The goss on gloss

Matthew Gibb of Dream Machines Re-finishing looks at buffing pad technology in the second of his series on helping shops achieve the perfect finish.

All of us in the detailing and refinishing industries have buffing pads, and sometimes we take them for granted and use them all the same way. Knowing which pads to use in what situation is key to successful polishing.

Material knowledge

There are several materials used to manufacture buffing pads.
It all began with wool, then along came foam. The industry has toyed with other materials, but wool and foam have became the standard. The buffing materials I’m familiar with and use for my paint perfecting work are: wool, foam, microfibre, velvet, denim, silk, foamed wool and Surbuf microfinger system.
 
Each pad caters for any need or situation, including removing deep straight line or curved scratches, good old swirl marks – or the latest thing – removing or reducing orange peel by a rotary polisher. Using the rotary polisher is faster than sanding, and safer. As long as the proper technique is employed and the rotary is in perfect working order (no wobbly spindle or plate), there is no marring left behind afterwards.

Wool

Wool comes in various types and different pile heights. The lower the pile height, the better the cut – but it also means a shorter pad life. The opposite is true for the thicker pads. Varieties include: silk wool, foamed wool, one-ply untwisted, four-ply twisted, 50/50 wool/acrylic blend, acrylic/poly blend, twisted ply wool/acrylic 40/60 blend and 100 per cent knitted.

Silk wool is designed for excellent cutting and better finish quality than conventional four-ply wool.
Foamed wool is a hybrid with foam to give a near four-ply wool cut, but a foam-like finish. I find you lose the finish quality fairly quickly with
regular use.

One-ply untwisted wool has incredible cutting quality, but can possibly leave more surface swirls in the paint than four-ply. Four-ply twisted wool is the industry workhorse. With excellent technique used, it can deliver incredible results, making foam polishing afterwards much quicker, with less steps to perform to finish the job.
 
Foam pads

Foam pads come in various sizes and a few types, including European in open and closed-cell pre-polymer – and American in open-cell polyester/urethane.
The types of foam are also referred to as reticulated (open cell) and non-reticulated (closed cell).

The American open cell pads allow for more airflow, which keeps panel temperatures cooler during rotary polishing. American foam pads are given a pores-per-inch (PPI) rating to indicate the level of cut and finish quality each one has.

A PPI rating of 40 would indicate a foam pad with heavy cutting power. A pad with PPI of 60 to 100 refers to soft polishing, finishing and ultra-fine finishing or jewelling pads.
A typical black pad used by crash repairers and detailers would be a 60 or 70 PPI pad with little cut, that will produce a fantastic gloss. 80 PPI pads such as the Edge brand white pad are extremely soft, and on an orbital will produce incredible depth, clarity and colour richness.

The softest available that I know of is the Buff and Shine 90 PPI white finessing pad and Lake Country Gold 100 PPI pad. Both types of foam pads have advantages and disadvantages. The European open cell pads – made from German foam by Lake Country, work very well and are widely used.

However the closed cell foams, produced in the UK and US from a couple of different European foams, are very dense and have been known to produce intense heat with a rotary, which makes paint burning more likely. They also hold a lot of water after being rinsed or washed, and take much longer to air-dry. Some paint types just do not like them.
On a random orbital or D/A machine, they may be great, but when connected to a powerful rotary they can be a disaster waiting to happen.
I prefer the American open-cell foams produced by Buff and Shine in the US as their designs work, they last a long time, don’t heat up as much, are easier to master, and the risk of burning the paint is almost non-existent.

Grading

The humble pad is actually quite complex. Each brand, type and grade of foam will load up with polish at different rates. Some pads work better with less polish on its surface, and some will work just as well with much more polish.

For example, I have found that the Buff and Shine – AKA Gelson brand black eight-inch flat foam pads, sold by almost all bodyshop suppliers – do not like having much polish on them. Only a 10-cent piece amount is needed with each section. Add any more and it will chatter and bounce around like crazy on the rotary machine. Buff and Shine Hex Logic American foams though are totally different – any amount will do.

Since I like to prime and season my pads with some pad lube and five-cent piece blobs of polish on the nine and three o’clock positions, I prefer the Hex Logic pads over the Gelson.

My advice is to try as many different wool and foam pads as you can. Once you find those you prefer, master your technique with them and you will achieve a world-class finish every time.

The first instalment of the Goss on Gloss was published on the website on 8 November in the news section.