Polisher for cars and boat

[mojotank]

I'm a newbie to polishing been detailing by hand. I would like to purchase a polisher that can handle cars and a boat. Right now two black cars have swirls. The vw has swirls from rotary (bad repair job). The mdx has spider swirls. My boaASIs white and has goodie finish nice shine but there are a few areas that has swirl marks as well boat is white.

What would be the best polisher thinking flex3401?. If I went with this polisher what pads and products would you recommend to handle the cars and boat?
or should I be looking at something?

Mike

[Eandras]

You can start off with a Griots with a 5" backing plate. Get the 5.5" pads as needed. Common pads are CCS and hydro. Get pads that can be used for compounding, polishing and wax application. The PC is a good starter machine. I have both units and prefer the power that the Griots has. A flex is the best choice.

[DaveT435]

The Flex is a great tool. It's direct drive which may be helpful on the boat...it may take a little more pressure on that. I would do your homework and learn all you can on this site. There are lots of articles and videos on here to teach you...

[mojotank]

Yes, I've been reading the how to tips and watching videos. I have to say this is a great site.

When it comes to pads there doesn't seem to be a difference for car or boat, it's basically based on the job. How often can you clean the pad on the fly before you have to replace with a different one?

[DaveT435]

What kind of boat do you have?? I've done whole cars with 1 pad cleaning on the fly quite regularly. I'm not a professional...but haven't had any problems using them for a full car. Depending on the boat it may be different. I had a Sundancer 250 and that thing had a lot of surface area. I never polished it so I couldn't tell you if you would have to change pads or not.

[mojotank]

The boat is a edgewater 228 center console. Ive detailed it a few times and boy is it time consuming by hand takes about 3 days and my back, arms and fingers are shot. I had a problem with the top gunnels this year where that anything that landed on it stained and I couldn't get it off, other than using a cleaner wax or compound. I spent a day using Buff magic compounding and applying scotch guard marine wax. Looks good now but will see how well the wax holds up, never used it before.

[truckbutt]

Flex 3401(DA Forced Rotation) + Dewalt 849X (Rotary)
Correct with the Dewalt and polish/finish with the Flex.

[tuscarora dave]

Flex 3401(DA Forced Rotation) + Dewalt 849X (Rotary)
Correct with the Dewalt and polish/finish with the Flex.
:iagree:A rotary, even a cheaper model would be good and pretty much necessary for the boat. A DA like the Griots or PC would be good for the cars.