we had an hour to wash, clay, wax, vacuum, do windows, wheels, and tires, and whatever else needed to be done to make it look perfect...so I got really good at flying through it. If I'm not rushed and take my time, I can easily spend a few hours washing and waxing her, but generally it only takes me an hour to two. Any longer usually entails a full inner or outer detail. But another advantage I have is excellent tools to make everything go much faster.

haha, well i work(ed) at a dealership detail center, so whenever we had a car come in for a wash and wax, we had an hour to wash, clay, wax, vacuum, do windows, wheels, and tires, and whatever else needed to be done to make it look perfect...so I got really good at flying through it. If I'm not rushed and take my time, I can easily spend a few hours washing and waxing her, but generally it only takes me an hour to two. Any longer usually entails a full inner or outer detail. But another advantage I have is excellent tools at my disposal to make everything go much faster.

haha, well i work(ed) at a dealership detail center, so whenever we had a car come in for a wash and wax, we had an hour to wash, clay, wax, vacuum, do windows, wheels, and tires, and whatever else needed to be done to make it look perfect...so I got really good at flying through it. If I'm not rushed and take my time, I can easily spend a few hours washing and waxing her, but generally it only takes me an hour to two. Any longer usually entails a full inner or outer detail. But another advantage I have is excellent tools at my disposal to make everything go much faster.

Okay, I'll just "blame" it on the fact that I do everything by hand. :p