DA Polisher Advice

[RustyNut]

Evening all

The football is boring so thought I would take the opportunity to ask all the polishing enthusiasts out there which DA Polisher is best for a beginner? I've always wanted one so decided now is the time. I've done some research and watched a load of you tube clips for advice on technique etc so now it's time to make a purchase. A lot of the online stuff is professionals talking amongst themselves so what I'm after is some pointers from those who are polishing hobbyists. My budget is around £120 - £150 and with that I would like to get the machine, pads and a range of three different polishing liquids. I'll be starting on the mrs's golf (black with plenty of swirls and light scratches) and if I feel confident enough I'll progress on to the S2. I've got my old 330d to have a go on as well which is metallic silver and I'll want to give each car the full treatment.

Machines I've looked in to are:

Kestrel DAS 6 - these seem to be multi branded?
Meguires G220 v2 - pricey
Shine Mate ERO600 - good price
Porter Cable 7424 - used to be the industry standard?

There may be others worth considering? What do you reckon to my choices? Also there's so many polishing pads and liquids out there it's almost impossible to choose so again I'm just looking for advice on which is the best decent product to go with. Any pointers/advice will be much appreciated.

Cheers

Russ

[rynaqui]

I've got the Meguiars G220 V2, easy enough to use but don't think you can go wrong with any of those DAs

[Human Joist]

Matey. I am just starting to get in to polishing and I got this set from Germany off ebay

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/181181361320?nav=SEARCH

You will see the buy it now price is £130 with all pads included. The same seller is also selling them on ebay in auctions and they tend to go for around £65. Plus £13 postage. I got mine on auctions from this guy last week delivered for £75. It came a day later from ze Germans. And is really good.

[Vorsprung durch Technik]

Hi Russ,

I would go with the best you can afford as cheap is never a good option. 3M is superb stuff and has been around for years,gets updated,well trusted and loved by industry and professional valeters amongst other names.I used to spray a few cars for a hobby/extra income years ago.

Anyway I bought some 3M products 1 year ago and can say that the liquids are around £27 each so 3 nearly £90. You will need a 3m polishing back up pad (rotary backing plate)£18.50 and then each polishing/finishing pad are around £10 each so £30 for 3. So there's around £135 just there. I bought a Felissati (italian make) expensive, only because it was on ebay and i won it cheap couple of years ago.I got very lucky for a change.

I would if i were you i would err on the side of caution like i do.You can't put back what you have removed. If you must you could get the lightest 3m compound but use with caution. I bought some 3M finesse-it finishing material to use with the 3M black pad instead of a compound as it is what it's name suggests.You will just have to keep using it until you start to see the swirls disappear so therefore giving you a good feel at how to get going. Always keep moving the dampened with polish pad and don't whatever you do overheat the paint....just keep moving the pad and be patient.It will need applying a few times to completely remove swirls so good for a beginner.Then use 3m Ultrafina SE as a finishing polish on a blue pad which is perfect-it 3 ultrafina se. Then use you wax polish of choice to seal and protect the paint as you would normally do.

I hope that helps.Others will say different but i have taken on board what you said about having never done it before. Cheers Mark.

[grim]

I've got the DAS 6 which I've been happy with. Haven't got anything else to compare it to but I've not been able to do a bad job with it. I was very cautious with it at first and it ended up taking me hours and hours to polish my old mk2 golf. It's powerful enough, seems to be well built as I've had it for a couple of years now and it's not missed a beat. It is quite noisy though! Not saying you should buy this one over any of the others but I don't think you'd be disappointed with it.

[ash2050]

Meguiars g220 v2 is a reliable machine and has cruise control so it will continue to spin even with added pressure to get deeper scratches out.

I must've done 10-15 cars with this and it's still going strong.

I also use the 3m products as Mark mentioned.

http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/3m/cat_88.html

The Fast Cut Plus is quite aggressive but brilliant for medium to heavy swirl removals.

The Extra Fine is not as aggressive and will do the job on light swirls and minor paint defect.

The Ultra Fine SE is the final polish which will smoothen your paintwork to a baby's bottom finish and remove any holograms and light swirls etc from the other products used.

