Names for the car care cycle steps

[Tuck91]

Re: Names for the car care cycle steps

[the other pc]

Re: Names for the car care cycle steps

Mary, let me start by saying I completely agree with you about the lack of consistency in detailing terminology.

As someone who’s been where you’re at and experienced the same frustrations I can only offer one suggestion, give it up. It doesn’t matter how well thought out, logical and rational your argument is. The industry as a whole isn’t interested. It’s not the way the industry works.

It is the way it is. More importantly, it’s the way most of the industry wants it to be. Good or bad, right or wrong, there are specific forces that shaped the current state. Unless/until those forces change, the industry will continue as-is.

When it comes to standardized terminology, Meguiar’s is more self-consistent than anybody else in the business. Nobody else comes close. (I won’t claim they’re perfect, only better.) Little of the rest of the industry is even interested in being self-consistent, let alone consistent with others. They certainly don’t want to follow the lead of a big competitor like Meguiar’s.

If you feel this situation causes a problem for you in dealing with your customers, let me offer a different perspective. You can turn it into a competitive advantage. All of the most successful detailers I’ve known do.

Whatever nomenclature you chose to use, if you take the time to educate your customer you will set yourself apart from your competition. You’ll show them that you know what you’re doing and that you respect them enough to discuss your work clearly and openly.


pc.

[Mary S]

Re: Names for the car care cycle steps

PC, believe it or not, I really have accomplished what it was I set about to do. When we are talking about car care products, there really have been industry standards set for the names of the various chemicals based on what they do. They might be hard to see sometimes, but they are there. And when a company tries to set itself apart by not adhering to them, it may seem like a good idea, but it will hurt them in the long run.

Even Meguiar's is using the standard terminology in the way most of the new products are named. We just don't always notice it because we only know their products by their numbers!

And ultimately, even though successful detailers may believe they are using a general lack of public understanding of what they do to their advantage, they are being hurt by it as well. They may be successful in competing for the business of the small slice of the population that knows what a detailer can do, but there are vast untapped markets that are not being reached. And you may think, okay, the successful detailers may want it that way. Why invite more competition into the industry by letting people know what they do?

Well, people know what car washes do, they know what body shops do, they know what repair shops and quick lube and oil stations do. There are a lot of cars out there. The best of these craftsmen will stand out on their merits. The bottom feeders, people who use them will get what they pay for. But the unqualified detailers will hurt the name of the good ones overall. This is why it is good for the profession as a whole to have and set standards collectively, just like every other true profession does. Every detailer defining his job and his products to and of himself will ultimately pull everybody down and hold everybody back in a market where car care products have reached such an advanced and refined state of chemistry. Having 99.5 percent of the population not knowing that it is possible to correct defects in automobile paint without repainting, that is not the state of awareness that will benefit either detailers or manufacturers of car care products that do correct paint.

So again, I am sorry to have offended anybody. I spent maybe 20 years of my career in quality assurance where it was my job to make sure software was easy to use, to make sure user manuals were easy to understand, and making sure standards were followed. So yes, I wish I could help, and yes, I know that I can't. But that wasn't the fundamental purpose of what I have been setting out to do, so it doesn't discourage me.

[wifpd4]

Re: Names for the car care cycle steps

Mary,
To me, an absolute newbie to concerned car care, you seem to be seeking absolutes when there may not be any. Meguiar's has the difficult task of providing information to people like me and people like you. I'm that least common denominator Meguiar's must educate, you are already educated and plying your knowledge as a professional. I'm just learning to detail for personal satisfaction and today I worked on a silver Nissan and a black Lexus. Cleaning, polishing and using a polisher meant completely different things using similar Meguiar's products on each. Sometimes the words were nouns, sometimes verbs, but with arthritis polisher meant a tool for cleaning, polishing and buffing.

You comment about "Having 99.5 percent of the population not knowing that it is possible to correct defects...." doesn't take into effect the number of folks that don't know nor care about any defects they may have. Until a few months ago, I sure didn't care. So I'm not sure who is target audience of your desire to redefine words or work procedures that almost defy definition. In the dictionary you quoted and unless I missed it, the word polisher doesn't even appear.

Finally, I don't really think I helped with this discussion as I'm here to learn and not help, but I must say I've met Mr. Stoops just once and I got the impression concerned car care is more than just employment with him. He walks the talk.

