Larry's Auto Salon is proud to announce that we can now offer Aquapel® Rain Repellant Glass Treatment from PPG, a leader in glass technology.  This product provides remarkable improvement of vision while driving in the rain.  You will see clearly and drive safer, especially at night, with treated auto glass.  Once you've driven with Aquapel®, you won't want to drive without it!  The reputation of PPG technology is not to be confused or compared with RainX®. 

What are Auto Polishes?

One of the attractions of a new car is its showroom shine.  But eventually sunlight, water, air pollution, and other contaminates can age and erode the paint until the gloss fades, and the finish is no longer able to shed contaminants.  At this point auto polish can make a dramatic improvement.

  You will find auto polish in liquid, paste, and a few spray versions.  The products are interchangeably labeled wax, polish, or sealants by their makers.  The one-step applications contain abrasives or solvents to remove stubborn stains or oxidation from a car’s finish and waxes or cracks and renew  the water repellency of the finish.  Polishes are either hand applied or professionally applied using a machine polishing buffer with a foam or lambs’ wool buffing pad.

Effectiveness

     On car surfaces that are weathered, some polishes will shine better than others.  Yet, even the better ones won’t increase the gloss of a new car.  Some make new paint look worse by leaving scratches or haze.  For that reason, it is recommended that polishes be applied by a detailing professional who is trained in the evaluation of paint tolerance. 

     A major part of the sales appeal of auto polishes is the protection they provide against the elements.  But a polish can’t protect anything once it has worn away.  People who polish their cars may not do it often enough. 

     If you want to see if a polish is holding up, look at what happens to water on the car’s surface.  The beads of water that form on a protected surface are relatively small and rounded and sit high on the surface.  As the polish wears away, the beads spread and flatten.  Eventually, when the polish is completely gone, water doesn’t bead at all; it lies in a sheet on the surface.

Abrasiveness

     The paint, not the polish, protects a car’s metal from rust.  So it makes sense to polish away no more paint than necessary to restore a smooth finish.  Polishes should remove any oxidation or contaminants but shouldn’t leave a haze or scratches.  On older cars that do not have a clear top coat, polish should not remove much of the color.

     A fine abrasive is useful for removing stubborn stains or oxidation.  For an extremely weathered finish, however, even the most abrasive polish may not be adequate.  Special, highly abrasive polishing or rubbing compounds are available for such challenging jobs.  Their use is recommended only by automotive industry specialists because rubbing too long or too hard may rub right through the paint to the primer. 

Recommendations

    Whichever polish is used, the vehicle must be washed thoroughly beforehand.  Most road dirt is a good deal harder than a car’s finish.  Polishing a dirty car will grind the dirt into the paint, scratching the finish as you rub. 

     You may need to polish a new car, if one was not applied to the clear coat as a dealer prep.  Washing a new car often is a must.  Bird and tree droppings, salt, tar, and even plain dirt can eventually mar the finish.  Frequent washing is especially important in the summer, when high temperatures increase the damaging effects of contaminants.