How To Use The Flex 3401



Be sure to watch the below vide0s plus read the article...

For those of you that want to lubricate the felt ring on your Flex 3401, here's a video that shows you how... starts at the 1:45 time mark...






About Flex 3401 Forced Rotation Dual Action Polisher
The Flex 3401 is a gear driven, forced rotation dual action polisher with a variable speed controller enabling you to select the appropriate speed for the task at hand. The Flex 3401 is purposefully built for machine polishing paint. The Flex 3401 is German Engineered to be a professional grade tool that can be used in a production environment under heavy use. There are multiple backing plates and pads available for this tool for just about any type of paint correction, polishing or even machine waxing.


Here's my demo truck, a severely neglected Chevy Tahoe owned by my buddy Dave who's not really into car detailing but more into building Monster Trucks and Swamp Buggies for use at the Mud Fests in in South Florida.

This Tahoe has been repainted at some point in it's history but since then I doubt it's ever been waxed, let alone washed.

Speedy Prep Towel
I clayed the passenger side of the hood using the Speedy Prep Towel Medium Grade with Detailer's Universal Clay Lube before starting.




Here you can see water spotting and general staining and oxidation of the paint. Because the Flex 3401 is a gear-driven, forced rotation polisher it offers a lot of power and for this reason I'm able to buff out this large section at one time.



Here's the Flex 3401 as well as some products from Optimum Polymer Technologies.



Here I'm priming a Microfiber Cutting Pad with Optimum Compound II






Here I've turned the polisher on and spread my working product evenly over the entire surface I'm going to work.



I work the section using overlapping passes and a crosshatch pattern...




Even after wiping the hood clean and removing all the above surface bonded contaminants off using the speedy Prep Towel you can see all kinds of embedded dirt coming off the paint onto the pad. Note I have a clean pad in the picture for contrast.




Here I'm wiping the compound residue off and you can see a clear, glossy finish is starting to return.








Next I switch to the Optimum Microfiber Polishing Pad and Optimum Finish and proceed to prime the pad and then add the working product.





I repeat the overlapping, crosshatch pattern to the same section. Both the compound and the polish were applied using speed setting 6





The clarity and gloss are increasing after using the Optimum Finish



You can actually see the metallic flake now...



For contrast, here's what the paint looked before which is dull and flat and then to the right side is clear, glossy paint.



Optimum Car Wax
After compounding and polishing the rest of the hood I then applied the Optimum Car Wax which offers patented UV Inhibitors, the same UV Inhibitors that are used in clear coat paint formulas. Dave parks this in the South Florida sunshine everyday so the paint needs all the protection it can get...




Here's the end resuls...





The Flex 3401 is a powerful tool and a tool that can get the job done fast without the risk of burning the paint or instilling swirls at the same time.


On Autogeek.net


Flex 3401

Optimum Polymer Technologies

Detailers Car Care Products