How and what to polish a car with your own hands at home Service centers offer car owners dozens of types of polishes, but the cost of services makes many drivers think about how to polish a car at home.
Preparatory operations
The garage must be cleaned before work, removing dust as much as possible. Experienced auto mechanics advise against polishing the car at sub-zero temperatures and in heat (over 35-40 degrees). Before starting polishing, a number of preliminary operations are required:
- Body wash (manual or contactless);
- Removal of stains and stubborn dirt (oil, bitumen);
- Pasting decorative parts (chrome, nickel, rubber, plastic);
- Inspection of a clean body (the choice of abrasives, the granularity of polishing compounds depends on the degree of damage).
After washing, stains of bitumen, oils are clearly visible, which are removed by hand, mild solvents, degreasers, white spirit. In this case, you do not need to use screwdrivers and knives. After soaking the stain, it is easy to remove it with a fingernail or a plastic card.
In order not to damage decorative elements (glass edging, moldings, mirrors), they are pasted over with masking tape. Professional polishers also remove nickel-plated door handles, but it is not recommended for beginners to do this at the first experience.
Experienced lovers of independent work with the car, while polishing the body, also polish the glass of the car. Technologically, the operations differ little (only in the compositions of pastes and protective agents), having gained experience, you will be able to polish the glass yourself. At the first attempt to polish, it is better to glue all the glasses.
Reasons for the need to polish and restore paintwork
The main reasons for the need for polishing are natural aging of car enamel and dirt on domestic roads. All road debris raised by the movement of passing and oncoming vehicles leaves marks on the body of your car. Micro-scratches are difficult to see with the naked eye, but their accumulation affects the reflectivity of the varnish. noticeable on the paint are traces of hard sand, gravel, flying stones, roadside branches hitting the body.
The scuffs and dull color of car paint are caused by road chemicals, winter sprinkling of highways with salt, sand, and chemical reagents. Various bischofites and modified calcium have a destructive effect on the body paintwork. Acid rains, hail, dirty snow leave traces on the car enamel.
Oddly enough, but auto mechanics consider an important cause of scratches and scuffs to drive on an automatic brush wash. From regular cleaning with rotating brushes, body paint (especially soft enamels) loses its shine and tarnishes. And if the owner of a car wash saves on timely replacement of worn brushes, the hard ends of the bristles leave deep scratches on the paint. Road dirt is stuffed into micro-scratches and small chips, expanding and deepening the damage.
In addition to the loss of gloss and brightness of the factory color, all damage to the paintwork is dangerous with more serious consequences. Scratches, overlapping each other, completely cut through the paint layer and can become centers of rust, which will require expensive body repairs with repainting of the car to eliminate them.
Every driver wants to restore the perfect shine of the body and glass, but the services of branded technical centers and road detailing studios are not available to an ordinary car owner every two to three months. With limited financial resources, many Russian motorists have no other choice but to polish the car themselves.
How to polish a car at home
Naturally, home conditions mean a dry, well-lit garage. It is impossible to polish a car outdoors or in the yard even in warm summer. Dust blown by the wind, fallen leaves will spoil the results of your work instantly. The uneven drying in the sun of many types of pastes and polishes is also important, which affects the quality of work, the general appearance of the machine.
Choosing and learning to use a grinding machine
Vibratory Grinder (or surface grinder) is designed for dry grinding of flat surfaces. Using abrasive sheets of different grain sizes, it allows you to sand wood, metal, plaster and putty, process
Plastic products, stone, composite materials, remove old paint, varnish coatings, rust, renew wooden surfaces exposed to atmospheric precipitation and high humidity. It is used for a fine finish. The main areas of use: woodworking, repair and manufacture of furniture, repair and decoration of premises, body work in car repairs. There are also descriptions of techniques for non-standard use of the capabilities of this tool, such as felting felt and preparing various solutions (for vibration of the mortar container body).
How to choose and use a vibration sander
The eccentric sander must be repaired in a workshop with all the necessary tools. The rotor is the vulnerability of this device. It can fail for various reasons. In this case, the person is obliged to find out at the first stage. In order to disassemble the sander, it is necessary to detach the work sole. To do this, you need to use a Phillips screwdriver.
The work sole is attached to a special sleeve, and in order to move it to the side, it will take a lot of physical effort. After that, the sole can be pulled out by grasping it with your hands around the edges. It is then important to remove the device’s electric motor. The rotor in grinders is usually located at the top. First of all, its winding is examined for integrity. Next, you need to check his contacts. In some cases, the problem may be a broken ring. This problem can be solved quite easily by simply purchasing a similar part.
How to choose a grinder
The choice of an eccentric sander should be based on an evaluation of the parameters of the device. The limiting power indicator must fluctuate around 3 kW. All this will allow you to process even metal objects at a good speed. The frequency of rotation in this case must be at around 5 thousand revolutions per minute. The level of fluctuations is welcomed at the level of 14 thousand movements per minute.
In this case, the pressure of the generated noise should be no more than 80 dB. Additionally, you should pay attention to the thickness of the sole of the device. If you plan to work exclusively with wood, then it should be 2 mm. over, for metal, the specified parameter must be at least 4 mm. All this will ultimately ensure low wear on the outsole. On average, a high-quality eccentric sander costs about 6 thousand rubles.
Makita brand devices
This company, as a rule, is engaged in the manufacture of grinding machines exclusively for the processing of wooden surfaces. Models can also be used by professionals. Of their features, high power should be noted. Additionally, they are capable of boasting a high level of vibration. The vibration error averages 1.5 m / s. Handles are most often included in the kit separately. A high-quality model of a grinding machine of the presented brand will cost around 7 thousand rubles.