Car polisher

[tradegirl 112]

Hi everyone.

Can anyone recommend a car polisher? I have zero experience in machine polishing, and I'm worried I'll damage the paintwork.

But we have a black BMW which was full of dings and dents, and had the side painted. It looks fine in the shade, but in the sun it's full of holograms. I'm not sure hand polishing it will get them out.

But if there's no risk of damaging paintwork, I'll have a go. All I know is you have to go slow and fully work the polish until clear, then buff with a clean microfibre cloth.

[twerp 69]

Any cheap dual action / orbital polisher 

Avoid rotary ones as a beginner 

[tradegirl 112]

20 minutes ago, twerp said:

Any cheap dual action / orbital polisher 

Avoid rotary ones as a beginner 

Thanks twerp

[Mikey360 68]

I bought a £50 dual action from argos with some cheap foam pads from ebay, it's on death's door as the motors about ready to die after 8 months of abuse but it's a great starting point.

Meguires make some awesome microfibre machine polishing pads too, expensive but work great. 

Edited August 18, 2019 by Mikey360

[It's me 611]

My advice would be to stay away from the car put your buffer down and put your hands in your pocket

Why?

Because fresh paint is still soft and takes ages after to be hard a novice will cause friction burns.

Your painter should be the one to remove swirl marks or a good valeter

Get a buffer but practise on a shitter

[David Horgan 564]

As a 30year time served detailer Trade girl I would say a DA " dual action " polisher is a must to train on .

The DA system will not in any way give the finish of a rotary but rotary polishers are a difficult beast to handle when starting out . 

 

[tradegirl 112]

Ok thanks everyone.

@jason doyle motor sales I know what you mean. But I've honestly had enough of the back and forth. And if I take it back when there's no sunshine, I have nothing to show them. Probably the best bet for now though, and I'll get a DA polisher and practice on my sister's old 207 first haha.

Thanks everyone.

[Casper 272]

Ive a sealey one its decent and wasn't expensive used it with 3m products before .

[justina3 518]

Pop over to detailing world forum there is a wealth of knowledge on there and they will point you in the right direction for sure even down to deals and what polish would best suit your needs. 

Very friendly bunch as well. 

[EPV 631]

Learn with a rotary but do so on old £30 panels from a scrappie. In my opinion it’s like learning to drive a manual car, thereafter you can drive both manual and auto. 

Learn on a DA and you’ll have to or want to, buy a rotary. Then you’ll have two tools. You can only use one at a time. 

To get you over your buffer trail issue, buy a Sealey rotary and a blue pad with blue anti hologram 3m product. It will be almost impossible to do any damage with that set up and will get shot of holograms in 30 mins for the whole side of a car  

But for future learning, get a hard pad, some compound and learn how hard you can or can’t go, on an old panel from a breakers. 

Rotary polishers are not fire breathing monsters unlike what DIY enthusiasts will have you believe. I have mopped umpteen cars and burned through clear coat twice. Both attempting to cut so hard on a very deep scratch that would have needed paint anyway. For simple swirl removal and lessening deep scratches, a rotary is the tool. 

Learn the hard way first, for an easier life down the road. 

My smart repairers use a mop, compound, a polishing pad and polish on fresh paint each time they paint a panel for me. Comes up right each time. Compounding and polishing isn’t difficult but you just need to know what you are doing each time you set the machine on. 

As said, detailing forums will help but like any forum, there are knowledgeable people and there are people who give shocking advice based on other people’s shocking advice. Conventional wisdom. 

[Ccstew 2]

 I have just moved to a forced rotation DA and the results are much better and faster than a standard DA, which on hard paint I found very frustrating as it can take a long time to remove the defects. A forced rotation however does have more safety than a rotary and if you can stretch to one i would recommend it. Look at in2detailing for ideas.

Just as important as the tool is the pads and products you will use, I recommend you buy the small bottles first till you find a product that suits you and watch as many videos as you can on YouTube to steal their knowledge of pad types.  Oh and beware of the Chinese pads, to me they all seem the same,  soft which will not cut the hard paint cars so invest in some good ones and just look after them they can last a long time.

