Removing RIDS with the Griot's GR3 Rotary Polisher - 1973 Camaro Z28

[Mike Phillips]

Removing RIDS with the Griot's GR3 Rotary Polisher - 1973 Camaro Z28


The Griot's GR3 Rotary Polisher






Lots of power in a pint-size package

I recently shared a What's in the box? write-up showcasing the new Griot's Garage GR3 but I know what everyone wants to see is this tool in ACTION!

At a recent detailing class, one of the cars my class detailed was this beautiful 1973 Camaro Z28. The picture below was taking during the class after the class detailed the 1973 Camaro Z28 and also the 2013 Camaro. This class detailed a total of 17 cars in 3 days.





Something happened to the car?

When I say something happened? I mean something bad happened. Because SEMA show in Las Vegas was cancelled due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, we held a LIVE virtual SEMA here at Autogeek. For eye-candy in the background and for some product demonstrations, I asked the owner if we could borrow the car for about a week. The owner was kind and said no problem and dropped his incredibly cool Z28 off at Autogeek for Yancy, our SEMA guests and myself to use.


The car left with a show car finish

While the car left with a show car finish, upon inspecting the car after it arrived, and this would be approximately one month later after the 3-day detailing class, a walk-around the car using the Griot's Garage Swirl Finder Light revealed most of the car now had light swirls and scratches. There was also a bumpy feel to the paint, as though it had overspray? I know my class washed, clayed, did paint correction and then sealed the paint so I was surprised to see and feel how the paint had gone down hill in such a short span of time. I checked with the owner and asked him if anything had happened to the car and that's when he said besides driving it, (which I would do to), he took it in for some bodywork and paint at a collision shop. Now everything makes sense.


Perfect timing

Previously when I had asked the owner if we could use his car while I was excited to have this iconic muscle car back to our shop for video work, I was kind of let down because I knew, (at least at that time), that it didn't need anything, that is, after my class detailed it - there wasn't anything it would need in the way of detailing. And the thing was - I needed a car to test out some new Griot's polishers so I could do some write-ups and review, like this one you're reading right now. So while it's never a good thing to re-instill swirls and scratches into a properly detailed car it provided me with the opportunity to test out the tools. In this example - the Griot's Garage GR3 Rotary Polisher.


Surgical Buffing

Anytime you need to get a small pad into a small place, an intricate place or to do paint correction to a thin, usually linear panel - I call this surgical buffing. Instead of taking a normal size polisher to the major body panels, like the way you would take a machete to vines in the jungle, you use a smaller, lightweight compact tool with smaller pads for these more intricate areas, like a Doctor using a scalpel.


Removing RIDS on the front clip of a 1973 Z28 Camaro

While the entire car had light swirling and scratches, my guess is from being wiped down at the body using less than perfect towels), their were some RIDS or Random Isolated Deeper Scratches on the front clip of the car.


Here's the car after a waterless wash





The Griot's Garage BOSS LED Swirl Finder Light

I love this tool. This is actually my personal BOSS LED Swirl Finder Light. Jeff Brown at Griot's sent it to me to test out pre-launch a few years ago. You can read my review here.





Right up at the driver's side front of the Camaro was a scraggly looking scratch.







Over towards the center section of the passenger side there were some more random deeper scratches...














Griot's GR3 to the rescue!

These random isolated deeper scratches provided me with the perfect opportunity to test out the new Griot's GR3 Rotary Polisher. One thing I'll point out about this particular Camaro is the black stripes are single stage paint. The rest of the car, the red paint is basecoat/clearcoat, but the black stripes are painted on top of the clearcoat. And the thing about this is black single stage paint tends to be softer than most other paints so trying to get into these areas with a LARGE buffing pad would mean buffing on the single stage paint and the clearcoat paint at the same time and that can be a recipe for disaster.

For the RIDS at the front of the car I used a combination of the 2" backing plate and the 1" backing plate with matching Griot's pads on the new Griot's GR3 Rotary Polisher. I also used the Griot's Fast Correction Cream.




