Its still all about knowledge of the tool, knowledge of what the finished product has to be like, and then applying that knowledge perfectly, day in, and day out...
And the KEY WORD - INNOVATION....
I too, am amazed all the time, when I see, yes, totally respectable, high class shops, with very smart and talented people, still turning out swirled and hologrammed paintwork...
The Auto Auctions on TV are just sad to watch sometimes, as long lines of beautiful cars come by and when the light hits them just right, yeah - they are all marked up..
The one thing that probably hurts Rotary Power more than anything else is that because it IS fast and powerful, and can do things in a short amount of time, people use them ONLY for this and totally Forget, Ignore, or just dont look at the car outside afterwards, to see the mess their guy/s left simply because they didnt keep the pad flat with the same even pressure across the panels... It's really that simple, but sometimes, simple things are really complicated..
The trashed paintwork is now really shiny, you can see your reflection in it, its smooth, and totally looks great ! The production shop Painter or his Helper banged it out along with the other 20+ vehicles that week, and all is well..
Lucky for me, all my mentors, over all the years I worked in those shops, were Detailing Fanatics too - so they insisted that every vehicle's paintwork had to be perfectly CLEAR when viewed from any angle outside in bright sunlight, or under a lot of different bright lights inside... So , no swirls, holograms, etc...
They all knew, really knew, how to use the tool to make this happen..
DA's were not even thought of even if they were already invented as the Sanders that they also were..
I am glad that so many new technologies have emerged from all this, especially in the Random Orbital side and that people are actually working at designing tools that will do much more than the old trusty Random Orbital Sander/Polisher that started being used on car paint..
It will always be a great alternative to those that are not ever going to be wanting to carry around a 10lb tool with one hand all day and thats great !
I have always thought it kind of ironic that after all the different tools that have come out over the past 10 years, that none of the Rotary Power people have ever come out and re-invented or changed the design that goes back to the days of nitro-cellulose lacquer.. Its pretty much the same direct drive design..
Even the big Flex company who makes machines that polish Stone, decided to get into the fray for a bit with their Flex 3401-VRG, and notice that while it does random orbit, it is still a forced rotation - ah - perhaps that is the key - forced rotation???
When I lived in the Seattle area for about 12 years, I ran into thousands of very nice Boats and some of the best Boat Detailers ever...
They all used nothing but Rotary Power and could kill even the best Rotaries because of the sheer number of hours they ran them under the heavy loads of dirty, neglected gelcoat..
They all laughed out loud when I mentioned any brand of Random Orbital, and routinely asked me if I wanted any of the numbers of these machines they were given by people to try out... I never took them up on their offers..
And all of them turned out beautiful, swirl and hologram free work !!! I have seen probably thousands of swirled up cars going down the road all my life, and I cannot ever remember seeing 1 nice beautiful Cobalt, etc., black or any color boat ever looking badly..
So, one must really have a reason, justification, etc., to want to take the industry standard tool - all 10lbs of it, and work at learning how to understand the physics of it for starters, and then the rest of the learning curve to get how to apply this and all the new, way better products to their project... Its as simple as that...
There will always be plenty of room for Rotary Power and Random Orbital, etc. machines to share the workload !
Dan F
