Start with a PC or Rotary?

[SVR]

The rotary is still a viable tool as it is a great orange peel reduction and jewelling tool

However my days of using only the rotary or starting with the rotary are well and truly behind me



850 watt DA machine that fits any size backing plate I want, tonnes of torque, the flex, the bigfoot machine and drum polisher are perfectly fine for detailing enthusiasts. Id not suggest a rotary for anyone except the most anal enthusiast



the rotaries strength over the other machines is the ability to produce a slightly better gloss by the heat it produces and the way it works final polish abrasives down

 

[Accumulator]

A ..one brutally crap-tastic Crown Vic was knocked out in 1/3 the time it would have took had I ONLY had a rotary. How? After claying, I wet-sanded all the really sh!tty areas - RIDS and scratches, then I went at it with M105/Uno v3 and MF pads. It was a little longer one step, but it turned out great.

That's about what I did on my Crown Vic, wetsanded then DA'ed aggressively. Sure wish the "pro detailer" (scare-quotes intentional!!) in Jacksonville FLA hadn't trashed it (including the chrome trim ) with his rotary.

 

[SuperBee364]

An interesting note, I was watching a Meguiars video on YouTube where the instructor is demonstrating wet sanding and vehemently states that you cannot take sanding marks off the paint with a DA, you need a rotary. He then goes on to show the work of a rotary vs a DA on the wet sanding marks. It however makes sense to me what Barry is saying; and aside from that I usually just look at videos like that cautiously erring on the side of "they're trying to sell me something"

Most likely a fairly dated video. It's quite common to remove sanding marks with a DA.

 

[SuperBee364]

The rotary is still a viable tool as it is a great orange peel reduction and jewelling tool

However my days of using only the rotary or starting with the rotary are well and truly behind me



850 watt DA machine that fits any size backing plate I want, tonnes of torque, the flex, the bigfoot machine and drum polisher are perfectly fine for detailing enthusiasts. Id not suggest a rotary for anyone except the most anal enthusiast



the rotaries strength over the other machines is the ability to produce a slightly better gloss by the heat it produces and the way it works final polish abrasives down

This thread seems to have two running discourses. The first being "which is best/safer to start with, rotary or DA?", the other being "Which is better, the rotary or DA?" The two seem to be overlapping each other quite a bit. There's no doubt that the rotary is a serious detailing machine. There are certain things that it excels at, better than a DA. But to answer the OP's original question, it is, IMO (as well as those of others) in his best interest to start out with a DA. He'll be able to do everything he needs to do with much less worry about damaging his vehicle(s) (including removing wet sanding scratches should the need arise).

 

[Dan]

Most likely a fairly dated video. It's quite common to remove sanding marks with a DA.

He should have mentioned time effectively. I have removed sanding marks with a PC back in the days of the 80 series meguiars stuff. It wasn't practical for the pro but it certainly was doable. New pads and polishes have made it practical even for pros.

 

[Accumulator]

This thread seems to have two running discourses. The first being "which is best/safer to start with, rotary or DA?", the other being "Which is better, the rotary or DA?" The two seem to be overlapping each other quite a bit...But to answer the OP's original question, it is, IMO (as well as those of others) in his best interest to start out with a DA..

Right :xyxthumbs



And we haven't touched on "expected dedication" and the willingness to invest time and effort in the learning process.



There can be *NO* argument that the rotary's learning curve is different; the machine simply takes more practice/experience to genuinely master. Many people will never do enough corrections in a lifetime to accomplish that, but they could do those however-many corrections done just fine via Random Orbital, which is very easy to use, at least at the "good enough for 90% of us" level. Not everyone wants a new hobby polishing cars, plenty of people just want to get their car looking better a few times per lifetime with minimal fuss and worry.