I love the site, I've been lurking around the forums trying to absorb all the techniques to make my car looking great. I have this random orbital polisher for awhile now, but I've never used it. I was wondering if this would be an appropriate tool to use to remove swirl marks from my car? It's a 1993 BMW 740iL Alpine White. RO is a craftsman 9 in. random orbital polisher. What kind of applicator should i use. It came with a blue bonnet. Here are some pictures of the RO.
Is that a cordless model? My experience with buffers like that are that they are good to apply waxes with but not so great for swirl removal. If you want a good swirl removal tool then you need to get something like the Porter Cable 7424 or a rotary. The PC is the standard tool recommended for most because a rotary has the potential to really mess up your paint if you aren't careful. I've never heard anyone say anything negative about the PC though. Its a great tool. I've had great success at swirl removal with it. A white car should hide most of the swirls pretty well anyway. I think that the ones that don't come out with a PC will just get washed out by the blinding shine of the car when you are finished anyway.
I have never seen anyone mess up there paitn with a rotary unless you work at like 4000RPM's with a wool pad. The PC is ok but it wont remove any deeper swirls. The only thing the rotary is known for is leaving the holographic Buffer Lines and you have to get pretty skilled to get them off.
I have never seen anyone mess up there paitn with a rotary unless you work at like 4000RPM's with a wool pad. The PC is ok but it wont remove any deeper swirls. The only thing the rotary is known for is leaving the holographic Buffer Lines and you have to get pretty skilled to get them off.
They are known for a lot more than just holograms. That is mainly the kind of damage you see and hear about but there is a lot more they can do. How bout polishing the paint down to the sheet metal for one. Total removal of the clear coat ring a bell? Rotarys aren't toys and I've seen some messed up stuff caused by one of them. Going through to the sheet metal is possible with a PC on the edges of body panels. Going through with a rotary just takes less time. The surface can be very hot to the touch after using a rotary. That kind of heat can cause all kinds of problems that you may not intend to cause. Fixing them is like fixing a bad hair cut... If you take off too much clear then there isn't much you can do about bringing it back.
I think that you can compensate with more abrasive product with a PC if you don't have access to a rotary. My car is just about swirl free and I don't have a rotary. On the marks that aren't coming out with a PC and DACP I could probably just bump up either the pad or get some Diamond Cut. I think that the PC could give a rotary a run for its money on effectiveness. On speed the rotary would kick butt. I believe that a PC will produce results equal to a rotary, but it just takes a little more time. I'm willing to spend the extra time if it means that I don't have to deal with holograms later.
yeah i used it yesterday with the blue bonnet, i first used some AIO then topped off with S100. I didnt have any problems with the paint buring because the buffer runs a max. of 3000 rpms. I guess it looks ok. There are still swirl marks and i wanna get rid of them, not hide them.
I'm willing to spend the extra time if it means that I don't have to deal with holograms later.
and i wanna get rid of them, not hide them.