Extension make it easier to see what you're doing

Besides enabling you to get into tight areas, another benefit to an extension on a rotary polisher is it separates the buffing pad away from the body of the tool and this makes it a lot easier to see where you're moving the buffing pad at all times.








The indented finger grips at the head of the polisher give you a sure grip on the tools and that's important anytime you're doing surgical buffing.






The smaller buffing pads and the short extension made it super easy to buff the paint around the Camaro emblem













There's also textured rubber gripping pads on the bottom of the middle of the tool. By holding the polisher like this not only do I have full control over the buffing pad but both my arm and my hands are out of the way from my field of vision.




An hour later...

This type of work is not fast, at least it shouldn't be. When doing surgical buffing to remove RIDS with a rotary polish on SOMEONE ELSE'S CAR - I know from experience it's best to take your time so you can be careful. If I were to make a mistake, not only is that a bad thing but being at the front of the car - the very front - where everyone stands and looks at the car to admire it - well... you really don't want to rush and make a mistake.





You can see some black paint on the face of the pads - this is because the stripes are single stage black paint.







Here's the results...











Final results

After doing the surgical work with the Griot's GR3 Rotary Polisher I then buffed out the entire car using the new Griot's BOSS 21 and BOSS 15 long stroke random orbital polishers. I'll share a separate write-up for those two tools. And in-case anyone is wondering, I did re-polish the areas I worked with the rotary polisher with the random orbital polishers to ensure there were no holograms left behind in the paint. This is normal protocol for professional quality work.







Review

Griot's only puts out top quality tools, pads and products. While most people think they target the enthusiast market, (and they do), all their products are pro-grade quality. There are plenty of full time, professional detailers that use the entire array of Griot's tools, pads and products to sustain their business and satisfy their customers. This new addition to the Griot's line of high quality tools is no exception. It's well-built. It's smooth and easy to use. Every aspect of the design and layout is well thought out. It's lightweight, compact in size and also - very quiet. The backing plate assortment means you can pick an choose the best size pad for the task at hand. The extension shafts will enable you to get into areas you could never reach with a full size orbital polisher and in some case by hand.

The Griot's GR3 Rotary Polisher is a nice addition to anyone's tools collection, be they do-it-yourselfer weekend warriors of pro detailers working a full time detailing business 6 days a week. And if there were any hesitation on Griot's customer service after the sale, like all Griot's tools, the GR3 Rotary Polisher comes with a limited lifetime warranty. Just be sure to fill out the warranty card I share in my review here.



One more thing...

I know that in the car detailing world there are well-founded fears surrounding the use of rotary buffers because they have a deserved historic reputation for burning through paint or leaving a car filled with unsightly holograms. While this is true for large size rotary buffers with large pads and this is key - people using these tools without proper training or quality pads and products - when you SHRINK the size of the backing plates down and thus the size of the buffing pads - this type of tool becomes incredible easy to use and control. And as long as you use quality pads and products with a touch of common sense, you can do amazing paint correction and polishing in tight, intricate areas or on thin strips of paint like you saw above without any of the problems associated with these tools historically. The smaller size of the tool, the backing plates and the pads simple make this a very user-friendly rotary polisher. I'm writing this from the point of view of a guy that started out in this industry using a rotary buffer for decades as well as teaching how to use the rotary buffer in both my car and boat detailing classes. So do your due research but keep this in mind, smaller tool, smaller pads makes learning to use the GR3 easy and safe.



On Autogeek.com

Griot’s Garage GR3 Mini Rotary Polisher

All Griot's Garage Products

[Mike Phillips]

More....


For a closer look at the new GR3 Mini Rotary Polisher, check out my other write-up here,


What's in the box? Griot's GR3 Mini Rotary Polisher!

[Skier404]

Mike, What does Griots have to say about using there compounds with a rotary tool. My guess that as a company they did a lot of testing with their products to be confident that it works with both machine applications. The only reason I bring it up is I know that there are many products on the market that are rotary or DA specific.

[vaced]

Hello and thanks for the great post.

This seems like a very user friendly tool. I am wondering if you have any insight to share about how the smaller pad size and/or using an extension affects how hot the pad (and paint) get?

