Silver Paing & Machine Polish

**Aidi** · 22nd November 2010, 23:36

Just a quick question.. Was chatting cars to a couple of mates today, and the subject of Machine Polishing came up.

One was saying yeah, its great if you know what you are doing, the other said yeah its good, but NOT on a Silver paint job.

Is there a right or wrong in this case? I have read good things about doing a good machine polish, but if its not recommended on a silver car then ill avoid it.

Rgds
Aidi

**Taffyopel** · 22nd November 2010, 23:49

Absolute rubbish.

Machine polishing on any colour has many advantages. Your still going to get swirl marks/scratches on a silver car but the only difference is they are not as obvious on say a dark coloured car. Recently did a full detail on a silver Ford Cougar and the results were amazing. Under halogen lights you could clearly see swirls on the paint.

Hope this helps.

Paul.

**Aidi** · 22nd November 2010, 23:51

Thanks mate, I figured as much. I doubt he will be convinced, but ill take a Vectra C members word over his any day!!

Rgds
Aidi

**Grumpy1954** · 22nd November 2010, 23:55

Messsy on here detailed my Star Silver Vec, showed me the (mild) swirl marks before, none after. Surely that's part of machine polishing, correcting scratches and swirls?

**Das** · 23rd November 2010, 01:36

What you need to bare in mind is that you are not actually polishing a silver car, you are only actually polishing the clear coat laquer, well on silver or indeed any metallic paint, even a lot of base colours now come with a clear coat finish.

**Grumpy1954** · 23rd November 2010, 03:06

yes, but Menzerna and most other decent polishes and pads will take scratches and swirls out of the clear coat. Agreed if it's down to paint or worse a machine polisher won't fix it.
Apart from the time I spent with Messsy I've been on several forums and had a couple of hours with a bloke doing demo's at the NEC Classic Car show, I understand about clear coat and layers.