My First Rotary Experience!

[sontakke]

Re: My First Rotary Experience!

Pretty good results, I must say. But I also find M105 to be quite forgiving to work with, consdiering the amount of cut it offers. Just my opinion.

I think you should have started with some of the less aggressive wool pads, there are many types out there. Each cost at an average of $10 a piece, even the Meguiar's Solo one.

The wool pad that comes with your Harbor Freight is actually a good pad to wrap a microfiber bonnet over for LSP removal.

You must be pretty excited to proceed to the entire car!

Harbor Freight comes with microfiber bonnet and wool bonnet. It comes with the foam pad.

- Vikas

[Michael Stoops]

Re: My First Rotary Experience!

I was lot more scared to go full speed than you were!

Good. You should be scared to go full speed with that, or any, rotary buffer. As has been pointed out, "full speed" on this particular machine is 3000 rpm! Even when pulling out 1000 grit sanding marks with a rotary/wool pad/M105 we don't recommend going over 2000 rpm.

Look at the before and after condition of the white Crossfire we did in this thread. It was obviously in pretty horrific condition and we only had 3 hours to buff on it, but even then we got this level of correction and never ran faster than 1500 rpm with a W5000 wool pad and M105 on the rotary. Now, the W5000 pad offers a lot of controlled cut, probably a lot more than the wool bonnet provided with the Harbor Freight buffer - it costs almost as much as that tool!

Technique is very important when working by hand or with a D/A, otherwise you just don't get very good results. Technique is critical with a rotary because it can jump up and bite you almost without warning. Best to slow down and learn proper technique rather than just jump in at warp speed, hoping the power alone will get the job done.

[Eddie6th]

Re: My First Rotary Experience!

Michael,good write-up. I would never have imagined it neccessary to go anywhere near 3000,if available. My machine goes up to 2500,and i've never been above 1800(give or take a few rpms). I havn't found a need to go beyond this point. Can you give some instances where it could be neccessary? Lack of time for a pro?

[Calais]

Re: My First Rotary Experience!

That is interesting. I need to study your technique carefully as I was not able to get as much paint correction as you have been able to. I was lot more scared to go full speed than you were! The M105 I have is the first generation and I was using it sparingly. How much priming did you do with the wool bonnet? I only put a bid on the paint and tried to pick it by the buffer.

Go easy on that Volvo!

- Vikas

Well, make sure you are working the paint nice and slow with enough pressure. Mine is the newer stuff, but from what I understand it shouldn't make too much of a difference. I sprayed it once with QD and put a nice small circle on the pad and a small line on the actual car. I gave it another spray, this time with distilled water next time, after a little buffing.

[sontakke]

Re: My First Rotary Experience!

I keep on coming back to the point which many of us, including myself often miss.

If a scratch can be felt via fingernail, then it is too deep to be corrected. I have many such scratches all over my cars. These are all 10+ years daily drivers. When I see photos of cars with badly finished paint with lot of scratches, I wonder if those scratches are really deep or not. For example, OP's Saturn had lots of scratches but were they all superficial or were they deep? I would think it will not be a good idea to go aggressively after scratches if finger nail can be caught it in.

= Vikas

[Calais]

Re: My First Rotary Experience!

I keep on coming back to the point which many of us, including myself often miss.

If a scratch can be felt via fingernail, then it is too deep to be corrected. I have many such scratches all over my cars. These are all 10+ years daily drivers. When I see photos of cars with badly finished paint with lot of scratches, I wonder if those scratches are really deep or not. For example, OP's Saturn had lots of scratches but were they all superficial or were they deep? I would think it will not be a good idea to go aggressively after scratches if finger nail can be caught it in.

= Vikas

I did fingernail check most of the scratches, some were too deep while some were not. Some were extremely thick horizontally while they are not very deep vertically. The ones that were exceptionally deep were, for the most part, fixed.

You must also consider that even if a scratch is too deep to completely level out in a safe way; sometimes when compounding, we buff away enough clearcoat to make it extremely difficult to catch with the human eye.

[the_invisible]

Re: My First Rotary Experience!

If the condition is right, you could do a feather sanding on some of the deeper scratches. I find that fathersanding is so much faster and safer than taking a wool pad on the scratch 3-5 times. When I encounter a scratch I cannot remove after two passes with the wool, I break out the 2500 grit or 2000 unigrit sandpaper to lightly sand the area. Again, you have to judge whether the scratch is safe to remove with either a wool or sanding.

[Calais]

Re: My First Rotary Experience!

If the condition is right, you could do a feather sanding on some of the deeper scratches. I find that fathersanding is so much faster and safer than taking a wool pad on the scratch 3-5 times. When I encounter a scratch I cannot remove after two passes with the wool, I break out the 2500 grit or 2000 unigrit sandpaper to lightly sand the area. Again, you have to judge whether the scratch is safe to remove with either a wool or sanding.

I'm actually pretty happy with how it came out. With the clear coat being pretty soft, I don't want to overdo it.

I showed the car at the local car meet today and it went over real big. I handed out at least 25 business cards and really blew away some potential customers.

[Ganesa]

Re: My First Rotary Experience!

I'm actually pretty happy with how it came out. With the clear coat being pretty soft, I don't want to overdo it.

I showed the car at the local car meet today and it went over real big. I handed out at least 25 business cards and really blew away some potential customers.

sounds great ....
hope all the 25 business card holder will be future customers and will arrive soon :]

[Calais]

Re: My First Rotary Experience!

sounds great ....
hope all the 25 business card holder will be future customers and will arrive soon :]

I got at least 3-4 high possibilities and one almost definite. One vette, one 40's Chevy and one Cadillac Brougham asked for pricing.

[sontakke]

Re: My First Rotary Experience!

It must really kill you to look at the untreated half every single time you look at the car :-)

[Calais]

Re: My First Rotary Experience!

It must really kill you to look at the untreated half every single time you look at the car :-)

Yes, but then I look at the silky smooth corrected half which always makes me feel better.

[Eddie6th]

Re: My First Rotary Experience!

I got at least 3-4 high possibilities and one almost definite. One vette, one 40's Chevy and one Cadillac Brougham asked for pricing.

Hi Calais. You got a nice finish and have caught the interest of customers. I would practice more with old panels before going onto others cars with a rotary. I have the same interest as you,but I'm holding off untill I get more and more pieces to work with. There are a lot of variables out there.

Keep it up...plenty practice...

[Michael Stoops]

Re: My First Rotary Experience!

Hi Calais. You got a nice finish and have caught the interest of customers. I would practice more with old panels before going onto others cars with a rotary. I have the same interest as you,but I'm holding off untill I get more and more pieces to work with. There are a lot of variables out there.

Keep it up...plenty practice...

Excellent advice. Doing half a car one time doesn't qualify someone to start working on others treasured rides. It is so much less painful (and infinitely less expensive) to burn an edge on a junk panel than to do so on a customer's car - no matter what that car may be.

[the_invisible]

Re: My First Rotary Experience!

To save himself some money on scrap panels, Calais could offer a liability-free rotary service to the guinea pigs!!!