Hi Steven
I stopped using a power buffer on my vehicles when I bought a new
Pontiac in 1994. At a most enlightening discussion held by the dealer from
whom I bought that car, they scheduled periodic sessions at night for recent
new car buyers.The dealer had his service department head talk about
maintenance, servicing, warranty application, etc., then regarding appearance
and upkeep of finishes he had the head of his body shop talk.
The body shop head strongly urged new car owners not to put any polishes
on their cars for at least 6 months saying that the curing time for water
base clearcoat needed that much. He admitted that some of us could have
bought a car last week that has already sat in dealer inventory for 6 mos so
he suggested we check the build date sticker on the driver's door frame to
gauge our timeline. And when we do begin annual polish applications to make
certain we never use any abrasive product, especially "rubbing compounds."
I have an old Sears/Craftsman power buffer. It has I think about a 10"
bonnet and turns slowly, about 900 or 1,000rpm. I began using it on my first
car (a'38 Chev) back in the early 50's and each one thereafter until the '94.
In recent years I use it to polish the hull of my fiberglass sailboat. It
is unsurpassed for boat polishing but the dealer warned that today's auto
finishes (their clearcoat that is) will be permanently swirl-marked if you
use a buffer on them in conjunction with of the typical over-the-counter
finish restoration products. Body shops of course continue to use buffers
but they have exclusive availability to products especially made for low
abrasive action so that the polishing bonnet does not leave swirls.
I'm located in the mild climate of central California. No winter salt and
sand. Two polish applications per calendar year plus keeping my Dakota in a
garage have it looking showroom new (it's a white 2k with 47k mi on it). I
wash it using a mild auto wash detergent about twice a month. I use a polish
product whose name escapes me at the moment but it comes in a bright orange
can-paste or plastic bottle-liquid and is billed to last one year's-worth of
protection. By maintaining a clean and polished paint job I have no need for
the electric buffer however in previous vehicles with the old enamel or
lacquer paint, the surface deterioration seemed to come no matter what and I
had to use it just to get the dead paint off and down to a polished base.
If you don't own a buffer I suggest you save your money and not buy one:
Unless you can obtain a cleaning product like the typical body shop uses,
it's a slow turning buffer, you use very soft and fluffy imitation lamb's
wool heads, you have pervious experience using a buffer on a vehicle, and
assuming your truck's finish has badly deterioriated for whatever reason and
no hand applied non-abrasive product will cure it. Whether you electric or
hand apply the cleaner, I suggest you do NOT use the buffer to "polish" the
wax or polish coat(s). Apply and buff those by hand especially in light of
the chance that in doing the cleaning you already have swirl marks. The
buffer when used to polish (with a new and clean bonnet of course) will most
certainly leave more. This advice is especially applicable to any deep color
finish or metallic color as the swirls tend to be accentuated in these.
Cheers
Paul Sahlin
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