I am thinking about investing in an orbital polisher so would welcome some expert advice before buying. For instance,

 

Is it worth having one?

Which one should I buy - bearing in mind it won't be used every week?

 

The Dodo Spin Doctor looks good value at around £100...!

 

Thanks,

Richard:cool:

Sorry Richard, I hope you don’t mind me jumping in on this post, but do we have any recommendations for a battery operated ones?

 

Cheers,

Chris.

The more the merrier Chris - and I'd be interested in a battery option too. I have no power in my garage, so it would save trailing the extension cable into the street:cool:

I would recommend the DAS-6 PRO from CYC using the discount code “DAS6GROUPBUY” making it £99.95 delivered.

 

https://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/das-6-pro-dual-action-polisher

 

The kit comes with a 5” and a 6” backing plate, most of my pads are for the 5” plate as I’ve found they’re the best all rounder without having to keep switching. You will need a 3” or 3.5” backing plate to go with the kit as there are some areas that are just not suitable for a big pad. I switch between a 5” and a 3.5”.

 

Polish and pads are quite subjective, they’re all going to achieve pretty much the same result and depending on your technique, will have different levels of effort and time to get to the result. I’ve found that the Scholl concepts or Menerna polishes are far superior to work with over the Meguiars pro range.

 

Each brand has its own variety of different cut levels and combos, how you pair these up will depend on the type of paint you have (aftermarket paint jobs are notoriously soft in comparison to a hard OEM finish), and also your technique.

 

In my experience, I’ve found the Scholl S20+ Black to be an absolutely awesome all rounder as you can use it to cut out defects and polish to a decent finish in one stage as it breaks down to a finer cut as it flashes. It also works harder than the like of Megs 105/205 and is far easier to buff off; economy of effort! For finer finishing, if required, the Scholl S40 is very good, as is the Menzerna 3800. These will generally need experimentation as to the finish you get with the pad you use and your technique.

 

Cheap polishing pads are a false economy, they break down early and disintegrate when worked hard so avoid all of your unbranded generic pads. I’ve had success with the Lake Country CCS range and the Scholl Spider pads. I had issues with early Chemical Guys Hexlogic but the newer Quantum range seem to have fixed those issues. You should do fine with any of the decent brands though, technique is going to play the biggest part in the results. Nick Johnson has been praising the microfibre pads for the DA lately so they may be worth a try, it’s not something I’ve dabbled with yet as I already have far too many!

 

Make sure you buy some decent buffing towels and separate any cloths that are now paint safe, or not! When washing your towels, don’t wash your super plush buffers with your wash mitts and dirty items as you’ll just induce problems! I can highly recommend the Eagle Edgeless towels from the rag company as they’re simply the best on the market!

 

https://www.ragmasteruk.co.uk/16-x-16-eagle-edgeless-500-microfiber-towel/

 

The 500 is your best bet to cover all bases and make sure you get the 16x16 size towels as the 16x24 or any rectangular size towel are a pain to work with! Always fold your towels in half and in half again giving you 8 sides to work with.

 

Before you start polishing, you must fully decontaminate the paint otherwise you can just pick up tar or fallout spots and drag them around with the polisher! You can use these fallout remover sprays like IronX and Autosmart Tardis (best products on the market for those jobs) but you will also need to clay the paint before you start.

 

I use the blue 3M low tack masking tape from CYC to mask rubber trims as you can easily damage those (it can be time consuming but makes the actual polish stage so much quicker and easier without distraction!). Once you’ve finished polishing, give the car a good wipe down, I tend to use an Eagle 350 and Gyeon Q2 Prep as my favoured products and then you’re ready to apply whatever LSP(s) to protect all of your hard work.

Edited March 10, 20196 yr by Joely P

I’ve not tried any cordless polishers but I can see the appeal. If it’s anything like my Dyson V8 cordless vacuum though, they will be an expensive disappointment! The batteries simply don’t last long enough when new, and the life cycle just gets shorter and shorter with use.

