Amateur detailer looking to upgrade his polisher and perhaps pads and products - Advice needed

[chris7469]

First off let me say I have learned a lot from everyone here. For the holidays I got some gift cards to auto geek and I wanted to upgrade my personal set up.

Currently I use an older 6 inch porter cable with 6 inch lake county flat pads Yellow, Orange, White and Blue.

I detail my own car. She is a black 2011 Maserati GTS. It takes me about 10 hours. I do it once each year. The car is hand washed and has never seen rain or a car wash.

Here are my steps and the products I use plus a few questions.

First wash, dry and clay all the panels.

Then tape her up and start on the swirls and light marks with Wolfgang uber compound and a yellow pad. I have watched the videos and I take my time and make a bunch of passes. I put a pair of 5000 watt shop lights behind me. This step takes me several hours ( 4 - 5 ). I am changing and cleaning my pads and using micro fibers to wipe down.

Step two is polishing with Wolfgang finishing glaze and a white pad. This process takes a couple hours.

Final step is Wolfgang Deep gloss paint sealant. This process does not take that long.

First off, I am trying to get the same amazing results in less time, will a better/ stronger orbital / polisher allow me to make less passes? If so which one would you recommend?

What are the best pads and sizes to use, can I go to 7 inch, should I? I think I am better with flat pads then the other ones? Which ones would you recommend?

How about the Wolfgang products I am using? Is there a better upgrade in terms of easier to use, more effective in less time and or much better deep gloss and shine and swirl removal?

I can’t stand the tiny marks under my door handles and the areas the orbital cannot reach, like the tight spot of the ground effects or the trunk back with car name on it. I have tried the hand held sponge type scrubbers with little luck and I have a 3 inch backing plate and smaller pads. Any other tips?

Any and all advice is appreciated. Thank you very much! Chris

[pilotpip]

Have you compounded every year? You may want to make sure you have enough clear coat left to continue doing so with an aggressive pad and compound like you're doing. If you're swirling the paint so much that you need to do that much correction every year you may want to consider revising your washing technique. Is maserati paint soft?

A bigger pad may not help, in fact you may want to go smaller (5" BP) so you get more correction out of the pads. There's no way a PC will turn those and with all the curves on your car you'll have a hard time keeping even pressure.

How many pads do you have? I've found more is better.

If you want to save time, consider switching to an All in one like HD speed, or McKees 360, or any one of the other good ones out there. They'll give you some swirl removal, and protection. Wolfgang products are good stuff, though.

[luckydawg]

all you really NEED ( since you are not making a living @ this ) is the PC- go to 5"

[Desertnate]

all you really NEED ( since you are not making a living @ this ) is the PC- go to 5"

Agree.

Going to a 5" polishing pad will work much better. I'd also suggest upgrading your pads to the 5" Lake Country Thin Pro pads. They make a world of difference, by making the polisher much more effective.

I'll echo Pilotpips concerns about compounding every year. Even with some of the harder paints, unless the finish is heavily marred, you should be able to use a a medium-ish polish to work out the swirls in a single step. Since you have the Wolfgang line, I'd recommend the Wolfgang swirl remover...if that is even needed. Trying out different pad/polish combinations can often yield the desired results too.

I drive a black VW GTI with very hard paint. Using Blackfire SRC Compound, which wasn't really a compound and more like swirl remover, I am able to polish out any annual marring in one step using a 5" white Lake Country Flat Pad. The results from that one step were perfect and I am able to go straight to the LSP.

The next time around try going with the least aggressive pad/polish combination first, and do a couple test spots. You may be pleasantly surprised to see the results. Going to a compound and doing a lengthy 2-step correction should be a last resort.

[dlc95]

I agree with the others. The PC is a great tool.

Get the 5" plate and some good pads, and you're golden.

I have a few different types of pads that I use with it. My absolute favorite are the Lake Country Hydrotech. They spin like crazy, effectively make use of the abrasives, resist soaking product, and have an incredible cut/finish ratio. I'm also able to use less speed and pressure with them.

The trade off is that they can wear faster. Other than that I like green, blue, and red Buff and Shine pads.

[brettS4]

The PC is nice, and if it's working for you, no need to upgrade. But if you find that it stalls when applying pressure or on curves, you might benefit from something stronger. A Griots GG6 would be the next step up and is a bit better. But it's not going to cut your detailing time in half. You'd probably need to move up to a long-throw DA to cut down your working time. The final results will likely be the same, tho.

As others have said, your money would be better spent on a 5" backing plate and many pads. I find that the more pads you have to swap out, the faster you can work. And the smaller pads will work better with the PC. They rotate better, which is what you need to get any correction.

[luckydawg]

Going to the 5" and thinner pads is the easiest and cheapest way to go at least at first-- then you can gage the difference of improvement.

