# Best video we've ever made on how to machine buff a car from start to finish



## Mike Phillips

*Best video we've ever made on how to machine buff a car from start to finish*

I've made a lot of videos in my life. Last summer Yancy and I made a brand new video series for our ROKU channel. After they were edited and placed on our ROKU channel I never got around to actually watching them.

Last week I watched this video on exterior car detailing for the first time. In my my opinion, it's our best video ever on the topic of machine polishing and EVERYTHING related to machine polishing is included in the video.

There's also lots of tips and techniques share all the way through the video, from start to finish.

*Do me a favor please*

Grab your favorite beverage, hot coffee, cold soda and expand the video to fill the entire screen and give it a watch and the if you would be so kind, reply to this thread with what you think about the content and presentation of the subject matter.






I also think this demonstrates Yancy's incredible skill as our "Creative Director". Nice work Yancy.

Thank you and enjoy.


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## storm2284

exactly what i needed to watch, thank you!!!


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## Soul boy 68

Excellent video Mike, thanks for posting :thumb:


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## wish wash

I like watching these videos, it's surprising what you forget. I learned I need to slightly reduce my polishing area and up my passes from 5 to 8


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## Ciamician

Watched the entire video. Very informative for someone like myself who is looking to machine polish a car for the first time soon (once winter has passed). You can tell Mike really is a great teacher.

If I had to give one small remark: a close-up of the swipe test would have been nice.. but now I'm just nitpicking.

Couple of questions:

What if you've done a test spot and find out the combination of pad/product you're using is too light? You've already removed a layer of paint (a very thin one obviously).. which means you're actually removing more ("bad" test spot + compound + polish as opposed to "good" test spot which you then use on the entire car + polish) on that one spot as opposed to all other areas of the car. Hope my question makes sense.
How often should I clean my pads? After every panel?
You prime the pad just once, on first use... but when should I apply extra product (3 small dots) when compounding or polishing? After every section?
What about plastic bumpers who tend to heat up during polishing, how should I tackle them?
I don't own a paint depth gauge but I know some parts of my car have been resprayed.. should I treat them any differently?
When using a DA polisher, can things go wrong when you're going over a panel which has a lot of curves (BMW hood for example)? You talk about dividing the panel into 20 by 20 sections, but can I completely ignore the curves of the car (see picture below)?


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## DLGWRX02

Ciamician said:


> Watched the entire video. Very informative for someone like myself who is looking to machine polish a car for the first time soon (once winter has passed). You can tell Mike really is a great teacher.
> 
> If I had to give one small remark: a close-up of the swipe test would have been nice.. but now I'm just nitpicking.
> 
> Couple of questions:
> 
> What if you've done a test spot and find out the combination of pad/product you're using is too light? You've already removed a layer of paint (a very thin one obviously).. which means you're actually removing more ("bad" test spot + compound + polish as opposed to "good" test spot which you then use on the entire car + polish) on that one spot as opposed to all other areas of the car. Hope my question makes sense.
> How often should I clean my pads? After every panel?
> You prime the pad just once, on first use... but when should I apply extra product (3 small dots) when compounding or polishing? After every section?
> What about plastic bumpers who tend to heat up during polishing, how should I tackle them?
> I don't own a paint depth gauge but I know some parts of my car have been resprayed.. should I treat them any differently?
> When using a DA polisher, can things go wrong when you're going over a panel which has a lot of curves (BMW hood for example)? You talk about dividing the panel into 20 by 20 sections, but can I completely ignore the curves of the car





Ok, as no one else has replied let's hope this helps
*1), after doing your first test spot, if it is corrected for your satisfaction then there's no need to go over again. However if, like in the video there is still evidence of deeper swirls, by going over another test area with a stronger compound if this produces a finer finish then you would still need to go over that first test place area again (as this is what is needed for them deeper swirls). If this gets the finish your after, you wouldn't then use the weaker polish on the car first, you would go straight on to the cut which will in theory will take off the same amount from the rest of the car as the test spot, otherwise you would be left with swirls. You just wouldnt need to apply as much pressure on that first test spot.

*2) I clean my pads after each panel, 
*3) prime you pads or load it up if they are new or fresh out of the washer, it's to fill the pores with product, once it's loaded up, if it dries out then a quick brush off and then a spray with a mist of dedicated pad primer or even a very light mist of detailer spray. After loading up and or priming, 3 small pea sized dots are needed for every area you begin, so if you divide your bonnet into 6 areas you would need to apply 6 lots 1 at the beginning of every area.
*4). I have plastic bumpers on my rrs, and treat them exactly the same, if they are heating up excessively then I would suggest your applying either too much pressure or too higher speeds. It is after all the paint your polishing and it's the same paint and top coat applied to the entire car.
*5) if you know areas have been repainted an are unsure then either stop often, wipe off the polish and inspect regularly with your swirl finding lights, sometimes the areas repainted could be softer or harder so if known about it, ide suggest starting a fresh test area as in (*1). To see what results you get, again some may require stronger or weaker combination of pad and polish.

*6) DA's are the safest way to machine polish as it is extremely hard to strike through paint due to the free spinning pad. The thinnest areas of paint are often the very edges of panels, so to avoid these many people cover with detailing tape, remember when your car is painted (as long as it isn't accident repaired or colour changed) it's mostly done by robots and they spray evenly over the entire surface with or with out raised profiles, so there is no reason the paint would be any thinner on them curved higher areas. If you have any concerns, then either apply zero pressure over these parts just allow the weight of the machine to do the cutting or again use a detailing tape (you can get them in various thicknesses) just to cover the points of the raised ares, or polish up to and around it, not over it. It's as much about common sense as it is technique. Smaller tighter areas often require smaller pads or even mini machines, it's basically your call on how much of a finish your happy to achieve, if you want it 100% then your going to need to think about having a selection of pads and tools at your disposal.