[Mary S]

Re: Names for the car care cycle steps

Mary,
To me, an absolute newbie to concerned car care, you seem to be seeking absolutes when there may not be any. Meguiar's has the difficult task of providing information to people like me and people like you. I'm that least common denominator Meguiar's must educate, you are already educated and plying your knowledge as a professional. I'm just learning to detail for personal satisfaction and today I worked on a silver Nissan and a black Lexus. Cleaning, polishing and using a polisher meant completely different things using similar Meguiar's products on each. Sometimes the words were nouns, sometimes verbs, but with arthritis polisher meant a tool for cleaning, polishing and buffing.

You comment about "Having 99.5 percent of the population not knowing that it is possible to correct defects...." doesn't take into effect the number of folks that don't know nor care about any defects they may have. Until a few months ago, I sure didn't care. So I'm not sure who is target audience of your desire to redefine words or work procedures that almost defy definition. In the dictionary you quoted and unless I missed it, the word polisher doesn't even appear.

Finally, I don't really think I helped with this discussion as I'm here to learn and not help, but I must say I've met Mr. Stoops just once and I got the impression concerned car care is more than just employment with him. He walks the talk.

wifpd,

Believe it or not, the target audience of my desire, not to redefine words but to make them clear and consistent across the industry, is everybody who owns a car, motorcycle, boat, even a regular bicycle, and maybe even some that are none of the above. Maybe not 99.5% of the population, but how about at least 95%. Or how about this, at least everybody who knows that Turtle Wax makes wax for cars, whether they are waxing their cars at all or not.

You say that the process defies definition. I totally disagree. I agree that defining "paint correction/defect removal" strictly using the word "clean" for the name of the process used ,and "cleaner" for the name of the products used, may be possible but difficult if your goal is to create a universal and unambiguous awareness of what the process is.

You mentioned that you didn't know or care about the defects in your car's paint until 3 months ago. I can completely relate to that, because it is true for me too. I am not a professional detailer yet, just educating myself and training to do that in the future, but I am new to concerned car care too. And it is because of this that I do want to increase awareness of the problem, the process of fixing the problem, and what the name is of the professional you seek out to correct the problem, or what over-the-counter products, such as SwirlX and Ultimate Compound, you might look for to correct them yourself.

Almost everybody knows what an oil change is. Maybe they don't get it done every 3 months, but they know that you should. If they want to have it done, they know where to go to have it done. They know you can do it yourself if you have the proper tools and knowledge but most people don't.

Almost everybody knows what washing your car means. Maybe they have never washed their own car, maybe they haven't had it washed since the day they bought the vehicle, but they know they could do it themselves or take it through an automatic or professional car wash.

Almost everybody has heard the term "coronary bypass surgery." They couldn't do it themselves, they couldn't recite the steps a surgeon takes to perform the operation, but they have a general idea of what it means and the kind of specialist who performs them. The individual steps might involve technical jargon, words that most people wouldn't know the meaning of, but you could look them up in a medical dictionary, and heart surgeons communicating with each other would understand what those words mean because they have precise definitions.

And the bottom line is that if the technical words for anatomy and procedural steps and equipment and products did not have precise meaning and definitions within the medical community, there would be no such thing as coronary bypass surgery. Such an advanced technological procedure was the culmination of physicians being trained in a standardized way, products being labeled in a standardized way, medical terms having standardized meaning, and communication between physicians all over the world in published journals that use precise medical language. It is how a profession advances.

So my feeling is that if something as technical as "coronary bypass surgery" can be a household word, so can "detailing," "detailers," and a general understanding of what the detailer can do for your car's appearance.

I don't think there is anybody who owns a car that doesn't care about its appearance. They may drive an old beater because that is all they can afford, but if they wanted to buy a new car, they would know where to go to buy one. They may not fix body damage because they can't afford that either, but they know where they can go to have that done if they want to. If your car has a 5-foot key scratch along the side, you may not want to pay to have a body shop repaint 3 panels of your car, but again, you would know where you could go to have it done, and even if you chose not to fix it, it would bother you.

So my thoughts are, why not be aware that if you paint has become worn over time with some of the natural forces where a new car gets old, why not know where you can go to have the paint renewed and rejuvenated to look like new at a fraction of what it would cost to have it repainted and a quantum fraction of what it would cost to buy a new car.

What eventually brought me to this forum was not swirls in my paint. In fact, on a white car, once it is hand washed and waxed, I wonder at times if I even want to remove them because they are so hard to see.

