If you are a car owner, you must have found it critical whether to go for buffing or not. Some auto-mechanics keep on telling you the benefits of buffing. On the contrary, according to some expert’s opinion buffing is bad for your car’s paint.
Lately, a lot of debate has been held on the topic: does buffing damage clear coat of your car? Before we lay our hands onto this question, we need to know what buffing is and how it damages the clear coat of your car.
Let me save your back and come to the point:
What does Buffing mean?
When you use a loose abrasive to remove scratches and damaged paint from the body panels of your car, the process is called buffing. It helps in restoring the fresh, even, and shiny surface of your car’s body.
Never confuse the term with polishing. Both procedures are entirely different from one another. When you want to cover large scratches, you go for polishing. Over time, polishing becomes uneven and your car’s appearance gets dull and dark.
Here buffing comes in. it gives your car a neater and glossier look.
You can seek guidance from a professional to know if your car needs buffing or polishing.
Different types of buffing:
Once you have made your mind about hiring the service of a professional for doing your car buff, you may need to know the various buffing techniques.
A little knowledge beforehand will save you money and time.
The common buffing methods are:
1. hand buffing:
When your car has a tiny scratch, you can go for hand buffing. By using a paint compound and a microfiber rug, your technical expert will remove paint from a small area. Else this technique involves no rocket science. You can even try this technique even if you are a beginner.
2. Orbital buffing:
This type of buffing is capable of giving a smooth and bright finish to the body of your car. It uses a foam disc that moves into a circular motion.
This type of buffing is not too fast and is mild. Therefore, for incorporating a smooth finish to your car’s paint, orbital buffing is the right choice.
3. High-speed buffing:
Only professionals can tackle this sort of buffing to repair larger damage happen to your car’s paint. This is the fastest buffing method that uses a bigger buffing pad to do the function.
Only a buffing service provider can tell you which polishing compound and buffing pad will accommodate your requirements. The ultimate objective of any of the above-mentioned buffing methods is to make your car’s body look bright.
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How to do buffing?
Follow these simple steps to buff a car:
1. Wash your car properly by using a soap to remove the dirt
2. Now select a buffer with high speed and purchase a polishing compound to get your desired results
3. Spread the product evenly and use buffer to get the perfect sparkle of your vehicle.
With a powerful buffer and good products, you can get your desired results. But bear in your mind that buffing creates heat that is bad for your car’s paint.
Therefore, never buff your car too vigorously.
How buffing improves the quality of your car’s finish
Your car’s paint consists of three layers:
- Primer
- Basecoat
- Clear coat
The primer is an agent that provides a smooth and even surface for the application of a base coat. You apply primer on the metal body panels of your car. Then you apply base color that is your car’s actual paint color.
Lastly, you use a clear coat to protect the base coat. With a clear coat application, you not only guard the base color against damaging rather you also get a sheen to the body of your car.
Unfortunately, the clear coat gets damaged due to several factors including oxidants and improper washing techniques. It eventually causes your car to look old and dull over time.
By buffing, this damaged clear coat of your car paint is being removed. And what you get in return is an amazing result: an even and glossy look of your car.
Advantages of buffing your car:
- If done properly, buffing will keep your car looking glossy and new
- When done by a professional, it will minimize the frequency of car polishing either
When does your car need buffing?
You should consider buffing your car when its original paint is not reflecting a proper shine. You would be surprised to know that buffing is not a one-step phenomenon. Minute details and precision is required to do the procedure.
A good buffing service provider tries his best to perform exceptionally well. he will leave no stone upturned.
How frequently you should buff your car?
If you are not a car enthusiast, you may find yourself stuck about how frequently you can go for buffing your car.
Well, I personally suggest that once a year you should go for buffing your car. It surely revives the brightness of your car.
Actually, as a matter of fact, buffing cuts down the clear coat that protects your car’s paint. The more you buff your car, the more damage happens to the clear coat. So, it is not wrong to say that buffing does damage the clear coat of a car’s paint.
But it never implies that buffing is bad at all. Rather I must say that buffing is bad only when used too often.
Conclusion:
Whenever you go for buffing, make sure that the function is performed by expert’ hands. Never buff your car in a circular direction as it will give swirl marks on the body of your car. Buffing a car does not damage the clear coat if you have
I hope this article will help you to evaluate whether buffing is good or bad for the clear coat of your car paint.
If done too often, it definitely damages the clear coat of your car paint. So buff your car only when needed.