[hotwired78]

Whats your take on using Nu Finish vs 2 step Polish + wax?

[psnt1ol]

2 step polishing normally equates to paint correction (Compound and Polish) to me so the best analogy I could give is the following.

One is like women cosmetics (make-up). It does a OK job at masking minor imperfections temporary. It does this by filling the minor defects to give the impression of a smoother surface. Due to light refraction, a smooth surface is a glossy surface. The product will eventually wears off and the surface will return to its natural flaw state since the defects were never "fixed" from the start. It is a polymer base product and it does provide an adequate protection from the elements. Protection is the product's primary job and the slight visual improvements from its filling properties is just a bonus.

The other is a Face Peel. It permanently get rid of imperfections by leveling the paint to the defect's lowest point. The difference is that your skin will grow back but your clear coat will not. There is a finite amount of clear you can safely remove so it is not advisable to put your car through this process (Compound and Polish) too frequently. Besides, I am sure you seen people who had too many cosmetic face surgeries when they were young. They looked good for a few years but father time eventually catches up and he is generally pretty cruel to these folks. Please don't confuse this with a touch-up with a light polish. This is a completely different matter since the amount of clear removed is minuscule.

[hotwired78]

I used the clay bar and did a nu finish instead of a polish and wax.

What you're saying with the 2 step is the same though, its just filling the scratches at the polish stage as well. Nu finish is also doing the same thing. But with the lack of wax, am I really exposing my car's finish that much more? Wax doesn't block UV either.

[psnt1ol]

No.. They are different. One masks the defects and one removes them by shaving thin layer off the clear coat.

Say you have a blemish on your skin..... you can either hide it with a flesh tone make-up or you can have a peel and remove it permanently. One is a temporary solution while the other is not.

A high end wax will offer a little bit UV protection. Sealants generally will offer better protection than waxes due to its synthetic nature. UV is not the only thing that could damage your paint. Acid rain, bird bomb, and water from the sprinklers are just a few ways your paint could get damage if left unprotected. I've seen what bird bombs could do to a unprotected surface in less than 10 minutes.

A wax, a Sealant, or even a coating is really just a sacrificial layer and the difference between them is mainly durability but some will offer a bit more pop (this is very subjective) in the visual department.

[hotwired78]

so i've applied nu finish (which is really a polish i think), so the next step is to add a layer of wax?

[psnt1ol]

Nu Finish is not a polish. It is what is refer to as a Last Step Process (LSP). A wax, a sealant, or a coating are all LSPs.

[dreweezy]

Nu Finish is great, just used it for the first time yesterday. I made the mistake of applying the product with a microfiber cloth, it ended up absorbing a lot of the product during application. I would recommend just using an applicator pad to apply, then microfiber to remove.

And yeah, I've heard that applying Nu Finish as the first layer, then a wax on top of it is the best.