Compound / Polish / Wax a 37' Sports Cruiser

[Falling Star]

Just wanted to give a public "Thank you" to Tony for his work on my boat recently. A superb job and it was interesting to learn some of the science behind the individual processes involved.

 

[Jonebarl]

Quite right, it's not for everybody and circumstances differ.

Some, like yourself, just want to keep on top of things and will do the basics to ensure the boat (or car) doesn't fall behind too far cosmetically that they can't easily recover from.

I don't think you've been pulled into this 'revolution' just yet, but you have corrected your surfaces, then polished with a finer product to recover from the correction and then finally offered a layer of wax to interact with the elements.
I'd say you were on a slippery slope!

You don't need to understand why, how or when you should clay bar a surface (as it's been mentioned) but I can assure you it's not some mystical black art, it's just rubbing a surface with a lump of clay that pulls off bonded contaminates so they don't get caught up in the polishing stages and make surfaces look as though they've been washed with a brillo pad for your efforts.
Some don't buy into it because they don't need to and/or don't want to, others see it perhaps as a snake oil type of stage or 'unnecessary work' and they are being fleeced, but that doesn't make it any less of a viable pre-stage when polishing a surface that has bonded contaminates.

Wiping a surface free of old waxes prior to polishing can also be seen as 'unnecessary work'.

Just these two very quick stages alone will reduce a polishing pad from gripping the surface and there will be less of a fight, meaning less fatigue, as well as eliminating one of the main causes of swirl marks and micro scratches.
For some (including me) we need all the help we can get in making tasks like a polish up as easy as possible and as productive as possible, why some might even be looking for awesome results.
It's all in the details....detailing.


I do understand just how confusing and frustrating cleaning, detailing, restoration and correction can be, certainly when we are just after the same end result, a clean, scratch-free surface that is well protected.
Manufacturers seem to do it on purpose, which brand, which products, which stage, this gadget goes with these pads or your boat will sink and folk are fed up with it all.
I do try to make sense of it all and contribute to this forum.

Great points. Balanced with a good deal of knowledge. Your contributions on this forum are absolutely appreciated !