Equipment & Product for Polishing Paint

[Geo Hahn]

I have two TRs, one a respray in clearcoat over paint, the other original paint. Both could benefit from something more than mere claying and waxing can achieve but... What is a good product to use and what equipment works well with it?

I'd prefer to try a product that I can buy locally at the FLAPS or perhaps an auto body supply shop.

For the tools (orbital, pads, etc) if possible something from Harbor Freight is more my budget than shopping at one of the catalogue auto boutiques.

I guess I'm looking for easy to use, likely to make it look better and unlikely to make things worse.

 

[Andrew Mace]

From personal experience, I suggest being VERY CAREFUL with any product on original paint. As nice as most of the factory paint jobs were, they were not all that thick!

And along those same lines, I'd be careful if you decide to go to a "professional detailer" as well. Make sure that there's at least one person there who actually knows how cars used to be painted and, therefore, knows how to properly care for that paint.

 

[DougF]

If you are looking for a good product for lighter work, 3M Imperial Hand Gaze #05990 is a favorite of mine.
For all around use though, I use my high speed buffer with various grades of pads and a couple different polishes.

 

[trrdster2000]

Geo, spend the little extra to get the Griot's Car Care Products. The buffer is as mistake proof as you can get and the compounds are great. This doesn't mean you can't use other compounds but all of Griot's stuff is water clean up, so you can put the buffer pads and cloths in the washing machine.

Wayne

 

[Brosky]

From my prior life I was taught how to use a high speed buffer to cut down lacquer, as well as to bring enamel up to a high gloss. Both of those, as well as clear coats can be very easy to screw up, even if you know what you are doing and have the right pads, compounds, etc.

This fall I bought a Griot's garage R/A polisher and couldn't be happier with it and the results that it brings. I knew it was expensive, but I considered it as a investment in a tool for life, as they are extremely well built. And I also considered the cost of a paint job and that swayed my decision to go all the way with the 6" polisher and their line of polishes. You actually use very little polish and wax to bring a paint finish up to showroom standards, because it's all in following the guide and letting the machine do the work for you.

It actually improved the finish on my TR6 and TR8 and neither were too shabby to begin with. I am VERY pleased with the products.

If you look at these pictures, you can see everything around or above the cars reflecting in the paint after the Griot did it's work.

 

[martx-5]

When I painted the TR3, after all the wet sanding, I used a borrowed polisher with foam pads and 3M Glazing compound to bring out the shine. I did manage to burn through in a couple of spots. Fortunately, the car is painted black and has black primer, so it's not noticeable. I had to give the polisher back, but decided to buy something that I could use for all the cars.

I wound up with a Porter-Cable 7424 variable speed, random/orbital polisher. Supposedly, the random/orbital action cuts down on the likelihood of burning through the paint. I've used it several times on each car in the fleet, and like it very much. Here's a video of the techniques...there are a ton of different polishing compounds out there, and everyone has there favorites. But, after using this Porter-Cable polisher, I'd never go back to doing it by hand.

3lmQ2LI" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"> </embed></object>

 

[Brosky]

That unit looks a lot like my Griot unit.....Porter is top quality in power tools. Richard may have had them build his units for him.

BTW, on that top TR6 picture, you can see that I'm using the orange pad, which is for the polish and that was the finest grade, #4. I didn't have the wax on the TR6 at that point in time.

The TR8 is waxed (after two complete polishes, #3 & #4) in the bottom picture.

And I did buy the bonnets to fit over the buffer to remove the wax. If you follow the DVD instructions and use the wax sparingly, there isn't much to remove, but by using the bonnets, it is soooo easy and it shines so well. One quick wipe with the micro fiber towels and it's showtime.

 

[DNK]

Paul, you need to fly out and demonstrate that thing on my Wedge.

 

[justin_mercier]

I'd ask him to drive 10 miles north to my house and demonstrate it on my wedge instead.. but as said above, the original TR paint is very thin, and in fact the paint has been over-buffed over the years on my wedge, leading to a few spots , particularly on the roof where the ridge is (being a FHC) where it's essentially down to primer.

So be careful buffing out the paint on any original paint, you could easily do more harm than good.

 

[DNK]

Mines been repainted and was buffed out by a blind guy.. So ,no loss

 

[This14u]

+1 on the Porter-Cable. Got one online for I thought $99. That with a variety of pads and compounds and you're all set. I've never had a problem going through paint. The thing is fool-proof.

Also works great cleaning fiberglass boats.

 

[hondo402000]

I got the porter cable Random orbit polisher too, but I use my 3M DA sander with the foam pads and 3 different types of compounds, I think I got the pads and polishes from Autogeeks.com. So if you have an air compressor and a DA sander that used velcro disc all you need are the different foam pads and compounds

they work like a champ, no swirl marks either

Hondo

 

[dklawson]

An additional option if you wish to minimize expenses is to use a 5" or 6" orbital sander with polishing foam pads. This will only seem attractive if you already have an orbital sander. As others mentioned above, a high-quality glazing compound may be all you need if the paint is otherwise intact.

