Kevin Brown Method: The importance of pad priming

A primed pad will outperform a non-primed pad in cutting. So a primed pad should give a great polishing result on your car, but prime your pad for the goal you’re looking for.

Priming your pad depending on the goal

For defect removal we prime our pad manually while the hole face of the pad is covered. When there is accumulation of buffing liquid, you used too much product. For a finishing polish we remove the excess amount of polish prior to buffing. You can remove the excess buffing liquid by compressed air or with a running machine and a microfiber towel. After considering which goal you have in mind, you can prime your pad of course.

Priming your pad

Pad priming slows the absorption of the liquid components into the pores of the pad. Buffing liquids and polishes use hard materials to scrub the paint. By stuffing the pores of the pad with buffing liquid, we create a hard barrier that prevents the proper movement of these hard materials. With a foam pad this hard barrier keeps the liquid or polish from moving throughout the pad. Because the pad saturation is kept to a minimum, this is a good thing. Pad saturation is a performance killer. When the majority of the pad is full with liquid the foam will not respond or rebound fast because the liquid is not easy to compress. Other benefits are:

• Air can travel through the pad, so it will operate at a lower temperature.
• The pad can be used longer during the polishing session.
• The pad longevity increases, because there is not much liquid or materials stuck inside the pad.

The result of a badly primed pad

A properly primed pad gives us control over how the pad will work. A badly primed pad will cause most of the abrasive grains to become trapped in the structure of the pad. The result is too little liquid on top of the pad or liquid that becomes unevenly distributed on the top of the pad. In both cases it causes bad contact between the pad and the paint. Another example of a badly primed pad is that the grains can attach to the paint surface or will flung away from your polishing area. That’s why we can’t stress enough how important a good primed pad is.

Relationship between priming your pad and the Kevin Brown Method

In the Kevin Brown Method, pad priming is very important for a couple of reasons. First of all, the surface area of the pad that is in contact with the paint will increase. This means that you can benefit every inch of the pad to do its work and you can polish a larger effective area in one go. Also, the primed pad will slow the accumulation of paint residue on the surface of the pad. In this way the paint residue can’t negatively influence your work. In the Kevin Brown Method it is stated that not only the way of priming gives us a difference in results also the type of pad being used gives a different result. Therefore you should take a good look at the different features of the pad via a pad comparison.