buffing new and old paint

luke, i guess i dint answer all your questions. as far as buffers are concerned, its a matter of choice and budget. here are some we use at our shop. snap on, mikwaukee, and makita

the snap on is an 8 amp, the makita 10 amp, milwaukee is 11 amp.
max rpm is 1750. they will carry 7 to 9" pads.
these are big dollar high production units. for your purpose as an occasional use, you can get a more bargain oriented one that will do you just fine.
as far as pads, we use the presta and schlegel pads. they are 25-40.00 each. here is a photo of some of the pads we use here. they come in all different grades from heavy cut to polish. also in the top of the photo you can see a spur to keep the pads clean. for what you are doing, a heavy and a polish grade will work.

next post i will show you some of the compounds

luke, here are some of the various compounds available for buffing. the 3m line has the perfect it 3000 series. very good, also the presta ultra cut creme, and the 3m finesse it along with the mequiars line are good too. for your purpose, you can get small cans of heavy compound and polish compound from say, napa. also pick up a bottle of the meguiars #5 new car glaze. between the pads and compounds, you'll have about $60.00 invested. a buffer from farm and fleet, maybe another 50-90 dollars. and 5or 6 sheets of 2000 grit wet sand paper. for a spur, you can use a large screwdriver to spur the pad. lay it on the pad, pull trigger, drag the screwdriver from the center out. next post i'll give you a quick lesson