I got here searching on the internet on do-it-yourself scratch removal because of some deep scratches on my car from a scrape that happened a few years back. And the articles that I found said to use fine-grit sandpaper, rubbing compound, and polishing compound. So I went to Walmart and purchased all 3. Why did I not buy Meguiar's brand? Well, to begin with, my Walmart does not stock Ultimate Compound and SwirlX, but let's say they did. The article told me to buy "rubbing compound" and "polishing compound," so I found the Turtle Wax brand of each, which were called "rubbing compound" and "polishing compound."

And why does my Walmart not stock Ultimate Compound and SwirlX? It probably doesn't sell well. People that already know that is what they want can buy it on Amazon for less. People that think they want rubbing compound and polishing compound won't buy it because that is not what Meguiar's calls them.

I eventually bought both (from Amazon) because I ended up watching some Youtube videos that Meguiar's made, but I only ended up there by chance because I was looking for something else. I only ended up here because of those scratches in my paint, they are too deep to be fixed by anything that Meguiar's sells.

So okay, people like me and you who didn't flat out know what with today's modern technology in paint care innovations can do for car care, those are the people I want to make understand aware of detailers and detailing and what detailing can do without happening across it on the internet in an indirect way like I did.

[agp56]

Re: Names for the car care cycle steps

Wal-mart's auto department product buyers (and their buyers in general) are buying their merchandise to sell at a lower dollar price point. That has been their philosophy for around 35 years or so. They are selling to the commodity consumer mindset. The Turtle Wax Products you mention are probably available at a lower cost and that is why they are on the shelves there. I was SHOCKED to see the $35 wax there (Autoglym?) as it goes against their general grain. Meguiar's merchandise is showing up a bit more on their shelves, but it won't ever get like being a fully stocked situation like ADS. They (Wal-mart) are looking for a higher turn rate in their merchandise - and those of us that are car crazy on this board might be a whole 5% of their customer base. So they won't stock what they believe will not sell to the average comsumer. What we are striving to do here - maintain the appearance of our vehicles at a high level for whatever reason, is sadly not the average behavior. However, it does create opportunities for those in our number who perform this service for gainful employment, whether it be full time or the weekend warrior.

[Mary S]

Re: Names for the car care cycle steps

Wal-mart's auto department product buyers (and their buyers in general) are buying their merchandise to sell at a lower dollar price point. That has been their philosophy for around 35 years or so. They are selling to the commodity consumer mindset. The Turtle Wax Products you mention are probably available at a lower cost and that is why they are on the shelves there. I was SHOCKED to see the $35 wax there (Autoglym?) as it goes against their general grain. Meguiar's merchandise is showing up a bit more on their shelves, but it won't ever get like being a fully stocked situation like ADS. They (Wal-mart) are looking for a higher turn rate in their merchandise - and those of us that are car crazy on this board might be a whole 5% of their customer base. So they won't stock what they believe will not sell to the average comsumer. What we are striving to do here - maintain the appearance of our vehicles at a high level for whatever reason, is sadly not the average behavior. However, it does create opportunities for those in our number who perform this service for gainful employment, whether it be full time or the weekend warrior.

agp, I agree Walmart likes to carry low-price items, but they also sell a selection of brands for the same product, especially when people are buying from brand loyalty, regardless of the product line. Not all car care sections sells body shop items, but our Super Walmart does. They sell touch up paint, fine grade sand paper, rubbing compounds and so forth. They do sell the Meguiar's brand of car care products, but not always the same ones. I see some come and go. I was at Target the other day, and I was really impressed with their Meguiar's car care selection. In general, they had the Meguiar's brand if they were selling the same product in other brand names, like Turtle Wax or Armour All. Meguiar's consumer products may be a touch more expensive, but I think that the bottom line is, if the product sells in that store, the store will restock it. If it doesn't, they won't.

Anyway, I digress, but I think it hurts Meguiars the way they label Ultimate Compound and SwirlX because they miss sales from people who are looking for rubbing compound and polishing compound I was. Just this year they started selling Rubbing Compound and Polishing Compound, labeled the traditional way. Hopefully, that will help solve that problem. I did see it stocked at Advance Auto Parts.

[wifpd4]

Re: Names for the car care cycle steps

Mary,

Thank you for picking the coronary bypass surgery as an analogy. Problems of the heart touched me long before concerned car care.

