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Sep 20, 2023

5 Best Buffing Pads [2023 Guide]

Aidan Pounder is a Motor1.com product tester that has written automotive news

Aidan Pounder is a Motor1.com product tester that has written automotive news content, car insurance guides, and extended warranty guides for HotCars, The Detroit Bureau, and other automotive sites. He spends his free time keeping up with European soccer.

Reviewed By: Charles Noyes

A comprehensive kit with everything you need.

A high-quality kit for beginners and enthusiasts.

A full buffing pad kit with a wide range of applicator pads.

An incredibly soft and high-quality set of polishing pads.

A thick woolen polishing pad with covered edges.

Buffing pads are a necessary tool if you’re looking to buff, cut, polish, or correct the paint on your car. The best buffing pads are not only high-quality but also versatile and durable.

Our review team spent countless hours researching and testing the best buffing pads on the market in tandem with the best buffing compounds to help those looking to get their own DIY buffing process started.

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The Chemical Guys BUF_HEX_Kits_8P is an eight-item buffing kit that will fully prepare you to buff and polish your car. This kit consists of seven different types of buffing pads, including a heavy cutting pad (yellow), a medium-heavy cutting pad (orange), a heavy polishing pad (green), a light-medium polishing pad (white), a light polishing/finishing pad (blue), a finishing pad (black), and an ultra-light finishing pad (red).

All of the buffing, cutting, and polishing pads listed above feature Chemical Guys’ Hex-Logic engineering, which means the pads are designed to maximize surface contact area. Additionally, all of the pads included in this kit are compatible with any 5.0-inch dual-action rotaries or large-throw orbital machine backing plates. Besides the seven different types of pads, this kit also includes Chemical Guys’ Polishing Pad Cleaner to keep your pads in tip-top condition.

In our experience, the Chemical Guys BUF_HEX_Kits_8P is the best kit on the market for automotive buffing and clear coat paint correction.

Quality: All of the pads included in this kit were extremely high-quality. Even after we finished buffing and polishing our testing vehicle, these pads seemed to be in superior condition to any other that we used.

Versatility: This buffing pad kit was one of the most versatile that we researched or tested. With seven different pads to choose from, our review team was able to do everything professional detailers would be able to do – from removing severe scratches and oxidation to spreading glazes and sealant across a sensitive paint finish.

Durability: Even after we had fully buffed out our testing vehicle's bonnet and utilized the kit's foam polishing pads, all of the pads in the kit seemed to be in surprisingly good condition. Furthermore, the inclusion of pad cleaner ensures you can continue your car care longer than if you didn't have pad cleaner.

More than 2,200 customers on Amazon have left reviews for the Chemical Guys BUF_HEX_Kits_8P. Many reviewers speak about how easy this kit is to use due to the color coordination of pads to do different stages in the buffing process. Several customers even claim that this is the best buffing pad kit they’ve ever used.

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Engineered and developed for detailing professionals, the Chemical Guys HEX_3Kit_5 further backs the idea that Chemical Guys offers some of the best car detailing products on the market. Similar to the other Chemical Guys buffing pad kit featured in this article, this kit features Chemical Guys’ Hex-Logic engineering, which allows the pads to apply buffing compound evenly to different surfaces.

All three pads – the medium-heavy cutting pad (orange), the light-medium polishing pad (white), and the finishing pad (black) – are compatible with large-throw orbital machine backing plates and any dual-action rotaries. A hook and loop interface makes pad installation a breeze, while Chemical Guys’ Polishing Pad Cleaner allows you to clean and maintain your foam pads.

The Chemical Guys HEX_3Kit_5 is perfect for those who don't want a full buffing kit, but rather a small kit that will accomplish the task at hand without requiring an exorbitant number of bits and bobs.

Quality: This kit is of the same quality as the other Chemical Guys buffing kit included in this article, but simply isn't as comprehensive. Our review team wants to make it clear that customers won't receive a dip in quality for choosing this smaller buffing kit compared to the full Chemical Guys buffing kit.

Versatility: This buffing kit is certainly versatile, and the pads included will undoubtedly allow you to fully and effectively complete the buffing process. The only reason this kit doesn't have a perfect score for this testing category is because there are a few more comprehensive options available.

