Recommend me some gear

[foghat]

Hi all,

Have never used a buffer in my life. Am looking to remedy that this summer. Can anyone recommend a decent buffer for polishing a car?

Will probably only be used once or twice a year to get rid of (hopefully) minor scratches/swirls and to bring the 'pop' back out.

I suspect an orbital unit would be the safer way to go for a newbie like me?

Also any polish and wax/sealant recommendations are appreciated.

Thanks.

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[jburgess1379]

I would highly suggest starting/practicing on something else if you get a buffer if you absolutely HAVE to have one. Orbital or not if you dont know what you're doing you can do some serious damage.
As for wax I just started using Collinite 845 after hearing great things and I love it.

 

[The Great Gazoo]

I've got a little knowledge (which is of course a dangerous thing) from when I worked at an autobody shop 25 years ago. I purchased a Porter Cable 7424xp buffer. The buffer itself will not cause damage, but the choice of pad or product can. For beginners, use the lease cutting pad you can get and just use a cleaner wax to start. Once you get more used to it, then upgrade to a bit more aggressive pad and product that will remove swirls. Once you become an expert, then you can move up to a very aggressive pad and scratch remover.

Going overboard at first can remove too much clearcoat and cut right down to the paint or worse. There are some pretty good Youtube videos to help out.

I got my stuff from Autogeeks but there are many places to get it from. Autogeeks has some pretty good beginner videos to help you decide your course of action as well.

 

[foghat]

I've got a little knowledge (which is of course a dangerous thing) from when I worked at an autobody shop 25 years ago. I purchased a Porter Cable 7424xp buffer. The buffer itself will not cause damage, but the choice of pad or product can. For beginners, use the lease cutting pad you can get and just use a cleaner wax to start. Once you get more used to it, then upgrade to a bit more aggressive pad and product that will remove swirls. Once you become an expert, then you can move up to a very aggressive pad and scratch remover.

Going overboard at first can remove too much clearcoat and cut right down to the paint or worse. There are some pretty good Youtube videos to help out.

I got my stuff from Autogeeks but there are many places to get it from. Autogeeks has some pretty good beginner videos to help you decide your course of action as well.

Ya, seems the Porter Cable is the way to go. Have found some good stuff on youtube. Seems fairly safe - vids on youtube of a guy using an aggressive pad and polish with the PC and purposely pressing down hard on one spot - to no ill effect.

 

[Matt In The Hat]

If you want to save some money, go to harbor freight and get the Dual Action buffer. It's about half the cost of the Porter Cable and to me its about the same quality. I have used both a lot and the HF one had a little more power to it.

A lot of info on the Harbor Freight one in this thread from Autogeek.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...ers/55905-harbor-freight-da-polisher-new.html

Make sure if you go the HF route, change the grease over to a higher temp grease and get a smaller backing plate. I did both of those "mods" to mine and it works like a dream. I also purchased the 3 year replacement plan for it. All in with everything I was still 30-40 bucks cheaper than the Porter Cable.

 

[3AlarmStang]

Meguiar's Dual Action Polisher is great for a starter. I bought that starting out and learned the trade. They have the microfiber correction system now instead of foam pads that I would recommend.

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