Returning from a has been

[cowchaser]

Good afternoon everyone. I have watched a lot of the videos and read some of the articles and have a few questions. I haven't used a buffer in 15 years or so and always used rotary with wool pads, but can remember the nightmares of swirl mards and hand polishing them out. Of course back then the compound we used came out of a paint can.

For those of you that use to do some auto detailing and then stopped did you find it easier to return to a rotary or did you go to a DA? Maybe I am looking at this wrong or misunderstood something, but it appears the DA is similar to a random orbital sander and will stop spinning under certain conditions where the rotary continues to spin regarless. I don't need anything commerecial, but I like the power of a rotary, but hated some of the problems the presented at times.

With these new (to me) foam pads do you find the rotary can be used from start to finish or do you still have to hand polish to get that final swirl free finish? Can you use a DA from start to finish or do you still need to hand polish? In all honesty I hate hand polishing. Call me lazy if you will. There is just so much out there now from the last time I did any of this even after watching and reading it is a little overwhelming. I guess my mind is still trained to a rotary, but if something like a DA will do the job as well then I see no reason not to go with one. Again this is home use and not something commercial and I realize a lot of you here do this for money where I will not be.

I appreciate any of your answers and I will continue to read other threads to see if I can find the answers I seek. Just hard to remove my mindset of what use to be and what is currently. Not looking for anything extravigant just something that will do a good job effectively with the least amount side effects you could say. I'm leaning towards a DA, but may be looking at them wrong or not understanding their operation correctly.

[Jhaight11]

the only time i ever do anything by hand is to wax. advancement in products have made it so much easier to get those perfect results in the least amount of steps as possible. to me, if you want an absolutely perfect finish their isnt anything better then a rotary. i usually use a da after some compounding with a rotary just because i dont need the power of a rotary anymore since i took the defects out but thats just me.

[oldmodman]

I don't even apply wax by hand anymore. I just use a PC with a soft foam pad and a MF cloth on top of it. The same type of cloth that people are using to apply the new synthetic coating like Opti coat types.