How to Use AIO (All-In-One) Polish on Cars

Last Updated August 13, 2024

If you’re new to detailing for money, DON’T treat every car you work on like a Concours d’Elegance entrant if the owner isn’t paying for that level of service. Otherwise, you’ll go out of business FAST.

Instead, offer an entry-level polish and protect service using an “AIO” (All-In-One”) polish that removes swirl marks, adds shine and protects the paint in a single step. Until you’ve graduated to the “big leagues” of high dollar jobs, this is how you will drive profit to re-invest in your operation.

Check out this condensed reel from a recent livestream detailing class where I explain how AIO polishes work and how to best use them to achieve the results your client wants!

The following is an automated transcript of the above video. It has not been edited for clarity and may contain typographical errors.

I meet so many detailers when they start their business, they do show car detailing to every car that comes to them. And they’re not making money. not make any money so you need multiple packages.

You know your first package is multiple step that’s where you know besides the normal things of washing a claim that’s for anything you’re going to do you’re usually going to use a compound and something strong like a wool pad on a rotary or aggressive pad on some kind of orbital as your first step then you’re going to come back and perfect the paint with the second step. 

Then you’re going to seal the paint whether that’s with a carnauba wax a synthetic paint sealant a ceramic coating a graphene coating but you’re going to seal the paint so that’s multiple steps or what I always call show car detailing because that’s how you’re really gonna get the majority of the defects out and have that true show car finish. 

And you need to be charging for that. Now some of your customers, they don’t got the budget. Maybe their car doesn’t even qualify as a show car. Maybe it’s just a daily driver. but they want to take care of it. Then you’re going to do one step paint correction. 

This would be for newer cars or cars in pretty good shape or people that don’t care if you don’t get all the swirls and scratches out because their budget isn’t going to afford having you spend the extra time to do that compounding step. So there’s multiple step and one step. Then there’s another category, one step, AIO paint correction.

Now this shouldn’t be confused with this, because this is one step paint correction, but you’re going to put something on it to seal it. So it’s kind of like two steps, but only one step on the paint correction side. The correction step you’re talking about. Yeah. 

Now this is one step AIO, so it’s one and done. And that means the AIO has some kind of built-in protection component. Why don’t you say what AIO is, just for those people. Oh, AIO stands for all-in-one. And that means it’s going to clean, polish, and protect, or it’s going to remove defects, polish, and protect all in one step. 

And there’s a plethora of what, in the old days, we called them a cleaner wax, OK? So there’s a plethora of cleaner waxes on the market. In fact, you know this? If you go to any auto parts store, most, not all, but most of the waxes or sealants or even the ceramics, anything that’s on there is for Joe consumer. And the chemists know that Joe Consumer ain’t going to do multiple steps, so they put a cleaner in whatever that product is. 

So by default, pretty much everything at a retail level, like AutoZone, O’Reilly’s, Napa, is a cleaner wax. It might not say cleaner wax on it, but it’s going to clean, polish, protect. Like New Finish is a good example. Remember them old commercials, running through 55 car washes in the water. Water still beads. Okay, so that’s what I’m going to show you today. 

It’s one of my favorite packages because it’s basically one and done. Besides washing and cleaning, you’re going to go over the car one time. You need a quality product though that uses great abrasive technology. What are we using? We’re using the Dr. Beasley Z1, which is a ceramic AIO. 

Okay, so besides the chemical, we need to talk about the type of pad. Now, this is a light foam cutting pad, and you can kind of feel the sharpness, and it’s very stiff. This is a foam polishing pad. It’s a lot easier to compress, much smoother to the feel when they’re dry. And this is a foam finishing pad, so it’s very, very soft. 

In fact, this morning I was using this to put some makeup on. That joke never gets old. because it’s so soft and it conforms everything. So normally when you’re using the AIO, and this is important, you want to do a test spot, but you want to make sure that you’re using the right pad because if you’re using too sharp of a pad and say the paint is soft, the pad itself can leave marring, not the abrasive technology, the pad. 

And this is where test spots come in. Yeah, this is where test spot comes in. Now, in the internet world, I see a lot of guys always just recommending, use a foam cutting pad with your AIO. Well, apparently, they’ve never worked on anything soft before because I’ve taught this live in classes where I’ve shown just the pad on black paint because they’ll show everything. We’ll leave marring. 

If you buff out a car with a foam cutting pad and a great AIO and leave marring and you’ve got to come back and rebuff it, your one step just went to two steps because you weren’t thinking. So always do a test spot. Now, I’ve already done a test spot on this car and I found that the foam polishing pad, it removed 95% of the defects. 

That’s kind of what I’m shooting for. But I do want to touch on this. Anytime you’re talking to a customer about your different packages, if they are interested in a one-step AIO, because that’s usually your cheapest package, you have to lower their expectations or at least set their expectations. Let them know you’re not getting everything. 

You’re not getting every little scratch out. If they go, no, I want them all out, well, fine. But you’re up here to my multiple step. So here’s the difference is the price. And if they say, well, no, then you just want to make sure because a lot of people, they don’t do this part. A lot of detailers don’t do this part. And so their customers are let down.

