Polishing with a random-orbital buffe

[outdoors4me]

Hey guys,

The guys I work with warn that I shouldn't wax/buff my BLACK 2010 Taco with any kind of buffer.

They contend it will leave swirl marks. I argue that this is the case with a circular buffer, not a random-orbital buffer. They say it does not matter with BLACK.

What do you say? Also, can anyone recommend a good wax to use?

Thanks, Beck

[Dark Taco]

I say it all depends on whom is working the buffer. I like the Zaino product line and have had great success with it on my black paint

[HomeGrown]

I have to agree with DarkTaco, it really depends on who is using it. I used one on my black 1988 Toyota pickup, but I waxed it by hand first, removing most (but not all) of the wax by hand. Then I took the buffer to it, removing the remaining bit of wax with the buffer. Looked great when I was done. I don't know how the BSP paint is, but most pure black paints you have to be very carefull with because they will show swirl marks easier than any other color.

[sonofa]

The main thing to be aware of....
ANY grit AT ALL and it will dig into your paint. You need to be careful, use a high quality soft pad. Personally, I wouldn't bother with a machine. A machine is good if you're doing major repair to a seriously degraded finish, like deoxidizing a fiberglass gelcoat.

For a car, just wash with soap, wax on, wax off, done. Its not much more work to do it by hand than by machine.

[MeentSS02]

If you use a decent quality machine (like a PC7424 or the like) and decent pads (there are tons available), you'll be fine, regardless of paint color. I learned how to use my PC7424 on my black Camaro, and it proved to be very forgiving and very easy to get great results, including removing 2000 grit sanding marks when necessary. I'm pretty serious when I tell people that unless you physically drop the machine on the paint, you won't mess anything up. They simply don't generate enough heat to introduce the swirls and holograms that are typical of a misused circular polisher.

That said, if you don't prep the paint properly prior to polishing, you WILL cause damage - that usually means grabbing a clay bar and using it, but that isn't hard either.

[judge34411]

Originally Posted by outdoors4me

Hey guys,

The guys I work with warn that I shouldn't wax/buff my BLACK 2010 Taco with any kind of buffer.

They contend it will leave swirl marks. I argue that this is the case with a circular buffer, not a random-orbital buffer. They say it does not matter with BLACK.

What do you say? Also, can anyone recommend a good wax to use?

Thanks, Beck

Do not agree at all.

I have a black 2010 Camry SE. I am in the process of doing my summer full out detail.
Process involved and NO SWIRL marks!

Wash the car by hand add a no rinse car wash to a good quality car wash. Helps lift off the dirt (no scratches). Rinse, dry.

Clay bar car.

Two levels of compound with Porter Cable DA and two grades of foam pads. The compounds are not very coarse.

Final polish (final swirl killer, and was no swirl after compounds, just helps add depth). With a finer pad.

Klasse one step with same pad as polish.

Klasse sealer.

Carnuba wax. ( on black I use poor boys natty's blue carnuba, looks very deep.)

It should be noted I do not get this done all in one day and rewash before continuing.

What is really killing me this year I have some nasty burn marks on the hood (acid, bird, tree etc. They in for life.)

If I have a chance I will get a photo of my hood TM close up so you can see NO SWIRL marks!

Good luck.

[bossman137]

agreed, i just bought a porter cable xl, with a set of pads, and some miguire compounds/wax. I've never done anything with a buffer before. I simply talked around watched some videos and have good steady hands and its not rocket scient, i wouldn't even consider it an art, super easy. Ya for sure its a different game with the high speed rotary things. But i spend 5 hrs doing my car i bought from a guy a month ago. Ya he didn't do a great job of taking care of it, so granted most of what i ended up doing was buff off years of neglect, i had to clean my poor dirty pads every side of the car, but its unbelievable what just washing leaves behind.

[JoeRacer302]

You should ALWAYS do a test spot for your entire process first, before doing the entire car. If there are swirl marks it could be user error, but the DA is very forgiving so less likely than if you were using a rotary polisher. You can try redoing the current process but making sure your technique is good, or if you are confident you had good technique you should switch to a more aggressive pad, polishing compound, or both. Sometimes a polishing compound/pad combo only removes some scratches, leaving behind others, because it wasn't aggressive enough. This can give the illusion that you have created scratches, but in reality there were a lot of scratches before, you removed most of them and polished some of the paint, but left behind other scratches that were too large for your pad/polish combo to remove. You should also do the least aggressive combo that gets the job done, no point in removing more clear/paint than necessary! There is a LOT of info out there, and I would strongly suggest watching videos on youtube, and reading the tutorials and posts on autopia.org. I just posted a thread that has my results from my first time using a DA. Just do some research about the pads/polishes that are out there, but from what I've seen people are very happy with the detailersdomain Uber pads, the Meguiar's Ultimate line (available in stores), and the Meguiar's 105/205 polishes (professional line, but available online). I used the Meguiar's Ultimate line because of the price, availability, and I read it is very easy to work with (being a beginner I liked the sound of that!).