Why Meguiar's recommends polishing paint

[Mike Phillips]

Why Meguiar's recommends polishing paint

Resins
The primary ingredient used in automotive paints to actually coat over, protect, and beautify your vehicle is called resin. Resins are made from different types of oils. These oils vary depending on the paint type, but they are oils just the same. Early resins were made from raw materials such as the oils from Soya Beans, Flax Seeds, China Tung Nuts, Safflower seeds, Cottonseeds, and even Sardines! These surfaces required replenishing the oils over time, e.g. such as a wood finish needs oils to maintain its shine and beauty.

Modern resins are typically derived from polyurethane and/or acrylic polymers, which are tougher and more resistant to harsh environmental damage. Even though modern resins are more durable, they will breakdown over time through deterioration.

Deterioration is usually caused by the forces of oxidation, or reduction. Primarily deterioration comes from exposure to outdoor environments such as inclement weather, or warm temperatures and direct sunlight. Washing with high alkaline detergent soaps accelerate this deterioration by stripping any wax protection off the surface and by attacking and drying out the resins. Think about it this way, if you have a brand new car or a brand new paint job and you store the car in a garage, (or say a museum), the finish never deteriorates. That's because it is never exposed to forces that attack and deteriorate the resins.

When the resins breakdown and are removed from the surface, they leave behind pockets of air or pores into which water and other unwanted substances can penetrate into. When water, high alkaline detergent soaps, acid rain, alkaline rain, harsh solvents or other unwanted substances get into these pores they act to accelerate the deterioration process, (oxidation or reduction).

When you apply a Meguiar's polish, the trade secret oils found in all Meguiar's polishes, (and even Meguiar's compounds, cleaner/polishes and even some waxes), penetrate into the paint and replace the original resins, (or oils), that have been broken-down, leached out and/or deteriorated. These trade secret oils then act to fill the empty microscopic pores, air pockets and surface imperfections thus preventing unwanted substances from entering into these areas.

For over 100 years, Meguiar's trade secret oils have been proven to beautify and maintain automotive paints.

Meguiar's Trade Secret Oils
The trade secret oils used in Meguiar's products for over 100 years benefit your paint in a number of different ways, here are two very important ones,

1) They add beauty, gloss and reflectivity
Meguiar?s trade secret oils add beauty by darkening medium to dark colors. Most people agree a deep, dark wet looking finish looks better than a dry, hazy, plasticy looking finish. They also increase gloss by filling in and smoothing out the surface creating a deep, wet-look shine that everyone admires.

2) They replace and replenish the oils/resins originally present in your car's paint
Meguiar's trade secret oils penetrate into and fill the empty microscopic pores, air pockets, and surface imperfections created in your car's paint by the effects of either oxidation or reduction. This prevents detrimental substances from getting into these microscopic areas and accelerating the deterioration of your car's finish.

Unlike most wax companies in the car care industry, Meguiar's has over 100 years of experience working with the companies that make the paint that is applied at the OEM level, (car manufactures), right on the assembly line, and also in the refinishing industry, (your local body shops and custom paint shops).

Meguiar's unique background and close relationships with giants in both the automotive paint industry and new car manufactures, (for about as long as these two industries have been around), should give you the confidence you need to enable you to place your trust in Meguiar?', the surface care experts. 100 years of making just about every surface coating look it's best and last it's longest is probably the best proof you can ask for when deciding for yourself whether or not you want to polish your car's finish with a Meguiar's polish.

The proof is in the pudding
More Best of Class winners and Best of Show winners use Meguiar's products each year at the Pebble Beach Concours De Elegance, (the most prestigious car show in the world), than any other car care products since records have been kept.

Meguiar's knows paint
If you choose to wash your car with a strong alkaline detergent soap, expect the paint finish to deteriorate prematurely. Meguiar's always recommends that you use a premium car wash specifically formulated for automotive paints and all of the other specialty materials commonly used to make the multitude of other components found on your vehicle.


Remember, paint is a delicate, thin coating, which is easily dulled and easily scratched. Once it has been dulled down, or inflicted with scratches, it takes the right products the right application process and the proper techniques to remove the defects and restore a clear, glossy defect-free finish. Choose carefully whose advise you listen to when it comes to taking care of your car's finish.

[soonercivic]

Great info Mike! Ill print this and share it with some skeptical friends.

[Mike Phillips]

Over on CorvetteForum.com, a gentleman who had himself banned here on Meguiar's Online for bashing forum members and bashing Meguiar's products and the company, has taken issue with the above article.

Before I go any further, I would just like to add that we don't ban anyone here on Meguiar's Online, you ban yourself by continually breaking forum rules. We also don't censor or delete posts or threads, as long as they comply with forum rules and this is the standard by which most, if not all forums operate under.

