Polisher Buying Guide?

[Gareth]

@Gareth Looks great! Are you using panel wipe after polishing?

Kinda. Is AngelWax Striped Ease too aggressive?

What you are experiencing is "sticky" paint. To get round it add a little finishing polish into your cutting stage. Something really oily like Megs 205 will really help with residue removal. Also work in smaller sections as it keeps the polish active.

As the polish dries and bakes on sticky paint, when you go over it with the machine, you are then introducing the marring. So smaller sections and a mix with oily finishing polish will drastically reduce it.

If you have a rotary, finish down with it at lowish speed with a very oily finishing polish and it will really sharpen the finish and take out any remaining marring

I've not got a rotary. Just the 75 and a 15. I never took the 15 out of the bag. The area I was working was small, but maybe not small enough? I know you've mentioned adding 205 into the mix before, and I keep forgetting.

As for speeds, I actually didn't get much above speed 1 throughout all 3 stages. I ramped up the finishing stage to 3 on my last pass, but that's as high as I'd got.

 

[big_pete]

That's also part of your problem them amigo you need speed to break the polish down properly to, get it up to 4-5

 

[Gareth]

Cheers Pete, in my inexperience, I assumed that higher speeds would have caused more marring, meaning more time to correct. Still at the bottom of the steep learning curve.

 

[big_pete]

You will get there, it really is an experience game.so the more you do it the more you will improve

 

[Gareth]

Getting the experience is tough. I'be nowhere to really 'practice' and the only cars I've been able to get my hands on are family. I'm not rushing anything this time, all time done so far is in the yellow below and I'd say I'm close to 3 hours at it

 

[Gareth]

Adding a little drop of M205 to the Rupes Quartz Gloss really helped the working time and no 'sticky' paint. I just tackled the bonnet, that's been recently painted and results are astounding. 2.5hrs on the bonnet to do the 3 stages, but worth it.

 

[Steve]

Great results. Really need to tackle my own soon. I don't expect half the results you have but anything is better than it is now lol. Black is a nightmare!

 

[Gareth]

You'll be grand @Steve I'm a complete novice at doing this sorta stuff, if I get decent results, you can too. You are right though, black is a nightmare, but after machining, the metallic in the paint is really starting to really shine through.

I've still a lot of the car left to do. And debating with myself on whether to ceramic coat, or seal and wax. I have sealants and wax, so there's no additional cost to me with that option.

 

[Steve]

You'll be grand @Steve I'm a complete novice at doing this sorta stuff, if I get decent results, you can too. You are right though, black is a nightmare, but after machining, the metallic in the paint is really starting to really shine through.

I've still a lot of the car left to do. And debating with myself on whether to ceramic coat, or seal and wax. I have sealants and wax, so there's no additional cost to me with that option.

I'm not going mad at it. Scholl S20 Black one step with a yellow pad and I'll see how it looks and go from there. If I'm happy enough it will get some C2V3 and that will do it.

 

[NickR]

Anyone seen any good DAS6Pro deals lately? @Davey@Procar @Woodcutter

 

[Woodcutter]

We only have Autobrite DA's, best I could do is probably £135-ish

 

[Davey@Procar]

i have the wee shinemate da polisher here at £99 good wee machine and very similar power to the das6 pro, all depends what you looking best to call over see what you need and I will see what we can put together.

 

[Gareth]

Back with more n00b issues. Got a few more hours into the Civic tonight again and came up against a skills problem. Front passenger wheel arch was first. No real issues, same steps as before with 75e and Rupes green -> yellow-> white pad and liquid combo, everything was fine.

Moved onto the passenger door and I went for a Meguiars mf pad and M105... BIG mistake. Should not have fixed what wasn't broken. Not sure if it was 'sticky' paint or whatever, but I went back to the Rupes 3 pad combo, but for the life of me couldn't correct it. Either the pad was too big as it was stalling a lot or my inexperience was letting me down.

