Stupid question?

[Detailing Newb]

Hi I am new to detailing and have just bought a rotary to have a go at my car. I've watched enough to know polishing edges is bad practice but how do you get around it when you polish the top corners of your bonnet/hood?

Feel free to add any extra advice you may have to a beginner armed with a rotary. Thanks

[mikesal57]

Hi I am new to detailing and have just bought a rotary to have a go at my car. I've watched enough to know polishing edges is bad practice but how do you get around it when you polish the top corners of your bonnet/hood?

Feel free to add any extra advice you may have to a beginner armed with a rotary. Thanks

give it a hand job ( product on foam pad )

[swanicyouth]

I've watched enough to know polishing edges is bad practice but how do you get around it when you polish the top corners of your bonnet/hood?




Advice: Do yourself a favor... Buy a DA.

You don't want to learn to use a rotary on your own car.

[Kamakaz1961]

Advice: Do yourself a favor... Buy a DA.

You don't want to learn to use a rotary on your own car.

:iagree:A rotary might be too aggressive and you could DAMAGE your paint if you have no or little experience compounding/polishing.

Look into DA's that AGO sells. The choices will make your head spin. BUT AT LEAST you will not destroy your paint. A rotary will if you do not know how to use it.

:buffing:

[Detailing Newb]

:iagree:A rotary might be too aggressive and you could DAMAGE your paint if you have no or little experience compounding/polishing.

Look into DA's that AGO sells. The choices will make your head spin. BUT AT LEAST you will not destroy your paint. A rotary will if you do not know how to use it.

:buffing:

Thanks for the advice. I will do it by hand just wern't sure if you would tell the difference. I don't mind using a rotary on my own car its not worth much. I will also be looking to get 99.9% correction and Im under the belief that DA's cant achieve quite the same level as a rotary.

[EVOlved]

Thanks for the advice. I will do it by hand just wern't sure if you would tell the difference. I don't mind using a rotary on my own car its not worth much. I will also be looking to get 99.9% correction and Im under the belief that DA's cant achieve quite the same level as a rotary.

Wow!! I am not touching that.

Ignorance is bliss I suppose!

[KMdef9]

Advice: Do yourself a favor... Buy a DA.

You don't want to learn to use a rotary on your own car.

This will help the most.

Tape and smaller pads would help also.

[expdetailing]

I admire not being affraid of a potentially tough learning curve. What kind of rotory do you own?

[JTS]

Master of the rotary, you'll have the best of both worlds.

[Detailing Newb]

I admire not being affraid of a potentially tough learning curve. What kind of rotory do you own?

Thanks for that. I'm not being ignorant i just love a challenge and will feel much happier if i can nail the rotary. I can afford to go wrong with the car i will be working on its no big deal. I have bought a clarke cp185 i know its not anything great but it is a start and fits my budget right now.

[AutowerxDetailing]

Thanks for the advice. I will do it by hand just wern't sure if you would tell the difference. I don't mind using a rotary on my own car its not worth much. I will also be looking to get 99.9% correction and Im under the belief that DA's cant achieve quite the same level as a rotary.

You can get the same correction with a DA as you can with a rotary.

Sent from my N9810 using AG Online

[Loach]

Stay under the 1200rpm range until you get a hang of controlling the rotary. If you picture something like a hood panel meeting a fender panel, for hypothetical purposes let's say these meeting panels create a 90* angle with a sharp edge. You don't buff or put pressure down directly on that sharp edge, you buff flatly across the hood panel, then you lift off and buff flatly across the meeting fender panel. If it's a less pronounced rounder edge, I may reduce speed and pressure depending on how pronounced of an edge we're observing. If I'm buffing and say the fender edge is above my hood panel edge due to hood misalignment, then I'll tape up the fender edge while buffing the hood to make sure I can get into those top corners without hitting the fender edge and potentially striking through it, or I may just pop the hood open slightly so the hood sits higher when I'm compounding it.

[Zubair]

Haha, you haven't met the Flex 3401 have you? Just saying....

[Mike Phillips]

Hi I am new to detailing and have just bought a rotary to have a go at my car.

