Machine Polishing Past, Present and the Future?

[Barry Theal]

Machine Compounding Past, Present and Future



Over the years in the craft of Automotive Paint Polishing, technology and science have played a major role in today’s advancement of machine polishing. Something that was once something only for a skilled technician has evolved at such an alarming rate over the past few years.

Before we get into the article I would like to break down a little of how machine compounding and polish is accomplished. First once the paint is prepped threw a decontamination stage. This consists of a good thorough washing which includes removing any surface contaminants that could interrupt the machine compounding and polishing. Then the vehicle should get masked with tape to prevent trim and other such unsafe areas to get passed over with the machine and its pad. Once completed the technician will begin to evaluate the paints condition and surface to ensure proper polishing is accomplished. Below is a chart that will help give you a general idea of some common defects such as swirls, scratches, oxidation, orange peel and other various defects in both todays’ modern clear coat and single stage paints of yesterday.

General Information – Tools and Procedures used to accomplish the perfect finish.





Buffing Liquids- Machine compounds and polishes play a vital role in the making of a showroom finish. Machine Compounds are generally the most aggressive in removing paint defects. These are often used as a leveling agent. What this means is that compounds will remove defects fast, but often need a follow up step or more to refine the surfaces finish. Next would be a medium polish. A medium polish or light cutting compound is often categorized in many different ways. I have known companies to advertise these products as paint cleaners, Polishes and medium cutting agents. It’s one of them things where it is what it is. You can use you best judgment when making your purchase. Usually these are used as a starting polish or an intermediate polish to remove heavy compounding marks. Final Polish is where there begins to come into its final refinement. At this point a final polish will get the painted surface level which aids to gloss, deep reflections and crisp clear paint that is smooth to the touch! Your show room finish is almost always complete at this time outside of protection.



Buffing Machines- Generally speaking there are two types of machines that will help aid a technician in his quest, one of them being a rotary tool and the other being a dual action machine. A rotary machine is geared in a direct movement. The movement would be one exactly the same as a drill. It is a centered movement that is direct driven with no movement. Machines in the rotary class would be those of Dewalt DW 849, Flex PE14-2-150 and the ever famous Makita are just a few that come to mind. Next is a Dual Action polisher. A dual action Polisher will have a free rotating spindle assembly that will allow the machine to rotate on a free orbit. These machines at one point were considered a safe and easy machine for the beginner, but now have been widely accepted as a professional tool. Also in this class are gear driven dual action polishers. These machines will have the same characteristics, but won’t be free spinning. They will be powered by gears which will create more of power making the machine not able to boggle down. Some common examples of a dual action polisher are a Porter Cable, HD Polisher, Meguair’s G110 and the famous Griot’s Garage Machine. A good example of a gear driven dual action polisher would be the widely used flex XC3401.



Buffing Pads- Machine buffing range is a variety of sizes, shapes and materials that will help a technician create a showroom finish when combined with the proper machine and buffing liquid. Generally the various types of pads out there are wool, foam and the newest introduction recently in the past few years, the microfiber pads, which are a combination of a foam interface and microfiber material for the abrasive. In general wool pads are designed to give optimum cutting and defect removal when used in conjunction with a rotary driven machine. These pads come in many sizes with various pile lengths and twine. These are oldest type of pad out there. Next came foam. Foam pads were developed as a pad that would allow for perfect refinement. Most professional paint polishers used these pads to finish down with. They were pads the once help create a perfect refinement and later turned into optimum cutting pads as well. Like wool they come in all different sizes and colors. Next along came the Micro Fiber buffing pad. These pads were introduced by Meguairs back in 2011. Since then several companies have picked up on the technology and began to produce their own pads. The pads consist of a foam interface and microfiber material used to not only compound paint, but finish down to a perfect refinement on most paints. These pads really helped bridge the gap between a dual action polisher and rotary machines for compounding procedures.