I have an older Bosch 5" orbital that I modified slightly with a spacer block to move the Velcro pad further away from the tool body. That allowed me to use tie-on lamb's wool bonnets and 5" or 6" polishing foam pads. I can buy the 3M pads locally but they are rather expensive so I began purchasing generic pads off eBay. The orbital sander, foam pads, and glazing compound do a very nice job of bringing the shine back to slightly weathered paint.

 

[TR3driver]

https://www.harborfreight.com/10-inch-random-orbit-waxer-polisher-43424.html

 

[PAUL161]

I have mine done by a paint shop. Not that I'm extravagant, it's just power polishing a car can easily damage the paint if you don't have "The Feel"! Takes a lot of experience to do it right and I wouldn't want to take a chance on a $5000 to $6000 paint job, or even less. But that's just me. Waxing, well that's another story. PJ

 

[mallard]

Hi George I also have the Porter-Cable and think it works great. I even used it to finish sand the entire car before priming it. If you happen to be in my neck of the woods you could try it out. My truck could use a good buffing out. Porter-Cable is a well made tool, unlike some of the other stuff out there.

 

[Geo Hahn]

...If you happen to be in my neck of the woods you could try it out. My truck could use a good buffing out...

Choose your reply:

1) Thank you for that generous offer.

2) In your dreams.

I will look into these options as this is something I need to get better at.

 

[Brosky]

Look closely at the specs on the Griot and see if it matches the Porter that you are thinking of getting. I'd be curious to know if it's the same unit.

 

[PC]

Look closely at the specs on the Griot and see if it matches the Porter that you are thinking of getting. I'd be curious to know if it's the same unit.

The Griot’s machine is not made by Porter-Cable. Richard has his machines made for him by an OEM tool manufacturer in China.

Griot’s <span style="font-style: italic">used</span> to sell the Porter-Cable 7424 a number of years back, as did Meguiar’s (the Meg’s machines had both PC and Meg’s labels, Richard sold machines with PC labeling) but both have are now sourcing machines from other vendors.

Both Griot’s and Meg’s are currently selling their second generations of non-Porter-Cable built units.

I’m sure there are a number of reasons that they ended their relationships with PC. But I wouldn’t be surprised if PC’s assimilation by the Borg, er, I mean Black & Decker, had a lot to do with it.

PC’s original 7424 family was sold in multiple variants, 7424, 7335, 7336 and 7336SP, which were all nearly identical except for backing plates and counterweights.

PC had now introduced a revised sander/polisher family, with the 7424XP, 7345, 7346. 97455 and 97466.

If you’re incensed that Richard would go offshore to source his machines, keep in mind that Porter-Cable shuttered the US factory where my polisher was built and shipped the tooling off to Mexico.

…I'd prefer to try a product that I can buy locally at the FLAPS or perhaps an auto body supply shop.

For the tools (orbital, pads, etc) if possible something from Harbor Freight is more my budget than shopping at one of the catalogue auto boutiques….

You can probably find a Porter-Cable in a sander variant locally, through building supplies, home improvement centers and other construction tool vendors. If you get it in a Porter-Cable box you’ll need to get buffing pads and a backing plate from a detailing or body shop supplier.

The online detailing market had gotten very competitive. They probably have lower prices than your local shops, especially when you factor in the pads and backing plate.

Amazon has the 7424XP for $99 right now.

This sort of machine has very limited usefulness for detailing LBC’s.

The first major limitation is pad size. A 10” pad is very clumsy to maneuver around a small car or even the complicated curves of most larger cars and trucks. The 6” pads of the PC style units are much more maneuverable and work well on almost all cars.

The second major limitation is the polishing pads themselves; 10” polishers don’t have them. They use bonnets instead. Good bonnets are harder to find and you have to use sealed bonnets for applying chemicals, otherwise they soak through and contaminate your next process.

The biggest limitation of 10” polishers is power, or rather power to surface ratio. These things usually have motors rated at around 50 Watts. The PC and similar units have motors rated somewhere around 400 Watts. The big, cheap units have about an eighth of the power channeled into twice the pad surface. They simply don’t have enough power to do significant correction of surface defects. If you’re only “spreading stuff around” that’s ok. But if you need to work out defects with a compound or cutting polish you won’t get very far.



pc.

 

[Brosky]

I'm not incensed or surprised at all.

I just watched the Stanley plant close next door in Rhode Island about a month ago. One of a hundred or more manufacturing facilities that have closed in the northeast in the last few years. Those who are waiting for this recession to end have a long wait. There is no base to build industry and jobs on any more. But that's another topic for another time and place.

Back to our regularly scheduled thread on polishers...........

(I wouldn't be surprised if the Griot polisher was a reversed engineered exact copy of the Porter either.)