polish/cleaner question

[hobby]

Can someone tell me what the difference is between a cleaner and a polish, and if there are products that contain both to eliminate a step in washing?

[Top Down]

Meguiar's 5 Step Paint Care Cycle
A paint cleaner cleans below surface defects such as oxidation, swirls, etc. A polish adds oils and resins back into paint to improve clarity, which helps shine and gloss. A recommendation can't really be made unless you tell us what kind of paint and how you will be applying (hand, rotary, orbital, DA).

if there are products that contain both to eliminate a step in washing?

Do you mean in the whole detail or the actual washing step? For the whole detail, there's cleaner/waxes that clean, polish and protect in one step. In the consumer line there's Cleaner Wax or ColorX. In the professional line there's Quick Detailer.
If you are looking for just cleaner/polish, I don't think there's any in the consumer line (don't quote me though), but in the pro line there's Swirl Remover, Swirl Free Polish, Speed Glaze, or Dual Action Cleaner Polish. It all depends on how you're applying though.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: polish/cleaner question

Originally posted by hobby
Can someone tell me what the difference is between a cleaner and a polish, and if there are products that contain both to eliminate a step in washing?

I'm not sure, but it reads like you're confusing the term cleaner, with a car wash?

A cleaner, or more specifically, a Paint Cleaner, cleans the paint by removing oxidation, contamination, etchings, swirls, scratches. A paint cleaner is not a car wash but a product applied and worked against the finish to remove above surface and below surface defects.

A polish in Meguiar's terminology is either a cleaner/polish or a pure polish.

A cleaner polish is a product that cleans and polishes in the same step. A Meguiar's cleaner/polish contains some type of diminishing abrasives along with a Meguiar's polishing oils to both lubricate the surface during the cleaning or abrading portion of the step and to also make the paint look beautiful after the product has been sufficiently been worked against the finish.

A pure polish is a product that contains no ingredients with the intended purpose of abrading the paint and instead is specifically for creating gloss, reflectivity, shine and depth.


There are 5-Basic steps to paint care and 5 categories of product for each of the steps.

• Step 1 Washing - Products = Car Wash Solutions
  
  Step 2 Surface Prep - Products = Clay bars, Compounds, Paint Cleaners, Cleaner/Polishes and sometimes a cleaner/wax will fall into this category.
  
  Step 3 Polishing - Products = Cleaner/Polishes and Pure Polishes
  
  Step 4 Protection - Products = Waxes, including, Cleaner/Waxes, Polish/Waxes, Pure Waxes and Spray-on Waxes.
  
  Step 5 Maintenance - Products = Quick detailers and Spray-Waxes.

After washing your car, if you want to do the least number of things to take care of your car's finish yet still have it look great then you should first evaluate the finish with the palm of your clean hand to check for above surface bonded contaminants, if discovered then you'll want to clay the car using detailing clay.

After you have clayed the car, or after you have washed and dried the car and you didn't have to clay it because the finish felt smooth to the touch, then you can go straight to wax to protect the paint.

Cleaner/Waxes
ColorX - Strong cleaner wax for neglected paint

Meguiar's Cleaner/Wax - Light cleaner/wax for light contaminants, swirls and scratches

M20 Polymer Sealant - Light cleaner/wax.



Polish/Wax

Gold Class Wax - finish must be in pretty good shape and not really need to be cleaned.

NXT Tech Wax - finish must be in pretty good shape and not really need to be cleaned.

M21 Synthetic Paint Sealant - finish must be in pretty good shape and not really need to be cleaned.



Pure Wax

Deep Crystal Carnauba Wax - Finish must be new or in like-new condition.

M26 Hi Tech Yellow Wax - Finish must be new or in like-new condition.



Read the entire 5-Step Paint Care Cycle by clicking on the link proved in the second post in this thread and it will go more into depth over the entire subject.

[hardisk88]

Re: Re: polish/cleaner question

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Mike Phillips

Cleaner/Waxes
ColorX - Strong cleaner wax for neglected paint

Meguiar's Cleaner/Wax - Light cleaner/wax for light contaminants, swirls and scratches

M20 Polymer Sealant - Light cleaner/wax.



Polish/Wax

Gold Class Wax - finish must be in pretty good shape and not really need to be cleaned.

NXT Tech Wax - finish must be in pretty good shape and not really need to be cleaned.

M21 Synthetic Paint Sealant - finish must be in pretty good shape and not really need to be cleaned.



Pure Wax

Deep Crystal Carnauba Wax - Finish must be new or in like-new condition.

M26 Hi Tech Yellow Wax - Finish must be new or in like-new condition.



i am a bit confused about the classification of

1. nxt tech wax as a polish / wax as mike mentions above. in meguiar's faq, nxt tech is classified as pure wax

http://www.meguiars.com/faq/index.cfm?faqCat=Paint%20Care&faqQuestionID=53&section=_53#_53

2. mike classifies #21 as pure wax. however since it does contain some cleaners, shouldn't it be classified under the cleaner/wax category like #20

Finally, since nxt tech, #20 and #21 all being sealants, do they all contain cleaners, and if so, can you arrange them in ascending order starting with the one with the least powerful cleaner and ending with the one with the most power full cleaner ?

[Murr1525]

I wouldnt confuse polish/waxes, or the light cleaners in Nxt, #21, with actualy replacing a seperate cleaning step, or a separate polishing step.

They get classified this way because yes, they do have some polish in them, or yes, there are some light cleaners in them. But if you only use a paint cleaner, then Nxt for instance, you will still have room for a lot of improvement.

In my own opinion, the only one worth worrying about as a cleaner is #20. It is ok for light cleaning on a quick detail.