Looking into the Past



I can remember back in the early to mid 90’s when I first heard the sound of a Black and Decker rotary machine. It was a sound that has forever since stuck in mind to the present day. There was nothing like a wheel (polisher) turning a wool pad and cutting into paint to remove defects. I was about 15 the first time I heard that noise. I haven’t looked back. In those days it was a combination of usually 3 steps. One consisted of a heavy thick napped wool and compound so heavy it felt you could feel the grit in it. Very few compounds on the market are still this way. I was once told “You have to put scratches in a car to get scratches out.� At first this really didn’t make any sense, but as time grew. It made complete sense. The traditional compounds of yesterday were so abrasive that when you compounded a car it left behind some serious marks known as buffer trails or machine swirls. This is why a second refinement step was need often followed by a third and sometimes 4th step. It always felt like a time consuming never ending process. Some of the best days of my life were spent polishing old lacquer paint jobs to a mirror finish.



Present Day- Todays technicians are some of the best. With the knowledge of online forums like autopia.org and so many tools at their disposal, paint polishing has never been so nice. We have abrasive buffing liquids that eliminate lots of work. Dual action polishers have really gained a lot of recognition over the years. Their ability to level paint evenly is a plus. Virtually almost being able to finish down in one step. Paint refinement has come a long way. Microfiber pads and dual action polishers are leading technology for now. It’s a wonder what is in store for us in the future.

Future…. Is it here? – I’ve got to ask myself where is paint polishing going? Is the technology here? Eventually are we going to be sanding our way to a perfect finishing rather than polishing? Will there need to be liquid abrasives? Will wool pads be a thing of the past? Are Microfiber pads soon going to be yesterday technology? These are questions that I have pondered for some time. As a professional detailer, I know that paint polishing is actually about leveling paint to the most refined point. Now let’s really think about this statement. Leveling paint to the most refined point. Paint leveled and refined is going to maximize gloss and allow light to reflect versus refract light. So does it matter how we get to that point? At our disposal today there are endless combinations of pads, product, and machines. We have a market of science and technology at our disposal. Like two sprinters racing to the finish line. Does it matter if one sprinter arms move fast then another? The goal is who gets there faster. Kind of similar with paint polishing. Does it really matter what products and machines we use? The end result is of perfectly refined paint is the obsession. Here is where I bring into the theory of a foam disc so perfect that it will cut into paint and leave a finish so perfect that only a slight polish is need in one step. Gentleman in my eyes that disc is 3M’s Trizact 5000. Unlike traditional sandpaper its foam similar to the Trizact 3000 Disc. This foam pad is easily polished out by a dual action polisher and buffing liquid like HD Advanced Polish and a foam pad. At what point are we going to be using just sanding sponges and a dual action polisher. I have a feeling it’s going to happen soon.



When looking into this it just makes sense to me. For the longest time. I have preached that sanding a paints finish is better than going aggressively at it with a polisher and a heavy compound. For one. When sanding you can see what getting done vs. the spread of a polish or compound. Next sanding paint runs cooler then polishing reducing the risk of a burn threw. Last what I find most important is it will level paint evenly! Even paint leveling is the key.

So to challenge my theory. I pulled into the shop a black Lexus to do some testing. It had lots of marring, scratches in random and really deep swirls. The kind that would normally take a detailer lots of time to compound out. SO here is how the paint looked in its natural state.

I started with Trizact 5000 and a Rupes Sander.







Sanding threw the defects was a lot faster and safer than normal machine compounding.







Once finished sanding I polished out the sanding marks using HD advanced Polish with a green HD polishing pad. The machine used was HD Dual Action Polisher. These results were pretty incredible. The left side is the finished side and the right side is the untouched side.

What’s makes this process unique is that there is no machine compounding the done at all. I used the Trizact 5000 to level the finish and a final polish to remove the marks. In theory here the yesterday way of doing this would have been to utilize a rotary polisher to first remove the defects with a wool pad. Next would have been to use a rotary polisher and a foam pad to remove the buffer swirls from the wool and aggressive polishing. Next you would use a final polish and a rotary with a soft foam pad and hope to god all holograms are removed. That is based upon your skill level. In the present normally this would probably be a 2 step process utilizing various methods of machines and polishes. This leads me to think that in the future will there be a need for buffing liquids and pads? I tend to believe that the future will be a sanding process that will bring the finish to perfect refinement! What are your thoughts? How do you see the future of paint perfection?



