So, I recently purchased a Spot Buffs kit from Autogeek. Basically, it's a kit of 4" pads with a velcro backing plate and two adapters. One adapter is so that you can use the backing plate with a drill and the other is to use the plate with a PC. I thought the kit would be great for hard to reach areas and for doing paint correction as the smaller pad facilitates that.

The first time I used the kit I used the drill adapter. I wasn't terribly impressed with the results, but I felt it was because my cordless drill wasn't powerful enough. So, the next time I used it I decided to try the PC adapter. I had some light scratches on my hood that I wanted to buff out. This was the result:

What happened was as soon as the speed was turned to 5 the adapter spun out of the backing plate and went right into the hood. I had to have the whole hood re-painted to the tune of just over $500.

I wrote Autogeek an email describing the problem. Because they are an AWESOME vendor they forwarded my email to Lake Country who manufacture the kit.

Lake Country on the other hand was not awesome. After sending them some pictures and having some email correspondence with one of their representatives they decided they would not be doing anything for me. Their reason being that the design of their kit should prevent this from happening. Well designs are all well and good, but reality is another matter. Because of this I will NEVER EVER buy another Lake Country product. Their product failed when I used it and damaged my car. However, they are not willing to stand behind it. I will however continue to shop with Autogeek, because they handled this situation as it should have been handled.

 

Wow. I can't believe that story.

 

good warning, but sorry it cost you !

you would think that the lesson to lake country would have been worth something on their part. from your experience they learned that they have a problem, which they can now fix- i am guessing that they did not know what to do, so they did nothing (bad choice).

 

[QUOTE=wanabe,Jan 18 2006, 10:59 AM] good warning, but sorry it cost you !

you would think that the lesson to lake country would have been worth something on their part.

 

oh man.. sux to hear that..

I wish you would have consulted one of us on the board before investing in something like this.

those drill attachments make it seem like they can be used as a replacement to dual action polishers, rotary's and cyclos' but that is simply not the case.

I never endorse any of those "drill attachments," as none of them work properly on cars. I've found they work better on boats and marine vessels of which the surfaces can handle harsher polishing.

 

Actually, the adapter in the picture is for a PC. However, the kit comes with both adapters.

 

Oh I believe you. i just can't imagine the frustration I would feel with a product and company i've been using for years. maybe I'll try the sonus pads

 

^ sonus pads rock.. they ended up being my 2nd choice as i was not happy with lake country, tried to get Propel, but couldn't and sonus are came in with a solid 2nd ..

 

Ouch. Sorry to hear it. The engineer in me wonders why this happened and how it could have been designed better. (not saying it's your fault, at all) Just going from memory here, on my 6" backing plate I believe there isn't an adapter like you showed above. The threads are actually molded into the backing plate, i.e. the adapter and backing plate are one piece. Obviously this would eliminate the problem of the adapter backing out. The instructions for the kit should really make it a point to highlight the need to sufficiently tighten the adapter to the backing plate and the adapter to the PC.

 

Yeah. I'm really ticked off. From my perspective, they're either calling me a liar or an idiot who is incapable of properly screwing together two pieces. Some yahoo on another forum where I have this story posted (happy customers tell one person unhappy customers tell everyone) stated that he felt this was not product failure which implies that this was my fault.

I have to say I've heard 100 stories about the Edge 2000 adapter coming apart and always they pay for re-painting and replace the pad kit at no cost to the purchaser.

Edge has even gone so far as to use this information to improve their adapter. I read recently that they've shortened the adapater to reduce vibration, use loc-tite in the screw joint, and have even added a locking pin to insure that nothing comes unscrewed.