Do You REALLY Need to Polish Before Ceramic Coating?

Do You REALLY Need to Polish Before Ceramic Coating? The Auto Detailing Podcast · Sep 17, 2025

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A question I've been getting surprisingly often,

but maybe then again, maybe not surprisingly often

with the amount of just sheer information

there is out on detailing is,

do you really need to polish

before you apply a ceramic coating

or is this just like kind of hype,

our brand's trying to sell me more products?

Do I really, really need to do this?

How important is it?

And so in this video, what I wanna talk about

are the pros and cons to why you may wanna polish

and why you may not care to polish

and then what a professional detailer generally does.

So I kinda wanna cover all those questions

so that you can make the most informed decision.

I think that's the purpose of putting content out

is to make an informed decision.

And sure, I will tell you what I normally do,

but I'll give you kind of the too long, didn't read.

I polish most of the time.

Most of the time I do.

However, there are times that you actually don't need to.

Detailers don't wanna talk about that

because if you're detailing a car,

you want the best case scenario.

If you're detailing a car for a customer,

you want the best possible product to deliver.

And so the best possible product to deliver

generally is to polish.

And then when a car is pretty much perfect

and you don't need to polish,

well, we don't talk about that, right?

So obviously for me,

this is partly why I developed the Picture Perfect Polish

to make this polishing step is easy

and as quick as possible, to be honest.

I'll be totally transparent in saying

that polishing a car is not my favorite part of detailing.

I don't really enjoy it at all.

It's not fun for me.

I maybe have like a little too much OCD

and wanna be all over the place,

but it's just too mind numbing for me.

So for me, it's a step that I wanna get done

as quickly as possible if I have to do that.

But what does polishing do?

I think it's helpful to talk about

what polishing actually does

and why that may be beneficial to you,

why you might wanna do that

or why you might not wanna do it, right?

So what polishing does is it removes those swirls,

micro scratches, spider webbing sometimes they're called,

buffer trails, basically any surface defect in the paint,

it's gonna remove those.

So maybe a little bit of oxidation, water spots,

which is really common, especially on new cars

that are getting like lot washes.

And so polishing is going to remove all of this stuff

and restore the gloss, the depth

and that reflection in the paint

and it levels out the surface.

So levels, when you talk about removing a scratch,

really what you're doing is you're leveling out

the clear coat to the base of that scratch, right?

You're not really, you're removing the scratch visually,

but practically what you're doing

is you're leveling out the surface.

So you're not really removing any orange peel.

That would be kind of a deeper defect, I guess,

if you wanna call orange peel a defect.

So you won't remove that.

Sometimes I have customers questioning that,

you know, if the orange peel will be removed.

But basically you are leveling out the surface

to make it smoother for coatings to bond.

Yes, for the coating to bond,

but you're cleaning up the paint,

I guess is the quickest way to describe that.

So even like a quick one step polish

can really dramatically improve the appearance,

especially in darker color cars.

And honestly polishing isn't always like what we,

as professionals would call like paint correction.

Sometimes it's correcting certain parts of the car.

Some parts it's just kind of like a light refinement.

So a car surface can really vary from surface to surface.

And so you don't always need to do like a two step

or a three step or a very heavy duty paint correction

on the hood as you do on the doors

or vice versa or the roof of the car.

Because each surface of the car can actually be different.

This is kind of why paint correction,

I don't love it and why it can be difficult for people

is because even though you do want to do a test spot

to kind of get your methods down,

every panel of the car can actually be different.

And especially I'm just talking new cars.

If you're talking about cars that have been repainted

it can be a whole another animal.

So it makes kind of paint correction difficult sometimes,

right, and can be over complicated

or can over complicate the situation

because there are so many variables.

So the pros and cons of each,

so the pros of polishing before ceramic coating,

maximum adhesion.

So you're getting the surface down

to a clean smooth clear coat.

So if you want maximum longevity,

and this is what I tell either my clients

or people that are buying like the gloss boss

to have a show, whatever.

You want like maximum adhesion,

you gotta polish, right?

The best aesthetic, so like gloss upon gloss upon gloss

because the coating is gonna lock in whatever the surface is.

So if you wanna lock in like a swirl free glossy finish

for years and years and years, polish, okay?

The coating performs better

when it can adhere to bare clear coat.

This is also why the invention of like,

you know, IPAs or panel preps or anything like that

is to remove any of the oils

that the polish has left on the surface.

