DA polishing

[Senna11]

Thought I would practice on the Doggo van as the paintwork was looking flat and covered in swirls and scratches. Using Rupes Bigfoot with Rupes medium cut polish and foam disc seemed to make little progress. Switched to coarse pad and polish on a small area seemed to make it worse.
Changed the pad to microfibre and Scholl 21 one step polish and started making real progress, got rid of most the superficial scratches and now shiny paintwork. This pad is for medium to hard paint but the vehicle has soft paint and not sure why progress was so slow with the Rupes pad and polish?
The detailing shops will say not to use too much pressure and let the machine do the work but had to apply some to get rid of a deep scratch.
Also mates to get a hologram effect which I then had to further correct to remove. More practice required…..

 

[moonstone]

I’ve got a DA and to be honest no matter what pads I’ve used and what polish I’ve never had great results. I’d heard horror stories about DIYers using rotary polishers and how a DA is the safest way to go but I’m now convinced that they’re so safe that it just takes an unreasonable amount of time to get results with it.

Ive been toying with the idea of getting a proper rotary for a while to see if it’s much better.

 

[Senna11]

I just persevered and found when I had enough heat in the pad and pressure, you start to see results.

 

[moonstone]

I just persevered and found when I had enough heat in the pad and pressure, you start to see results.

Well to be honest I’ve done the same but have ended up with holograms after. Maybe I’m just not patient enough!

 

[boba fett]

A Rotary is much better, its also still hard to do damage. I have only ever once gone through the lacquer having detailed loads of cars, and I was going hell for leather!

I had a Silver grey M3, and the drivers door had a paintwork repair that was foggy / bloomy, most said "I'm mad it looks fine" but I was never happy with it. It was one of those things, that once you know, your eye goes straight to it! I knew it really needed painting properly to make me happy, so I went full attack with the Rotary to see if I could flat it back. I did get it better and nearly there, right to the point you knew you now had to be carful, it was at that point I went through (also never use a Rotary while having a few beers, you get braver)

 

[Senna11]

Well using the DA managed to burn through the paint FFS! Will have to repair with a rattle can.

 

[Senna11]

A Rotary is much better, its also still hard to do damage. I have only ever once gone through the lacquer having detailed loads of cars, and I was going hell for leather!

I had a Silver grey M3, and the drivers door had a paintwork repair that was foggy / bloomy, most said "I'm mad it looks fine" but I was never happy with it. It was one of those things, that once you know, your eye goes straight to it! I knew it really needed painting properly to make me happy, so I went full attack with the Rotary to see if I could flat it back. I did get it better and nearly there, right to the point you knew you now had to be carful, it was at that point I went through (also never use a Rotary while having a few beers, you get braver)

The issue is where the paint is thin and not knowing this without a paint depth gauge will mean it can be easy to over do it.