Polish  ___________________________________________________________
Many people, even product manufacturers, use the term polish and wax interchangeably, which is incorrect. A polish is a product that is used to remove different levels of swirls or scratches in automotive paint. It is also used to restore or enhance the shine of the paint. A true polish offers no protection from the environment.

There are a few different types of polishes. Some include mild to moderate abrasives that help to remove varying levels of swirls and scratches in paint. Other polishes contain no abrasives and are solely intended to rejuvenate and restore the shine and brilliance of the paint.

A swirl mark or scratch is basically a sharp valley in the paint's surface. When light shines onto the paint, it refracts off the edges of each valley as opposed to reflecting the light. An abrasive polish helps to lessen or even eliminate those valleys.

Swirls can be caused by a number of things such as improper washing techniques or automatic car washes. This is why the right washing products and techniques are vital to keeping the paint looking its best. 

Many people are turned off by the thought of abrasives being used on paint because they think that it will just do more harm than good. In fact, with the right amount of abrasives in a polish and the right tools to apply the polish, those abrasives actually work to eliminate swirls and scratches instead of inducing them. However, if the paint has enough swirls and scratches, multiple polishing steps may be necessary. After proper polishing, the paint should be defect-free (or close to it), and shine better than the day it rolled off the showroom floor.

If a scratch is deep enough in the paint, it may not be repairable by polishing. The general rule of thumb is that if you run your fingernail over a scratch and it catches on the scratch, polishing cannot fix it. The reason for this is that the scratch is so deep that it has passed through the paint. When this happens, the scratch can only be fixed with touch-up paint or a complete re-painting of the panel.

Another type of paint defect you may have seen is oxidized or faded paint. This can be quite noticeable on dark vehicles such as black or red. If the paint looks chalky or just doesn’t shine, a polish can improve or completely restore the shine that once was by removing the “dead” paint. 

Any one of these paint defects will degrade the paints' gloss, depth, and clarity. While these kinds of defects are more noticeable on dark colored vehicles (especially when viewed under full sun), they are common on all vehicles that are not properly cared for.