Using a rotary polisher

[Dippy]

Fancied having a go at this just to remove some minor scrathes but found a decent DA to be quite expensive so when placing an order with Beal for various consumables I noticed a rotary machine for about £40 and thought why not.

 

Well it arrived today so I thought I would test it on my Princess which needs welding and a complete paint job, at first it was going well with big improvements seen in a few minutes until the mop flew off the Velcro backing pad and the backing pad went straight through the paint.

 

Anyway is this something that would happen with an expensive machine or have I brought this on myself buying a cheap machine, I was only going at about half speed when it happened but was glad I didn't get too excited and test it on some good paintwork.

[seacow]

Fancied having a go at this just to remove some minor scrathes but found a decent DA to be quite expensive so when placing an order with Beal for various consumables I noticed a rotary machine for about £40 and thought why not.

Well it arrived today so I thought I would test it on my Princess which needs welding and a complete paint job, at first it was going well with big improvements seen in a few minutes until the mop flew off the Velcro backing pad and the backing pad went straight through the paint.

Anyway is this something that would happen with an expensive machine or have I brought this on myself buying a cheap machine, I was only going at about half speed when it happened but was glad I didn't get too excited and test it on some good paintwork.

 

I have a meguairs da machine and never had any problems with it but guess it could happen

[nacho man]

Think that was just a mightily bit of bad luck.

 

I have a cheapie silverline one, and use throw away eBay mops etc etc and never had a problem.

 

 

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[Crusty Sills]

if you get the pad off centre, the rotary motion can throw it off.

Or it wasn't pushed on firmly enough.

Remember to keep a painted surface slightly wet to avoid burning the paint and be very gentle on edges.

[Guest Lord Sward]

I'd go further, unless you are practiced in using a machine polisher, keep the paintwork wet.  Better a mess of polish than burnt paint.

[Dippy]

Thanks for he replies, I think it's a silverline one.

I will have another go tomorrow making sure the pad is central and trying a little water which may lubricate it although I'm not too worried about heat as I kept the usage to small amount of time and kept moving the machine.

 

Are all the pads stick on or do some fit straight to the spindle, I've got plenty of scrap panels to play with but it would have been disater to damage the factory paint on my 2300s.

[trigger]

If it's the Silverline mop of Amazon that I'm thinking you've bought then that's a good mop for the money and has done me well for the amount I've used it, It's only downside is that it's a bit heavy and makes you wrists ache a bit after a while.

 

Invest in these mop heads. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/380671150083?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT and some decent polish, personally I use Farecla G3 Rubbing Compound for the worse of it. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Farecla-G3-Rubbing-Compound-Regular-Cutting-Paste-1kg-Tub-Car-Polishing1-/291282651120?hash=item43d1cc87f0:g:hdgAAOSwPe1T8Owk

 

Use a spray bottle of water to stop burning though the paint work and keep moving the mop, don't leaving it hanging on the same point or you'll burn though, also keep the speed of the mop low, about 1-1.5 is all you'll need. I use 3M Finesse-It for my second polish which is a non silicon based fine polish for polishing out the worse of the swirl marks. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3M-Finesse-It-Finishing-Material-Compound-1L-09639-/110684048126?hash=item19c5488afe:m:mQSlb1YFuyac420PiiDVJSA

 

This isn't cheap but it gives the best results for me, anyway. I then finish with a nice hand job using something like Autoglym Super Resin Polish.

[Dippy]

Thanks Trigger, that's what I had in mind as nothing will fall off with these (hopefully).

 

I'm at the NEC next week so will try and get some there.

[fordperv]

I then finish with a nice hand job

fnaar fnaar

 

i really need to get a mop for polishing, i polish everything by hand, which polisher you got trig?

[trigger]

It's changed design since I bought mine but i think it's this one, It's cheaper too now at £36!

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silverline-264569-Sander-Polisher-1200/dp/B002QS1LZ2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1446677230&sr=8-1&keywords=silverline+polisher

[fordperv]

blimey thats cheap, cheers trig

[Matt]

Loads of reading but when it comes to cleaning/detailing properly (like really seriously properly) there aren't many better sources than the senior members at Detailing World.

 

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=66024

[nacho man]

I have tried to look through detailing world stuff before but it all gets too expensive and long winded.

 

In the end I just went for it and used pretty much the same stuff as trig, but just used cheaper mop heads but the same G3 and 3m stuff and it seems to last ages. I use a plant spraying bottle from Wilkos £1 to keep the area cool.

 

 

 

 

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[Dick Cheeseburger]

I bought one of these a few years back, but haven't used it much tbh. I recently dug it out of the box to mop the MX5 I'd had sitting on the drive for a few months, which had heavily oxidised black paint. I started on the bonnet - plenty of h20 sprayed on. I managed about three quarters of it before the sponge head imploded and became useful to no man or beast. Upon closer inpaection, the area I'd mopped was streaky as hell as well. Like Trigger, I settled on a hand job, and buffed the shit out of it. Looked damn good by the end of it, if I do say so myself. The moral of the story is, if in doubt, spend hours doing something manually and end up with an RSI.

 

[oldcars]

Fancied having a go at this just to remove some minor scrathes but found a decent DA to be quite expensive so when placing an order with Beal for various consumables I noticed a rotary machine for about £40 and thought why not.

 

Well it arrived today so I thought I would test it on my Princess which needs welding and a complete paint job, at first it was going well with big improvements seen in a few minutes until the mop flew off the Velcro backing pad and the backing pad went straight through the paint.

 

Anyway is this something that would happen with an expensive machine or have I brought this on myself buying a cheap machine, I was only going at about half speed when it happened but was glad I didn't get too excited and test it on some good paintwork.

I think its easy to strike through with a rotary and a harsh compound. Only used a da before for this reason.

[lisbon_road]

I was taught by a pro to dip the mop head in water.  It sprays everywhere, but he kept coming over to tell me to get more water on it.

 

Lumps of paint were flying everywhere especially all over me, but the results were really good.

[lisbon_road]

Just thought I should point out by the way that at the time, the buffer I was using was 110 volt off one of those big yellow transformers that I think use ac that centres around 0 volts so at no time are you exposed to more than about 50 volts.

 

Might not be such a good idea to be so generous with the water when using a normal mains one.

[Dippy]

Well feeling quite a plonker now as I decided to put the polisher away somewhere safe after throwing it in a corner in disgust and noticed that it had come with a sanding disc attached to the velcro pad and in my haste to play with my new toy I had attached the mop to the sanding disc and not the velcro backing pad.

No wonder it came off      and trashed my paintwork.

 

Having read a little it seems the mop is very abrasive anyway so I will still wait and buy the pads as recommended before having another test on a scrap panel. This does however give me a little more confidence before attacking a panel on a good car.