 

No doubt they would be heavy to work with and so would be generally harder work (detailing can be very laborious anyway)! Depending on what state your paint is at, polishing can take several hours, even with just a quick wisp over, the last thing you want is to be out of batteries and have to retire early for the day. You then have to wash your pad(s) which might not then be dry and ready for later or the next day when recharged, meaning you’d probably have to stock more pads.

 

I think they have their place, for a quick touch up of a specific area, but I can’t see that they’re yet suitable for a full polishing session! Happy to be proved wrong as I’ve never tried one, if power to your garage is a problem then it may well be a perfectly acceptable solution, I would just say have several batteries in your collection and a production line of chargers!

microfibre pads for the DA lately

 

What does that mean?

What does that mean?

 

Microfibre pads used on a Dual Action polisher (as apposed to the usual foam construction).

 

Which has also just brought to my attention that the machine Richard is looking at is not a dual action polisher, but a rotary polisher, doh!

Edited March 10, 20196 yr by Joely P

Thanks for the write-up JP - most helpful mate :thumbup:

 

......….Which has also just brought to my attention that the machine Richard is looking at is not a dual action polisher, but a rotary polisher, doh!

 

I did spot that - what's the difference; and what benefits would a DA have over a rotary, for a raw machine-polisher newbie like me:wink:

Deffo a DA mate. They rotate on a random orobital action, which means that if they stay on one place for too long your unlikely to burn through the paint, you will with a rotary.

 

The advantages with rotaries was always that you could cut quicker, but with the development of polished and MicroFibre cutting pads that difference is now fairly negligible.

 

There are many versions of the DAS6 and DAS6 Pro, just under different branding names.... they’re all exactly the same. If you fancy splashing a little more cash look at anything by Rupes. Very nice machines and very well built. Stay away from the Megs G220. I’ve had 2 and they’ve both lasted less than 12 months.

Cheers Nick....:thumbup:

I've just bought one of these, carbon collective hex 15, 900watt.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]116405[/ATTACH]

I've just bought one of these, carbon collective hex 15, 900watt.

 

Looks like a nice bit of kit that, nice choice Ian. [emoji106]

And when the weather clears up I might even get chance to use it :clap:

Richard, its a fine art polishing a car correctly.Before letting rip on that new paint perhaps buy a used bonnet from a car breakers yard and practice on that first.Watch some tutorials on Youtube and see how you get on.Orbitals are a lot safer but you still need to be careful on swage lines or edges.Or even ask Craig he has a green and blue zed with paint you could not possibly make worse :lol:

Richard, its a fine art polishing a car correctly.Before letting rip on that new paint perhaps buy a used bonnet from a car breakers yard and practice on that first.Watch some tutorials on Youtube and see how you get on.Orbitals are a lot safer but you still need to be careful on swage lines or edges.Or even ask Craig he has a green and blue zed with paint you could not possibly make worse :lol:

 

Good advice Jim - and duly heeded mate. I've been happily hand polishing my cars for years, but I'm getting older and it's certainly becoming more effort...:lol:

 

Honestly, that's the only reason for considering the change now:wink::biggrin: If it was a case of some serious detailing being required, I'd pick up the phone to a professional - and afterwards, I'd be content to carefully maintain the finish thereafter.... Until time and conditions necessitated another session!

Richard, its a fine art polishing a car correctly.Before letting rip on that new paint perhaps buy a used bonnet from a car breakers yard and practice on that first.Watch some tutorials on Youtube and see how you get on.Orbitals are a lot safer but you still need to be careful on swage lines or edges.Or even ask Craig he has a green and blue zed with paint you could not possibly make worse :lol:

 

haha Jim, cheeky monkey, still need to get the purple one booked in so i can get that sorted and decide what to do with it.... i can pick up the other engine then as well, get it out of your way ;)

 

Richard, if you want to come and try it out on the green zed, you are more than welcome, as it really does need a respray and has lacquer peel, so you cant do any more damage to it.