Recommend me a polishing machine

[DazG]

Good afternoon peeps!

As you know black is a royal pain to keep swirl free...Anyway at the end of the month, pay day, I shall be buying a machine polisher but quite frankily I don't know which one to go for, can anyone recommend one?

I've seen this one so far:

http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/polishing/polishing-machine/meguiars-g220-complete-meguiars-kit/prod_416.html

£200

My R32 is covered in swirl marks and light scratches that I would love to remove asap.

Thanks your help

Darren

 

[ROSS18]

That one you have in mind will be fine beware the VW paint is rock hard.

 

[DazG]

That one you have in mind will be fine beware the VW paint is rock hard.

Yeah I've heard that VAG paint is particularly hard to work with!

Do you reckon a "harder" pad is required?

I have never used a proper machine polisher before so I'm only going to do a little at a time. Probably experiment on the bonnet first to make sure I get it right

 

[RichCup]

That's probably the best kit to go for. As for whether it can remove the swirls in your paint, it depends how bad your paint is at the moment. Any chance you could post up some pics of the paintwork using a flash? I'll be able to tell you if you'll need a more abrasive combo than the megs stuff you get with that kit then.

It's worth reading this guide before getting started:

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=63859

It's good to have the background info if you don't already know, but just make sure you know the right technique. It's worth reading through the technique parts of that thread a few times tbh.

 

[DazG]

That's probably the best kit to go for. As for whether it can remove the swirls in your paint, it depends how bad your paint is at the moment. Any chance you could post up some pics of the paintwork using a flash? I'll be able to tell you if you'll need a more abrasive combo than the megs stuff you get with that kit then.

It's worth reading this guide to before getting started:

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=63859

It's good to have background info, but just make sure you know the right technique. It's worth reading through the technique parts of that thread a few times tbh.

Hi Rich!

Thanks for info! I've not got any close up pics of the swirls but you kind of get the idea from this photo:

 

[RichCup]

Hmm, you should be ok with the #83 / cutting pad combo, but you'll probably have to do more than one pass with that combo and you may not get 100% correction.

Can't really say any more without knowing what your paint is like to be honest!

 

[mid.engine]

Good afternoon peeps!

As you know black is a royal pain to keep swirl free...Anyway at the end of the month, pay day, I shall be buying a machine polisher but quite frankily I don't know which one to go for, can anyone recommend one?

I've seen this one so far:

http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/polis...iars-g220-complete-meguiars-kit/prod_416.html

£200

My R32 is covered in swirl marks and light scratches that I would love to remove asap.

Thanks your help

Darren

to get a first class paint finish on any car is hard work, a machine should be the last resort. if i was you i would give your car to a first class valet company and tell them what you want, once done upkeep of paint work should be simple and you will have enough change from you £200 to have it done once a year for the next three or four years. if you are going to purchase a polisher go to machine mart you will probably pick up a top notch professional polisher at a better price than the one you are looking at.
martin

 

[Schweppy]

That's probably the best kit to go for. As for whether it can remove the swirls in your paint, it depends how bad your paint is at the moment. Any chance you could post up some pics of the paintwork using a flash? I'll be able to tell you if you'll need a more abrasive combo than the megs stuff you get with that kit then.

It's worth reading this guide to before getting started:

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=63859

It's good to have background info, but just make sure you know the right technique. It's worth reading through the technique parts of that thread a few times tbh.

Hi Rich!

Thanks for info! I've not got any close up pics of the swirls but you kind of get the idea from this photo:

PMSL! hahaha. I remember that day when you hid the R32 behind the corner so the clios could only see its nose....awwwww!

 

[DazG]

 

[RichCup]

to get a first class paint finish on any car is hard work, a machine should be the last resort. if i was you i would give your car to a first class valet company and tell them what you want, once done upkeep of paint work should be simple and you will have enough change from you £200 to have it done once a year for the next three or four years. if you are going to purchase a polisher go to machine mart you will probably pick up a top notch professional polisher at a better price than the one you are looking at. martin

A machine isn't the last resort IMO as it's the only way to get a first class finish lol. Most detailing companies will charge about £200+ for that sort of job anyway. No point having it 'valeted' anyway; I doubt most valeters would even know what clay is tbh.

Up keep of the paint will be simple enough yes, but that's not to say it'll never need correcting again. Also, if you buy another car, then you've already got the kit to do it.

The only cheaper alternative is something like the silverline rotary, but for someone whos never used a machine polisher this isn't a good idea as it's so easy to damage the paint if you don't know what you're doing whereas with a DA like the G220 there's very little chance of this happening.

Don't mean to sound like a prick going against what you've said lol, just offering a different opinion.

 

[ROSS18]

You would need a rotary to get good correction but a da machine is much safer in untrained hands very nicce car BTW

 

[Rich]

I look after a Black R32 to a neighbour, I have corrected the swirls by PC with Menzerna Intensive Polish and Final Finish fairly easily, yes the paint is harder than Renault stuff but decent results are achievable even with a D.A type machine.

