Didn't have time to clay this time around, but i just had to try out that $20 Random-orbit buffer from Wal-Mart.

Not too shabby don't you think?







Higher resolution pics (and some more angles) can be found here.

If anything, my only complaint about that buffer is it vibrates too much - makes my hands tingle after a while :P

 

mmmmmmmmm makes me wanna buy one now for when I do my first major clay/polish/wax job

Was this after waxing?
(not to mention this might get moved to the Detailing forum )

 

Nice, bud!! Nice weather to try it out in as well!!!

 

Yep, this was after a single coat of Mother's I was afraid that i might scratch the car with the buffer after reading of some stories here on the .Org.

But after trying it out on the spoiler (most inconspicuous place that's easy to fix i could think of) i went for it

 

No kidding! Houston should be like this more often! This past week all i have to do to keep the car shiny is dust it down with the California Duster.

 

actually its not NT2SHBBY, cuz then it would be Sterling PIMP colored...

looks good tho.... now imma go to wal-mart and cop me one of them

 

Good one!

Just a tip when you go to Wal-Mart. They have two different boxes of the same model, brand and price. One comes with 20ft of cord, a bag and a couple of pads, the other doesn't.

So, be on the lookout for the one with the cord and bag.

 

haha...I take it you must be from NY also....either that or the NYers got grimey and started to take over the rest of the US...

 

wanna do mine Mike?

 

Sure, wanna drive down to Houston?

 

i'm in houston, wanna do mine? for free of course :P

 

Dave is a good friend of mine... so it's free for him.

But who are you?

J/K

 

Looks great, Mike. That's just with Mother's? No clay bar? No polish?

 

 

Last time i clayed it was several months ago, so yep... that's just with Mother's. No polish either.

 

that looks incredible! No paint chips either? Wish my maj. blue looked like that!

 

Notice i don't have frontal shots? That's because of the numerous chips up front

 

How long did it take? I am interested in getting an orbital buffer but am afraid that it will leave those nasty circular swirl marks that i have seen on some cars that have been detailed. Any tips or mabye write down the process.

 

Those "nasty circular swirl marks" are what happens when MORONS or GREASE MONKEYS are handed a rotary polisher (ie, a loaded gun), some stuff in a squeeze bottle, and are shoved infront of a car and told to give it a quick "detail" in 30 seconds!

Assuming the bonnets sold with these machines aren't scratchy, any of these cheap orbital buffers should be perfectly safe to use.

 

hmm...i bought one yesterday and i jus wanted to ask a few questions. do i use the cloth bonnet for polish and wax?? what do i use the wool for? i am a noob...sorry...oh and i accidently grabbed the one witout the extention cord...LoL...should i take it back and get the other one? haah thanx

 

Any random orbital is okay. Man, I dunno...I've never been real enthusiastic about buying cheap tools. The Porter cable has enough trouble buffing out DACP, I can't imagine the $20 Wallmart special would be adequate, but I guess you never know. All I know is that if my POrter Cable broke tommorrow I would have a new one by the end of the day. The thing has been reliable and powerful and just a very well made tool.

As far as pads xCarreraGTx don't use any of those. You need to get foam pads such as the ones from Griots or Properautocare.com. Wool is more aggressive than you probably need (yes it does make a difference), and cloth is okay for removing stuff (though removing stuff by hand is really necessary because the pads get clogged and coated with stuff too quick) but not what you need for applying polish.

 

Thanks for the reply. If I can't use the cloth bonnet for polish, do I use something else for it? Also, do I put the wax and stuff on the car and then use the buffer or put the wax on the pad and buff it?

 

The foam pads I recommended are for the polish.

You put the polish in 3 short lines on the bottom of the pad near the edges. Then put the pad on the paint and move it around a little before turning the buffer on. If you turn it on without spreading the polish around a little it will splatter everywhere = big pain in the a$$. Always turn the buffer off and on while in contact with the paint to avoid making a mess. You don't need a lot of polish...but you don't want too little either. Just 3 short 1-2inch lines should be enough.

 

The problem is, you can't USE those nice foam pads from ProperAutoCare or Griots. They have to attach with velcro, which the Wal-Mart buffer isn't designed to do unless you want to rip off the foam stuff and stick an adapter onto it.... Pretty much all of the cheaper retail buffers just use bonnets, which is one reason I ended up with a Porter Cable instead.

I'd just use the terry bonnets for polishing and maybe the wool for that too if the terry doesn't seem to be doing it. These things don't jiggle very fast so wool might not be such a crazy idea. It might leave some hazing or something that you'll have to polish out though (depending on what polish you're using). I'd buff things out by hand rather than using the machine.

For wax application I think they supply you with a special blue bonnet for that.

 

What kind of polish would you guys recommend to go with this buffer. I want to polish this part of my door that was dull out from using rubbing compound on it. I got a can of turtle wax polishing compound, is that going to work or should I get something better? Also did you guys use the pads that came with this buffer to buff out the wax and polish ? If so which one did you use ?

 

Endus named one option which is Meguiar's #83 Dual Action Cleaner Polish. Then you would need to follow it with another polish to remove the light swirling.

 

Man, that sucks! I would definitely buy the PC or anything else just to be able to use the foam pads. I used to use terry pads to post-buff wax, but I don't even do that anymore because they lint all over the place and seem to mess up the shine.

People on autopia have said that you can use wool pads with the PC...but you're upping the agressiveness significantly. I would imagine that that would affect the quality of the final finish as well. Even using DACP as a final polishing step isn't the best, but if you can buff it out compeltely the abrasive seems to diminish significantly enough to make it look pretty sick. That's what I say now, watch...next summer I'll be using some special ultra-fine polish as a final polish and swearing that you HAVE to use it or your car will look like crap. Haha.

 

I haven't used wool yet, but as with ALL pad and product selections you have to use them only when needed. That is, you don't use something like a wool pad or DACP or something unless you're either A) Totally confident from experience that you need something more aggressive to do the job, or B) You've tried something milder on it and it's not getting you anywhere. Wool pads and strong polishes have their place, just like everything else.

I don't think you'll find many people that recommend DACP as a final polish. It's much too strong for that purpose. This is not the same as saying that you might be able to get away without following it up with a milder polish, it just means that you shouldn't choose DACP with final polishing in mind. If you don't get any DACP hazing and it looks done to you, then great, you're done! But many people still follow up DACP with a swirl remover or something anyway either because they feel the finish could be improved, or "just in case".


Detailing is a lot of "case by case" work and "try it and see", because every job is a bit different and depends on an individual's methods. There are very few paint-by-numbers recipes, except for very general instructions.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

All very true!