Generally speaking St. John's Mercy Medical Center in St. Louis, the University of Iowa Hospital in Iowa City, the Mayo Clinic In Rochester, and John Hopkins in Baltimore all teach and perform coronary bypass surgery. The tools, the medications and the procedures are similar, but specifically the operation is different at Mayo then at U of Iowa or John Hopkins or St. John's. People make health care decisions based on any advantages or suggested improvements one doctor, one hospital or one medical center may offer. Although generally speaking they are offering "coronary bypass surgery". (This discussion of course discounts any processes stipulated by insurance companies, HMOs or what the government may be telling us.) I'm not sure who the governing agencies are for coronary bypass surgery, perhaps the American Medical Association. The AMA would then set the minimum standards for this medical procedure.

Mary you did start this thread as a suggestion to rename or at a minimum clarify a process. I do however wonder if there is not an organization similar to the AMA of the medical world in the detailing world you shouldn't be appealing, something like the "International Detailing Association". The folks that set the standards for which you wish to have in place and may wish to change. Keep in mind Meguiar's may not belong to this or any other such organization. As I'm sure you are aware from your software experience, not everyone follows standards and in some case ever wishes to follow.

Perhaps some of this forum's more senior members can direct you to that organization(s).

[Mary S]

Re: Names for the car care cycle steps

Mary,

Thank you for picking the coronary bypass surgery as an analogy. Problems of the heart touched me long before concerned car care.

Generally speaking St. John's Mercy Medical Center in St. Louis, the University of Iowa Hospital in Iowa City, the Mayo Clinic In Rochester, and John Hopkins in Baltimore all teach and perform coronary bypass surgery. The tools, the medications and the procedures are similar, but specifically the operation is different at Mayo then at U of Iowa or John Hopkins or St. John's. People make health care decisions based on any advantages or suggested improvements one doctor, one hospital or one medical center may offer. Although generally speaking they are offering "coronary bypass surgery". (This discussion of course discounts any processes stipulated by insurance companies, HMOs or what the government may be telling us.) I'm not sure who the governing agencies are for coronary bypass surgery, perhaps the American Medical Association. The AMA would then set the minimum standards for this medical procedure.

Mary you did start this thread as a suggestion to rename or at a minimum clarify a process. I do however wonder if there is not an organization similar to the AMA of the medical world in the detailing world you shouldn't be appealing, something like the "International Detailing Association". The folks that set the standards for which you wish to have in place and may wish to change. Keep in mind Meguiar's may not belong to this or any other such organization. As I'm sure you are aware from your software experience, not everyone follows standards and in some case ever wishes to follow.

Perhaps some of this forum's more senior members can direct you to that organization(s).

An operation such as coronary bypass surgery, just like detailing, is likely to differ in some aspect from surgery to surgery even with the same doctor performing the same operation in the same operating room on the same day on different patients, because what he finds along the way will be a bit different. And after all, there are bypasses, double, triple, quadruples. There are other variations. They may start out anticipating to do an operation one way and find when the patient is open that they must do it another way. And in general, yes a particular surgeon may be more skilled and have a better reputation as another, just as with detailers.

As far as a professional association for detailers, I believe there is one. I don't remember the name of it, but I saw it on the web page of a particular detailer. I was unable to find any presence of it on the internet when I searched for it, perhaps an email address of someone you could send for information. There is another professional organization that is fairly active called Professional Car Washing and Detailing. Their biggest focus is the Car Washing aspect.

As it turns out, the detailing industry as a whole has already standardized its terminology in pretty much the same way as I put it forth by following the labeling on Meguiar's products. Most of the terms probably date back to as long as there have been paint shops to paint cars. When a car is painted, it is necessary to use compounds, rubbing compounds and polishing compounds, to bring up the shine in the paint. This may not be true anymore for factory paint but certainly in the body work industry it is true, depending on the technology of the paint that is used. The technology and advancement in the chemistry of those compounds have of course improved greatly since the body work industry started, as has that of paint.

So I think the end result of the thread I started about clarity of use of terms was that there wasn't really as big a problem as I thought there was. I just happened to get my start in the detailing community here, and I felt that where Meguiar's was selling their products to off-the-shelf consumers, there might be better ways to attract those consumers to what those products do.

Using Meguiar's definitions make it easy to define "detailer" or "detailing."

Detailing: Giving the surfaces of a vehicle a thorough cleaning and application of protectant as appropriate.

Professional detailer: Someone who gives the surfaces of your vehicle a thorough cleaning and application of protectant as appropriate as a profession.

