Powered Polisher / Mop / Buffer

[MiniGibbo 142]

Would it be better to use clay lube..?

 

I've got loads of dodo juice born slippy as I don't clay that often.

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

Im with tom fenton on this one the more water the better and an absolute must for first timers and newcomers it takes a lot of skill and experience to go waterless. Afterall you are effectively angle grinding the bare flesh of your car paint.

Edited April 22, 2012 by Slo

[toddydal 1]

the compound we use today are to be used with out water as the compound breaks down and goes liquidy,the only way your going to burn through the paint is if you push like f*** in the same place and get it red hot,if you keep the polisher moving and apply light pressure you will be ok....if your bothered about rubbing through on the edges just run a bit of masking tape down them,also dont try and get the polisher in stupid places where it wont fit we use mini air polishers for this like for round door frames,bottoms of wings etc.i dont use water as it makes a mess goes everywhere how ever im not say dont put in in a spray bottle and just use a small amount to finish off

[toddydal 1]

you can buy a product to finish off the polishing its a pink solution waterd down with water and you spray it on with the final polish(im sure its got canuba in it and it shines like hel) but cant remember what its called i dont used it with the machine i just use it as a wipe on wipe off

[GLPoomobile 958]

I'm no expert, I've not polished much, and so I'm not about to get in to a disagreement with the likes of Tom Fenton or anyone else who has done it far more than I have. But as per usual, we've got another topic about polishing, and surprise surprise the usual scare mongering comes out!

 

By all means, take care. Do your research first, check out some videos on Youtube, and if you are that worried and value your paint that much, then find some scrap panels to practise on. But at the end of the day, with a little bit of common sense and a care, you can essentially dive straight in to it and make some improvement without f***ing things up. Just don't be gung-ho and stupid about it. Unless you are working on very thin/soft paint, you are unlikely to burn through if you are using the right products for what you are doing, use only light pressure, keep the polisher moving, and don't let the heat build up.

 

My only experience was polishing my 166, which has soft paint. I dived in right in, but then I'd done lots of research so wasn't worried. My paint was very rough, and I managed to polish it up nice and smooth with very little effort. And just to put it in to perspective, I still have a lot of the swirling in the paint that I also wanted to remove, but the fact it's still there goes to show how little paint/lacquer I actually took off. So I was no where near going through to the primer. It would need more effort with a slightly more aggressive compound and matching pad, and I'd have no worries about going for it, but for now I'm happy just to have smoothed the roughness out and got it shining.

 

In summary, take care, but don't be scared.

[Wes 86 1 Cars]

we are talking about two different things here, the mopping that tom does on a freshly painted car is done wet as your flatening the paint usually using g3 or simular. then paint correction to remove swirls and rejuvenate dull paint which is done without water as the product breaks down and goes clear/oily thus lubricating itself.

[MiniGibbo 142]

All i know is this is bloody confusing lol..

[Andy_C 50]

No not confusing at all. If you can drill a hole in a wall you can use a buffer. I've taught a lot of people on both DA and rotary over the last 10 years including wax & polish manufacturers.

 

There are far too many scare stories out there IMO. Fresh paint, 30 year old paint, whatever.

 

I train using Menzerna as for me it works every time. No need for water and minimal splatter or dusting. And yes I've had cars magazine featured and all that willy waving stuff too .

 

Best for any beginner is to buy a scrap panel. £20 from the scrappy vs respray is no contest. Always clay before polishing to give the best possible starting point and use the softest pad and mildest polish first off. You can always up the ante but you ARE removing paint and you can't replace it once it's gone.

 

Use a couple of pea sized blobs initially and low speed to work it across a square approx 2' x 2' then work in overlapping passes. Menzerna can work for a long time and stays oily (swipe your finger across to gauge how oily the polish is).

 

Speed-wise stay below 1500 rpm initially and keep the machine moving. You'll always get heat buildup and keeping moving helps keep this under control. This is why playing with scrap panels is absolutely the way to go.

