imported_Lightman
New member
Hey guys. I just took my first pass at using my new rotary, since my small backplate and 6.5" meguairs softbuff pads just showed up. I got the burgundy cutting pad and the yellow polishing pad. I figured I should start out with the yellow pad, which was probably a good call. I don't have any scrap panels, and my 04 Cummins powered ram is still an expensive and nice vehicle, so I decided I'd play it safe and start learning on the roof. With the Kore suspension and 35" tires, unless you are shaq, you can't see my roof anyway, so I figured it was safe 
First and foremost, HS is this new makita sweet! I had taken passes with an orange griots polishing pad and my griot's version of the pc many times on this roof, including using products like ssr2.5, ssr3, and even tried optimum hyper compound. None of the above removed the swirls, only maybe 80%, mostly the fine swirls, leaving all of the scratches and heavier swirls regardless of speed, pressure, or passes. Well today I fired up the new makita, with the yellow polishing pad and some optimum compound. I set the speed around 1200, somewhere between 2 and 3 on the dial.
I had what I am guessing are newbie issues controlling the machine. I tried keeping one edge of it slighty angled up, which ended up being the right edge, and the left edge the most down on the paint. With this setup I was able to complete a back and forth and forward and back alternating motion as I would with the pc, with reasonable control. However I noticed that in certain directions it would want to skip around a bit. For example if I had the left edge down/right edge up, it did pretty well moving to the left, but when moving to the right it wanted to pull itself across the paint it seemed. What's the trick here, do you guys alternate edges, keep the pad flatter, or what? Overall my passes just seemed a bit choppy, and surprisingly the more sections I worked, and the more polish I had in the pad, the more choppy and jumpy it seemed to get. All tips appreciated!
The good news is even after my stumbling first attempt at this, when I toweled off all the OC, much to my surprise, ALL the swirls were gone! There were some slight hazing/buffer marks left, which I'm assuming was from all the jumping around the pad did. I grabbed my pc with the griot's orange pad, and some optimum polish this time, and followed up over the same areas on speed 5. All the hazing marks were gone and the paint looked pristine. I was quite pleased, even though it was a bumpy ride so to speak. I didn't get a chance to take any pics, I barely slapped some AIO on there before it started drizzling a few minutes ago.
Overall I'm really pleased with the results, but would love some tips and comments.
First and foremost, HS is this new makita sweet! I had taken passes with an orange griots polishing pad and my griot's version of the pc many times on this roof, including using products like ssr2.5, ssr3, and even tried optimum hyper compound. None of the above removed the swirls, only maybe 80%, mostly the fine swirls, leaving all of the scratches and heavier swirls regardless of speed, pressure, or passes. Well today I fired up the new makita, with the yellow polishing pad and some optimum compound. I set the speed around 1200, somewhere between 2 and 3 on the dial.
I had what I am guessing are newbie issues controlling the machine. I tried keeping one edge of it slighty angled up, which ended up being the right edge, and the left edge the most down on the paint. With this setup I was able to complete a back and forth and forward and back alternating motion as I would with the pc, with reasonable control. However I noticed that in certain directions it would want to skip around a bit. For example if I had the left edge down/right edge up, it did pretty well moving to the left, but when moving to the right it wanted to pull itself across the paint it seemed. What's the trick here, do you guys alternate edges, keep the pad flatter, or what? Overall my passes just seemed a bit choppy, and surprisingly the more sections I worked, and the more polish I had in the pad, the more choppy and jumpy it seemed to get. All tips appreciated!
The good news is even after my stumbling first attempt at this, when I toweled off all the OC, much to my surprise, ALL the swirls were gone! There were some slight hazing/buffer marks left, which I'm assuming was from all the jumping around the pad did. I grabbed my pc with the griot's orange pad, and some optimum polish this time, and followed up over the same areas on speed 5. All the hazing marks were gone and the paint looked pristine. I was quite pleased, even though it was a bumpy ride so to speak. I didn't get a chance to take any pics, I barely slapped some AIO on there before it started drizzling a few minutes ago.
Overall I'm really pleased with the results, but would love some tips and comments.
) as it seemed to spread the product and jump a lot less when I first started compared to after I was using it for a while. I may have been using too much product.