So paint correction is lost in that definition. Even though it conforms to Meguiar's definitions of the processes involved, it doesn't differentiate the fact that a professional detail can remove a tiny layer of paint and bring up the polish and shine of the paint such that minor imperfections are permanently removed, even to the point of making the paint look brand new in some cases, or that the car care enthusiast can do the same thing with certain off the shelf products.

So, people who think that a professional detailing service will do nothing but give your car's interior and exterior a thorough cleaning and protection, just like a house cleaning service will give the surface of your house a thorough cleaning and/or polishing as appropriate, they may consider it a luxury that they don't want, just like most people do their own house cleaning and don't pay someone else to do it.

And to the population that has "some" awareness of detailing as a profession, my impression has been that this is what most of them think professional detailers do.

So yes, a professional organization would be good for setting standards for definitions as well as bringing accurate public awareness of the detailing profession. Collectively, it is much easier to educate the public and to advocate for the profession than it is for every detailer, with limited resources to do so, to do this on his own for his own business.

[wifpd4]

Re: Names for the car care cycle steps

Sorry, didn't give you the address:

International Detailing Association

http://www.the-ida.com/

There may be others and I'm not advocating this or any other particular organization or association. Just an example to help you on your quest.

Again, perhaps some senior forum members will provide additional information.

[Mary S]

Re: Names for the car care cycle steps

Sorry, didn't give you the address:

International Detailing Association

http://www.the-ida.com/

There may be others and I'm not advocating this or any other particular organization or association. Just an example to help you on your quest.

Again, perhaps some senior forum members will provide additional information.

Thanks, wifpd! When you said that, I thought you were giving an example name! I will certainly check them out.

[Scoobie]

Re: Names for the car care cycle steps


I believe that the act of abrading, refining, making smooth, etc., can be called "cleaning". Whether you're using a heavy abrassive, a light abrassive, light, or heavy duty chemicals, in essence, you're cleaning. There are chemical cleaners, such as "surfactants", which offer no abrading properties.

I am more familiar with the term " chemical cleaner", than I am with the term "Abrassive" cleaner. The word cleaner is more associated with chemicals than they are with abrassives, but...Comet, & Ajax, which ARE cleaners, are mildly abrassive. Even though the majority may (or may not) associate cleaners with chemicals, the fact is, when you use an abrassive on a surface, whether it's painted or not, is the act of "cleaning". "That paint cleaned right up". You're cleaning those scratches right up. There can very well be bonded debris on the finish. When you use an abrassive, the debris is being "cleaned" up. See what I mean?

I totally agree with Meguiars usage of the word "cleaner". What I don't agree with, is Meguiars usage of the word "polish". I say that, because, I was taught from a very young age, that anytime a method used to make a surface smooth & shiny (level/flat) is called polishing or buffing, although, technically, can be called "cleaning".

[Scoobie]

Re: Names for the car care cycle steps


To up the Ante a bit, Megs 205 is a mild abrassive. It is listed on their website under

Paint Cleaners/Compounds

"Permanently removes swirls and light defects from all paints".


It says "polish" right on the bottle.





Go figure. This subject is like beating a dead horse. I have lurked on these, and other detailing forums since about 2006-2007, and I'll tell ya what, I'm over it. Megs like to use the term "clean", & and I like to use the word "polish" to refine & make smooth, level & shiny. To each his/her own, I'm over it.

As far as IDA, they're are just a business trying to make money just like anyone else.

[Mary S]

Re: Names for the car care cycle steps

Scoobie, I am like you. I think a product with chemicals or a light abrasive in it can be called a cleaner and be used for cleaning if you are removing soil, fingerprints, or other contaminants from the surface but the integrity of what you are cleaning remains intact. For example, using Bon Ami, which has mild abrasives, on the ceramic tiles of your bathroom floor, your sink, or your bathtub. You remove surface dirt, but the tile or ceramic itself is not compromised because of their hardness and the mildness of the abrasive.

If you have a surface that is clean but not shiny and you do something to it to make it shiny, whether by abrading off the top of the surface and polishing up the new surface to a shine or simply adding oils to it like furniture oil to certain woods, I call that polishing. Polishing silver with a mild abrasive or putting oil on furniture would be an example.

And a product could have abrasives or chemicals in it that clean and oils that polish simultaneously. like Orange Glo wood cleaner and polish. It mainly cleans but also leaves the surface shiny.

