What does it mean to cut and polish?
Cutting and polishing is a common term used to refer to paint correction. Essentially, "Cut" is about removing scratches and marks from paint, while "Polish" is about restoring shine.
Paint correction is a process of leveling and polishing automotive paint with the aim of eliminating existing defects such as swirls, scratches, oxidation and water stains/etchings - as well as improving the gloss, saturation and clarity levels of the paint.
Why do you do that?
Wear and tear from environmental exposure, daily use, maintenance, and cleaning over time - the vehicle will begin to look weathered and show minor damage, such as swirls and scratches in the paint finish.
Cutting and polishing is a wonderful way to permanently eliminate wear and damage and restore the vehicle's appearance to a new condition.
In addition to this, allowing stained, oxidized, and environmentally contaminated paint to remain on your vehicle will further accelerate its deterioration and make vehicle maintenance and cleaning more difficult and time consuming. If wax, sealant, or coating is applied to damaged and weathered paint, it will not perform well or last very long. Therefore, cutting and polishing is also a crucial step before any paint protection is applied to the vehicle.
disadvantages
When polishing paint, you always want to remove at least a small portion of the existing paint or clear coat, so you should always cut and polish only as needed, and be careful not to be too aggressive.
Cutting and polishing can be a time-consuming and labor-intensive process in order to achieve high quality and consistent results. Hiring experienced professionals can also be an expensive service. Buying the necessary equipment for cutting and polishing can be an expensive initial purchase for people who do not have the necessary products and equipment, such as compounds, polishes, MATS, and machines. Cutting and polishing can be very difficult for beginners without some proper instruction or experience in the field of paint correction.
You can use hand pads as an alternative, although cutting and polishing a car is a time and labor intensive venture that always yields better results than using a machine polisher.
How is it cut and polished
After making sure your vehicle is completely clean, decontaminated, and dry, your first step should be to cover sensitive rubber and plastic trim with masking tape to protect them from compound residue or damage.
Since all car paints and existing defects are different, it is crucial to always test your particular paint with your chosen compound, pad, and machine during the first cutting stage.
It is always best to start with the least aggressive MATS and compounds (so you can remove less clear coating), as you can always switch to more aggressive combinations if needed. Depending on your results, you can turn to more aggressive composite/pad combinations to choose the perfect system for your paint. A good tool kit is a polisher for car shields, which comes with a range of compounds and MATS to fit all paint systems.
In most cases, it's almost impossible, or at least too dangerous, to remove 100 percent of paint defects because you'll just be removing too much paint. So a more realistic and safe goal should be to remove most of them to greatly improve the paint. A safe place is 80-90% defect.
The basic method and technique of using a machine polisher is to apply a few small drops of compound to your pad, spread it out into an area of half a square meter, and then run the polishing pad over the area using overlapping horizontal and vertical motions. Using moderate pressure, slow arm movements, and moderate machine speed, execute a total of 3 to 4 rows of MATS in a half-meter section.
Technology can affect your results, so in general, use more aggressive techniques, increasing pressure and machine speed and a slower increase the cutting ability of arm games, but also can lower the quality of finishing, but as a general rule, it is not recommended to do so too aggressive or too gentle, because it can lead to other problems and reduce the result. Therefore, it is best to use a slightly aggressive technique for the first cutting stage and a slightly less aggressive technique for the final polishing stage.
After finishing the polishing section, use a microfiber cloth to wipe off composite residues, then use an alcohol-based panel wiping solution to further wipe off any polishing oils. It is important to evaluate your results using a quality defect location light source. You should compare the test section to untouched paint to see how many scratches and defects you have removed, and then you can decide if you are happy with the results or if you feel a more aggressive combination is needed to remove more defects.