The PROS of buffing almost goes without saying.  

 

You know that lackluster vehicle sitting in your driveway longing for the days of yesteryear.  Yeah your baby.  She will shine again.  A shine that rivals the gloss she had when you took her home from the dealership.  

 

And what’s the price of a smile across your face?  Ok there is an actual price attached.  

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So that’s the PROS.  Your car or truck’s shine is revived.  It will pop!

 

Before we address the CONS let’s break down the different levels of paint correction, the technical term for buffing that we use. 

 

1. Polish - a one step paint enhancement - we polish it with a dual action polisher passing over each area 3 times in each direction (up and down and back and forth) with an abrasive paste, mild 800 or higher grit compound

2. Buff - what we call a 2 step deeper corrective buff and then followed up with a refining pass - we use a dual action polisher and start with a 600 grit compound and a cutting pad (a pad on the polisher designed to remove a fine layer of the clear coat surface) after the first pass over the entire is complete we repeat with a finer grit to remove any micro marring introduced from the first pass creating a mirror like finish

3. Heavy scratch removal- first deeper scratches are addressed with surgical deeper sanding with low grit sandpaper to remove deep scratches then the buff description in #2 process.  However we buff with a rotary buffer and a wool pad.  This is the most powerful and aggressive tool used to buff.  It must be in the hand of a skilled technician or paint can be ruined quickly.

 

We are going to give the reasons or CONS of #2 & 3

 

The first reason to potentially not do it is: THE PRICE

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I’m not talking about if you don’t want to part with any money.  Face it, nothing in life is free. 

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 I’m talking about when the cost of buffing is so high that it's a better investment in repainting it.  Yes, that’s more money up front, but the results will last longer.

 

If the paint is more than 7 years old, severely scratched up and you plan on keeping a vehicle for many years then we will recommend that you get it repainted at a body shop. 

 

And that leads us to the second reason to paint correct: THE PAINT COULD “FAIL” PREMATURELY

 

When your car is buffed we are polishing the surface.  The surface is actually a clear layer of paint .  The clear coat is protecting the color paint one layer below.  As we polish we are thinning or removing microns of clear coat thickness.  The clear coat will naturally wear away over an extended amount of time from wear and tear.  That’s why you see some cars with the hood, roof and trunk dulled, blistered and sometimes even rusting all the way through.

 

This means that paint correction isn’t something you should be doing at regular intervals.  A heavy paint correction can only be performed at most twice in a vehicle’s paint lifetime.  We don’t recommend it more than once, so as not to compromise the clear coat’s thickness. 

 

So what if you fall into the “safe” category where you do want to buff the paint because it’s young enough that the correction needed isn’t too high, and it’s not likely to compromise too much clear coat.  

 

Then we’d recommend adding a ceramic coating to the job. You’ve got the scratches (or water spots or overspray)  diminished, and the gloss restored.  Now how do you prevent yourself from being back here again in a year.  This is where a ceramic coating will do the job.   Read all the benefits of a ceramic coating here