But, as you pointed out, the product 205 is called a polish on the label. It can be used with a dual action polisher with a polishing pad. And I think Meguiar's is as fully aware as anybody how awkward and nonintuitive the use of the word "clean" for the step 2 of the paint care cycle, but if they called it claying, compounding, and polishing, well that would be 3 steps, and then that might seem too complicated. Who really knows. But the bottom line is, that is what the industry calls those steps. So no matter which term you use, people on this forum will understand what you mean.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Names for the car care cycle steps

A couple of things specifically regarding Wal-Mart and other retailers:

There is huge competition for shelf space at all the major retailers, and their buyers will pick and choose what products they think will sell well in their stores. The product mix carried by each retail chain does vary, but Wal-Mart carries a higher SKU count of Meguiar's consumer products than any other retailer in the world. They actually picked up both Ultimate Compound and SwirlX but that is no guarantee that your local store has it in stock. Store managers will also pick and choose what they want to stock, and those decisions can vary by region.

We've seen cases where, for example, a high shine tire product sells extremely well in one part of the country, but another part of the country prefers low shine tire products. What plays in New York City doesn't always play in Peoria, or something like that. Interestingly enough, more retail chains picked up SwirlX than Ultimate Compound, meaning SwirlX is a more widely available product than UC. Yet overall, UC is by far the better selling product. Go figure.

Above and beyond that, it might interest you to know that something like 80% of the car owning public doesn't even wax their own car. Most are simply content to run it through the local car wash every week or two. And even those who do will often refer to the wax as "polish" - our Call Center hears this all the time. And since we take calls from all over the country and talk to everyone from body shop owners to the person who waxes once a year (if they're in the mood) we hear all kinds of different terms for different products and processes. Sometimes it's simply mistaken identity, like people who call Ultimate Compound a wax, but sometimes it's just the local colloquialism and people refer to waxing as polishing. That also happens to be the common usage of the term polish in the UK. And the lines only get further blurred when products start to combine multiple steps in one. M80, M83, M205 and SwirlX are all, technically, cleaner/polishes since they all contain an abrasive cleaner as well as polishing oils. Gold Class and NXT are both polish/waxes, meaning they combine those two steps in one.

Many here have stated that the industry as a whole lacks true standardization of terms, and we have to agree with them. Yes, it can be confusing, perplexing, frustrating and maybe even downright annoying. But is it hurting a pro detailer? We really doubt it. Can it help a pro detailer? Maybe. If you are serious about pursuing professional detailing in your area, an area that you have said is sorely lacking in this type of service, then perhaps it's a great way for you to take hold of the situation and start getting the word out. You will have to educate your customers one by one (as most any detailer has to do) since the majority of them don't even know how to look for a swirl mark. Amazing, but true. Just talk to the car owners at Barrett-Jackson or a major car show (except, maybe, Pebble Beach or Amelia Island..... but even then........)

But to get back to your original post that started this thread and your suggestion of:

1. Wash and clay using car shampoo and detailing clay as previously defined.
2. Polish with a finishing polish like 205 or SwirlX to level paint surface to permanently remove swirls and light defects from clear coat or single stage paint and to bring out the shine and reflectivity in the paint.
3. Glaze using a glaze like 05 or 07 to add depth of shine, especially to darker colored cars.
4. Protect with paint protectants as previously defined.
5. Maintain as previously defined.

Really the only thing we would alter here would be to leave Step 1 as just washing. Take the claying part out of Step 1 and keep in Step 2 with the paint cleaning step. The reason being that washing really is a stand alone process. It removes all the loose contaminants from the surface and allows you to better determine what sort of paint defects/issues/problems you need to deal with using more specialized methods.

And all of those defects/issues/problems fall into one of two categories: above surface bonded contaminants and below surface defects. As you well know, clay is used to remove those defects/issues/problems that fall into the above surface bonded contaminants group while some sort of abrasive liquid, what we teach as being a paint cleaner, is used to correct all of the defects/issues/problems that are found below the surface. These two steps are combined into Step 2, which is the all encompassing "Surface Prep" part of the whole mix. It deeply cleans the paint, removing all of these imperfections. And there other companies with products that they refer to as "paintwork cleansers" etc, so we aren't totally alone in this.

Now, if you find the semantics of "polish" and "cleaning" to be your major sticking points (and we'll admit, you're not alone) then that's fine. There is a lot of confusion surrounding this, mostly because there isn't a lot of standardization in the industry and a lot of words are used interchangeably. And again, that can vary from region to region. But at virtually every Saturday Class we teach we are almost blinded by the light bulbs coming on over everyone's head as the process becomes clear to them while we go through the 5 Step Paint Care Cycle.