Cutting Compound, Polish and Pads for a Flawless Finish

Oxidised paint, swirl marks, sanding scratches and the dull grey haze that settles on a car left outside - all of it comes off with the right compound and the right pad. Affordable Paint Supplies stocks cutting compound, polishing compound, car polish, buffing pads, microfibre cloths and cleaning products for panel shops, detailers, restorers and anyone who wants to finish a job properly at home. Whether you’re flattening a fresh respray or bringing a tired daily driver back, you will find the abrasives, pads, machines and prep products to do it.

Cutting Compound or Polishing Compound?

Cutting compound removes. Polishing compound refines. That’s the whole difference, and it is worth getting straight before you buy anything.

A cutting compound carries a coarse abrasive. It levels the top of the clear coat to take out sanding marks, deeper scratches and heavy oxidation, and it leaves behind a fine haze of its own. A polishing compound carries a much finer abrasive, and its job is to remove that haze and bring the gloss up.

Rubbing compound sits at the heavy end of the same scale. In most Australian workshops the term is used interchangeably with cutting compound, and in practice the two do the same work.

Most jobs need both. You cut to fix the defect, then polish to fix what the cutting left behind. Car polishing compound on its own will brighten tired paint, but it won’t touch a scratch you can catch with a fingernail.

Match the Pad to the Compound

Your buffing pad does as much of the work as the compound sitting on it.

Wool and coarse foam pads cut. Medium foam pads polish. Soft foam finishing pads lay the last of the gloss on and remove almost nothing. Pair a fine polish with a wool pad and you will put swirls straight back into paint you’ve just corrected.

One warning. Pad colour coding is not an industry standard. Green means coarse in one brand's range and medium in another's, so read the grade on the label rather than trusting the colour. Our Cartec pad range runs from coarse green through to black finishing in 150mm.

By Hand or By Machine

Hand work suits touch-ups. Machine work suits panels.

You can cut and polish by hand, and for a scuffed mirror cap or a single scratch it’s often quicker than setting up. What you won’t do by hand is correct a full bonnet of swirl marks in any sensible amount of time. There’s not enough consistent pressure or speed in your arm to break the abrasive down evenly across that area.

A rotary polisher cuts hardest and fastest. A dual-action polisher is slower but much harder to burn paint with, which makes it the safer choice while you are still learning. Either way, keep the machine moving and stay off panel edges and body lines, where the clear coat is thinnest and heat builds quickest.

More Than Paint - Glass, Plastic and Trim

The same principle works well beyond clear coat.

Glass polishing compound uses a cerium-based abrasive to take wiper haze, water spotting and light marking out of windscreens and side glass. It’s slow work and needs a dedicated pad, but it saves replacing glass that is otherwise sound.

Plastic polishing compound is milder again. It brings clouded headlight lenses back towards clear and lifts scuffing from interior trim and gauge covers, usually by hand or on a small backing pad.

Finish the Job Clean

A good cut is easily ruined by a dirty cloth.

Compound residue holds abrasive. Wipe a freshly polished panel with the cloth you used three panels ago and you’ll drag that grit back across the paint. Keep separate microfibre cloth sets for compound removal, glass and final buffing, and wash them apart from everything else. Our microfibre cleaning cloths come in 20-packs, and Cartec Glass Clean and Shine handles the windows once the paint is done.

Brands the Trade Knows

We stock cutting and polishing products from Cartec, which is a global manufacturer of professional-grade vehicle cleaning, protection, and polishing products.

Not sure which compound you need?

Tell us the condition of the paint, what equipment you are working with and the finish you are chasing. We will put together a compound, pad and cloth combination that suits the job. We’ve been supplying paint and abrasives since 2008, and we would rather get you the right product first time than sell you three.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What's the difference between cutting compound and polishing compound?

A: Cutting compound uses a coarse abrasive to remove clear coat and level out scratches, sanding marks and oxidation. Polishing compound uses a much finer abrasive to remove the haze cutting leaves behind and lift the gloss. Cutting fixes the defect; polishing makes it shine. Most correction work needs both, in that order.

Q: How do you cut and polish car paint?

A: Wash and decontaminate the panel first, then mask off trim and rubber. Apply a few drops of cutting compound on a cutting pad and work it in overlapping passes until the defect is gone, then wipe the panel down. Follow with polishing compound on a finer pad, wipe down again, and seal or wax to protect the finish.

Q: Which polishing pad should I use with which compound?

A: Match the aggression of the pad to the aggression of the compound. Wool or coarse foam with cutting compound, medium foam with polishing compound, soft foam for final finishing. Pad colour coding varies between brands, so check the manufacturer's grade on the label rather than assuming green or yellow means the same everywhere.

Q: Can you cut and polish by hand, or do you need a machine polisher?

A: You can do both by hand, and for a single scratch it is often faster than setting a machine up. Correcting a full panel by hand is another matter, because you cannot generate enough consistent pressure or speed. For anything larger than a hand span, a dual-action or rotary polisher gives a better result in far less time.

Q: What is rubbing compound used for?

A: Rubbing compound is a heavy-cut abrasive used to remove deeper scratches, sanding marks left by a fresh respray, and severe oxidation. In Australian workshops the name is often used interchangeably with cutting compound. It always leaves a haze of its own, so it needs to be followed by a polishing compound to restore gloss.

Q: How do I remove swirl marks and light scratches from clear coat?

A: Swirl marks and light scratches sit in the very top of the clear coat, so a polishing compound on a medium foam pad usually clears them. If you can catch the scratch with a fingernail, it is too deep for polish alone and needs cutting compound first. Work in the shade, on cool paint.

Q: What products do I need for a full cut and polish?

A: At minimum: a wash and decontamination product, masking tape, a cutting compound, a polishing compound, a cutting pad, a finishing pad, clean microfibre cloths and a protective wax or sealant. A dual-action polisher and a backing plate make the job dramatically quicker if you are doing more than one panel.