Jeff Smith used a rotary for the first time.

[Jeff Smith]

Well, I took the big giant leap today and put the Rotary to my trucks finish. Like several people have told me would happen, my thinkng is, "Why did I not do this before?". It is thus far going great.

I a using a Makite 9227 with a 8006 pad & #82. After doing just the first small 2'x2' area I could tell immediatley the benefit of using the Rotary over the PC in certain conditions.

I am specifically after some minor MF/Towel induced swirl along with some other very minor scratches. They are going away rather nicley.

I am trying to stick to roughly a 2'x2' area. Trying to adhere to a speed of about 1' every 3-4 seconds. I have the speed set up to 1300. I overlap each pass by about 50% and once done doing a horizontal pattern I then go vertical. I keep the pad flat to the surface. I am also apllying the product by simply making a circle abut 1/2' in from the outside edge of the pad. So far I have done the roof, hood and the front fender well and figured I would stop for coffee and make a post.

I am a little unsre as to whether or not I am working the product long enough to acheive the best results but as I am working with white paint I am finding it very hard to judge. So I figure by using the method above on each section I should be pretty safe when it comes to overworking the product. That judgement will come with more experience.

My plan, once done with this phase, is to hit it next with the PC and a 8006 pad using #9. I don't seem to be causing myself any noticable swirl at this point but by looking at this white for exteded periods of time I am sure my eyes are not picking up what they have the potential for. So a pass with #9 should prove to be a good follow up for me.

[Mosca]

One thing that I think you'll appreciate with the rotary, especially if you're older (I'm 51), is no "PC fatigue"; the feeling you have the next day when your shoulders and forearms are sore and your hands are numb from that half a day of vibrating.

I think that personal instruction is SO important for learning the rotary. You can get more out of a 15 minute demonstration than you can from a book of instruction, or a month of experimenting on your own.

And the speed and ease of the work... it makes detailing so much more fun!

I wouldn't want to understate the ability of the tool to do damage. After all, without instruction it makes just as much sense to slap on a wool pad, crank the sucker up to 3000, and start polishing as it does to keep the speed low and work methodically. But anyone who takes the time to ask a few questions and use common sense can pick one up and start using it successfully.


Tom

[SpoiledMan]

Jeff,

It's good that you took the leap and didn't cause any damage. But one of the reasons that I recommended the beater car or a darker colored panel is that you can get an idea of how the polish works with the rotary. You're better able to tell what work has been done when the surface is in a poor condition. Even though you feel good about using the rotary on a white surface, you will gain more experience when you have to pass the test of a darker surface.

Happy polishing!

[Jeff Smith]

Originally posted by Mosca
One thing that I think you'll appreciate with the rotary, especially if you're older (I'm 51), is no "PC fatigue"; the feeling you have the next day when your shoulders and forearms are sore and your hands are numb from that half a day of vibrating.

I think that personal instruction is SO important for learning the rotary. You can get more out of a 15 minute demonstration than you can from a book of instruction, or a month of experimenting on your own.

And the speed and ease of the work... it makes detailing so much more fun!

I wouldn't want to understate the ability of the tool to do damage. After all, without instruction it makes just as much sense to slap on a wool pad, crank the sucker up to 3000, and start polishing as it does to keep the speed low and work methodically. But anyone who takes the time to ask a few questions and use common sense can pick one up and start using it successfully.


Tom

Tom, thanks for the feedback. I can see where the fatigue could be less because of the much smoother operation. The weight is there but seems to dimish slightly once the machine is in motion on the finish. Almost if is the combined action of the centrifugal forces along with the minor pressure needed to keep it against the finish almost acts to take some of the weight away. Seems that way anyway. Almost seems lighter once I have it rolling. I am only 39 but do have Carpel Tunnel and the PC does put a hurtin' on me in that regard.

I am very conscious of it's abiltiy to booger something up real fast. I have done enough reading on the matter and payed good attention to the lessons learned by others that while working and getting to various points, those lessons just pop into my mind.

Keeping in mind that I have learned alot from the folks on the forum, this may seem odd but the biggest thing that keeps going through my mind is regarding the cord. While using the PC if you have too much cord or to little or it is dragging the finish, it's pretty easy to readjust without stopping work. It is very apparent to me while doing this that with the Rotary it's either a focused effort or stop. One or the other with no in between. Don't look around, don't worry about where the dog is. Stay on your game. All of the other details as for as how to properly use the machine seem to be coming to me almost by instinct and common sense. But keeping focused is the primary thing that stays in the front of my mind. If my cord isn't right it's either let it go or stop. The same would go for any possible distraction.

[Jeff Smith]

Originally posted by SpoiledMan
Jeff,

It's good that you took the leap and didn't cause any damage. But one of the reasons that I recommended the beater car or a darker colored panel is that you can get an idea of how the polish works with the rotary. You're better able to tell what work has been done when the surface is in a poor condition. Even though you feel good about using the rotary on a white surface, you will gain more experience when you have to pass the test of a darker surface.

Happy polishing!

I have to be honest here. Even though I have the beater I still had fear of putting the rotary to work for the first time on a car that did not belong to me. It is my mothers boyfriends. This thing is in such poor shape I know I will need to use some of the more aggressive prodcts and I felt would increase the risk of my doing harm. I think using the Rotary on my own finish with some of the milder products gave me the confidence needed to get to work on the beater soon.

The white is very forgiving. I really have to look very hard, even in direct sunlight, to even see if I have met my goal of the minor swirl removal. While doing that I look for self caused rotary problems. I have not found any as yet but I can see after staring at the finish for a length of time where your eyes can get to a point that they see past the details. Once I am done with it all, I'll take a god break and re-evaluate before proceeding.