You can get some amazing results with a bit of practice and when your ready move to wet sanding the results can be amazing.

 

 

[AW Motorgroup 18]

Hi TG, 

I have been using a Sealey polisher with white foam pad and either G3 cutting compound or 3m fastcut. I’ve attached a picture of the kit I’m using as I’m at my site right now (just waiting for a customer to collect his lovely little corsa he left a deposit on yday lol). I’m also a member of detailing world which is really helpful over the years and I painted a few cars in my time. So basically if the car has bad scratches I will wet sand with 2000 grit and then polish with a white pad and spray of water with 5 drops of g3 on the pad at setting 1-2 on he buffer. All Bodyshop’s do this process after they painted a car to get any imperfections/orange peel out of the clear coat. A few passes and wipe clean with a microfibre then same process until it’s like a glass reflection. I finish it will the gloss enchancer\wax. If the paint ain’t to bad then I will use the 3m fast cut. Since your bodyshop has most likely compounded the car already hence the holigrams/swirls left in from using the buffer on high setting, I would recommend 3m fast cut and setting 1-1.5 on the buffer with a few sprays of water on the panel. No wetsanding. I’m confident the holigrams will be gone for sure. Black cars are a nightmare on swirls and holigrams but look amazing once done. Anyways I hope this help

Cheers, Amer.

 

Edited August 18, 2019 by AW Motorgroup

[Blenheim Car Sales 111]

i have become a fan of G10 recently its like  3000 grade wet and dry in a paste, really nice for final polishing after you done some  serious scratches work, 

[tradegirl 112]

Thank you so much for the replies, everyone! I will look at the different machines and get things together. As it stands, the BMW is going back as they've done a crap job generally. I think they've even sprayed the exhaust pipe when painting the back bumper, unless black BMWs now come with a shiny black laquered exhaust . It actually looks good in black though haha. Time to switch bodyshops, as this was their last chance.

I've been watching a few videos, and a lot use clays bars before going into the polishing process. Not sure how important that is. But I'll get my tools first, and update you! Thank you!!

[EPV 631]

Clay bars remove surface bonded contaminants. Sap, tar, brake dust etc. You need to be polishing clean paint. If it’s freshly painted you won’t have this problem. Clay bar’ng a car is probably one of the best things you can do for a cars paint. 

[Casper 272]

22 minutes ago, tradegirl said:

Thank you so much for the replies, everyone! I will look at the different machines and get things together. As it stands, the BMW is going back as they've done a crap job generally. I think they've even sprayed the exhaust pipe when painting the back bumper, unless black BMWs now come with a shiny black laquered exhaust . It actually looks good in black though haha. Time to switch bodyshops, as this was their last chance.

I've been watching a few videos, and a lot use clays bars before going into the polishing process. Not sure how important that is. But I'll get my tools first, and update you! Thank you!!

Remember and put special edition with colour coded exhaust in the advert .. 

Edited August 18, 2019 by Casper

[AW Motorgroup 18]

6 minutes ago, Casper said:

Remember and put special edition with colour coded exhaust in the advert .. 

M-Sport Black Edition 

[Scooby who 40]

Trade Girl, my advise to you would be leave this one to the pros. You could end up having to repaint the car if it goes wrong on you. Practice as others have said on a wreck or at least something that's not worth a lot.

To start with a dual action is best, as it is less likely to burn the paint and wont leave ugly swirl marks or buffer marks when the polish fades (looks terrible on dark colours). As you gain experience you will possibly need both. A rotary is faster for 'cutting' deep scratches/swirls but generates a lot of heat quickly so you need to keep it on the move and keep the speed down. Also lots of water or compound to also keep heat at bay.

A repainted panel(s) will have a different thickness of paint to what it had when it left the factory, either A lot more or not enough clear coat. The latter is an issue.

Different car manufactures put different thickness and hardness of paint on their cars and this is something you will see with experience. Take for example Hyundai they put just the bare minimum of clear coat over the base coat, if you try to compound deep scratches on a Hyundai you will soon learn you really cant, or you will end up into the base coat.  

Your biggest fear is scorching the paint with high speeds and a rotary. Swage lines and panel edges are most at danger as they are sharp points and you can quickly cut through the paint here and into the primer, so its belt mask these with fine line masking tape until you gain experience.