And so you really, if you do polish,

you normally with a normal polish,

you wanna hit it with an IPA or a panel prep.

The picture perfect polish is a little bit different

in that it actually doesn't leave anything behind,

doesn't leave any of the oils behind

and the very, very, very, very minute oils

that may be left behind actually flash off

with the solvents in the gloss boss,

which is kind of a system, how we developed it to work,

but there's virtually no oil left on the surface

with the picture perfect polish.

And a polish paint reflects evenly.

So again, we talked about you don't remove a scratch,

you kind of bring down the clear coat to its level

to kind of shave off the edges.

And so when you polish, you're making the surface even.

And so a polish paint kind of reflects evenly

without any like dull patches or weird things.

Sometimes you see like, you know,

sanding marks that have been done at the dealer

or even at the factory.

And so polish kind of removes that.

And this is a big part of it is that peace of mind,

if you've polished the paint,

and this is why detailers normally will polish the paint

before coating is you just have peace of mind

that you won't see any defects underneath the coating,

which is kind of like a worst case scenario

that you finish polishing or you finish coating the car

and you see some defects under the coating,

especially a fresh coating can kind of be very tricky

to remove and then remove the coating

and then remove the defects then very, very time consuming.

If you already don't love polishing,

it's gonna be not super fun.

So the professional standard

and kind of what I hinted to you before is like

most pros, most pros will not coat without polishing.

It's not worth putting the reputation on the line.

It's not worth the risk.

It's not worth the headache.

It's not worth any of that.

Even a quick one step polish is what most pros will do.

And if you're applying a wipe on ceramic coating

like the gloss boss,

a small glass bottle wipe on coating

as I'll refer to it,

it is in most cases 99% of the time

worth the extra effort and time to polish out the car,

at least with a quick one step polish.

It's usually worth your time.

Obviously I would recommend the Picture Perfect Polish

because you're gonna have the most bang for your buck,

the most bite with the polish

and then you don't need to use a panel prep after.

You could go straight to coating

but this is in no way meant to be an advertisement

just for my products.

This is, you know,

do you need to polish paint before you surround the coats?

It's supposed to be informative

but again, I'm gonna tell you the tools

that will help you get a faster result too.

So some cons of polishing

and this is kind of what you have to weigh,

the pros and the cons.

It is time intensive.

So it could turn, you know, a four hour ordeal

into an eight to 12 hour ordeal very quickly.

Polishing sometimes just takes a lot of time

and a lot of patience.

That's probably why I don't like it.

I don't have a lot of patience.

Sometimes buffers can be intimidating for beginners.

In today's day with DAs and dual action machines,

that kind of learning curve is very,

you're really not gonna mess anything up with the DA

as much as people wanna say you are.

This is why I'm very against beginners

picking up rotaries.

Rotaries, the learning curve is steeper

and not only is the learning curve steeper

but the problem is is that your risk

of doing something damaging to your paint

is significantly higher

and because it's significantly higher,

it's not worth the risk of picking up a rotary

when we have dual action machines that are phenomenal

and you're actually gonna get a better result.

So if you're a beginner, a DIYer at home,

there is absolutely zero reason in my opinion

to pick up a rotary polisher

because the cons far outweigh the pros.

And so you can get holograms, you can get micro-marring,

you can get clear coat burn,

you can really damage your clear coat.

And again, there are pros to rotary polishing

in my humble opinion, as you could tell.

The pros do not outweigh the cons with rotary polishing

because with rotary polishing, things happen so quick.

So quick and the fixed cost of doing something

and the fixability of those things that happen are extensive.

So to start with a DA and you are removing paint.

So again, rotary things happen very quick

but just realize even if you have a DA,

you are removing clear coat, you are thinning out

that clear coat and so it may be not worth it

to go do a full paint correction

and it may be worth it to just do a heavy one step

and that's again, not to make this an advertisement

for my products but that is exactly why

I developed a picture perfect polish.

It's like, how much defect removal can we get

with as little clear coat removal as possible?

How can we make this again, as safe as possible?

As safe and as enjoyable as possible.

So again, but going back to the list of cons,

like you gotta get a polisher, pad, lights

and not everyone wants to invest in that

and not only invest monetarily

but also to learn how to do it.

So if you hire a pro, it's gonna be more expensive

when they're polishing the paint

and again, not every car needs it

and one thing that I really take into consideration

when talking about how much polishing

or how much paint correction

is how is the car going to be maintained?