I hope this helps.


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## Mike Phillips

DLGWRX02 said:


> Ok, as no one else has replied let's hope this helps


 Thanks for answering the other gentleman's questions.

*I think you did a great job*.

I stay very busy so it's hard to keep up with all the activity in the blogosphere...

:thumb:


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## Mike Phillips

Ciamician said:


> Watched the entire video. Very informative for someone like myself who is looking to machine polish a car for the first time soon (once winter has passed).
> 
> You can tell Mike really is a great teacher.


Thank you for the kind words. There's a huge difference between knowing how to do something and knowing how to impart the knowledge and skills to do something.

First I'd like to say thank you to *DLGWRX02* for chiming in, his answers were spot on, but I'll take a few moments to take a stab at your questions too....



Ciamician said:


> If I had to give one small remark: a close-up of the swipe test would have been nice.. but now I'm just nitpicking.


I wholeheartedly agree with you. When I watched the video for the first time it caused me to remember that we didn't stop filming, take a few minutes to bring the camera in and capture what a real swipe test looks like.

The reason why is we were under a LOT of pressure to film the 9 videos in this series as fast as possible. Not our choice. In the future I think we'll have less pressure to work fast and therefore be able to include the little things like this.

I have a saying when it comes to detailing it goes like this,

The little things are the big things - Mike Phillips

Note: In order to use the multi-quote feature here on Vbulletin and save time while maintaining easy to read formatting, I removing the *LIST* coding in your original post.



Ciamician said:


> Couple of questions:
> 
> What if you've done a test spot and find out the combination of pad/product you're using is too light? You've already removed a layer of paint (a very thin one obviously).. which means you're actually removing more ("bad" test spot + compound + polish as opposed to "good" test spot which you then use on the entire car + polish) on that one spot as opposed to all other areas of the car.
> Hope my question makes sense.


Makes perfect sense.

My answer would be that's simply part of the process. In reality you're removing very little paint so if you go back over any test spot area with the actual process it's no big deal.

Major on the majors, not the minors.



Ciamician said:


> How often should I clean my pads? After every panel?


In a perfect world you clean your pad after each section you buff.

I now myself and most detailers clean our pads after every other section. That said, optimum results on both the process and the results will always be best when working clean.

See my article here,

*Why it's important to clean your pads often... *

The original version of the above article came out years before anyone else touched this topic of residue control.



Ciamician said:


> You prime the pad just once, on first use... but when should I apply extra product (3 small dots) when compounding or polishing?
> 
> After every section?


Great question.

You add FRESH product anytime you start a new section.

I'm not a huge fan of PEA sized drops like so many other say to use.

I believe you need the ample amount of product. You need a certain amount of abrasives, lubricating oils etc.. to work efficiently. You don't want to over use or under use product you want to use the ample amount.

Because quality of products vary and some compounds/polishes/cleaner waxes are more concentrated than others (with abrasives), you need to get a feel for various products or do some research but still....

pea sized drops?

Look at dime or nickel sized drops instead.

See my article here with great pictures to give you and idea...

*How to prime a foam pad when using a DA Polisher*












Ciamician said:


> What about plastic bumpers who tend to heat up during polishing, how should I tackle them?


Simple dual action polishers don't generate enough heat to cause a problem with urethane body parts generally speaking. It could be a factor if you're using microfiber pad or THIN foam pads and pushing hard for extended section passes.

Just use common sense and see my article here,

*Fight or Flight Method for Gaging Surface Temperature*



Ciamician said:


> I don't own a paint depth gauge but I know some parts of my car have been resprayed.. should I treat them any differently?


The panels or sections that have been resprayed probably have thicker paint than the factory paint so less to worry about.

The BIG PICTURE is use the least aggressive product to get the job done and then after buffing out the paint moving into the future...

Wash and dry the car carefully so as not to put swirls and scratches back into the paint causing you to have to compound the paint again.



Ciamician said:


> When using a DA polisher, can things go wrong when you're going over a panel which has a lot of curves (BMW hood for example)?


Not really.

Most clearcoat paint systems are pretty tough. Just don't HAMMER on body lines and edges. Make it a practice to buff UP TO the line or edge don't buff ON the line or edge.



Ciamician said:


> You talk about dividing the panel into 20 by 20 sections, but can I completely ignore the curves of the car (see picture below)?


Because cars are not made of perfectly square body panels there's always exceptions to the rule.

When buffing a thin panel, the don't try to use a cross hatch pattern but instead just use overlapping passes in one direction to do your best to cover or buff that section.

Here's another article I wrote, it's not on DW but AGO - I can post it over here though...

*The Yoda Technique for Buffing out a Car*

Because some panels are not large and flat, especially on modern cars which are aerodynamic and for this reason very curved, then you use what I call the *Yoda Technique*, that is you,

*"Let the panel be your guide"*









(When you read the above sentence, use your best Yoda impersonation)

So of course, if you're working a long, thin panel then you might best work that panel by only going in two directions, that is from one end of the panel to the other end of the panel and if possible, that is if the panel is wide enough, then overlap a little with your end-to-end passes.

The size or diameter of the pad you're using will of course be a factor for overlapping.

Great questions, thank you for asking them....


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## WHIZZER

Very informative post Mike Thanks -


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## barry75

Great Video thanks for posting it,I had learned a lot from watching it,Thanks again


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