Polisher Buying Guide?

Steviegsi

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My das6 **** the bed a few months back and I am going to replace it this week, has anyone got any experience with the Vertool forced drive machines? Seem to be a Chinese ripoff of the Rupes at half the price. For the 2 or 3 cars a year it would be used for, i think its worth a go.

@big_pete
@euge07
 

Woodcutter

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My das6 **** the bed a few months back and I am going to replace it this week, has anyone got any experience with the Vertool forced drive machines? Seem to be a Chinese ripoff of the Rupes at half the price. For the 2 or 3 cars a year it would be used for, i think its worth a go.

@big_pete
@euge07

I could do you an Autobrite DA21 or DA12 for £140-ish

Excellent machines.
 

big_pete

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They just feel so unnatural to use, constant fight to get them to do what you want etc.

They just don't work on sticky soft paint either
 

euge07

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My das6 **** the bed a few months back and I am going to replace it this week, has anyone got any experience with the Vertool forced drive machines? Seem to be a Chinese ripoff of the Rupes at half the price. For the 2 or 3 cars a year it would be used for, i think its worth a go.

@big_pete
@euge07
Absolutely hate forced drive machines, not something for a hobbyist IMO
They just feel so unnatural to use, constant fight to get them to do what you want etc.

They just don't work on sticky soft paint either

absolutely love my vertool force drive. use it quite regularly and much prefer it to a DA Polisher. Guess everyone has their preferences, Can agree with Pete's comment on soft sticky paint-they dont like it, I had a rupes mk2 lhr15 polisher and didnt like it so sold it and got onto the force drive and very pleased with it
 

Gareth

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Had a bit of a play around tonight with different things. My brother left his S80 over for a few days and I used the bonnet as a test panel, what with it being black and all.

LHR75E with Rupes yellow pad and matching liquid and it had a minimal impact. Moved to the green pad/liquid combo next and it gave a better cut, but still not enough for the condition of the paint.

Next up was a go with the LHR15 with a test spot for M105 and an adjacent test spot for D300 (first go with this stuff) M105 was exactly what I thought it'd be. Nice and aggressive, but dusty. The D300 with an mMF pad was a great combo. Maybe a bit less cut than the M105, but definitely has a good cut, good work time, considerably less dusting, easier to wipe down and nice enough to finish out with on this paint (it would be a different story with my EP3 I'd imagine)

The car was machined back in October when I was very green to machine polishing (I've now moved on to just green now, I'm no longer 'very green') As you can see, swirls were starting to come back, thanks to our lovely Scratch and Shine drive through car washes. But the D300 ate them up.

After I'd finished, I could see there were still some deeper imperfections left behind. Are those worth trying to get our, or is it because it's a 17y/o car
 

Gareth

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Probably won't come out. If you get a correction rate of 70% and above on that is realistic usually

I'd imagine that I'm at the point of wasting time on the panel trying to correct something that can't be corrected then.

In your experience @big_pete would you just tell the customer that the age and condition of the paint means a result around 70%, as you say, is the best to expect?
 

big_pete

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Always base it on the cars current condition, I've seen 2 years old cars that are beyond the point of decent repair and 10yeat old ones that we can get 95% of stuff out of
 

Gareth

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Loving the Meguiars D300 and MF pad combo as a one set.

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Gareth

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@Gareth your getting really good results keep up the good work

What are your go to products now? ?

Thank you. Current arsenal are as follows,
Machines,
Rupes LHR15 mkii
Rupes LHR75E

Pads
Megs m/f and black foam pads
Blue/Green/Yellow/White Rupes foam

Liquids
Megs M105, M205 and D300
Blue/Green/Yellow/White Rupes liquids

The reason I've so much liquid is because I bought the Rupes DLX kit and they were all in the bag. I also have a small bottle of Britemax Virtue (got it free with the LH, but I've not opened it yet.
 

Gareth

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Added a mini polisher to the collection today and had to give it a try. The seat on my Fireblade, well, the whole bike to be honest, isn't in great shape so i thought id see if i could wet sand. Results were positive, and the little machine was great.

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Gareth

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Any recommendations on mini pads? I got 1 of each KKD pads with the mini polisher, but I'm most familiar with the Rupes and Megs pads.

I'm open to options on anything really. Also, how long would you expect a mini pad to last under normal conditions? A few uses, or more, if maintained correctly?
 

Gareth

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Thanks @big_pete

Can I ask, is there a consumer ceramic coating that is less susceptible to scratching from drying with a towel? Obviously, a touchless drying option is best with DI water and a blower, but I don't have either (maybe in the future)
 

big_pete

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Your probably using the towel wrong. Sheet the water off with the loose hose the use a towel to pat the car dry
 

Gareth

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Yeah, I'd normally use a dense gsm drying towel and wipe dry. I know you've mentioned it before in here. I was hoping a coating would help minimise any 'damage', but I guess like all things in here, there are a lot of factors to maintain paint, especially black.
 

brocks

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Yeah, I'd normally use a dense gsm drying towel and wipe dry. I know you've mentioned it before in here. I was hoping a coating would help minimise any 'damage', but I guess like all things in here, there are a lot of factors to maintain paint, especially black.

I could never get a drying towel to work properly using the “patting” technique that Pete showed me at a demo day years ago in Parkgate..... until, I bought 2 of the Klin Korea towels..... mine are Carbon Collective branded and feel much thinner that the uber plush towels I had been using, but they work fantastically well when patted and it’s the only way I dry cars now! Always got frustrated with water smears before and resorted to a quick wipe, but the Klin towels are mega!
 

Gareth

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New one for me tonight, burned paint (I think) for the first time, and don't know how. Might have been temperature, might have been something else, but it happened at the very start of a cutting session.

Used the LHR75E with a Megs mf pad and mix of 105 and D300 (4xdots of 105 and 1 dot of D300 to get a bit more work time) I've no idea the thickness of the paint and as these panels can be test panels, I'd hope to try and understand what it could have been.

Ice never done this before, was it a byproduct of everything, machine, emperature, pad and liquid combo, could the clear coat have been super thin to start with, is it because the type of paint it is being sticky? Anyone care to have a guess?

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