I started with the roof so that if I did hose something up it is above eye level. I wiped the roof down with 50/50 to inspect and did not see anything worth sweating so decided to continue using that method. I may not be getting the full breakdown needed but with it being white I think I am better off stopping short than going too far at this point in my experience. I am still going to follow up with the PC anyway.

[Jeff Smith]

I am still rolling on along with this. Taking my sweet time.

I do have a question to put out and will hopefully have a few answers on before I proceed with the next step.

What would be a good follow up for my present application with the Rotary using #82 with a 8006 Pad?

I guess my choices are as follows:

Rotary w/#82/9006
Rotary w/#9/8006
Rotary w/#9/9006

PC w/#82/8006
PC w/#82/9006
PC w/#9/8006
PC w/#9/9006

I plan to follow up after one of these with #3 with the PC and a 9006 pad but I was wondering if there would be any beneifit gained by using one of the options above. I realize, for appearance purposes, I will likely not see any major benefit. My main concern to hopefully reduce and/or eliminate any unseen swilrl marks after the Rotary use. I don't see any at this point but don't have any big problems at this point taking any precautionary steps to help make sure I done all I can to reduce any Rotary Swirl from showing up after all the work is complete.

I am also consider the option of a hand application of #7 before proceeding with the #21

[Mosca]

What does it look like after the rotary with #82? I would suspect pretty good! I'd PC it once with #9 OR #82 and a finishing pad and go forward.

#82 is Swirl Free Polish, right?


Tom

[Jeff Smith]

Originally posted by Mosca
What does it look like after the rotary with #82? I would suspect pretty good! I'd PC it once with #9 OR #82 and a finishing pad and go forward.

#82 is Swirl Free Polish, right?


Tom

Overall it looks great after the #82 Swirl Free Polish. I would say the Swirl is all but gone. The only obvious thing I see are a few very minor scratches that I had prior to starting. But I have a feeling the #80 will be needed for those and there are only a couple and hardly noticable. I think I'll not sweat those until Spring when I plan to Clay it up and start over. I'll then likely head straight to the #80 then back my way down.

OK I am gonna go #9 with the PC and a Finishing pad next then. I have Rotary fever here now and would just love to keep going at it with the Rotary, but realize no real benefit will be gained.

After the #9 I'll go to #3 with the PC and a finishing pad. The only problem there is I doubt I have enough left to do a whole vehilce. I'll knock out the Horizontal surfaces then go over the whole thing again with #7, hand applied. I should be ready for an LSP tonight.

Thanks for the assitance here. Nice knowing someone is keeping an eye on me.

[Jeff Smith]

Well, I got the application of the #82 with the PC & 9006 pad done. Looks great! After that proceeded with an application of #7 by hand via the Even Coat Applicator.

A few things I noticed durng the process so far:

The #82 seemed to leave a little more of the oily residue like I am used to seeing after using #7. This gave me alot of confidence that I had used the product well, as that kind of result told me the I polished long enough to break it down but yet not too long so as to dry it up. This oilyness was still visiable after the intial wipeoff of the product.

This oilyness was not quite as noticable after using the #9 and the PC. I am not sure it it is as oily as the #82 or not. My suspicion is that because the finish already had the oily sheen from the #82, so the oily look was not as prominate as it was after the application of the #82.

While using the Rotary I had good sunshine helping me to see. By the time I switched to the PC it had clouded up so it was difficult to judge whether or not I was working the white product long enough on my white paint. Experience will help with that in the future.

Next I will be applying #21 with the PC and a finishing Pad. I hope to get that done here in a few hours then follow up with a second coat in the morning. Looking forward to seeing the end result.

I'll snag some pics and post tomorrow whether I have full sun or not.

[Jeff Smith]

Just finished with the #21. Went on great. Man what a difference with that stuff with a well prepared surface. I have applied it on a few other cars for the first coat but there is something special when you first apply it on your own vehicle. I guess you get kind of use to the way it looks and then try something like this and say "WOW!, I didn't know it could look like that."

Needless to say I am very impressed with the work I have been able to knock out. Pulling that minor swirl out with the Rotary really puts the icing on the cake.

I put a little fast detail job on it and am looking forward to the morning when my co-wrkers start filing into work. Of course I just happened to park right where the morning sun will do it's thing.

I am going to give it a few hours then put another coat of #21 on it. I was thinking about NXT on top, was going to apply that with the PC as well but now I am kind of thinking I might just go ahead and hand apply it to make the attempt at leaving as much wax on the surface as possible. Will be pondering that today. Might have to do some forum searching on it.

[Accumulator]

What with your awareness of the need to stay focused, your sue of mild products, and your having natural sunlight (which will show holograms), it sounds like you went about everything the right way

[Paulvr4]

do it do it - barcardi cola - do it -

i'm interested in pics! woohoo - sounds good - let's see it!

[Pete-FWA]

Jeff, glad you finally worked the rotary.

With regards to oiliness from M82 vs. M09, M82 leaves more of that than M09 on anything I've compared them on. M09 seems to add more glow (glow vs. gloss), whereas M82 seems to leave things clear and glossy. Please don't misinterpret my comparison of gloss vs. glow. Think of it as similar to how some people compare M26 and M16 or M20 and M21.

[Djmigs]

Pics

car before detailed but not 100%
car detailed with rotary and now 100%Perfect...

~~Priceless~~

money cant buy everything but pics are worth a thousand words..

[Tim Lingor]

Hey Jeff,

I am glad to hear that your first go at using the rotary buffer was a successful one!!!

Ahem....




Try and get some pics with direct sun. I am sure it will look fantastic!!!



Tim