That is amazing. This just show what can be achieved from Buffing and detailing from a professional.
Could you tell me what Buffer machine you use. And can a novice use one.
Regards
Wayne grant
The machine used was I believe a old middle-of-the-range Makita, however, it obviously wasn't up to the job as it burned out a few weeks ago! And I mean, completely fried!
This machine served us for many years and was okay for 6" pads, but with the new larger pads, and with this particular technique, you need a quite a lot of wattage and torque.
Can a novice use one? -- I have photos of ‘our novices’ practicing on a Bentley Continental, however, they are working under close supervision on a training session. If they were working on a ‘knife edge’ between doing it right and destroying the paintwork, we wouldn’t let them near any customer’s car, let alone a £300,000 Bentley. The AllPad technique is actually quite safe if you know what you are doing and know what to look for. If you don’t know what to look for, then you can make a real mess of the paintwork.
So the answer is that you should probably have a day’s training before attempting to use this particular technique. Either that, or practice on an old bonnet or two having read up on the subject.
your website and work is amazing,
i view it regularly to give me inspiration, and keep my morale up when im forever finding defects in my own car, its also good to see that im not weird for being so fastidious.
keep up the good work, its a pleasure to watch
I'm a detailer here in Long Beach, Calif. U.S.A. Can you elaborate more on your "Wet Buffing" Is Polish used with water? And what does this "Wet Buffing" do for the paint ? Please explain.
I'm very curious. Also, one more question The article about buffing, (the black Porsche) stated that by using a non Abrasive polish, one person could polish a car just by using the heat of the pad (at 2000rpm's) to get great results. Is that correct ? Thank You for your time. ---Stephen Murphy
Wet buffing is compounds used with water. It's messy, but it is quick, it's also relatively safe.
You wash the car, leave it wet, wet your pad, apply compound, and then just do the whole car in passes. It's an approach rather like method shaving... if you know what that is. You do quick passes, not worrying too much about the detail. It's particularly effective for bringing a gloss back to old cars with badly oxidized paint. You often have a lot of dead paint coming off which can build up and bind, but with the wet method it just washes away as you work.
I suppose it has much the same effect as using water when you are wet-sanding. It dulls the effect of the compound, and you do waste a lot of product that gets washed away...
I can't really go into all the pros and cons of each method here (and there are plenty of cons), but suffice to say, it works okay in the UK where it rains 364 days of the year. In California you would have real problems keeping things wet. The polish goes everywhere, but because it doesn't get a chance to dry it washes off easily, but if it gets baked on in the California sun... you would be in real trouble.
As for your other question, yes, the pads themselves have an abrasive value, the AllPads were designed this way.
As you probably know, many of the ingredients for machine polishes and compounds are just there for lubrication and their heat distribution properties... it's not really my specialist subject, but my understanding is that natural oils have 'complex' molecular chains that are very good at this. Used in conjunction with a cutting pad, they produce an effect without the need for abrasive compounds.
Just to clarify the last point, Willy is a chemist with the backing of a chemical company behind him, allowing him to lay his hands on and mix his own compounds, polishes... or in this case lubricants.
As far as I know, you can't buy a pure lubricant for buffing or machine polishing.
Having said that... wool finishing mops have natural Lanolin oil which is a very effective lubricant.
...it's also used in woolfat shaving soap! So we go full circle back to shaving again for no apparent reason...
I'm just waffling now aren't I?
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