As always thanks for reading.



Barry Theal

[Thomas Dekany]

Love your write up!!!!!!!



I am not a visionary so I let you figure out what tomorrow will bring. We need an electric sander like that for dummies like me.

[Barry Theal]

Love your write up!!!!!!!



I am not a visionary so I let you figure out what tomorrow will bring. We need an electric sander like that for dummies like me.

LOL Thomas thats an pnuematic sander. Pnuematic is air! just saying. and thanks

[Thomas Dekany]

That is what I mean. Same power but electric

LOL Thomas thats an pnuematic sander. Pnuematic is air! just saying. and thanks

[Juan@Turbo Wax]

That`s pretty good!

[Ron Ketcham]

LOL Thomas thats an pnuematic sander. Pnuematic is air! just saying. and thanks

Barry, excellent write up.

Question for you, what air pressure are you running through the dual action?

Am restoring the repaint done 13 years ago on a 55 Chevy Nomad in the near future, it was cleared and after that many years, pretty compacted.

I have the 3000 and 5000 3M discs but have not found until now a vehicle I felt I needed to use them on, due to their costs.

Give me an idea on the PSI.

My big Puma has enough CFM and tank to handle most anything.

Thanks,

Grumpy

[Barry Theal]

thanks guys. Ron i run at about 90 lbs psi. but all my airlines have there on valves on the to where i can control amount of air flow. those are set at about 45lbs. also my sander has a control valve as well. lol

[Ron Ketcham]

I am set up pretty much the same, expect the Puma runs out to the main regulator at 135PSI, and then through additional regulator/water filter traps, with quick couplers at three pick up points around the little shop. Have two additional 25 foot hoses so I am not always changing out on pressures, locations, etc.

I normally run my air sanders out of the main set up at 100 PSI.

I do quite a bit of painting as you know, so with the HVLP guns, got to keep that water away and very low air pressure at the gun.

I`ll give it a shot with the da at 45 PSI and make adjustments are required.

Thanks,

Grumpy

[C. Charles Hahn]

That is what I mean. Same power but electric

Thomas, I think what you`re looking for is the MIRKA CEROS system:



Mirka CEROS Intro

[David Fermani]

This is good stuff. It`s members like Barry pushing the evelope on thinking that makes Autopia the best place for information! I briefly skimmed though this, but will certainly read it more closely and digest as much as possible. We need Kevin Brown`s input on this too!!

[David Fermani]

Oh, and I rated this thread as Excellent / 5 Stars. For anyone else interested, there is a drop down box at the top that says "Rate this thread". It`s a great tool to show someone how much you like thier threads.

[C. Charles Hahn]

I tend to believe that the future will be a sanding process that will bring the finish to perfect refinement!

We may already be close to that point, though the technology to do it isn`t cheap. Considering there are sanding discs like those from Micro Mesh available in up to 12,000 grit:



Micro-Mesh Disc - W/O Vacuum Holes, Individual [DSC-01] - $0.23 : MICRO-SURFACE FINISHING PRODUCTS, INC

[Ron Ketcham]

Thanks Charlie.

Think I will order a few of the 5 inch hook and loop to try out on my Bosch DA.

May get a few of the sticky back for with no holes for the air DA.

Probably get some 4000 and 6000 grit.

What do you think, you seem to have some experince with the products?

Grumpy

[David Fermani]

Thanks Charlie.

Think I will order a few of the 5 inch hook and loop to try out on my Bosch DA.

May get a few of the sticky back for with no holes for the air DA.

Probably get some 4000 and 6000 grit.

What do you think, you seem to have some experince with the products?

Grumpy

Call and speak to Debbie Abrahams and tell her I sent you. We used to use their 4000 grit on every car we recon`d. She should still be giving samples. They use to supply several of the OEMs and that is how they found me. One time when one of their Sales guys was in town on business, they stopped in and gave me a bunch of samples. I`ve used them ever since.

[Ron Ketcham]

Thanks, but I`ll just order a doz or so of those that I want to try.

It sounds like it may be an alternative to the 3M products.

Grumpy