So having a product brand to kind of, you know

run the gamut and actually detailing cars forever

runs the gamut but this is a question

that I really, really like to ask customers.

It's like, how are you going to maintain this car

after I ceramic coat it?

And then once we know that,

let's back into how much paint correction we need to do.

So if you have a white car

or you're running it through the car wash

because you're buying the monthly pass

which obviously I highly recommend and avoid against

but it's not 100% avoidable for a lot of people

but again, this is why I developed a Super Soaper

and all that thing, all that stuff.

Or I mean, it runs the gamut.

There's people that for their professional careers

and for their business,

they literally run their car

through the car wash every day.

I know it sounds crazy to some people

but they write in, I hear about it

and so if you're doing that, you know

you may want to skip a ceramic coating.

You may want to go for something like

PPF paint protection film, right?

That's going to be a lot better for your clear coat.

And then you can maintain the PPF

with something like Tevechelle

but those are the conversations that you need to have.

So the pros of not polishing before ceramic coating.

So you could wash, prep, coat all in an afternoon.

It goes very, very quick.

Especially if you use something like the Gloss Boss

for a ceramic coating

where you can coat multiple panels of the car at a time.

Realistically, I can ceramic coat a full size SUV

in about an hour to an hour and a half

with the Gloss Boss per layer.

So wash, prep, coat all in one afternoon.

You can imagine how quickly that goes about four hours

if you don't need to do any paint polishing

on a full size SUV.

On a Tesla Model Y, a small sedan

that's going to be very, very,

that's going to be a lot quicker.

So the accessibility, if you don't have to polish

obviously it makes ceramic coating realistic for beginners.

You wash, prep, and coat.

That's it, right?

So even if the paint isn't perfect,

if the paint, like I like to say, is perfect in your eyes,

you're still getting the benefits

from UV protection, chemical shield,

that extra layer of insurance

that we all love ceramic coatings for.

Easier maintenance.

It's a lot more valuable

to have a ceramic coating on your car

in a low-barried entry.

No machine, no pad, no learning curve.

You could skip the polish, you can only buy the coating,

and it just goes very, very quick, right?

So those are the obvious pros.

The cons of skipping the polishing

is you may have swirls and scratches and stains

that remain under the coating.

If you don't do a panel prep or an IPA wipe,

the coating may not last as long as corrected paint,

which could be a big factor,

because if you don't have paint as porous

and leveling it out as best as possible,

as you wipe on the ceramic coating,

you are filling in the most amount of pores as possible.

Sometimes we'll call this the matrix,

and the matrix gets into the chemistry of the product,

but the matrix is basically how the molecules are,

or the formula is bonding to itself

and the clear coat at the same time,

and forming a matrix to bond.

And so there's little particle sizes

and big particle sizes,

and those bond and fill in those pores of the paint

and create a matrix, right?

So having uncorrected paint

could interfere with that matrix

and make the coating not last as long, right?

And honestly, you may be disappointed with the final look

compared to a polished finish.

That would be a big bummer to invest the time

to do the ceramic coating,

even if it's only four or five hours,

to do the ceramic coating

and then not be happy with the finish

would be a big bummer.

So again, you can get away with this

a lot more on lighter color cars

than you can with darker color cars.

I would say I've only had a handful of dark color cars

come through my shop that don't need to be polished,

but I've had significantly more light color cars

that can get away with not being polished.

So again, take that into consideration as well.

So I would say like practical scenarios

and what I like to tell my customers is,

again, if you have a brand new light color car,

you're probably gonna have a much higher chance

of not needing to polish.

You could probably wash, prep, and coat.

If you have a darker color car,

you're probably gonna have to polish.

If you have an older daily driver,

at least a one step polish is usually worth it.

If you're doing a lease return

or you're like flipping the car for some reason,

you could probably skip the polish.

If you're doing that,

I'd probably honestly just apply a spray ceramic

if you're flipping the car.

A lease return, a wipe on ceramic coating is ideal for

because it'll last the whole length of the lease,

make your car look great,

and will make it really easy to maintain.

And again, if you have a garage queen or a work truck,

I mean, different priorities, gloss versus protection,

and it really just depends how you're maintaining the car,

what is that car going to see?

