Best Practice - Avoid buffing on top of body lines and edges

[Mike.Phillips@Autogeek]

Best Practice - Avoid buffing on top of body lines and edges


Buff up to body lines and edges but try not to buff directly on top of body lines and edges

A good best practice whenever you're machine cleaning is to buff up to hard body lines but don't buff on top of hard body lines. There are two reasons for this,

1. Paint tends to flow off high points a little after it's sprayed but before it's set-up, so paint will tend to be thinner on edges and body lines.

2. There will be increased pressure from your pad onto the paint because the body line or raised edge will be higher than the rest of the surrounding paint.

This is what can happen, if you look carefully at the hard body line on the hood of this VW you can see where someone has remove too much paint and exposed the primer under color coat. This is an older VW and has what appears to be a single stage finish but the principal behind avoiding buffing directly on top of an edge or hard body line still applies.





This is a little out of focus, sorry I was using my iphone...



As Benjamin Franklin once said, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.


A good best practice is to avoid buffing on top of hard body lines and edges and instead just buff up to them. You can also tape them off using thin painter's tape so in case you get your buffing pad close to the raised body line or edges you have a measure of extra protection.

This is where either slowing down and focusing on the task at hand comes into play or using smaller pads when working on thin panels.

Here at Autogeek we have a great selection of smaller buffing pads and backing plates as well as the Griot's Garage Professional Random Orbital 3 Inch Polisher for working thin panels.


Lake Country Beveled Edge 3.5 Inch Pad Pack



Griot's Garage 3 Inch Orange Polishing Foam Pad



Griot's Garage 3 Inch Mini Red Wax Pad



Griot's Garage Professional Random Orbital 3 Inch Polisher



2-3/4 inch Hook & Loop Rotary Backing Plate




D.A Adapter 5/8" X 11



Lake Country 4 Inch Low Profile Foam Pads



CCS 4 Inch Spot Buffs Foam Pads & Accessories



3.5" Dual Action Flexible Backing Plate


Rotary 3 ¾ inch Backing Plate

[eddie6th]

Painters tape!...Where would I be without it.

[MisterShark]

Great tips for someone like me whose on the verge of buying a PC and would like to be forearmed with a bit of advance knowledge.

Keep em comin Mike!

[alowe]

Nice write up. I have used those 4inch spot buffs many times, life savers for tight spots.

[Gary Sword]

Good Advice! Sometimes I even tape an edge that's hard not to hit.

[DLB]

Been wanting to pick up some of the 4" pads and backing plate - just got to get my funds built back up.

DLB

[Omar the Terror]

Maybe I'm a bit late to the party, but how do you guys buff body lines and odd panel contours? I tried polishing a friends Nissan Hardbody pickup with my PC, but it has a sunken channel right through the waistline that I couldn't get even w/ a 4" pad. Any tips for dealing with this and other areas where a PC can't reach?

[DLB]

Originally Posted by Omar the Terror

Maybe I'm a bit late to the party, but how do you guys buff body lines and odd panel contours? I tried polishing a friends Nissan Hardbody pickup with my PC, but it has a sunken channel right through the waistline that I couldn't get even w/ a 4" pad. Any tips for dealing with this and other areas where a PC can't reach?

I usually always go back around a vehicle with my product and an applicator of choice and hit the spots by hand that I couldn't get by machine.
There's just some things that the machine can't do for you.

DLB

[Omar the Terror]

So you can make those hard-to-reach spots match the machine-polished portions of the car, or does it sometimes leave an obvious difference between the machine and hand-polished areas? Also, what applicator do you recommend for this? I have some LC CCS hand pads on the way but if there's something better, I'd love to try it out. Thanks!

[Mike.Phillips@Autogeek]

Originally Posted by Dalton Blevins

There's just some things that the machine can't do for you.

DLB

That's a good point and that's why it's important to know how to properly apply a hand-applied compound or paint cleaner.