Polishing and Compounding are the two most important ways to fixing imperfections in your paint. Whether it be scratches, swirls, water spots, or any other paint impurity polishes and compounds are the answer. The gloss of your paint is determined by the smoothness of your paint, to get the most gloss, you need to have a perfectly smooth surface. Scratches and swirls are essentially cut in your paint, ruining that smooth surface. The only way to fix these is to abrade the surface around them down until the surface is completely smooth again. That is exactly what polishes and compounds do! Polishes and compounds are gels with tiny abrasives in them (think liquid sandpaper). These abrasives will abrade the surface as you work the product over your paint, restoring that perfectly smooth and glossy surface once more!
