Hand or Buffer Application for Paint Sealant

Hi,

I normally wax my cars by hand (application and removal). I just purchase a new Black Tacoma TRD Sport. My first black car and have been reading lots of stuff about how easy is to damage the paint in black cars if not done properly. I will be applying a paint sealant soon to the truck but i was concern on using an orbital buffer (https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-18-Volt-ONE-10-in-Orbital-Buffer-Tool-Only-P435/205975768) for the application of the sealant. Should i keep doing it by hand? Benefit other than time on using a buffer? Should i do the application or the removal of the sealant with the Buffer?

Thanks for your help and clarification with this.

AV

 

Do not waste your money on that machine. It's a terrible machine. There is not much benefit to using a buffer to apply wax or sealant especially if you have a product that comes off easily. The real benefit is to a polisher is being able to do paint correction by removing smirks and clearcoat scratches.

 

IMO, the only benefit of using a buffer when applying an LSP (wax or sealant) is the buffer being able to lay down a nice thin even coat which most products recommend. I still apply by hand though as it's easier for me to get to everything.

 

If you apply by hand, be sure to use a sponge-type applicator and not a microfiber applicator. And on black, I’d do long stokes and not fast circular strokes. Also, be sure to “palm” the applicator pad and don’t concentrate pressure with finger tips. You want nice even pressure across the face of the pad. That is sometimes hard to do by hand without constant attention. For that reason alone, I might suggest that an orbital would have less risk of causing swirls. By hand, we inadvertently put lots of pressure on a pad with our fingertips. With a DA this won’t be a problem, as downward pressure is much less and more evenly dispersed.

 

If you’re just looking for something to put down wax/sealant, the Griots 3” polisher is great. Paired with 3” pads that taper to 4” (Rupes 4” white pads), it’s a great tool for spreading sealant. You can get one with a 25’ cord from Autogeek for about $115. Maybe less on a sale.

 

3" buffer? You'll be there all day. Basic 6" Griot DA can be had for around the same price.

 

Not like you are correcting paint. For spreading a sealant it will be fine.

 

For spreading products (not correction work) the 3” is actually preferable to the 6”. It gets into more nooks and crannies due to its size, it’s lighter weight, etc. It actually makes the job faster considering you’d have to go back and finish some areas by hand if you were using larger pads on a 6” polisher.

 

The 3” makes sense for nooks and crannies but not for an entire vehicle, especially a truck. Doing it all by hand would probably be faster than using the 3”. There is no differentiation on DA machine between paint correction and sealant application, the difference is type of pad and the compound. Applying sealant is no different than wax. Use a 6” DA to apply the wax to 95% of the vehicle, a 3” for the nooks and crannies, then a microfiber towel to buff the haze away.

 

Paint correction is going to require multiple passes with potentially multiple products applying a seal at not so much.

 

Kind of stating the obvious. So you’re telling a person to buy a 3” polisher to specifically apply sealant in which it is likely faster to do by hand then, of course it is going to require more physical work. So maybe next year he has some swirls in his paint. Oh, he’ll now need another polisher, the 6” DA. The 3” polisher is meant to be used for paint correction where the 6” polisher couldn’t get to. If you’re applying wax/sealant, the 6” polisher is then again used for the majority of the work, then you can just use your hand for where the 6” couldn’t reach.

 

I just remembered OP has a black taco. He’ll definitely have swirls to remove.

 

No I am not telling OP to buy anything. I wouldn't use a DA at all for sealant. But if all I was going to use the DA for is apply sealant then I would use a smaller DA.

 

Alright, so my last post on this topic. From Mike Phillips himself, "I personally prefer to apply all my waxes and paint sealants by machine."

OP can read up on this link if you feel the need (they used 5.5" and 6.5" pads to apply the wax):
https://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/pinnacle-wax/28651-how-machine-apply-wax-using-da-polisher.html

 

This ^^^ I prefer to apply wax/sealant with a buffer due to the ability to lay even coats.

 

As I suggested in another thread— if you are ONLY going to be laying down wax/sealant (or doing isolated corection work), the GG3 is a great tool. For polishing entire vehicles, using all-in-ones, cleaner waxes, etc. (or if you plan to do so in the future), then yeah the 6” is a better choice. Griots makes a great 3” backing plate specifically engineered for the GG6.

I have both tools. They’re both great and have their pros and cons. I got the GG6 initially, but actually picked up the GG3 later per Mike’s recommendation solely for application of sealants. Paired with the Rupes 4” white pads, it’s a dream. Line up three cars in the driveway and I make very quick work of them.

Regarding the GG3:
“It’s perfect for machine applying waxes. Again, machine application of a wax or sealant always trumps hand application.”