In this tutorial I’ll show you how to recover and refresh the paint of your Volvo. Especially the non-metallic paints will fade due sun, bird droppings, hot conditions and the salt used in winters. This tutorial will only cover the non-metallic paint, so don’t use the mentioned polishing-products on metallic paints! And this tutorial isn’t about detailing your car: detailing is a much more intensive and better way to make your Volvo as new. It needs more specialized products and methods which will take much more time than only polishing and waxing. Visit a specialized forum to learn more about detailing.

Please note: Volvotips isn’t responsible for any damage on your car when you followed this tutorial and made a mistake. Since paints can vary during the years the results also may vary. Be careful when you’re polishing your Volvo because you can damage the paint!

Needed products for refreshing the dull paint of your Volvo

There are many products on the market that will help your car look better. Not all of them are great or deliver what they’re promising. Before running to a local store: do some research for the products you want to use, because some brands are slightly better than the product you used before. For example: I used Turtle Wax before and it’s pretty good, but this time I bought Meguiars and it’s really better and easier to use! Some waxes and cleaning products will be much better than Meguiars or Turtle Wax, but not everywhere available or much more expensive.

Since I’m discussing to recover a faded and dull non-metallic paint I’ll use Commandant. Please note Commandant is excellent for old types paint (non-waterbased), but for paints which are used in the 90s and later it’s too agressive. Commandant is pretty agressive, so be careful and don’t ruin the paint of your Volvo. Since Commandant is a polishing product it doesn’t contain the protection you’ll need afterwards. It doesn’t seal the paint and you’ll need to wax (and seal) the car after you’ve polished the car.

Here are the items you’ll need:

• a washed and dry Volvo with non-metallic paint
• Commandant or any other polishing product
• a big pack of polishing cloth
• a good wax (a carnauba-based wax is recommended)
• bumper cleaner or any other cleaner to remove rests of wax on the trims and bumpers

Refreshing a dull paint step-by-step

Follow the steps below to recover the dull paint of your Volvo. Click on the image for a larger version (will open in a new window/tab). Good luck!

1. Before: the dull paint of my Volvo 740	2. Be sure the car is washed and dry before you start with polishing the car
3. A close look on the dull paint: it doesn’t really shine a lot and has a lot of stripes in it	4. About every top panel of this Volvo 740 is very worn, dull and needs to be recovered
5. This Volvo used to be dark red, but the glory of the paint is pretty gone	6. The front wing has some differences in the color of the paint
7. Another overview of the dull Volvo	8. The products I’ll be using. The panel of the trunk of this 740 isn’t very bad since I treated it with Turtle Wax earlier
9. Time to start! I’m beginning with the roof of my Volvo with a nice clean cloth and Commandant polish	10. Gently make a rotating movement with the cloth. Don’t push too hard because the polish can damage the paint of your Volvo! And as you can see the paint will become pretty matt during the polishing

11. Don’t get scared of the color of the cloth: it’s normal the cloth will get the color of the paint while polishing	12. Wait for the polish to become even more matt and then start to polish up with a new clean cloth. After a few minutes your cloth will have the color of your car again
13. Keep polishing with a clean cloth until the paint is shining again	14. Job done! After polishing you’ll need to wax the car to protect the paint (Commandant doesn’t have any protection in it) but I’ll do that later in this tutorial
15. Another close look. Now you can repeat all the steps of polishing on all other panels of your Volvo	16. Unfortunately the repainted area around the side indicator light is still visible after polishing. To remove the wax off the trims you’ll need a bumper cleaner
17. Work in progress while polishing. Here you can see the difference between a polished door and one that’s still dull. One door down, one to go!	18. The front fender also has some differences in color, but it’s not a new car of course
19. The hood of the Volvo 740 after polishing with Commandant polish. Much better!	20. When all panels are polished, it’s time to wax the car. I’m using Meguiars carnauba wax

21. The cloth is still getting red during waxing. Nothing to worry about!	22. The trunk after being waxed
23. I’m using pretty much wax, but it’s needed after polishing my Volvo 740 because the paint was really dull
25. Done! Unfortunately it started to rain and it was pretty dark, so it’s hard to see the result	26. More rain, so still not the best way to show the result but the raindrops will tell you if the waxing was successful
27. The front view after polishing and waxing (and still raining)	28. When the rain was gone the result was finally visible. Not bad!
29. One day later: it looks much better! But it appeared at some places the waxing wasn’t perfect (could be caused by the rain) and needed some extra care with a clean cloth	30. The other side of the car, before I cleaned the car again

31. Hard to believe the Volvo 740 was a dull car	32. After rubbing the car again with a clean cloth the Volvo is shining a lot
33. Not bad at all!	34. Every panel of my Volvo 740 sedan is shining again, since a long time
35. Front view of the Volvo 740 after the extra rubbing with a clean cloth. The Meguiars wax will shine a lot more when you rub it again	36. The roof is as good as new! Hard to believe it’s a non-metallic paint
37. Another rear view of my Volvo 740	38. I’m very happy with the result. The only thing I’ll need to do is to clean the bumpers and trims to remove the wax residue on them

© Volvotips.com August 2012