They look at the results and go, well, there’s still some scratches. Look, Bob, we talked about this. You’ve got to remind them. Okay, so shake well. That works for you now, doesn’t it? then these are concentrated products so I always I really hate when someone says use the pea-sized drops. 

Because here’s the deal I’ve never known you to use a pea-sized drop you need a film on the surface as you’re buffing the film is two things it’s abrasive technology and lubrication you know a lot of times people forget that the whole reason we’re doing this is to make it look beautiful so you can’t just throw abrasive technology I mean imagine just throwing sand up there and buffing it’s not gonna look good there’s no lubrication course and it’s a horrible abrasive technology but the point is is you know you need something the carrying agent to also lubricate the surface so I’m gonna give this a little mist here and why’d you do that because I’m testing a product and I thought I would show everybody I’m testing a product and so far I’m liking what I’m testing.

so now I’m gonna just take a spread my product out I’m gonna use a load I’m gonna use a low speed for that and then I’m gonna make eight section passes and I’ll quit talking so okay Okay, so all I’ve done is spread the product out, but here’s my point. I have a film of product, and it’s lubrication and abrasive technology.

Now, one of the things, everybody knows I’m a flex guy. One of the reasons I like the Flex 8mm Gear Driven Polisher is because you can go faster with it, and you can knock out huge sections. I mean, sometimes I tackle a whole half of a hood at one time and demonstrate that.

But the thing about this is because it’s gear driven, no matter how hard I push down, No matter how hard I push down, I’m not gonna get that pad to stall out or quit spinning or quit oscillating or quit rotating. And here’s what that means:

Unlike a free spinning tool is I can push hard, push the abrasives into the paint, make them take little bites out and go faster. And my personal style is, yeah, I am lazy, but I also want to go as fast as I can. I want to do as I call it, get in and get out. So let me count out six, eight section passes. We’ll wipe off and take a look. 

And another tip that I always like to share is count your section passes out loud. So you don’t forget where you’re at. You can cut an hour out of your buffing time because most of us forget where we’re at. Okay. That’s one. Three. Four. There’s six solid section passes.

And what I stopped is because what I like to show people is for your last pass, we’re going to bring up the pressure. Remember, we’re trying to create beauty here. Polishing paint is not a grinding process. It’s an art form. We add the human elements of care and passion about what we’re doing. So now I’m going to bring, I know other guys teach to push down hard the whole way through the cycle. 

I just, I never bought into that because you’re removing paint particles. That means you’re pushing, you’re grinding those back into the paint. So bring your pressure up. That is just the weight of the tool. Okay. And this is interesting. I was going to say, you might want to tell them why the dark color there. Single stage paint. I don’t even try, and I get to work on all these cool cars that have single stage paint.

And I bring them into my classes, so you get a chance to work on them too. And the thing about that is, even though a lot of people aren’t going to work on something old, a lot of new cars could have single-stage urethane. I always bring in modern cars. And some of the local body shops around here, they use single-stage urethane paint. So it is a high-tech paint system, but it’s got no clear coat over the top of it. 

OK, so Yancey, if you want to come down and look at this. Let’s get your light. There’s still some rids. There’s still some rids. Okay, we’ll get to that in a moment. But, I mean, put a number on here. Put a number on here. 95, 100%. It’s not 100. Well, let’s go over here. That’s before. Yeah. That’s after. Huge difference in just one step. Before. After. 

You can take that. Okay. So one step and boom. And I could go around the car just as fast and just knock this out. I’m going to save it for my class though. But anyway, that’s the benefit to a one step AIO. And of course, the ceramic, you’re leaving behind ceramic protection instead of carnauba wax or some sort of synthetic polymer.

So it’s a more high tech, longer lasting ceramic protection than old school stuff. But yeah, I’m a big fan of doing one steps. But most important, I just wanted to share that because I’ve been in this industry a long time and I see a lot of detailers as they come up, they make the mistake, and I know you seasoned detailers would agree, they make the mistake of doing show car or multiple step detailing.

Every car that comes into their shop or if they’re mobile, every car they show up to. And while that’s noble, it’s great to have a strong work ethic and want to do your best work for everybody, you’ll end up working for pennies. You want to try to shoot for like $100 an hour in your detailing business model, no matter what you’re doing, just to pay overhead, products, accessories, wear and tear on tools and pads, microfiber towels.

So you need to keep that in mind. And if you’re not doing this for money, by the way, if you’re just an enthusiast, you know, most households have two or three cars, maybe a motorhome or boat. And say you’ve got a motorhome, maybe you don’t want to do multiple steps to something that’s 40 feet long down one side, 40 feet deep down the other side in the front and back cap.

Well, here’s a way to knock it out in one step and still do, you know, create professional results. Or maybe the kids’ cars, you want to detail them. You don’t want to do multiple steps. They’re not going to take care of it in most cases. You know, for the wife, though, you know, do the multiple step but this has application this idea of having different steps different packages to not just professional detailers doing this for money but for the enthusiast too that has multiple cars to take care of.