{"id":47543,"date":"2026-05-27T00:00:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T04:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/?p=47543"},"modified":"2026-04-30T14:52:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T18:52:55","slug":"polishing-and-coating-advice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/polishing-and-coating-advice\/","title":{"rendered":"Polishing And Coating Advice"},"content":{"rendered":"

A desire to pick up this skill in 2025 is understandable and relatable.\u00a0 I do believe that there is fine line between this being a good experience or poor experience for you based on your mindset.\u00a0 It is not as intimidating as some people will lead you to believe!\u00a0 But there is a segment who have the same expectations of a $3,500 detail with the assumptions that it is a simple and quick process.\u00a0 Those individuals are often humbled!\u00a0 I want to encourage you.\u00a0 But, in order to have a good experience you need to respect all that goes into this.<\/p>\n

\"Detailing<\/p>\n

For those that have high level coating expectations and other expectations, if you do the bare minimum or ignore recommended advice out of arrogance, the disappointment in the end products are on you.\u00a0 I see many people post on social media about failed expectations or saying a bottle is scamming them.\u00a0 From my observation, often steps deemed unnecessary were skipped and a conscious decision was made to entertain grandiose claims about ceramic coatings.\u00a0 In 2025 and beyond there are numerous groups providing misleading information to sell products and services to willfully misinformed consumers.\u00a0 There are also numerous reputable resources that can align your expectations to a more realistic domain.<\/p>\n

Start with your coating purchase from a reputable source.\u00a0 That is a bare minimum starting point.\u00a0 Detailed Image is obviously one resource that will sell decent products.\u00a0 For obvious reasons, I am not going to get into naming all reputable suppliers.\u00a0 But utilize some critical thinking.\u00a0 I have bought many items off of one of those most popular online ordering sites.\u00a0 They obviously carry unverified and questionable products.\u00a0 Ofcourse not all products supplied by Detailed Image or reputable detailing suppliers may be one of the best or ones I strongly prefer, but at least we can realistically get to the reputable bare minimum threshold.<\/p>\n

\"Pure<\/p>\n

Let me help you out with a clue.\u00a0 The bottles that I use to professionally ceramic coat cars in 2025, cost $180, $250, and $325.\u00a0 I am not suggesting you should be as discerning as I am.\u00a0 But if you see a (perfume looking) bottle for $25 online or even a perhaps recognizable name offering 10 years for $100, I advise against it.<\/p>\n

\"Aquatek<\/p>\n

Polishing is not only for removing visible paint defects that you see with led lighting.\u00a0 Older cars, although not visible, have some oxidation that will compromise the bond of a coating in the long run.\u00a0 The plot thickens though.\u00a0 If you clay a car, realistically some marring will occur.\u00a0 That may or may not be an issue to you.\u00a0 But what most people do not know is the wax in a ‘clay and wax’ service may temporarily fill the microscopic damage done by claying.\u00a0 This is a reason why many people do not understand the consequences of not polishing after clay bar use.\u00a0 If carefully done on a relatively well-maintained car it may not be an issue or barely noticeable.\u00a0 But unlike wax, ceramic coating chemistry is similar to glass.\u00a0 You are magnifying\/intensifying what is there, good or bad.\u00a0 Think about that!<\/p>\n

I am going to say something most have not.\u00a0 I believe the lock in the paint, phobia producing rhetoric, is a tool (not created by detailers) but ceramic coating companies to manipulate consumers and detailers.\u00a0 ‘Look at how good the coating looks.’\u00a0 In reality, the detailing (including polishing) is the primary difference.\u00a0 For what is worth, I was known for doing paint correction services, well before I offered ceramic coatings.\u00a0 I have a coating on my car currently.\u00a0 Well before that I did not need a ceramic coating to care how my paint looked.\u00a0 After offering coatings, I was responsible as a business owner with how much polishing I performed, even if you still saw scratches.\u00a0 Imagine that!<\/p>\n

\"compound-and-polish\"<\/p>\n

The answer to the question of using an all in one type polish like HD Speed on a vehicle you are using a ceramic coating is, No!\u00a0 Even if you perform the necessary steps which would be more time and money, you increase the chances of leaving something on the paint.\u00a0 Hypothetically you buy a high-performance sports car.\u00a0 You use the same tires purchased for an economy car.\u00a0 You pass on a few oil changes, because you got away with it on the economy car with minimum issues.\u00a0 We would never do that.\u00a0 Then why are you debating purchasing a dedicated polish?!\u00a0 If it is about the results (wax fills) that you are comfortable with, that is a polishing skill level issue.<\/p>\n

\"Porsche<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A desire to pick up this skill in 2025 is understandable and relatable.\u00a0 I do believe that there is fine line between this being a good experience or poor experience for you based on your mindset.\u00a0 It is not as intimidating as some people will lead you to believe!\u00a0 But there is a segment who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":49265,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1151,32,38],"tags":[4093,800,4094],"class_list":["post-47543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-coatings","category-imperfection-removal","category-protection","tag-ceramic-coating-tips","tag-detailing-training","tag-polish-advice"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Polishing-And-Coating-Advice.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1kPO7-cmP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47543"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49266,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47543\/revisions\/49266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}