Cheep electric polishers?

[thisisnotaspoon]

As title, are any of them any good. Thinking of the £30 available in halfords rather than the £300 recomended in a detailing forum, just to speed up washing the C-max a little bit on a sunday morning. It takes way too much day to day abuse to wory about 'detailing', just keeping it looking acceptable betweeen being used as a van for the rest of the week!

And the Midget could do with a going over as well, but the paints got a fair few chips and swirls so as long as the overall effect just needs to be better than that but with less effort than doing it by hand as I've usualy lost interest halfway through claying it well before the polishing let alone the waxing!

So which £30 polisher for the lazy?

[Flanders.]

I dunno if I'd use it, a friend used one on his black car and the swirls as a result were horrific. Also you could burn through the paint if your heavy handed.

[rsv gone!]

In true PH fashion, I'll ignore your budget....

The Kestrel DAS6 is a well regarded machine but is £70 upwards.

[JulianHJ]

IIRC the cheaper polishers are a bit of a gamble because they don't randomly oscillate (orbit), running the risk of causing damage to the paint.

[JulianHJ]

doogz said:

My £30 halfwits one does.

Ohh, really? Which one is it? I've always been put off polishers because I was led to believe a good one cost £££. I'd be tempted if there was a 'cheap' option.

[freecar]

doogz said:

My £30 halfwits one does.

So does mine!

I think these are frowned upon because they generally have no speed control and go quite fast, I still used one to cut back fresh paint with good results.

[stowey1984]

I wouldn't bother imo. I bought a machine buffer a few years back and used it once, just to get the car detailed for photo's ready for its Advert in the trader.
Hand polishing is just as good (with the right polish/wax) and is more 'forgiving' than a machine buffer. The buffers are only designed to be used a few times on each car as they could 'burn' or damage the paint if used too much or incorrectly.

Mine was a £90 eBay job and works really well. Very happy with it, but as said only used it once.

My advice would be to wash/wax the car by hand. Easier and less risk.

[mikeyr]

I'd recommend THIS thread... http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.p... ...the "cheap" ones are often dual-orbital sanders rather than rotary which reduces the risk of burning your paintwork Might not give quite the same level of paintwork correction but it is MUCH easier than adding polish/wax by hand.

Incidentally I have the B&Q sander along with some velcro backed polishing pads -works perfectly well!
http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detai...

[thisisnotaspoon]

Cheer's I'll give that £25 int he link one a go, like I said, it's not to win any prize, just cheeting rubbing the wax in a little quicker on a sunday morning and to give the Midget a once over, no need to get into small areas or get a brilliant finish.

[domster]

There is no point 'rubbing' wax in with a polishing machine - it just needs coverage - and it won't be faster. Machine polishers are for just that, polishing... for use with a polish, not a wax. If you do mean using a polish and trying to do it quicker, I would put money on hand polishing being faster. Machine polishing properly needs masked areas, certain set up requirements and some familiarity with the machine and techniques.

TBH, don't bother with a cheap 30 GBP machine. The decent rotaries start from 40-50 and a good orbital starts at about 60 GBP. As people here have said, hand polishing and waxing will most likely suit your needs. Spend the 25 GBP on decent microfibres, twin buckets etc.

Machine polishing comes into its own for removing swirls and fine scratches. Good results can be achieved with a hand polish and wax, many of which enhance the appearance by filling these small scratches and defects anyway.

[Nick CD]

domster said:

There is no point 'rubbing' wax in with a polishing machine - it just needs coverage - and it won't be faster. Machine polishers are for just that, polishing... for use with a polish, not a wax. If you do mean using a polish and trying to do it quicker, I would put money on hand polishing being faster. Machine polishing properly needs masked areas, certain set up requirements and some familiarity with the machine and techniques.

TBH, don't bother with a cheap 30 GBP machine. The decent rotaries start from 40-50 and a good orbital starts at about 60 GBP. As people here have said, hand polishing and waxing will most likely suit your needs. Spend the 25 GBP on decent microfibres, twin buckets etc.

Machine polishing comes into its own for removing swirls and fine scratches. Good results can be achieved with a hand polish and wax, many of which enhance the appearance by filling these small scratches and defects anyway.

Exactly what i thought. Id stay clear of any sort of machine polisher where you can not control the speed. The Kestral DAS-6 is an awesome machine, so is the Meguiars G220. If you have never used a machine polisher before i'd go with a Dual action Polisher rather than a Rotary as its easyer to cause damage with the rotary and the DA's are more or less safe for anyone to have a play.

Also remember its also about the pad & compound/polish combination as this can make or break a finish if you get it wrong....