What’s Your Angle? (Paint)

The Importance of Buffer Position on Painted Surface Finishes.

The product you choose and the equipment you use are critical to the polishing process, but technique is the surest way to achieve a SHOWROOM SHINE. Professional detailers offer many tried and true techniques to ensure consistent, even results for different substrates.

One that contributes dramatically to the final result, is how you handle your buffer during the polishing process. For example, on bare metal surfaces the buffer should always be angled. This prevents unwanted swirl marks or worse, unintended cut marks.

NOT so on painted surfaces! An angled buffer is too aggressive – it could burn the clearcoat or cut right through the paint. For painted surfaces it’s better to hold the buffer flat against the polishing surface. Target a small area (focusing on no more than a 24” square.) Then holding the random, orbital buffer flat and running at approximately 1000 rpms, move it up and down, and left to right in a crosshatch pattern until the target area is fully polished.