I went back to the 3 inch pads on the 75e and life got happier. Working in smaller areas worked out the haze, eventually.

Next thing, which isn't machine related, but whoever's painted the rear passenger arch did a terrible job at colour matching the paint. Here's where I finished tonight,

This is a pre-correction image, but I'm hoping it's not so bad in natural daylight.

 

[quattro Rick]

Back with more n00b issues. Got a few more hours into the Civic tonight again and came up against a skills problem. Front passenger wheel arch was first. No real issues, same steps as before with 75e and Rupes green -> yellow-> white pad and liquid combo, everything was fine.

Moved onto the passenger door and I went for a Meguiars mf pad and M105... BIG mistake. Should not have fixed what wasn't broken. Not sure if it was 'sticky' paint or whatever, but I went back to the Rupes 3 pad combo, but for the life of me couldn't correct it. Either the pad was too big as it was stalling a lot or my inexperience was letting me down.

I went back to the 3 inch pads on the 75e and life got happier. Working in smaller areas worked out the haze, eventually.

Next thing, which isn't machine related, but whoever's painted the rear passenger arch did a terrible job at colour matching the paint. Here's where I finished tonight,

View attachment 230231
View attachment 230232
View attachment 230233

This is a pre-correction image, but I'm hoping it's not so bad in natural daylight.

View attachment 230234

Wow that really is bad, but the machine work is unreal, good job!

 

[J55NI]

Back with more n00b issues. Got a few more hours into the Civic tonight again and came up against a skills problem. Front passenger wheel arch was first. No real issues, same steps as before with 75e and Rupes green -> yellow-> white pad and liquid combo, everything was fine.

Moved onto the passenger door and I went for a Meguiars mf pad and M105... BIG mistake. Should not have fixed what wasn't broken. Not sure if it was 'sticky' paint or whatever, but I went back to the Rupes 3 pad combo, but for the life of me couldn't correct it. Either the pad was too big as it was stalling a lot or my inexperience was letting me down.

I went back to the 3 inch pads on the 75e and life got happier. Working in smaller areas worked out the haze, eventually.

Next thing, which isn't machine related, but whoever's painted the rear passenger arch did a terrible job at colour matching the paint. Here's where I finished tonight,

View attachment 230231
View attachment 230232
View attachment 230233

This is a pre-correction image, but I'm hoping it's not so bad in natural daylight.

View attachment 230234

Looks a good job, are you taking paint readings before and after?

 

[Gareth]

Looks a good job, are you taking paint readings before and after?

I don't have one, so no, but wouldn't really matter as all panels have been painted before and reading would be really high.

 

[neil-c]

So I bought a cheap Bhron rotary polisher to polish a boat hull. Decided this afternoon to put it to work on the S5 in a moment of madness. I tested the Boora? medium cut compound that came with the polisher on a small area and it was giving a light to medium cut. It removed all the light swirls, bird crap marring etc in one pass (ie full break down of the compound) but left some of the deeper scratches so I was happy it wasn't to aggressive. I don’t have much (read any) experience of paint detailing but the compound was quite dusty and dried out quickly but I was doing areas bigger than I should have. My technique was apply the compound at 600rpm, when it was spread and started haze I ran a few passed at 1200 rpm and then when it was starting to clear ran 2-3 more passes at 1800 rpm. I was working on areas up to probably 2ft square which was too big because I was having to rush to keep the compound from drying out to quickly. Up close the results are good but standing back off the car under lights there are holograms, in the setting evening sun they weren’t noticeable though so they’re not horrendous.

My question is - should I continue with the rotary and use a finishing compound like blue 3M ultra fine, or will I likely also leave holograms with that? Alternative is to borrow a DA. With the cutting compound should I have finished at a lower speed to reduce marring?

