electric buffer/polisher?

[Brett Dikeman]

At 2:33 PM -0500 1/15/03, <auditude at cox.net> wrote:

>Does anyone here have experience with using an electric
>buffer/polisher?  I suppose I mean the kind that is supposed to be
>orbital.

I believe you mean -random- orbital.

Yes, I have one- a popular Porter Cable unit.  I ordered it from
Coastal Tools a while back- about $120-ish including a hook and loop
pad(for sanding), the 6" foam pad, and a counterweight(it uses
different counterweights for 5" and 6" pads).  Far cry from Griots,
which charges somewhere around $200 and doesn't give you squat.

It makes 'polishing' the car(I use "non-abrasive" paintwork cleaner
approved for machine use, Pinnacle Paintwork Cleaner) a breeze-
easily under an hour to do a type 44 sedan top to bottom save a few
nooks and crannies.  No swirls, and a hell of a lot less effort; the
machine's weight is all that is needed, and most people recommend the
slowest speed setting.

The results were the most impressive on my mother's car, which is
white.  The Volvo paint finish is damn near indestructable, so
scratching was minimal; it's just often gone for long periods of time
without wax and had a lot of dirt, oil, staining, etc. It was like
magic watching the machine go to work; that kind of hand cleaning
would have taken me a whole day and instead I was done with the first
pass in an hour and a half.

Don't apply waxes by machine- if it's soft enough for machine, it's
not a good wax.  Use a high quality hard wax(Blitz is widely
recommended as the most durable; I use P21S Concours Wax which isfor
darker cars; it's not as durable as the Blitz from what I've heard
however), and apply and remove it by hand.

   To remove, use 100% cotton towels with cotton thread around the
edges if you can find it...snip the tags, and always wash them
separate from the rest of the laundry and minus fabric softner.
Microfiber cloths are also good for wax removal and especially good
for spray detailer, but they MUST be washed separately and you CANNOT
use softener with them.  Snip the tags from them after you've noted
the wash instructions on the labels.

My only recommendation is purchasing one spare pad, or you'll be
stopping a few times to clean the pad if the car has a lot of
stuck-on dirty stuff, and that takes 5 minutes or so.  You can avoid
this somewhat by doing a VERY good job of washing the car beforehand;
two washes won't hurt. I also found a wash after doing the paintwork
cleanser yielded excellent results.


>My Coupe GT has sort of a "rolling red chalkboard" appearance to it,
>and I would like to polish out what I can to make it look as good as
>possible.

What kind of damage?  Be specific.  Embedded/stuck on dirt?  Deep
scratches?  Spider web marks?  Light scratches?  Damaged/peeling
clearcoat?(looks like the car equivalent of what you get after a
sunburn.)

I did my father's 944T with the RO and some 3M foam pad scratch
remover(safe for machine use.)  The car was covered in little itty
bitty scratches a little bit more serious than spiderwebbing from
improper washing/drying, the usual scratches from branches sticking
out into the road, snow dragging road dirt across the paint, etc.)  I
was able to get most of the stuff out, but it took multiple passes.

I would encourage you to start in a similar way- start with something
very gentle and slowly make progress. Often the buffer, with very
gentle goop, will clean up a lot of the paint surface making it easy
to spot the "serious stuff", which can be attacked by hand with a
small piece of foam and some more aggressive goop- sorta like washing
the car and then spot-treating anything still stuck on.  You wouldn't
spot-treat the whole car, would you?  Nope, so don't use aggressive
compounds where they aren't needed :-)


>Are these things easy to use without burning through the paint, or
>are they a lazy man's shortcut?

Random orbitals will not burn through the paint- "dual action" units
will in a heartbeat, particularly with a wool pad.

RO's don't burn because of their action- the goop you're spreading
around doesn't get thrown to the sides, its kept under the pad
better, for example.  They're considered nearly(not completely)
foolproof...but even the best RO will ruin your paint if you use too
heavy a compound, which is why I started with gentle paintwork
cleanser and worked my way up to 3M foam pad scratch removal stuff.
Powerful tools, powerful mistakes.

FYI- ROs should always be started+stopped WHILE in contact with the
car- free running is bad for the mechanism.


>I have no problem with hand polishing the nooks and crannies, and
>only using the power buffer for the flat expanses.

A 6" pad on a RO handles just about anything- I was able to do almost
everything on my 200q20v.  The indented area right above the
center/bumper trim, and the rain gutter along the top, were both far
too narrow and had to be done by hand of course.  With an RO, you can
angle the pad and use the rounded outside edge even at a 45 degree
angle, something you'd never dream of doing with a dual-action.

You'll note my disapproving comments about improper washing/drying.
Half of keeping cars looking nice is not damaging the paintwork in
the first place.  Big wide boar's hair brushes are safest for paint,
and I've had good luck with my California Water Blade for drying.
Don't buy a boar's hair brush from Griots- they're cheaply
made(plastic handle that is IMPOSSIBLE to grip when wet) and
overpriced.

Brett
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