If you have a white color work truck

that you're running through the tunnel car wash

once a week, but you do love the idea of a ceramic coating

and you understand that it may be degraded faster,

but it's a white work truck

and you just wanna give it the best hope possible,

you could probably skip polishing.

I don't know if people are gonna call me a hack for that,

they might, but you could probably skip polishing

because you don't always need to polish.

It just depends on the goals and the expectations.

So if you are going to polish,

this is kinda like my tiered approach, I guess,

after talking with a customer

or interacting with you guys as you email in,

wash and prep have to, always.

One step polish, 90% of the time.

Multi-step polish, a very, very slim percent of the time

because most people are gonna fall into tier one or two,

as I call it, like we're wash prepping and coating

or we are going to wash, prep is gonna be a one-step polish

and then coat, right?

The key is to manage either your customer's expectations

or your own expectations.

And again, if you want perfection,

take the extra time and polish.

It's gonna take an extra couple hours

depending upon the paint,

but it's gonna be well worth it in the long run

because polishing does give you,

either you have a light color car or dark color car,

it doesn't really matter

because polishing gives you the best results possible.

Not always required,

but it is gonna give you the best possible results.

So my opinion or my takeaway

is that you have to choose based upon your goals,

the car and your budget, right?

So again, your goals, the car and your budget

and also how you're gonna maintain it, right?

If you think about all those things

and kinda map it out,

that will help you make your decision.

If you have made your decision

and you want products that make it a lot easier,

the picture perfect polish

is gonna make your life a ton easier.

Again, develop from a guy

who doesn't really like polishing,

so I wanna get it done as fast as possible,

as safe as possible, right?

Obviously for your ceramic protection,

I have the spray with Tuffa Shell or the Gloss Boss,

which is my wipe on coating,

which you can apply very easily.

It is a pro grade coating

that is incredibly easy to apply.

I apply it to a whole half of a car at a time

before I go back and level.

This makes it super, super quick to ceramic coat a car.

So if you want any of those products

or more information on those products,

obviously I'll put links in the description.

Most of them are on Amazon as well.

So thank you for listening.

Hope you guys enjoyed that one.

Hopefully that clears up some questions

and gives you some at least information

to whether then you can make your own informed decision.

So with that, don't forget, I will link everything below.

Thanks guys for all the support on that

and I'll catch you guys on the next one.

See ya.

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About this episode

Exploring the necessity of polishing before applying ceramic coatings, this episode dives into the pros and cons of the process. The host discusses how polishing can enhance adhesion, aesthetics, and longevity of the coating while also addressing when it might be skipped, particularly for lighter-colored cars. With insights on the impact of different paint conditions and maintenance habits, listeners gain a comprehensive understanding of how to approach ceramic coating effectively. The episode also highlights the importance of managing expectations and offers practical advice for both DIYers and professionals.

Tesla Model Y

Original notes

Do you always need to polish before applying a ceramic coating? The answer might surprise you. In this podcast episode, I break down the pros and cons of polishing first, as well as what happens if you skip it and go straight to a ceramic coating.

Whether you're a DIY car enthusiast or a professional detailer, understanding the trade-offs can save you time, money, and effort—and help you decide what's best for your car.

We'll cover:

What polishing actually does for your paint
The benefits of polishing before ceramic coating
The drawbacks of polishing (time, cost, risk)
The advantages of skipping polish
Why skipping polish might not give you the results you want
Real-world scenarios: new cars, daily drivers, show cars, and lease returns
A balanced approach that works for most people

By the end, you'll know whether polishing before coating is a must—or if you can safely skip it.

Products I Mention in This Video

Picture Perfect Polish (one-step compound & polish):
Jimbo's: https://jimbosdetailing.com/products/picture-perfect-polish
Amazon: https://amzn.to/4meeU2H

Tough As Shell Ceramic Spray (spray-on protection):
Jimbo's: https://jimbosdetailing.com/products/hard-as-shell-ceramic-spray
Amazon: https://amzn.to/4mlqN6V

Gloss Boss (wipe-on ceramic coating, up to 5 years of protection):
Jimbo's: https://jimbosdetailing.com/products/gloss-boss

Don't forget to subscribe for weekly car detailing tips, product insights, and real-world detailing talk.

Watch more detailing videos here: https://www.youtube.com/jbalaam

The Auto Detailing Podcast

Jimbo Balaam interviews guest like Barry Meguiar, Jason Rose, Yvan Lacroix,

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