What is jeweling
Written by: Vinnie van Rooij
Jeweling is a popular term among those who want to achieve the last and final step of finishing polishing a car. Although it is not certain where the term came from, if done properly it does add depth to the paintwork. It can also be written as “jewelling”.
Why jeweling
When you polish a surface, you might have to use more then one step to finish the paintwork to the best it can be. Most people will agree that using a finishing polish on a finishing pad will be the last step. But for those who really want to go all out, you can use jeweling to add more gloss and depth to the finish.
What is jeweling
Jeweling is the act of applying a finishing polish on a finishing pad on very low speed. The rotation speed of the rotary or DA is turned down to its lowest setting. Then a clean finishing pad is used to slowly work in the finishing polish. This step takes a lot of time, because you still need to work in the polish. Although the difference in gloss is almost not noticeable, it does add depth to the paintwork. Because of the relatively small improvement (compared with the time it takes), this step has little use for those who charge their customer an hourly rate, or those who need to do a certain amount of cars per day.
Jeweling isn’t always written in the same way, it can also be written as “jewelling” (American English).
How to do jeweling
The steps for jeweling are not difficult, it just takes a lot of time.
- Make sure you’ve done all the polishing steps
- Take out a clean finishing pad
- Turn the speed setting of your rotary or DA down to the lowest setting
- Apply a few dots of your finishing polish with the lowest cutting power
- Slowly work in the finishing polish
(Working in the polish is done by the amount of times that the abrasive particle is moved over the surface, because of the slow setting on the machine, it will take much more time for the polishing pad to make the same amount of rotations than normal. If the setting is 10 times lower then normal, you’re working-time increases 10 times.) - When finishing jeweling, wipe off the polish and follow up with a wipe down with IPA or similar
Tips and tricks
Combine jeweling with spit shining for a simply amazing finish! It can also be combined with a pre-wax cleaner and/or AIO with a very light abrasive ingredient.
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[…] little known technique allows for achieving greater results then normal. This technique is called Jeweling and increases the level of finish by decreasing the level of cut even more then normal. Quote from […]