The pads I use are as follows:

http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/polish.../prod_683.html

The hex logic medium cutting pad is ideal to be used with the Fast Cut plus and the Extra Fine compound for medium to light swirl marks.

http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/machin.../prod_630.html

Thie constant pressure blue pad I use for the final polish with the Ultra Fine SE.

As a rule of thumb for a novice, always start with the softest pad and the least aggressive compound and check the results.

If your not happy then you can use the more aggressive compound and cutting pad.

With DA's, as long as you don't keep the pad in one position without moving it around, the chances of burning your paint are slim.

Also, ensure you don't go for any pad above 5.5" as it can really bog down on the paintwork and will do minimal correction.

Hope that helps.

Ash

[quattrostyle]

No doubt above comments are usefull but preparation is key IMO. So start with cleaning thoroughly followed by detailing spray and a clay bar. Then you're free to polish and wax it

[vonbeck]

Hi I have a porter cable 7424 for sale it's been used for about 2 hours it's in mint condition cut is 110 v so you will need a tranny


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[S2central.net]

Perfect timing for this thread - I was looking to get the Megs DA but I notice the prices shot up recently. I haven't found any good beginners guides to this stuff. All the detailing threads I seem to find dive into the OCD fetishness and jargon of which products, pads, arguments & one-upmanship between various professionals & enthusiasts.

Is there a basic explanation anywhere for the type of pads and grades of product that a beginner can get to grips with using a decent DA and avoid making stupid mistakes ?

I will be practising on the SORN'd S2 which needs a paint job anyway... but I want to build enough confidence & experience so I can do it properly on the other motors when the mood takes me.

[Vorsprung durch Technik]

[QUOTE=S2central.net;793898 All the detailing threads I seem to find dive into the OCD fetishness and jargon of which products, pads, arguments & one-upmanship between various professionals & enthusiasts.

Is there a basic explanation anywhere for the type of pads and grades of product that a beginner can get to grips with using a decent DA and avoid making stupid mistakes ?

[/QUOTE]


I was going to mention that myself but thought better as it was't as kind as your description.Whatever it's all pathetic drivel one up-upmanship wars.

I asked myself not sure if it was the company who supplied me my 3M products or 3M themselves but they were superb at giving out the technical info you need. Virtually all huge companies have a Technical department and they are only too happy to speak to all whatever level your at concerning your queries and advice you need. Try it,you won't regret it.

[RustyNut]

Great responses chaps, many thanks. A useful thread this is going to be i'm sure. Like Paul mentioned, I got frustrated with the difficulty of getting info on some basic walk throughs of the processes involved and ended up reading page after page of stuff that meant nothing to me as a beginner. I didn't want to have too much of a diss for fear of offending but I do agree on the whole one upmanship thing... This is obviously an art that you perfect through practice and all we are seeking here is sound advice on how to get started without making costly and time consuming mistakes. Thanks Quattrostyle for giving info on getting the prep right before you even think of getting the polishing kit out! I'll get myself some detailing spray and a decnet clay bar and will take it slow from there. I'm about to give a couple of companies a call so my next post should hopefully be about what I ended up buying! By the way, i've decided I'm going to do my first practice run on an unwanted rear boot lid i've got in the garage. This way i'll be able to see how deep the various compounds cut and get a to grips with the amount of pressure required to get the correct results. I'll be using Ash and Mark's advice on the cutting compounds, not sure if I can stretch to the cost of the 3m kit though... But then again the aim is to do my S2 so why not get the best... Decisions decisions!

[quattrostyle]

Btw. don't read too much about claying cars before you start. I did that and decided not to do it at first as sounds like a hell of a job, when actually it ain't that bad.
You should be able to do it in less than an hour and if it hasn't been done before you will feel the difference and see the clay bar getting dirty.

[Vorsprung durch Technik]

Are you saying you can clay a car in less than a hour?

[rynaqui]

Are you saying you can clay a car in less than a hour?

Possible if the car hasn't got lots of contaminants, depends on the size of the car as well..

It took me about 2 hours to clay my Father's Bentley, which is huge compared to the S2 and had never been clayed in its 10 year life.

[RustyNut]

Just another thing I need to ask, which handle type is best to use as there's the option of the hoop over the top of the body type and the side handle type? If I factored noise in to the equation also then which is the quietest?