Durability: Similarly to the eight-pack kit from Chemical Guys, we experienced no issues with durability during our testing process. Although this is a slightly smaller kit from Chemical Guys – seven pads versus three – both kits include pad cleaner to allow you to reuse your compounding pads.

The Chemical Guys HEX_3Kit_5 has upwards of 5,900 customer reviews on Amazon. Customers rave over the quality of the pads. A huge number of reviewers mention the effectiveness of the pad cleaner and how much longer their buffing pads last because of it. One reviewer notes that he successfully did paint correction for the first time on his truck using this kit.

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The Autolock 6" Buffing Pads are a set of six high-quality buffing pads, five of which are made from foam and one of which is made from wool. The five foam pads are lightweight and made of durable open-cell foam, which improves airflow and brings out the highest level of shine. Included pads in this kit are the heavy-cut pad (orange), two medium-cut pads (yellow and blue), a fine-cut pad (white), a finishing pad (black), and a woolen polishing pad.

The pads included in this buffing kit feature a special design where the front and back of the pad are two different sizes, specifically a 6.5-in. diameter on the front and a 6.0-in. diameter on the back. This design reduces the abrasion of the pad, backing plate, and paint surface. All of the pads in this kit are compatible with any car polishers and machine polishing devices, like a dual-action polisher or a rotary polisher for example.

Our review team found the Autolock 6" Buffing Pads to be the Most Versatile buffing pads kit on the market for its inclusion of every type of buffing pad you’ll need to buff your car out like a pro.

Quality: This buffing pad kit has some of the highest quality pads that we tested, second only to Chemical Guys buffing pads. We don't think you’ll have any complaints about the quality and effectiveness of these buffing pads.

Versatility: Versatility is what ultimately sets this buffing pad kit apart from its competitors. From heavy-cut to fine-cut pads, this kit includes everything you could possibly need for buffing and polishing a car. The kit even includes a finishing pad and a woolen polishing pad.

Durability: While we had little to no concerns about durability during and after the testing process, these pads were just shy of obtaining a perfect score for this testing category. The inclusion of buffing pad-specific cleaner is the only reason why these buffing pads don't have a 5-star durability score. These pads are machine washable but should be air-dried.

About 500 customers on Amazon have left reviews for the Autolock 6" Buffing Pads. Many note that this kit is equally effective for both polishing and buffing, due to the wide variety of pads included in the kit. One reviewer states he successfully compounded the roof of his 2007 Toyota FJ with this kit. Negative reviews state that there's no difference in grit between pads, although we didn't find this to be true during our testing process.

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Not solely purposed for automotive use and car detailing, the IPELY Wool Polishing Pad is great for buffing shower glass and granite countertops amongst other surfaces in your home. This polishing pad kit includes four wool pads, an adhesive backer plate, and an M14 drill adapter. The M14 drill adapter allows you to attach IPELY's polishing pads to a cordless drill, angle grinder, power buffer, and polisher.

The pads themselves are woolen sponge pads, which makes them incredibly soft so you don't need to worry about scratching your car's paint. A hook and loop backing design makes mounting and removing the polishing pads a breeze, while the pad itself can be washed and reused after polishing. It should be noted that the maximum revolutions per minute (RPM) this buffing pad can withstand is 8500 RPM.

The IPELY Wool Polishing Pad is the Best Polishing Kit on the market for its inclusion of multiple polishing pads and the material makeup of the pads themselves.

Quality: The quality of the polishing pads included in this kit were unmatched. Comparable to the other polishing pad kit in this review, this kit is lightyears ahead of the competition. Other polishing pads leave residue or bits of fiber behind, whereas these polishing pads didn't leave behind a trace.

Versatility: As this is a polishing pad-specific kit, it won't be very versatile. Polishing takes place at the very end of the buffing process, meaning these pads are only useful for a small portion of said process.

Durability: By design, polishing pads will be less durable than buffing pads. Buffing pads are meant to be rough and abrasive, to an extent, while polishing pads are all about softness and light touches. We experienced some loss of wool fibers throughout our testing process.

