Restoring Paintwork After the Outback: A Real-World Guide to Polishing

Wash the car with a strip soap or even a tiny bit of dish soap (just this once!) to get rid of old waxes. Use the two-bucket method. If you've been in the red dust, spend 20 minutes just jetting out the wheel arches and chassis first.

Spray the iron remover over the dry paint. If it turns purple, that's the salt and metallic fallout dissolving. Rinse it off thoroughly. Do not let this dry in the sun, or you'll be in a world of hurt.

Run your hand over the paint. Feels like sandpaper? Use the clay bar with plenty of lube. This pulls out the embedded grit. Honestly, if you don't do this, your polishing pads will be ruined in five minutes.

Dry it properly. Use a leaf blower if you have one to get water out of the mirrors and trim. Nothing ruins a polish like a random drip of water hitting your pad mid-spin.

Chuck some tape over black plastic trims, rubber seals, and badges. If the spinning pad hits black plastic, it'll turn it white, and it's a bastard to get off.

Look, every car's paint is different. Toyota paint is usually soft; Euro cars are hard as rocks. Pick a small 40x40cm area on the bonnet and start with your least aggressive combo (white pad and polish).

Put 4-5 pea-sized dots of compound on your pad. Don't overdo it. Smear it across the face of the pad with your finger so it's evenly covered.

Work in small sections. I usually stick to a 50cm square. Any bigger and the polish dries out before you're done.

With the machine OFF, dab the pad around your section to spread the dots. This prevents 'sling' (getting polish all over your shirt and the garage walls).

Set the DA to speed 1. Spread the polish quickly over the area, then crank it up to speed 4 or 5.

Move the machine slowly. About 2-3cm per second. Let the machine do the work; you only need light pressure, enough to keep the pad flat.

Move up and down, then side to side. Overlap each pass by 50%. Do about 4-5 'cycles' until the polish looks translucent.

Buff off the residue with a clean microfibre. Hit it with the IPA spray to remove the oils. Take a look with your light. Did the scratches go? If not, you might need the heavier compound.

After every single section, use your pad brush while the machine is spinning to flick out the spent polish. If the pad gets 'caked', swap to a fresh one.

Move to the next section, overlapping slightly with the one you just finished. Keep going until the whole panel is done.

Touch the paint occasionally. If it feels hot to the touch, you're going too hard or staying in one spot too long. Let it cool down. High heat and clear coat don't mix.

Once you've done the whole car with the cutting compound, switch to your finishing pad and polish. This is much faster and removes any 'haze' left by the heavy cutting.

If you can, pull the car into the sun for a final check. The sun is the most honest critic, it'll show you anything you missed.

Do one last slow wipe of the entire car with a fresh microfibre and IPA. You want the paint surgically clean for whatever protection you're putting on next.