If I was dying to spend the jack- I would first see if i could use one of my buddys polishers and try the upgrade out first

[74 thing]

I agree with everyone, you need to go smaller not bigger on the pads. 5" pads with the correct pressure and speed, and if you "kiss" the panel with compound (as shown on Mike's videos) before starting on a panel you do not have to turn off the machine before polishing the panel out. Have enough pads as well so your cut remains constant-that will speed up the process as well.

[Mike Phillips]

First off let me say I have learned a lot from everyone here. For the holidays I got some gift cards to auto geek and I wanted to upgrade my personal set up.

Good to hear! Learning plus gift cars. Win/Win!

Currently I use an older 6 inch porter cable with 6 inch lake county flat pads Yellow, Orange, White and Blue.

The first generation Porter Cable polishers have de-swirled millions of cars. A few years ago, Lake Country, then Meguiar's and now Griot's have all introduced THIN pads.

Thin pads rotate better on free spinning tools than thick pads. So if you get a 5" backing plate and some 5.5" thin pads you can get more life out of your old PC.

See my article here as it has links to 5" backing plates and 5.5" pads.

Here's what you need to get into machine polishing - Recommendations for a beginner by Mike Phillips

I detail my own car. She is a black 2011 Maserati GTS. It takes me about 10 hours. I do it once each year. The car is hand washed and has never seen rain or a car wash.

Look something like this?

Darth Vadar's Car

Here are my steps and the products I use plus a few questions.

First wash, dry and clay all the panels.

Then tape her up and start on the swirls and light marks with Wolfgang uber compound and a yellow pad. I have watched the videos and I take my time and make a bunch of passes. I put a pair of 5000 watt shop lights behind me. This step takes me several hours ( 4 - 5 ). I am changing and cleaning my pads and using micro fibers to wipe down.

Step two is polishing with Wolfgang finishing glaze and a white pad. This process takes a couple hours.

Final step is Wolfgang Deep gloss paint sealant. This process does not take that long.

That's a fairly tired and trued process with high quality products.

First off, I am trying to get the same amazing results in less time, will a better/ stronger orbital / polisher allow me to make less passes?

If so which one would you recommend?

Well if you want to keep it simple then get the Griot's Garage 6" orbital polisher which is basically Griot's version of the Porter Cable but with a lot more power. I showcase it in this same article I shared above.

Here's what you need to get into machine polishing - Recommendations for a beginner by Mike Phillips

What are the best pads and sizes to use, can I go to 7 inch, should I? I think I am better with flat pads then the other ones? Which ones would you recommend?

Before you get pads, decide on tool. There are a lot of tool options. The most popular being RUPES and FLEX. With RUPES you really want to buy the entire RUPES "system". With FLEX - FLEX will turn and churn any pad and any quality products.

How about the Wolfgang products I am using? Is there a better upgrade in terms of easier to use, more effective in less time and or much better deep gloss and shine and swirl removal?

Wolfgang compounds and polishes, waxes and sealants are top of the line. You're already there.

I can’t stand the tiny marks under my door handles and the areas the orbital cannot reach, like the tight spot of the ground effects or the trunk back with car name on it. I have tried the hand held sponge type scrubbers with little luck and I have a 3 inch backing plate and smaller pads. Any other tips?

With good technique you should be able to remove those using Uber Compound. Start with a microfiber applicator pad and put some passion behind the pad and then re-polish using a foam applicator pad to remove any fiber marks from the microfiber applicator pad.

About a year ago I made a Facebook Live video shown how to work by hand. Problem is Facebook Live video in a simple word suck. They either disappear, quick working or can't be found OVER TIME.

I also demonstrated correct hand compounding and polishing techniques at my recent RUPES class with Jason Rose and while Yancy was there I don't believe any video footage showing the correct technique is edited.

Sorry...

Any and all advice is appreciated.

Thank you very much! Chris

Thanks for joining the forum...

[SWETM]

Go thrue your wash process for us. Which method you use and what wash media you are useing and products. What kind of microfiber towels you are useing and how you wash them. Do you apply any spraywax and the process if so. If the clearcoat is very soft you maybe install swirls. But with the right technique and products for a garage queen you would only need to do a finish polish each year.

Have you marked your backing plate so you see it spinning fast enough when compounding and polish? Since if you have a soft clearcoat it is easy to correct also. A 5" backing plate will be easier to get the pad spinning. Some where you can find the thing that you can improve your technique with.

If you feel it's hard to get the pad spinning enough maybe you would look into a direct drive orbital polisher like flex 3401 or makita p5000 or rupes mille. Do you have the budget for the rupes mille I would look into their system. They have a system that is newly developed with the latest technology in both the polisher and the abrasive. And you get more control when polishing. For the tight spaces it's a foam applicator or a mf applicator and first test with the least aggressive polish and work your way up if you have to.

Sorry if this sounds like a come on to you. But just want to understand which part of your process you can get better done with. Compounding a car every year is takeing on the clearcoat. So for you to hold your car to a great condition you don't want to shave of a good amount of clearcoat each year.

Hope you find your way to go. Look thrue all of Mikes videos on autogeek Youtube chanel and see if you can find a your way.