Car polish is an abrasive cream used to remove a certain amount of paint from a cars finish dependent upon how course the polish is. Finer polishes remove a smaller amount of paint and are used to give a surface a brighter glossier finish. Coarser polishes remove more paint and are often used to prepare areas of a cars body for re-spraying or to smooth areas of recent bodywork in preparation for a finer polish to give a much smoother finish. With care a car should not need any form of polish to maintain a good quality finish, but it is often too time consuming to keep up this level of care. Together with unpredictable circumstance like scratches minor bodywork, and general environmental effects, polish can be used to return your bodywork to its original condition.

There are several different categories of car polish available and each has a different purpose in the car cleaning process:

Rubbing Compound - Rubbing compound, is a cutting polish designed to remove some minor paint damage or defects, oxidation and the scratches created by fine sandpaper when smoothing fresh paintwork.

Polish - A mixture of components designed to remove minor scratches, surface imperfections, water spots, acid rain spots, light oxidation, and the swirl marks created by compounding with a machine.

Glaze - A much finer polish. Some glazes are safe to use on fresh paint, as they do not seal. A glaze will not have the cutting ability to remove imperfections, but will help to increase surface gloss.

Pre-wax cleaner - A polish containing chemical cleaners to help remove minor surface contamination and dirt not handled by normal washing.

These types of polishes can also be separated into two types, suitable for hand or machine use. The difference between a machine polish and a hand polish is how the abrasive material breaks down in use. If a machine polish is used by hand, the particles may not break down, and the finish will not buff out properly. Conversely, a hand polish used with a machine will cause the polish to break down too quickly, and this will reduce the cutting action. There are a few polishes that will work by hand or machine as they don't use diminishing abrasives or are not temperature sensitive (buffing pads create heat).

Many people believe that cars come off the assembly line with perfect paint. Whereas in reality there are many conditions that can cause minor paint flaws requiring additional finishing work. Most car manufacturers take care of these problems at the factory using abrasive finishing materials and sometimes the car dealer may recognize a flaw and have it fixed.

Always take care not to remove too much paint through polishing a good guideline to follow is If a scratch or other flaw can be felt with your fingernail, it's too deep to be completely removed through polishing. If too much paint is removed this may cause the paintwork to fail and this will defeat the purpose of polishing in the first place.