Paint is not like skin. Skin is made up of individual cells with complex structures and multiple functions. It’s alive, constantly active and changing.

Paint is a continuous matrix of a single material. It can be argued that highly crosslinked polymer coatings form a single molecule over the entire surface of a car. But as the coating is exposed to the environment the outermost surface degrades due to chemical reactions with contaminants, atmospheric oxygen and UV radiation.

Paint will have surface irregularities like microscopic cracks, pockets and fissures. A highly polished finish will have fewer and smaller irregularities than a degraded one.

A highly irregular surface will provide more opportunities for contaminants to collect, concentrate and react with the finish, degrading it at a faster rate. But even a perfectly smooth surface still has the same exposed molecules, just fewer of them. It will still react the same way chemically and will still degrade. It will have less surface area exposed and will degrade slower than the irregular surface.

No solid material is actually solid. Even the smoothest and most perfect finish is made up of individual molecules and atoms. Depending on the particular chemicals involved it's possible for contamination to diffuse into the paint itself, actually getting in between the individual atoms and molecules. This is why you can have things like dyes, permanent stains, paint strippers and paints that can re-dissolve (lacquers).

The point to both waxes and sealants is to provide a coating that interferes with the chemical processes that degrade the finish.

PC.

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