shokunin
Active Member
So I've got to ask, this has been bugging me about the whole polishing process at these levels... The guys were measuring paint thickness, or was it clear coat thickness?
Depends on the paint thickness gauge. Most only measure the total paint thickness. There are multi-layer paint meters that will show you how thick the clear coat is. However a multi layer guage like a Defelsko is over a grand, a bit much for most detailers. Many detailers and auto appraisers use it to measure paint to see if any part has been repainted vs factory.
After a correction like that, many detailers would recommend a sealant as a sacrificial barrier/layer on top of the perfectly polished clear coat. After a year or two, you'll likely pick up some new swirls, scratches and you'll only have to polish off the Glare, Cquartz, Opti-Coat and maybe just a light polish on the clear coat. Obviously deep scratches can't be fixed, but any of those small scratches wouldn't require as much work to get rid of.
The goal is to preserve your clear coat for as long as possible. If you intend to keep your cars for a long time, you do NOT want to do a full polish or paint correction every year, eventually you'll wear down the clear.
yobigd20 said:For step 5, should some sort of sealant or wax be applied? What would you recommend here? Is this when people are adding Opti-coat (though isn't that a permanent clear coat?...not sure if that's the right thing to apply after Glare Polish...? or is that too "permanent", should something else be used? or should that not be used with the Xpel? What would seal that shiny glass polish for at least a good 1-2 years?)
Cquartz, 22LPE, Opti-Coat and others need to be applied to bare paint (clear coat), they are not meant to be applied on top of anything (wax, other sealants, etc). You don't technically need additional wax or sealants on top of these products but you could only if you find the look lacking in some way. I would think Glare would be similar.