The IPELY Wool Polish Pad has nearly 2,100 customer reviews on Amazon. Many reviewers speak to the quality of the pads and their thickness. Several customers note that machine washing the pads was more beneficial than hand washing them. Reviewers with negative feedback comment that they expected the pads to be thicker than they were.

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The TCP Global 8" Wool Buffing Pad is a pad designed for cutting, buffing, and polishing with compounds, glazes, and polishes. The pad wraps around the edges of the backing plate to provide the largest possible contact area and to reduce the likelihood of cutting or scratching your car's paint in concave areas. It should be noted that the pad contains a grip attachment for hook and loop backing plates, but the backing plate itself is sold separately.

The inside edges of this buffing pad feature curved and reinforced plastic backing for smoother polishing and an extended pad life. Even if one of your polishing pads is coming to the end of its life, this kit consists of three pads so you’ll have two more to use as spares. Additionally, this buffing pad comes with an M14 drill adapter to allow you to attach the pad to a cordless drill, angle grinder, power buffer, or polisher.

In our experience, the TCP Global 8" Wool Buffing Pad is absolutely worth considering if you need a new buffing or polishing kit.

Quality: All of the pads included in this kit were quite high-quality. The reinforced edges and the fact that the edges of the pad are covered means that this kit is already a step above the competition.

Versatility: All of the pads included in this kit are woolen polishing pads, meaning you can only effectively accomplish the polishing part of the buffing process. While this pad is great for polishing, it's not the best for cutting or buffing.

Durability: During our testing process, these pads left bits of fiber and remnants of the pad all over the exterior of our testing vehicle. This drew concerns from our review team about potential issues with durability.

More than 1,500 customers have left reviews on Amazon for the TCP Global 8" Wool Buffing Pad. A huge number of reviewers speak to how much they appreciate the edges of the pad being covered, as it prevented them from scratching their car's paint. Negative reviews state that the pad sheds material while you use it.

If you’ve purchased one of the best buffing pads on the market, then the only way you won't see the results you want is from improper use of equipment. Below, our review team delves into pad speed, one of the largest determining factors for how well a buffing process will go. We also cover buffing pad care and how to get the most mileage out of your pads.

With a list of buffing pads with varying compatibility on different machines or devices, it can be difficult to know how quickly your buffing pad should be spinning while in use. As a general rule of thumb, you can expect lower RPMs to mean less friction, which ultimately means less heat build-up.

Our review team found that the optimal RPM range for compounding is between 1750 to 2500 RPM. However, the optimal RPM range for finishing is between 1200 to 1750 RPM. We recommend making sure you use a drill, polisher, power buffer, or angle grinder that can support the following speed ranges for the most effective buffing job.

Buffing pads aren't designed to be used once and then thrown away. Even if they were, it would be relatively expensive to do so. If your buffing pad comes with a dedicated pad cleaner, like Chemical Guys’ buffing pads do, then you simply need to follow the company's instructions. If not, you may need to machine or hand wash your buffing pads.

If sticking your buffing pads in the washing machine doesn't do the trick and hand washing leaves you with clumps of buffing compound, we recommend investing in Griot's Garage Pad Conditioning Brush to work any leftover compound out of your buffing pads.

The buffing pads in this article went through two rounds of reviews. We started by searching Amazon and Advance Auto Parts for top products, looking at factors like Prime shipping eligibility, customer ratings, Amazon superlatives, and prices.

The five buffing pads that best met these standards were ordered by our team for testing.

A team member used each buffing pad with a cordless drill and an orbital polisher, specifically the TORQX Random Orbital Polisher. During the testing process, our review team took note of each buffing pad's performance against the following criteria:

Foam pads are better for buffing. Particularly in the final stage of the buffing process, foam pads should be used as they are more gentle than their wool counterparts. However, wool pads are able to remove deep scratches and dirt, while a foam pad cannot.

Polishing leaves a brushed or lined finish, while buffing removes the lines and leaves a bright luster finish. Polishing utilizes a high-grit abrasive while buffing utilizes a low-grit abrasive.

The best speed for buffing a car depends on what stage of the buffing process you’re at. When compounding, it's recommended that you stay between 1750 to 2400 RPM. When finishing, it's recommended that you stay between 1200 to 1750 RPM.

*Data accurate at time of publication.