 

If however you can't drill a hole without hitting a pipe or mains electricity cable then I'd really suggest thy you abandon all ideas of machine polishing anything.......

 

 

[Andy_C 50]

And to give you an idea what you need to do to get through to metal;

 

17 stone on a Makita 9227 at max revs with cutting pad & heavy cut compound. Took me 12 seconds. Which is akin to sticking one's fingers into a lawnmower lol.

[BlueBolt 156]

12 seconds on full throttle??

 

That's quite a bit!!!

 

I've never contemplated doing this before due to all the scare stories ir heard... But now I want a go!! Lol

[BlueBolt 156]

Allye

What did you go for in the end and how did you get on?? I was just about to ask a similar question to the one you asked and then remembered you had put up the question!!

 

Please don't add to the scare comments or anything anyone, I'm just wondering what machine to go and buy, what people have bought, and how they recommend them!!??

[pugpete1108 62 1 Cars]

i can actually answer this too now.

 

i bought a silverline rotary polisher, good cheap bit of kit but had a hell of a time finding the right polish/compound and mop heads.

 

i bought megs 105 and 205 to start with and either they were fakes (bought from ebay but not cheap) or they were just really crap as the 105 barely touched the swirls. however i have kept the 205 finisher as its a pretty good glaze type polish.

 

i then just bit the bullet a forked out for some farecla g3 which is tbh the mutts when it comes to cutting back paint

 

for fresh paint i flatted with 1200/1500 then once over with the g3 then some normal t cut (using plenty of water in a spray bottle) good clean then the megs 205 as a final polish then some dodo juice purple haze ( i think) to protect cos it smell lovely.

 

pad wise i went through a couple of waffle pads which i dont rate before going for a white foam for the g3 and t cut then a real soft black foam for the megs 205 followed by hand for the dodo juice.

 

goes to show you dont need a pukka polisher (it 'may' help??) but you do need good polish/compound.

 

i i'd also add i really couldnt get on using a da polisher which i tried first before buying the rotary

 

i did this and im a complete novice.

 

 

however it is incredibly easy to burn through the paint as i did in a few places, mainly on edges of panels.

Edited February 3, 2013 by pugpete1108

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

Also got a silverline polisher, nothing fancy compound with me, just plain old G3 number 2, then 3, finish with autoglym, stunning results

[BlueBolt 156]

Pete, how do you mean about trouble getting the pads?? Are they an abnormal size or something for the one you mentioned??

[pugpete1108 62 1 Cars]

that and selecting the right compound and type for what you want to do.

 

tht silverline one comes with a large (180mm dia i think) backing disk. whereas most stocked/ + i wanted to use 150mm foams so i had to buy another backing disk.

 

the set of foams i bought were the waffle type which tbh were very poor (some people swear by them) they broke up quite easily when caught on an edge or something.

 

i ended up going for an orange (not white) firm pad for both the g3 and tcut (seperate ones of course) then a black really soft but deep for the final polishing.

 

i have noticed now though that halfords stock all the different types of pads (150mm though) but they use a different colour scheme

 

just like this : http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_867873_langId_-1_categoryId_165557

 

i would strongly reccomend that you use plenty of water, for one it makes the compound go further before it breaks down and to stop heat build up and burning the paint.

 

a lot of guides use a bucket of water and dip the head of the polisher into it but i found it really messy (the whole job is anyway) instead i kept a spray bottle with clean water in and just sprayed the whole panel before starting and during polishing instead.

[Shakey_Jake 3 1 Cars]

I get all of my polishing gear from here http://www.polishedbliss.co.uk/ their is a lot of guides and info on what polish,cleansers,waxes, pads and compounds to use on what paints. Check it out, very useful information even if your not a beginner.

 

I bought a kestrel DAS-6 dual action polisher from there and have got some great results using the menzerna cutting compounds for a scratch free car and a dodo juice clenser to give a high gloss swirl free finish protected with a auto glym wax. Only downside is it took f***ing hours to do it!

 

 

I will do the 205 when it's not in bits.