Here's his thread,

Meguiars replaces oils in paint is BS info from paint manufacturers

Here's his problem, he's trying to interpret the wrong meaning into the below statement by the twisting the way in which I used the word, replace.

This person is trying to make it look like what I wrote means that Meguiar's polishing oils are becoming a part of the paint. This is simply not true and this is not what I wrote.

When you apply a Meguiar's polish, the trade secret oils found in all Meguiar's polishes, (and even Meguiar's compounds, cleaner/polishes and even some waxes), penetrate into the paint and replace the original resins, (or oils), that have been broken-down, leached out and/or deteriorated. These trade secret oils then act to fill the empty microscopic pores, air pockets and surface imperfections thus preventing unwanted substances from entering into these areas.

The thing about people like this person is they read so literally into a statement like this with the sole purpose of misconstruing it for their own nefarious reasons.

In fact,, to clarify and to insure someone like this person couldn't do what their attempting to do, I added yet another paragraph in the article to further explain in detail what the polishing oils in Meguiar's polishes do to the paint.

This person left this out of his post, again for his own nefarious reasons... but I'll add them below to prove his deceitful intent...

Note the dark blue paragraph in the below quote from the article,

Meguiar's Trade Secret Oils
The trade secret oils used in Meguiar's products for over 100 years benefit your paint in a number of different ways, here are two very important ones,

1) They add beauty, gloss and reflectivity
Meguiar?s trade secret oils add beauty by darkening medium to dark colors. Most people agree a deep, dark wet looking finish looks better than a dry, hazy, plasticy looking finish. They also increase gloss by filling in and smoothing out the surface creating a deep, wet-look shine that everyone admires.

2) They replace and replenish the oils/resins originally present in your car's paint
Meguiar's trade secret oils penetrate into and fill the empty microscopic pores, air pockets, and surface imperfections created in your car's paint by the effects of either oxidation or reduction. This prevents detrimental substances from getting into these microscopic areas and accelerating the deterioration of your car's finish.

As much as this person would like to have everyone believe that Meguiar's polishing oils don't penetrate into the paint and make paint look more beautiful by adding richness, clarity, reflectivity and gloss, it's a proven fact that our polished do in fact do this and have been doing this for over 100 years.

It's also very easy to prove to yourself. Here's an easy test you can do to see and understand how our polishes penetrate into paint and add beauty...

Take a the hood or deck lid of a neglected, oxidized dark colored paint. After washing it to make sure the surface is clean, mark out a section about 8" square or so and place a tape line to one side of this section.. Apply a polish like #7 Show Car Glaze, work it into the paint and then wipe off the excess residue. Then, wipe the surface off again really well, make sure there is no polish left on the "surface".

Now remove the tape and compare the two sections. The side you have applied the polish to will be richer in color, more clear and more reflective than the side you have not applied the polish to. If you have wiped the #7 Show Car Glaze completely off the surface, (A microfiber is good for this), then how can the paint look better?

Answer: The polishing oils have penetrated into the microscopic pores, fissures, cracks and other imperfections in the paint, (as in below the surface level) and filled in these areas. The oils act to add beauty by revitalizing the dull paint.

You can perform the above on any neglected medium to dark colored paint that has been neglected and oxidized and you will prove to yourself the effects of applying a pure polish to paint.

While I currently don't have any neglected cars sitting around, I do have a neglected Blazer Hardtop with oxidized black paint.



After washing the dirt and dust off the top I took a photo to show the dull, dry looking oxidized paint and also applied some painters tape to isolate the two sides for a good before and after shot.




Next I applied some #7 Show Car Glaze to one side and then vigorously wiped the surface off using Meguiar's Supreme Microfiber Shine. As most people know, microfiber polishing cloths are very effective and efficient at removing polishes and waxes off the surface of paint.



To make sure there is no confusion, this is the side I applied and removed the #7 polish onto.



This is the before side with no polish...



As you can see, the polishing oils have penetrated into the paint. In so doing, they have restored clarity, richness of color, gloss and beauty.

If someone wants to focus their energy on the meaning of the word replace, that's up to them, but the context of the article is that Meguiar's polishing oils provide a benefit to paint by adding beauty, gloss, clarity, reflectivity and richness of color, all things that we as enthusiasts enjoy and look for in our car's paint.

[SchwarzenSchafe]

I think you're held to a very high standard Mike, one that you usually satisfy. However, in this case I think you used ambiguous wording in such a way that it got you into trouble. By saying that Meg's polish will replace clear coat resin I think the perception is that you're implying that it replaces it in function, whereas I think you mean that it simply physically replaces an area in space that was formerly occupied by the resin.

