Quote:
MMD said:
Correct me if I'm wrong but here goes:

Some guys with the machines grinding away claim that the clear coat didn't come from the factory with enough shine.

They use a machine to increase shine.

I personally think this is just wearing down the clear coat.

Would be a time bomb when the next owner leaves the once-pampered car out in the elements routinely and then someday tries to _justifiably_ use a machine to shine it up: clear coat would wear thru.

So machine polishing a new car's finish is ruining the car's paint for the long term. Not that there's anything wrong with that.





Well..... You're not "wrong", but it's a matter of how "right" you are that's tough to say, i.e. how much time that would take...

The amount of actual material (i.e. clearcoat thickness) you remove with each machine-polish is directly-proportionate to the cutting-degree of the polish used. If you were obsessive, and hammered your paint with a heavy machine buff frequently, using a multiple stages of polish going from heavy-cut to fine-cut to final-glaze just for the sake of "doing it" out of your obsessive compulsion, then yes, you'd probably sheer through that factory clearcoat in short order.

It's all about the degree, the frequency, etc... A machine polish here or there, once a year, or once every few years, using only what's needed with regard to cut-degree, rather than just attacking the paint with a scorched-earth-for-the-sake-of-it attitude, and you might not live long enough to see thin areas in your clear.

One thing that machines will tear-through in short order, is sharp creases and sharp body contours, when used by numbskull detailers who don't take care to avoid such contact. Not so many of those areas to worry about on our jelly-bean 997's. But if I had a Bangle BMW, I'd think long and hard before I'd allow some amped-up detail freak to start zinging a 10-pound orbital over the panels...