I have a Rupes Rotary polisher with I've owned for 20 years and its still going strong. Last year I bought the latest Rupes Bigfoot, Dual action which is a beauty to work with and last week I bought a  Milwaukee rotary set (big and small) which is cordless so I can take it around the car lot to do spot repairs.

Best of luck, but start small.

 

 

Edited August 18, 2019 by Scooby who

[tradegirl 112]

18 minutes ago, EPV said:

Clay bars remove surface bonded contaminants. Sap, tar, brake dust etc. You need to be polishing clean paint. If it’s freshly painted you won’t have this problem. Clay bar’ng a car is probably one of the best things you can do for a cars paint. 

Thanks EPV! Looking forward to learning some new skills.

@Scooby who thanks for the advice. I'll pass on this one as 1. I don't have the tools yet and 2. They need to correct their work as it's not up to par. 

But will definitely look at the different tools and get practising. I'd love to be able to get a car polished up and looking its best, and I'd also love to be able to take out some scratches if needed. I'm under no illusion that I'll have learnt the skills any time soon, but in time I'm sure I can learn.

[Mikey360 68]

12 hours ago, EPV said:

Clay bars remove surface bonded contaminants. Sap, tar, brake dust etc. You need to be polishing clean paint. If it’s freshly painted you won’t have this problem. Clay bar’ng a car is probably one of the best things you can do for a cars paint. 

Have you tried using a clay mit/glove yet James? Just about to run out of clay bar and was tempted to try one to see if it was a but quicker

[Mark101 536]

Just my opinion but... Do you want to be a car dealer or a car detailer?

I don't have the time, energy, motivation, inclination or anything else to do my own prep. I have a full SMART Lechler paint scheme but still send everything to the SMART professionals around the corner.

I pay my guy to do all the prep, leaving me to concentrate on buying right, picturing and advertising right - the rest is either outsourced or Nick (my detailer) does it.

By the time you have factored equipment and consumables cost (and most importantly time), it makes no sense (to me), unless you enjoy doing it to do it yourself.

[Row 71]

27 minutes ago, Mikey360 said:

Have you tried using a clay mit/glove yet James? Just about to run out of clay bar and was tempted to try one to see if it was a but quicker

I use a clay cloth with soapy water and it gives great results.

[tradegirl 112]

42 minutes ago, Mark101 said:

Just my opinion but... Do you want to be a car dealer or a car detailer?

I don't have the time, energy, motivation, inclination or anything else to do my own prep. I have a full SMART Lechler paint scheme but still send everything to the SMART professionals around the corner.

I pay my guy to do all the prep, leaving me to concentrate on buying right, picturing and advertising right - the rest is either outsourced or Nick (my detailer) does it.

By the time you have factored equipment and consumables cost (and most importantly time), it makes no sense (to me), unless you enjoy doing it to do it yourself.

Mark, a part of me would love to have the knowledge to do it. Not even especially for the job, just to be able to do it. And I don't mean repairs, I mean even just getting the car shined up perfectly for photos/viewings.  Having said that, I have no indoor storage, so the rain would keep wrecking the effort.

I understand what you mean though. We haven't used a SMART repairer yet, and definitely when I go it alone, it's something I'll be looking into.

[Mikey360 68]

34 minutes ago, Row said:

I use a clay cloth with soapy water and it gives great results.

Good to know, getting fed up of dropping the clay bar and having to bin it 

[Row 71]

1 hour ago, tradegirl said:

Mark, a part of me would love to have the knowledge to do it. Not even especially for the job, just to be able to do it. And I don't mean repairs, I mean even just getting the car shined up perfectly for photos/viewings.  Having said that, I have no indoor storage, so the rain would keep wrecking the effort.

I understand what you mean though. We haven't used a SMART repairer yet, and definitely when I go it alone, it's something I'll be looking into.

You must get a smart repair man Tradegirl for the small paint job bits, one of the best things I ever did, he can do a job in 1 or 2 hours that the paint shop would need the car for a week to do, but mopping and buffing I do myself.

Edited August 19, 2019 by Row