 

[Rich]

to get a first class paint finish on any car is hard work, a machine should be the last resort. if i was you i would give your car to a first class valet company and tell them what you want, once done upkeep of paint work should be simple and you will have enough change from you £200 to have it done once a year for the next three or four years. if you are going to purchase a polisher go to machine mart you will probably pick up a top notch professional polisher at a better price than the one you are looking at. martin

A machine isn't the last resort IMO as it's the only way to get a first class finish lol. Most detailing companies will charge about £200+ for that sort of job anyway. No point having it 'valeted' anyway; I doubt most valeters would even know what clay is tbh.

Up keep of the paint will be simple enough yes, but that's not to say it'll never need correcting again. Also, if you buy another car, then you've already got the kit to do it.

The only cheaper alternative is something like the silverline rotary, but for someone whos never used a machine polisher this isn't a good idea as it's so easy to damage the paint if you don't know what you're doing whereas with a DA like the G220 there's very little chance of this happening.

Don't mean to sound like a prick going against what you've said lol, just offering a different opinion.

Agreed - a machine polish is the only way to get a first class paint finish - you will never get a flawless finish by hand.

Using a Porter Cable machine it is pretty easy for even a novice using it for the first time to get a superb finish.

 

[ROSS18]

Try some Zaino on it you will be amazed

 

[Rich]

Just applied 3 coats of Z2 Pro to my new wheels today.

 

[ROSS18]

That should work very well

 

[182_blue]

you could try a Flex polisher, which works like a random orbit but with the cut of a rotary

 

[mid.engine]

a machine should be the last resort, seems these days you guys are looking for the easy option, i have won concourse events with E type jags, RS 500 cosworth and numerous other vehicles also won best 2000 vehicle at this years Renault World Series with or clio, don't want to sound a prick but every car was finished by hand.
martin

 

[Rob Clark]

b****cks ! 40 quid orange silverline and some decent pads will be fine.
You have to be some kind of idiot to damage the paintowrk imho.
Ive bought one and found it easy to do quite decent correction. The margin for error is larger than folk say and there are plenty of warning signs to look out for. Look for the guide on detailing world and you cant go wrong.

 

[RichCup]

a machine should be the last resort, seems these days you guys are looking for the easy option, i have won concourse events with E type jags, RS 500 cosworth and numerous other vehicles also won best 2000 vehicle at this years Renault World Series with or clio, don't want to sound a prick but every car was finished by hand.
martin

Fair enough, but I just don't see how you can achieve a perfect finish with anything other than a machine. You can do it by hand, but it'll take a lot longer and I don't you'd get as good a finish as you would with a machine (although granted you could get pretty close).

Just out of interest, what technique would you use for a heavily swirled car? Have you got any pics with correction stages etc?

 

[Daniel]

a machine should be the last resort, seems these days you guys are looking for the easy option, i have won concourse events with E type jags, RS 500 cosworth and numerous other vehicles also won best 2000 vehicle at this years Renault World Series with or clio, don't want to sound a prick but every car was finished by hand.
martin

I don't mean to sound a prick, but I've seen the Ford concours cars and the paint was awful. Swirled to f**k.

Nothing compared to what Rich etc can do.

 

[182_blue]

i bet his handjob doesnt look like this

in a sense he is right, but most cars need a machine polish to get them right then you can continue by hand, just topping up with a machine once or twice a year

 

[RichCup]

I also want to know why you think a machine should be a last resort? A DA like the G220 will take about 3 microns of clearcoat off, a Rotary about 5-8 and that's for heavily swirled paintwork.

Most cars tend to have around 150 microns (except jap cars which are more like 80). That's a lot of life even if you have the paintwork corrected once a year!

 

[DazG]

I've sparked an interesting conversation now haven't I!

So would you guys recommend me having a go myself with a polishing machine or should I leave it.

Swirls are doing my nuts in!

 

[fil_b]

go your self - get some bosywork from scrap man and play away

what i am doing

 

[RichCup]

I've sparked an interesting conversation now haven't I!

So would you guys recommend me having a go myself with a polishing machine or should I leave it.

Swirls are doing my nuts in!

Defo do it yourself, G220 is a great place to start although once you start doing more cars it can get frustrating because it can't correct as severe swirls as a rotary can. If your car isn't too bad it'll turn out fine though. Not really explaining it very well lol.

This pic is from the last detail I did. One pass with a G220 with SFX-2 pad and Menz 106FA polish (so not the most abrasive pad or polish combo), nasty swirls etc as you can see but very good correction

A general before and after from the same car:

 

[Rob Clark]

definitely !
Depends on the type of person you are tbh. Im all too happy playing with gadgets and learning stuff, but not all folk are like that.