Types of buffers and pads for beginners.

Hey guys, I've been detailing for about a year now, and I believe at this stage I should start learn how to buff/polish. For starters, can anyone tell me the difference between a rotary buffer and a porter cable buffer? Second I understand there are like different pads that can be used for different kinds of jobs can anyone explain those briefly to me? Like in "The blue pad is used with this and it does this" kind of way.

 

Hi. You'll find all that info and much more in this thread.
http://www.detailingbliss.com/forum/f8/internet-detailing-resources-newbs-7407.html

 

Orbital Buffer or Rotary Polisher

There is a place for both a random orbital buffer and a high speed polisher in a detailer’s toolkit, once you are proficient with an orbital all that is required to ‘step-up' to the polisher is practice, practice and then more practice, which should be done on a scrap vehicle panel as opposed to your own or someone else’s vehicle

Sometimes a dual-action polisher just isn’t enough for really tough scratches and swirls. You need the cutting power of a rotary polisher to penetrate the clear coat and smooth over rough edges to restore your paint to its original flawless finish.

1. Porter-Cable 7424 XP random orbital - at speed # 5 - 6 with a dual action polisher; Menzerna 106FFpolish, LC Yellow foam pad, 2 x 2-foot surface area, it takes approximately 10-12 passes to required to fully break down the polish.

2. Metabo PE12-175 rotary orbital - at 1200 RPM, Menzerna 106FFpolish, LC Yellow foam pad, 2 x 2-foot surface area, it takes approximately 8 - 10 passes to fully break down the polish.


Between wool and foam pads, in general, wool pads are considered "cutting" in nature, they also produce less friction induced heat than foam. That is, the fibres of the wool pad "cut" into the paint, removing top layers of paint much more rapidly than foam pads, which do a relatively small amount of cutting but instead rely on greater kinetic friction to do their work.

Compound/ Heavy Cutting Pad (*Yellow) - a harder more dense foam (40 PPI) composition with an abrasive cutting action, for use with a medium abrasive polish, Machine Polish 1 or 2, Swirl Mark Remover, or a Paint Renovator Polish

Light Cutting / Polishing Pad (*Orange) - a mid range, high density foam (50 PPI) composition with a medium abrasive cutting action, for use with a Swirl Mark Remover, Pre-Wax Paint Cleaner, Klasse or Zaino All-In-One, or Autoglym Super Resin Polish

Polish / Waxing Pad (*White) - a softer less dense foam (60 PPI) composition with a light abrasive cutting action, for use with a Swirl Mark Remover, Pre-Wax Paint Cleaner, Klasse or Zaino All-In-One,, or Autoglym Super Resin Polish

Finishing Pad (*Black) - an ultra-smooth foam (80 PPI) composition that has no abrasive cutting ability, for use with Klasse High Sealant Gloss, Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection, Zanio Z-2 or Z-5 or a Glaze

Finessing Pad (* Red) - this foam (100 PPI) pad has no cutting or cleaning action but is softer foam than the black pad. It should be used for paint burnishing or to apply a glaze or a finessing polish.

*These colour identifications are for Lake County Manufacturing (LC) foam pads. There is no common standard used to identify the abrasiveness of foam

 

Just out of curiosity, why are your examples using a very abrasive pad with a finishing polish?

 

I think the comparative numbers would still be relevant even with a less abrasive foam

 

Ok, so there is more than 1 pad that can remove swirl marks, how do I know which one to use? Ultra Sound Depth Gage?

 

each pad and polish has a different level of cut

swirls aren't definite in how deep it is in the paint. you need to choose accordingly to that. of course, you always want the combo that takes out the least clear coat

 

Your on your way grasshopper.:giggle:

 

That's the fun and the science to doing paint correction. Every car is different. You will begin ALWAYS by trying a mild approach and will move your way up the aggressiveness ladder by changing pad and/or polish. (The key is to remove absolutely the LEAST amount of clear to correct the defect- and sometimes there may not be enough to do the full correction). You may try a mild compound and use a white LCC pad which has a bit of bite. That may not work so then try the SAME compound with an orange or yellow pad. If that doesn't work, then up the ante with a stronger compound with a milder pad and so on until you find the least aggressive combo of pad and polish that works. Then to confuse things you have products like X3 that will work with a wool pad aggressively while the same product used with foam does not cut so much. That's the fun is trying to see what will work in the situation....that's why the 1st panel takes so long...figuring it out.