I've watched enough to know polishing edges is bad practice but how do you get around it when you polish the top corners of your bonnet/hood?

Feel free to add any extra advice you may have to a beginner armed with a rotary. Thanks


Like mentioned, tape these areas off with some protective tape.



How to tape-off a car before machine polishing (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/how-articles/80865-how-tape-off-car-before-machine-polishing.html)


Inspect the paint first
Before buffing out a car first inspect the paint for issues that are already present. Things like burn-through on edges and corners. This is especially important on muscle cars, streetrods and classics and basically anything built before the mid-1970's. The reason why is because cars built back then don't have the luxury of being designed and assembled like modern cars and where body panels come together they won't be perfectly aligned. This means the edge of the hood may sit higher than the edge of the fender and it's this high side you want to inspect to see if anyone that has buffed the car out BEFORE you wasn't careful and burned through the paint on the sharp edges.


Take note of pre-existing damage
If you find any places where the paint has pre-existing damage, be sure to point it out to the owner of the car and if you're using an inspection form like my VIF then mark it down on the form.


Tape-off after performing the normal 7 steps
After you do the 7 normal steps before buffing out a car, nows the time to tape off any raised body lines, edges, trim, emblems and especially and plastic surfaces that could be stained by compound or polish. It's also a good idea to tape-off and cover any fresh air intakes in front of the windshield as well as wiper arms to avoid spatter dots while machine buffing.


This Nova has single stage urethane paint which will tend to be softer than a urethane clearcoat. This Nova also has a LOT of raised body lines creating the design of the body panels hard edges forming the shape of the body panels.

Soft paint and raised body lines mean we have to be carefully when machine compounding or we could burn through. To avoid any mistakes, we taped-off all the raised body lines and edges of body panels using 3M Blue Vinyle Tape.

Technique Tip
When taping off a car, start by anchoring the end of the tape to the area you want to protect and then pull out 2-3 feet of tape in your other hand.

Use the hand that's holding the roll of tape to steer the tape as you use your other hand to press the tape firmly against the paint. This is how steer tape follow curves and also straight areas.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/2412/1966_Orange_Nova_033.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/2412/1966_Orange_Nova_034.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/2412/1966_Orange_Nova_035.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/2412/1966_Orange_Nova_036.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/2412/1966_Orange_Nova_037.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/2412/1966_Orange_Nova_038.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/2412/1966_Orange_Nova_039.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/2412/1966_Orange_Nova_040.jpg


Classic cars like this 1966 Nova have what are called fresh air grills right in front of the windshield. You CANNOT get into these to remove splatter from compound or polish so carefully tape these ares off before buffing. It's also a good idea to cover up wiper-arms so you don't have to come back and use a toothbrush to remove splatter dots of these components.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/2412/1966_Orange_Nova_053.jpg



Here' you an see the edges of the body and the trunk lid are all protected using 1/4" 3M Blue Vinyl Tape.


http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/2412/1966_Orange_Nova_054.jpg




De-Taping
After compounding we de-taped the car. Here's why....


1. Machine polishing is less aggressive than compounding so there's less risk of burning through the paint.

2. By removing the tape and then polishing we will remove the tape-line plus polish the paint under the tape to even out the gloss and clarity of the paint that was not compounded.



De-taping the Nova...

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/2412/1966_Orange_Nova_071.jpg


Mark, (from Canada) and Frank carefully removing 3M Blue Vinyl Tape....

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/2412/1966_Orange_Nova_065.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/2412/1966_Orange_Nova_066.jpg



Sherman removing tape...

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/2412/1966_Orange_Nova_067.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/2412/1966_Orange_Nova_068.jpg



Craig removing tape off the hood....

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/2412/1966_Orange_Nova_069.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/2412/1966_Orange_Nova_070.jpg




http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/images/smilies/xyxthumbs.gif

[Mike Phillips]

Here's some more tips... scroll down the page for links for even more tips...


Tip: How to pull tape off car paint (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/ask-expert-featuring-mike-phillips/62803-tip-how-pull-tape-off-car-paint.html)


:dblthumb2: