Shine

[MIBKC]

I heard a statement by Junkman2000 on YouTube regarding polishing: "Shine is only possible when light is allowed to reflect back in one direction". He went on to say that wax is only designed to protect, and slightly enhance shine, but does not produce it. Thoughts and input please.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Shine

Waxes in and of themselves are not what really makes a car shine - the vast majority of that comes from the prep work. Gloss comes from a flat surface, and surface covered in bonded contaminants and riddled with swirls is anything but flat. Those issues need to be resolved before max gloss/shine can be achieved, and wax alone can not do that. Well, if you're using a cleaner wax with an aggressive enough process - like White Wax with a DFC5 foam cutting disc - you can eliminate light to moderate swirls, but non cleaner waxes simply aren't designed to correct defects.

If you take a heavily swirled paint finish and simply apply some wax to it, no matter how expensive that wax is or what the claims for that wax might be, you're still going to have swirls and those will scatter the light, detracting from the overall appearance. By the same token, you can take that swirled paint, properly remove the defects with something like Ultimate Compound and then refine the finish with Ultimate Polish, and the paint will look absolutely spectacular. Probably better than when it left the dealership. And there is zero wax on the finish.

Different waxes can impart a slightly different final appearance to the finish. For example, some synthetic sealants will impart a bright shine that almost looks like the vehicle has been shrink wrapped in clear plastic, while others will give a deeper, richer look to the paint. In most cases the differences are rather subtle, but a very critical eye can see the difference if presented side by side. But they don't create the gloss by themselves.

So we do agree with Junkman's assessment here, even though we do take issue with some of his other comments. Case in point: while is a big fan of our M105 and M205 he has called out our Ultimate Compound and Polish as being "over the counter junk" and that's neither accurate nor fair. For the novice user, which is his target audience, both of those products are not only easier to use than their "pro" counterparts, but more readily accessible and more than up to the task of general enthusiast level paint correction. If we can make them work beautifully on a huge variety of cars in our Saturday Classes (just look at all the before/after shots in the threads from those classes and you'll see what we mean), then they most certainly are not "junk". Besides, both are direct derivatives of the M105/M205 he's such a huge fan of! Yep, UC uses the same abrasives as M105. In a consumer product you can find at any autoparts or big box store in your neighborhood.

[MIBKC]

Re: Shine

[QUOTE=Michael Stoops;559537]Waxes in and of themselves are not what really makes a car shine - the vast majority of that comes from the prep work. Gloss comes from a flat surface, and surface covered in bonded contaminants and riddled with swirls is anything but flat. Those issues need to be resolved before max gloss/shine can be achieved, and wax alone can not do that. Well, if you're using a cleaner wax with an aggressive enough process - like White Wax with a DFC5 foam cutting disc - you can eliminate light to moderate swirls, but non cleaner waxes simply aren't designed to correct defects.

If you take a heavily swirled paint finish and simply apply some wax to it, no matter how expensive that wax is or what the claims for that wax might be, you're still going to have swirls and those will scatter the light, detracting from the overall appearance. By the same token, you can take that swirled paint, properly remove the defects with something like Ultimate Compound and then refine the finish with Ultimate Polish, and the paint will look absolutely spectacular. Probably better than when it left the dealership. And there is zero wax on the finish.

Different waxes can impart a slightly different final appearance to the finish. For example, some synthetic sealants will impart a bright shine that almost looks like the vehicle has been shrink wrapped in clear plastic, while others will give a deeper, richer look to the paint. In most cases the differences are rather subtle, but a very critical eye can see the difference if presented side by side. But they don't create the gloss by themselves.

So we do agree with Junkman's assessment here, even though we do take issue with some of his other comments. Case in point: while is a big fan of our M105 and M205 he has called out our Ultimate Compound and Polish as being "over the counter junk" and that's neither accurate nor fair. For the novice user, which is his target audience, both of those products are not only easier to use than their "pro" counterparts, but more readily accessible and more than up to the task of general enthusiast level paint correction. If we can make them work beautifully on a huge variety of cars in our Saturday Classes (just look at all the before/after shots in the threads from those classes and you'll see what we mean), then they most certainly are not "junk". Besides, both are direct derivatives of the M105/M205 he's such a huge fan of! Yep, UC uses the same abrasives as M105. In a consumer product you can find at any autoparts or big box store in your neighborhood.[/QUOTE

[MIBKC]

Re: Shine

[QUOTE=Michael Stoops;559537]Waxes in and of themselves are not what really makes a car shine - the vast majority of that comes from the prep work. Gloss comes from a flat surface, and surface covered in bonded contaminants and riddled with swirls is anything but flat. Those issues need to be resolved before max gloss/shine can be achieved, and wax alone can not do that. Well, if you're using a cleaner wax with an aggressive enough process - like White Wax with a DFC5 foam cutting disc - you can eliminate light to moderate swirls, but non cleaner waxes simply aren't designed to correct defects.

If you take a heavily swirled paint finish and simply apply some wax to it, no matter how expensive that wax is or what the claims for that wax might be, you're still going to have swirls and those will scatter the light, detracting from the overall appearance. By the same token, you can take that swirled paint, properly remove the defects with something like Ultimate Compound and then refine the finish with Ultimate Polish, and the paint will look absolutely spectacular. Probably better than when it left the dealership. And there is zero wax on the finish.

Different waxes can impart a slightly different final appearance to the finish. For example, some synthetic sealants will impart a bright shine that almost looks like the vehicle has been shrink wrapped in clear plastic, while others will give a deeper, richer look to the paint. In most cases the differences are rather subtle, but a very critical eye can see the difference if presented side by side. But they don't create the gloss by themselves.

So we do agree with Junkman's assessment here, even though we do take issue with some of his other comments. Case in point: while is a big fan of our M105 and M205 he has called out our Ultimate Compound and Polish as being "over the counter junk" and that's neither accurate nor fair. For the novice user, which is his target audience, both of those products are not only easier to use than their "pro" counterparts, but more readily accessible and more than up to the task of general enthusiast level paint correction. If we can make them work beautifully on a huge variety of cars in our Saturday Classes (just look at all the before/after shots in the threads from those classes and you'll see what we mean), then they most certainly are not "junk". Besides, both are direct derivatives of the M105/M205 he's such a huge fan of! Yep, UC uses the same abrasives as M105. In a consumer product you can find at any autoparts or big box store in your neighborhood.[/QUOTE

Thank you!!