How do you get a REALLY nice polish on your car?

[Poiuyt]

I'm talking about how the cars in the TV commercials all look like they were made of glass. There has to be more to it than just Turtle Wax. Are there special products and techniques, or is it from a custom paint job?

[rug]

1. Usually Matcom's special ranch dressing does the trick.

[Nicole]

2. An electric buffer

The guys who detail my car use one for waxing.

[struggle4progress]

3. Go to Poland & hang out in a bar until you find somebody willing to climb on.

[petronius]

4. Drive at high speed straight through a hot-dog cart...

[Hugin]

5. Wax on... Wax off...

That's the secret.

[JackBeck]

7. Beat me to it. n/t

[The Traveler]

6. Mother's of California

3 step process. Just do it. Oooh. Shiny.

[Cobalt-60]

8. Mothers Gold does the job well

I use old school, hard assed Simoniz when I can get it.
After that, Mothers Gold is my shine of choice.

[The Traveler]

16. Old school indeed

but not unwise in matters automotive, I see. Another gearhead, perhaps?

[jmowreader]

9. Start out with a new paint job

Paint your car with Sikkens Autobase II. Polish the basecoat to a very smooth finish, then shoot four coats of Sikkens Autoclear II.

[Rabrrrrrr]

11. Then photograph car under intense spotlights and punch up the shine with computers

in post-processing.

[jmowreader]

14. Exactly!

There's a video floating around the Internets that the Dove Soap people made for their "real beauty" campaign. It's been discussed on DU a couple of times. At the start of the spot there's a pretty girl with no makeup and no hairstyling. They do her hair, do her face, photograph her, then pull the image into Photoshop where they change everything around and finally put the finished piece on a billboard. (My opinion of this: if you get the right model, the right photographer and the right stylists and give them time to work instead of trying to do this shit on the quick and cheap like people try nowadays, all you need to do in Photoshop is remove dust spots and color balance the scan.)

Well...it ain't just people who get worked on in advertising. Food photography is the worst--any food stylist can turn chicken shit into chicken salad with her eyes closed. But cars are about as bad.

[GOPisEvil]

10. Spit shine!

:7

[seemunkee]

12. Zaino

Take a read on this thread. Great information for the OCD car nut.
http://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37303

[Blue Diadem]

13. Maybe liquid glass products?

DH used them for years on our red car..it was always beautiful. Even as old as it is(14 yrs old), and being exposed to the elements 24/7, it still hasn't faded.

http://www.liquidglass.com/product.htm

[flvegan]

15. 3M Imperial Hand Glaze

I know a couple folks with pristine show cars that swear by it. When used, the car has that "wet look" to it.

[gemdem]

17. You blow in her ear?

:evilgrin:

[leftofthedial]

18. forget about Warsaw

all the REALLY nice polish live in the smaller towns