If polishing your car how can you tell if you polished through your clearcoat?

 

The spot would look dull, almost cloudy, because the paint is rather dull/flat. All of the "shine" is in the clearcoat.

 

If using a white cloth, if you see body color on the cloth after polishing, then you've gone thru the clearcoat and into the base color.
(not a big deal on the older non clearcoat Porsches to see this happen)

 

What happen if it gone thru the clearcoat? Is this realy bad???

 

Woodranch - what makes you think you polished through the clearcoat?

 

If the paint is not damaged by burning through the clearcoat, it can be repaired by respraying a new coat of clear in the area where you burned through. If you are not a painter, a good body shop should be able to do it for relatively cheap. I have done it on cars I have restored, and fixed it with another coat of clear and a bit of sanding. its easy to burn through if you don't have alot of experience with a buffer.

 

Sparks start flying