in today's video i'm going to be showing you beginners at home exactly how to polish a car
by hand so if this is your first time polishing then make sure you stick around till the very
end because by the time this video is finished you're going to have all the knowledge to get out
there and get polishing so the purpose of today's video is to show you exactly how far you can go
just by doing a standard hand polish and this will give you a really good indication
as to how far you can actually push your own car when you're doing it at home
so why would people not want to use a machine in the first place well first of all they just
might not have the confidence and then there's the other type of person who simply cannot afford it
and then you've got loads of different types of compounds you've got your heavy cut you've got
your fine cut it can get really overwhelming so the idea of today's video is to completely
simplify the process just to make it really easy for you guys who are just starting out so let's go
ahead and take a look at the car we're working on and more importantly take a look at all the tools
you're going to need to get started so this is my nan's 350 pound fiat punto now this car is a bit
of an old dog but there is potential to greatly improve the finish by hand and you don't need
lots of tools either in fact i now want to show you everything you're going to need to achieve a
nice finish and at the end of the video i'm going to share one of my biggest tips to help you polish
a car by hand and believe me this will affect you if you don't take my advice so let's take a look
at some of the products you're gonna need to get this job done in at number one you're gonna need
some lubricant number two you'll need a clay bar in at number three make sure you got plenty of
microfiber cloths number four make sure you've got applicator pads whether it's foam or microfiber
and at number five you're gonna need to get a decent compound in at number six you can go for
a wax or a ceramic spray or even a ceramic coating for the purpose of this video the car has already
had a clean so you want to make sure that you clean the car thoroughly first before attempting
this and i've already made a video on how to clean your car using the correct protocols now before
you start spraying the surface of the car with your lubricating spray you need to warm the clay
bar up in your hands to loosen it up because these bars start off so hard so warming up will make
your life so much easier now you can get different grades depending on how bad the contamination is
but today we are going for a decent all-rounder which is going to be perfect for most of you also
make sure you cut it into smaller pieces because the second you drop it on the floor it's game over
you also need a cool overcast day doing this in direct sunlight or intense heat can make your life
more difficult i mean it's not impossible but if you're a beginner then you need to make your life
as easy as possible so just bear that in mind the job of the clay bar is to move
those surface contaminants and you can tell when a car is really contaminated because the surface
will feel really rough to touch so the clay bar will make your car's paint feel smooth like glass
the idea of lubricating the car's paintwork is to help the clay bar glide over the surface and also
put links to all the products that i've used in the description below make sure you spray plenty
onto the surface of the car because if it's dry then you run the risk of scratching and make sure
you go in straight lines or crisscross patterns now as you can see from me just clay barring half
the bonnet has picked up loads of contaminants on one piece so you need to make sure you've got
plenty at your disposal so we're going to break out the compound now there's so many different
ones i could go through but the one i am going to be using today is evo plus and this is from auto
smart as you've seen in other videos i do like to use things like maguire's ultimate compound
and there's a couple of all-in-ones which you can also use but for today's video we're going
to stick with this compound because it's very aggressive and you're actually going to get to see
a massive improvement whatever compound or all-in-one polish you decide to use you
need to make sure that you give the bottle a good shake if you overload the pad too much you can get
little bits of white powder in the crack so it's not a major issue but it's something many people
will find annoying when polishing by hand if you don't want to use a compound because you're
worried that it's going to be too aggressive or it produces too much white powder then simply go for
an all-in-one because they will polish refine and protect and the one that i particularly
like to use is uno protect by rupez which i will feature in a video soon removing the compound
is easy you just need a microfiber cloth and try not to put too much pressure if you're polishing
outside because you never know what sort of bits of dust or grit can get caught up in the air and
that's one of the disadvantages of doing this outside in the elements so we've taken care of
the compounding which is very simple but i need to be honest with you and i want you to understand
this as i say it you're not going to get absolute perfect results yes they will look amazing by the
time it's finished but you can't fool yourself and say it's 100 perfect but that's okay because
you're probably not a full-time detailer so to the untrained eye this could easily be good enough
so we carried out the clay bar process we've also carried out the compounding process
now it's time to add a layer of protection normally i use a ceramic spray sealant but
as the nicer weather is coming up i thought what better time to use a wax now the great
thing about this wax is it's so easy to apply and remove it's perfect for any beginner starting out
this is the one i'm using here and this is yum wax and it's a blender montan and brazilian
carnauba so it provides a deep durable shine and it can be layered as well so it's becoming a fast
favorite of mine applying this wax is as simple as it gets first of all give it a shake you just need
to put a few pea-sized blobs on your applicator pad and then start working it into the paint
so applying straight lines and allow five to ten minutes to haze and if you're doing outside then
try not to get too ahead of yourself because the weather can be very unpredictable so the last
thing you want to do is cover the whole car in wax and then five minutes later it starts raining
to remove the wax just grab yourself a soft towel and buff off and as you can see here the gloss is
already looking incredible and to help you choose the right waxes i've actually listed some of my
favorites below which i think will be perfect for you so here's one of the biggest problems
with polishing by hand so firstly it's going to take twice as long as machine polishing and
when i say twice as long i literally mean it will take you all day maybe longer so ideally make sure
you got a garage with good lighting now i know that's not going to be possible for everybody so
trying to pick a day where it's cloudy with zero chance of rain is going to be a difficult task
however it's not impossible and you can do this i don't care what the smart artists say
i've seen great results polishing by hand and i firmly believe you can get the same great results
too just by following these simple methods another thing i really want to talk about is the fact that
you will get an achy shoulder now that's just no lie this is something that does happen everybody
faces it when you polish all day you do get aches and pains it doesn't matter how young you are how
fit you even think you are and one of the things i do find is when you're trying to get through
it quickly you are putting more tension into your shoulder you're going so much quicker and it does
become more aggressive so they you can really jar your shoulder you can do a lot of damage
so just make sure that when you do it just take your time pace yourself i know you
want to get done quickly but sometimes you just can't and if you want to try any of the
products used in this video i have put links and discount codes below in the description so do
go check them out after this video is finished so there you have it guys
that about wraps up today's video but make sure you hit the subscribe button turn on those bell
notifications because i've got another video dropping very soon i'll see you later bye
you