 

[j44nty]

So I bought a cheap Bhron rotary polisher to polish a boat hull. Decided this afternoon to put it to work on the S5 in a moment of madness. I tested the Boora? medium cut compound that came with the polisher on a small area and it was giving a light to medium cut. It removed all the light swirls, bird crap marring etc in one pass (ie full break down of the compound) but left some of the deeper scratches so I was happy it wasn't to aggressive. I don’t have much (read any) experience of paint detailing but the compound was quite dusty and dried out quickly but I was doing areas bigger than I should have. My technique was apply the compound at 600rpm, when it was spread and started haze I ran a few passed at 1200 rpm and then when it was starting to clear ran 2-3 more passes at 1800 rpm. I was working on areas up to probably 2ft square which was too big because I was having to rush to keep the compound from drying out to quickly. Up close the results are good but standing back off the car under lights there are holograms, in the setting evening sun they weren’t noticeable though so they’re not horrendous.

My question is - should I continue with the rotary and use a finishing compound like blue 3M ultra fine, or will I likely also leave holograms with that? Alternative is to borrow a DA. With the cutting compound should I have finished at a lower speed to reduce marring?

(I’m not a pro more a time hardened amateur disclaimer, following my advice could be catastrophic)

Currently I’m using Meg’s ultimate compound to remove holograms as I don’t have the patience sometimes so start with g3 and give a heavy cut. Meg’s ultimate compound or Meg’s 205 will sort those holograms out.

 

[neil-c]

Cheers @j44nty Do you use a rotary or DA?

 

[Gareth]

A similar issue I was having was I found the cutting compound would dry and dust, but advice from @big_pete was to add something a bit more oily/workable. I just added 2 drops of Megs 205 to the Rupes green compound.

 

[neil-c]

A similar issue I was having was I found the cutting compound would dry and dust, but advice from @big_pete was to add something a bit more oily/workable. I just added 2 drops of Megs 205 to the Rupes green compound.

Yes I read that tip last night after I’d finished. I’m going to go and buy some Meg 205. I kept the polish active a bit longer with a light spray of water but I like the sound of the more oily 205.

 

[j44nty]

Cheers @j44nty Do you use a rotary or DA?

Always a rotary but I’ve been wielding it 20 odd years. I would have no time for da I know they have come on leaps and bounds but I can’t be bothered to learn about them. I just work carefully with my rotary. A good practice for me was a car I had going for scrap and I learned what it took to burn through edges and it wasn’t very much lol. I only do the family cars once a year for a freshen up.

 

[j44nty]

Back with more n00b issues. Got a few more hours into the Civic tonight again and came up against a skills problem. Front passenger wheel arch was first. No real issues, same steps as before with 75e and Rupes green -> yellow-> white pad and liquid combo, everything was fine.

Moved onto the passenger door and I went for a Meguiars mf pad and M105... BIG mistake. Should not have fixed what wasn't broken. Not sure if it was 'sticky' paint or whatever, but I went back to the Rupes 3 pad combo, but for the life of me couldn't correct it. Either the pad was too big as it was stalling a lot or my inexperience was letting me down.

I went back to the 3 inch pads on the 75e and life got happier. Working in smaller areas worked out the haze, eventually.

Next thing, which isn't machine related, but whoever's painted the rear passenger arch did a terrible job at colour matching the paint. Here's where I finished tonight,

View attachment 230231
View attachment 230232
View attachment 230233

This is a pre-correction image, but I'm hoping it's not so bad in natural daylight.

View attachment 230234

Black is so satisfying that looks great. My old black BMW I used to love doing

Sprayed that wing with chukka chukka tins too lol

 

[neil-c]

So after a week of looking at the car I haven’t been able to see any of the buffer trails that I left in it under natural light. They were very obvious under the builders 110v lights that I was using at the time. So that’s a good sign that some of the fine Megs 205 should finish the job off nicely. Just didn’t have the motivation to start at it this weekend with the crap weather and the shed is full of junk so the doesn’t fit in!

 

[Gareth]

Well, damn... Jap paint is ridiculously soft. Since 'correction' I've been super careful with safe washing, careful drying, was sealed then waxed and now this, after a few washes.