Flex PE-08 owners... hologram worries?

[ignited22]

Hi everyone,
I am looking to purchase the pe-08 for precise correction work on smaller panels and such. I am worried that this tool will be leaving holograms in the corrected areas. Am I just being overly paranoid? How do you like your polishers and have you seen great results? Lets just assume we are all using this tool appropriately and with the appropriate products, does it do the job well? I feel the answer is a resounding "YES!", but I just wanted to ask anyway. Thanks all!

[haris300]

You can use a finishing pad and a finishing polish to eliminate holograms/buffer trails that could have been leftover from a more aggressive correction approach. As with other rotary machines, you can finish down amazingly as long as you have the right product, pad, and technique.

Here I used a 2 inch orange cutting pad with a compound and finished with a black pad and a fine polish:





It really is a wonderful machine to use. I hardly ever find myself using anything past speed 1. Honestly my only complaint is that the power switch feels a little awkward.

[apthai]

I don't have any experience with a rotary but got one after using it at a Bay Area Meet & Greet. I don't think you have anything to worry about it. I've used it about a dozen time and each time it came out great.

[gjkwpd]

I love it. Great for tight spots and awesome for taillights/headlights. I agree with the power switch and speed 1-2 is perfect for everything. I was worried about holograms too but haven't run into any yet.

[Paul A.]

Holograms with a rotary can sneak up on even a seasoned rotary user. I have almost...and i say almost...all but eliminated them with my techniques but the key for me is to put my finished work in the most discerning light i can get. Most times its direct sun light. I have been surprised a few times to see what looks like a perfect finish under shop lighting pulled out and into the bright FL sun and bam! Faint buffer trails/holograms! Damn. Once more into the garage and GONE.

Learn to do that after your test spot(s) and don't make the mistake of waiting until you thought you were done with the entire vehicle.

The PE-8 is a perfect finesse machine and is ideal for lower front fascia, rear panels, pillars, etc. but is still a rotary, forced rotation machine and holograms/buffer trails are more readily inflicted over a DA. Just make sure you inspect your efforts under the most discriminating lighting. Basically, put the honey with no makeup under a search light!

[Rsurfer]

Love the PE8 for tight areas, but the Mini works in most cases.

[VincenzaV]

I have the PE-08 and it will (like all rotary's) leave holograms. It doesn't do it 100% of the time or anything, but depending on:
-Compound I'm using
-Me
-Pad
-How much compound
-Moon's gravitational pull

Etc. Great too for small spaces and POWERFUL. Even though I run speed 1 mostly, and no bigger than 3.5" pads, mine gets pretty hot. Not to where the thermal protection kicks in, but maybe I'm putting too much pressure on it.

It still gets hot even if I plug in into the inverter w/o a short extension card. I think others have experienced it.

It works PERFECT however for the purpose I bought it (headlights).

[AGOatemywallet]

Used my PE8 last night with CarPro 3 1/2" Flash Pads on speed 2.

Fantastic cut and less holograms than with the 3 1/2" FLEX Orange Cutting Pad.


Initially, I was not overly impressed with this machine, but it is growing on me.

[Audios S6]

With good technique you can minimize hologram occurances. Even if you do have them after your compounding step, following up with a fine polish will take care of them. You could also follow up with a 3" pad on DA. For me, doing two steps is still much faster than doing a single step with DA trying to get more cut.

[CarolinasFinestDetailing]

My only complaint about the machine is that I wish it had a lower speed setting. Having said that; you can finish tight spaces well with black foam pad & finishing polish. I hold the machine up a bit when finishing, basically I don't let the full weight of the machine sit.