Problems machine polishing on curved body panels

[evo77]

I've only used my PC about a half a dozen times (so I'm no professional) but I encountered something that I've never dealt with before. Well actually I have but not as frequent as this. When trying to polish my daughters 2015 Hyundai Accent I noticed in many of the concave areas of the hood, doors and bumpers, the pad would stop spinning. I tried different angles to get the pad to spin freely but when I succeeded it was not full pad contact and I had to lift off some which in the end yielded sub par defect removal results.

I was using 5.5" pads with a speed of 6 and while they were obviously too large for these contours, what else could I do except buy smaller pads for these sections? Or is there a technique that I am unaware of that I could apply to these areas?

My other concern was that the machine may not be performing at 100%. It was way to easy to stop the pad in these areas. I do realize it is a safety feature of the machine which is great but it really didn't take much effort. In fact in speeds slower than 5, I am unable to apply ANY pressure other than the weight of the machine because if I do, the pad stops spinning.

Do these machines need tune ups occasionally?

[Mike Phillips]

That's just how free spinning tools work.

You can get a 3" backing plate and then get 3.5" pads for better pad rotation when buffing curved panels. I recently wrote a review for the new Griot's Garage 3" HD Backing Plate and it will fit your PC.



Griot's Garage 3" BOSS HD Orbital Backing Plate






This is one of the benefits to the FLEX 3401, because it's gear driven it doesn't care what the shape of the panel is... it's going plow right through it.

Here's my quote...


With the FLEX 3401 you can power through a detail job -Mike Phillips