got my Rupes LHR75E and i'm frustrated!!!

[Matt@Revive]

i got my Rupes Mini Bigfoot and finially got o use it last night. i'm kicking myself for waiting so long to make the purchase, this thing is AWESOME!! it runs smooth, corrects quickly, and doesn't kill your hands.



i'm working on a B7 Alpina ight now and my PC was having a hard time cutting through the defects (so was my Rupes 15, it's been a slow process). this is the back of the deck lid under the spoiler.


after using the Rupes 75e, Maguiars MF cutting disc and Rupes Zephire compound. after 4 section passes on speed ~4. the pad and machine fit perfectly in this section, corrected much faster than the PC and finished way better. (i still need to polish this area)


the cool/great

• the soft start works very well, very smooth and progressive
• the rubber pad on the top to prevent the machine from falling over when set down
• rubber gripers around the front "dome"
• lack of hand numbing vibrations. it still vibrates, but no more than any other big machine

the quarks,

• the speed dial being on the back under the power cord, hard to set an acurrate speed setting while the machine is running.
• the front section gets hot right were you want to rest your hand, probably due to the fan vent pointing down away from the user

Side note: this was my first time using Rupes Zaphire compound and it's a great product. i've been messing around with tons of products trying to find a combo that works well together. after using Meguiars, Menz, and HD i decided to invest on the Rupes system hearing it was an engineered system for the rupes line. i have been using HD Cut on most of the B7 im working on and it works well on the hard BMW paint. the Zaphire cut a bit better, finished way better, but dusts a lot more. i can deal with the dust if the product works as wel as Zaphire does.

[Mike Phillips]

Side note: this was my first time using Rupes Zephir compound and it's a great product.

I agree. It's a top tier compound that uses amazing abrasive technology.

At our last detailing boot camp class I had everyone FEEL the compound with their fingers.

Why?

Because you can feel the abrasives. (do your own test). This is interesting because with all the new advancements in abrasive technology, with most if not all of the new top shelf compounds on the market they all feel like Jergans hand lotion. That is you cannot feel anything gritty in them.

So I have my students FEEL the abrasives in the Zephir Gloss Compound and then I have them FEEL how course the RUPES blue foam cutting pad is with the point being, they both feel VERY aggressive.

Then I demonstrate how these two things can remove the defects and leave the paint looking like you just removed a show car wax. That is, these two very aggressive feeling products leave the paint looking show car quality.

How does that happen?

I also demonstrate this at SEMA under strong bright lights over and over again, see this article,


Mind Blowing - Rupes Blue Foam Cutting Pad and Zephir Gloss Coarse Gel Compound

I've been messing around with tons of products trying to find a combo that works well together. after using Meguiars, Menz, and HD i decided to invest on the Rupes system hearing it was an engineered system for the rupes line.

That is correct. The abrasives, pads, orbit stroke length, weight of the backing plate, all of these things are engineered to work together.

i have been using HD Cut on most of the B7 im working on and it works well on the hard BMW paint. the Zephir cut a bit better, finished way better, but dusts a lot more. i can deal with the dust if the product works as well as Zephir does.

Did you get any of the RUPES blue foam pads?


RUPES Mini 12 with a RUPES 4" blue foam pad buffing out the Tach on a 1969 GTO Judge

[Mike lambert]

Is there a way to cut down on the dusting? I love the whole line, but the dust drives me crazy!

[Todd@RUPES]

Is there a way to cut down on the dusting? I love the whole line, but the dust drives me crazy!

The blue-blue as we call it (Zephir and coarse pad) will dust. Unfortunately that is part of the design compromise.

The abrasive quality of Zephir is very high, and it actually has the ability to break down extremely fine. However, there is a good amount of abrasive in the compound, which means a lot of material (relative) is being removed. The result is dusting.

The dusting does keep a considerable amount of contamination and abraded paint residue off the surface, which is one of the reasons why the blue-blue finishes so well, but it can be frustrating.

One of my favorite "outside-the-box" combinations is to use the UHS pad with Zephir. You lose a little bit of cut compared to the blue paint, but the dusting is considerably less. If the pad is kept clean, the finish quality is a little better as well.