Look what Santa brought me! Rupes!!!!

[Setec Astronomy]

Nice......and there were some that doubted there was a market for a non-forced DA at $200 when this is much more expensive.

That would be me! I think we were talking about whether the market would be large enough for someone to lay out the money to develop a new machine, but this one also appears to primarily be a sander, so it was likely developed for that market.

I know AG never releases numbers, but it would be interesting to know how many Flex 3401's are sold vs. PC/G110/GG6.

[Mike Phillips]

There's an old saying...

“Cream always rises to the top...so do good leaders".”

-John Paul Warren

You can apply that philosophy to products too.


Here's another quote I like that I learned while working at Hewlett-Packard,

"Quality doesn't cost money, it makes money"


I don't know who said the above but it does make sense. Point being, if the RUPES tool proves to be a best in class tool then people will buy them no matter what the cost.


The last 4-5 cars I've buffed out I've used the Flex 3401 Forced Rotation Dual Action Polisher because it was the best tool in my tool arsenal for the job.

The job being to,

1. Do the job well
2. Do the job right
3. Do the job in a timely manner

That's three criteria that the Flex 3401 met that out of my other options the other tools did not meet. Here's one of those jobs...

Christmas Detail - Ferrari P4 - Move over Rudolf





The forced rotation of the tool enabled me to remove swirls without leaving swirls and work quickly.

If the RUPES polishers can do the same thing and do it better and faster then a certain percentage of people will choose the RUPES as their tool of choice.


One thing for sure, discussion forums have a way of taking a product and dissecting it, questioning it, testing it and discussing it to death and until what I call a "Forum Consensus" is reached. Once this happens the tipping point will have been reached.


We're on the way to the tipping point and actually pretty far along it...


Just the two cents of a guy that's buffed out a lot of cars in his life and been a part of "detailing discussion forums" since their inception. I also read the book,

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. A very good book by the way.

[Setec Astronomy]

The last 4-5 cars I've buffed out I've used the Flex 3401 Forced Rotation Dual Action Polisher because it was the best tool in my tool arsenal for the job.

If the RUPES polishers can do the same thing and do it better and faster then a certain percentage of people will choose the RUPES as their tool of choice.

If this machine does all it says and proves to be reliable, I'm sure it will replace the Flex 3401 as the high-end machine of choice (since they are in the same ballpark price-wise). I don't know if it's going to fundamentally alter the low-price/high-price market split, or increase the market for DA's, though.

[Old Tiger]

IMO, the 3401 will still have a place for those who have cleared the learning curve. Someone compared the 3401 to the BigFoot and concluded the FLEX corrected faster . The BigFoot only has a 500W motor and the author said it was easy to stop. My kids bought me a Festool RAP- 150 rotary that weighs in @ 4.2 lbs instead. If you have a 3401 and like it, I think the BigFoot is a luxury. That being said, with my polisher fetish, I will probably buy one next. Leaning to the pneumatic 15 though.

[Mike Phillips]

If this machine does all it says and proves to be reliable, I'm sure it will replace the Flex 3401 as the high-end machine of choice (since they are in the same ballpark price-wise). I don't know if it's going to fundamentally alter the low-price/high-price market split, or increase the market for DA's, though.

I have a lot of people feeding me information about this tool. One thing for sure, there's lots of opinions, some I respect, some I'm just taking in.

At this point I'm just keeping an open mind till the tools are in my hands and a wiped-out mess is in front of me. My own opinion is what's really going to matter to me.

I actually love the buzz created by "new" detailing products. I remember Lab Sample D and all the buzz it created and countless other products since then.

At the end of the day, everything is found out, everything is figured out. Opinions are voiced, minds are made up. We have to keep in mind that people are different, I've met people that love one tool and dislike another tool and in the same room there will be someone with the exact opposite sentiment.

When it comes to power tools there's also the learning curve required to master the tool plus the custom technique each person develops with a tool that works for them.

One thing I believe is a person needs to spend a lot of hours behind a tool to really get a feel for it and its capabilities and the only way to do this is to buff out a lot of cars in all kinds of conditions with all kinds of body shapes. That's where the rubber meets the road...

[RaskyR1]

IMO, the 3401 will still have a place for those who have cleared the learning curve. Someone compared the 3401 to the BigFoot and concluded the FLEX corrected faster . The BigFoot only has a 500W motor and the author said it was easy to stop. My kids bought me a Festool RAP- 150 rotary that weighs in @ 4.2 lbs instead. If you have a 3401 and like it, I think the BigFoot is a luxury. That being said, with my polisher fetish, I will probably buy one next. Leaning to the pneumatic 15 though.

If it's the comparison I'm thinking of the author used different pads and polishes on each tool....hardly a fair comparison and the review was very Flex biased from the start.

That being said I will agree it's easy enough to stop the rotation on a complex or curved panel...but on a flat area no reasonable amount of pressure is stopping it...especially with the Kevin Brown mod installed.

It's cut down my polishing times and increased the user comfort. Win win in my book.


My Italian stallions!

Rocky I



Rocky II (This little guy is a RID killing machine!!!)

[Old Tiger]

Chad I believe you are right! I am glad you now have RO's that do exactly what you want to do.