I do not believe that urethane clear coat will "absorb" polish, or that polish will "penetrate into" clear coat, but the issue here is semantics and requires an understanding of how paint films deteriorate. When the paint (or "resin" to be consistent with your article) is damaged through oxidation or chemical processes it will leave voids and and an uneven surfaces - if it deteriorated in a uniform manner then paint would continue to be glossy as it broke down because the surface would continue to be perfectly flat. The problem is that people are thinking of paint as a perfectly flat surface, and they think of a polish as lying on top of this surface. That's not entirely true. If you magnified a damaged finish you would see pits and cracks and all kinds of a defects just like you were looking at a mountain range. As paint breaks down it might form a "crevasse" in the mountain range (to continue the analogy). A polish will "penetrate into" this crevasse, "replacing" a space that was occupied by the clear coat resin before it was damaged. Will the polish soak into the sides of this "crevasse", actually PENETRATE INTO the clear coat itself? I don't believe that it will, and if that's what you're claiming then I think you're dead wrong.

"Penetrate into" and "replace" in the manner you used them were a poor choice of words in my opinion. Try to remember that when you make very strong ambiguous claims that can easily be taken the wrong way you undermine your credibility - whether or not you're technically correct has nothing to do with it, it's all about perception.

That's my thoughts on it anyway.

[Mike Phillips]

Each of the below cars have been polished first with a Meguiar's polish and the waxed using NXT Tech Wax. It's a fact that Meguiar's polishes have been producing award winning finishes that are crystal clear, rich in color, vibrant, glossy, and wet-looking with a mile deep shine ever since we started making them...



If you want your car's paint to look it's best, if you want to take your car's finish to it's maximum potential, then before you apply a wax of your choice... you want to polish it with a Meguiar's polish.



Overhaulin Challenger machine polished with M80 Speed Glaze and topped with NXT Tech Wax
(Won two first places prizes the next day)



The Panic Parrot machine polished with M80 Speed Glaze and topped with NXT Tech Wax





Lil Octane



Check out the results NXT Tech Wax created on this Ford Lightning Truck!


Click here to to add your comments!

NXT Tech Wax is Amazing!

[SchwarzenSchafe]

Yes Mike, amazing work. I like the tree reflection in the mercedes, like a mirror.

You have a tendency to sound a bit like an infomercial at times though. That will work fine if you want to be a salesman to Joe Public that doesn't know polish from bird droppings, but the professionals and serious enthusiasts like to be clear about whether clear coat wicks up polish like some kind of magic sponge or whether polish only fills voids in the structure of the paint film if those voids exist in the first place.

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by SchwarzenSchafe
I think you're held to a very high standard Mike, one that you usually satisfy. However, in this case I think you used ambiguous wording in such a way that it got you into trouble.

I think that's what I tried to explain in my second post above. That is, my choice of words probably wasn't the best choice, this wasn't intentional, just happenstance. This was then exploited by the person on CorvetteForum for their won nefarious reasons.

I used the replace, when a better word would have perhaps been revitalize.

Regardless, the person who started the thread on CorvetteForum appears to have an agenda; even a casual purusal of his posts on CorvetteForum or any forum he posts to clearly demonstrates a history of bashing myself, NXT Tech Wax and Meguiar's in general.

After reading his posts for years now, I personally have come to appreciate people on forums that contribute in a positive manner, that is instead of bashing others they tend to help other by answering their questions and helping people to get the best results from their time, money and efforts.

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by SchwarzenSchafe
That will work fine if you want to be a salesman to Joe Public that doesn't know polish from bird droppings, but the professionals and serious enthusiasts like to be clear about whether clear coat wicks up polish like some kind of magic sponge or whether polish only fills voids in the structure of the paint film if those voids exist in the first place.

I try my hardest to help a wide spectrum of people from all walks of life and backgrounds and in so doing try to write in a way that will help everyone to understand sometimes simple ideas sometimes complex ideas. I do make mistakes however and when I do, I own up to them.

[Ranger72]

Mike, great write up. No matter how you say something, there will always be someone who takes your words differently than you had intended them. You clarified yourself in your next post, and kept your cool. I commend you for that.
-Mike

[Mosca]

Although I do believe that it is very worthwhile to understand why things work, you can't escape that at the end of the day only one thing is true:

Either the car shines, or the car doesn't shine. Everything else is posturing.

What I mean when I say that is the end result stands for itself and needs no explanation nor any apology.

I get OUTSTANDING results from LOTS of different products, but I get my BEST results from MEGUIAR'S products. Other people might get the best results from other products, but they can't deny MY results. My cars shine.

When people start picking on other peoples' choice of products in the face of obviously outstanding results, then they have an axe to grind that has nothing to do with polishing cars.


Tom