[Mike Phillips]

Mike, What does Griots have to say about using there compounds with a rotary tool.

My guess that as a company they did a lot of testing with their products to be confident that it works with both machine applications. The only reason I bring it up is I know that there are many products on the market that are rotary or DA specific.

Great question and I'll send the link to this thread to Rod Kraft for the official Griot's answer.

That said, I've used the Griot's BOSS Creams extensivley and also showcase them in my car detailing classes for the Griot's BOSS Detailing Class. Here's the deal, everyone, including me, says the same thing about them,

1. Excellent cut and finish (all 4 product even the Fast Correction Cream)
2. Infinity buffing cycle
3. Zero dusting
4. Never any micro-marring

The above is off the top of my head but I think the above 4 points speak volumes about their abrasive technology.

For bullet points 2 and 3 - I believe these products are completely compatible with the rotary action of small pads. Larger pads? I don't know. But there's a lot changes in the buffing dynamics when working a very small area at low RPMS then busting out the old conventional rotary buffer and buffing out entire cars with a 8" twisted wool cutting pad.

I will say I saw no downside from the above experience.


Let's let Rod chime in for the official word.

Hello and thanks for the great post.

This seems like a very user friendly tool.

I am wondering if you have any insight to share about how the smaller pad size and/or using an extension affects how hot the pad (and paint) get?

I don't think I included the speeds I used in the above original write-up, I generated a LOT Of content the same day), but I ran the new GR3 on the 1 speed setting when using the tool with the power lock button in the locked position.

Or

I feathered the trigger and ran the tool around 400 RPM - nice and slow and smooth.

Neither application generated any substantial heat.

Just to comment - when buffing with any rotary for isolated defects - it is important to monitor heat because there's no cooling time like there would be if you were using larger pads and working larger sections.

Kind of hard to explain with a keyboard but for example,

If you're buffing out a large section on the hood of a car, say 2' by 2' - as you're buffing one area of this large section - the areas you're not buffing are cooling down. As you work your way back to these other areas - the area you just buffed is cooling down. It's a normal heat exchange dynamic.

When you buff just in a single place - there is no "cooling time". Thus you MUST pay attention to surface temperature. If you get the paint too hot with any brand of rotary polisher you can TWIST the paint, (mostly just clearcoat paint). With all paints - if you get the paint to hot you can buff or BURN right through it.

I teach and practice the technique I came up with and shared here back in 2009 - gosh - seems like it was just yesterday.

Fight or Flight Method for Gauging Surface Temperature







And the reason the technique I share in the article works so well is because....


Wherever I go...

I take my hand with me!






I don't need no stinking tools!

[Rod Kraft]

Mike, What does Griots have to say about using there compounds with a rotary tool. My guess that as a company they did a lot of testing with their products to be confident that it works with both machine applications. The only reason I bring it up is I know that there are many products on the market that are rotary or DA specific.

Hi Skier404, Although our BOSS Creams were originally developed for orbital polishing, they are perfectly fine for use with rotary polishers. Because you may generate more heat on the paint surface when using a rotary process, it may affect minor issues with buffing cycle & product cut. But nothing that would dramatically hinder the performance. Hope this helps!

[Rod Kraft]

Hello and thanks for the great post.

This seems like a very user friendly tool. I am wondering if you have any insight to share about how the smaller pad size and/or using an extension affects how hot the pad (and paint) get?

Hi Vaced, As Mike mentioned, due to the smaller size of the tool and backing plate/pads, it allows for more precise control of the tool without the risk a much larger more traditional sized rotary presents. Think about the smaller footprint of a 3" 2" or 1" pad vs. a larger 7" 8" or 9" pad and the pad to surface contact from each size. Although there are many factors that create risks while using a rotary polisher vs. a random orbital, such as pad type, RPM, arm/tool pass speed, downward pressure of the tool, paint type, product etc., all in all you can still create heat with smaller pads. The extension would have no contributing factor adding or reducing heat to the paint surface. Hope this helps.

[Mike Phillips]

Thanks for chiming in Rod,

I know you're a busy guy.

[Rod Kraft]

Anytime!