Hey everyone, some of you know that I am into detailing and take care of a lot of the S2000's here in Atlanta. I have a LOT of experience with the PC, and I feel like I have almost maxed out the unit's abilities. I feel that I could give the same performance in less time if I had something that spun faster. With my Yellow Edge pad (medium cut) and Poorboy's SSR2.5 or 3, I still feel that I spend too much time on some parts of the car (hood and trunk are always the hardest).

I know that you can get faster results with a rotory (although more dangerous) so I'm interested in how much better/efficient the unit is. I use The Edge2000 pads and if I went with a rotory polisher I would go with Edge pads as well.

I have some spare body parts that I can practice on, as I would never "practice" on a client's car.

Any input?

 

I use a rotary whenever I have WIDE open expanses of hood, hardtop, and trunk. I shy away from bumpers where I can edge burn a headlight or tail light, and around the mirror areas on the doors where you can also edge burn.

I have never had the need for a rotary on an S because it is so small a car to begin with.

The rotary is 5x faster than a pc, but is much easier to do damage with because the pad heats up ALOT.

 

Yeah, the hood and trunk are always the parts that take me the longest. I think the paint/clearcoat on those areas are the hardest, and scratches are always very deep. I get them all out via PC, but it probably takes me an 1.5 hours to do the two (45 minutes apiece maybe on hood and trunk with my heavier pads/polish). I might try out a rotory for those larger sections.

I am guessing if I do go this route, that starting with less abraisive pad/polish is best.

You can set the speed like with a PC right?

Thank you

 

Speeds ramp up to whatever you set it to when you squeeze the trigger.

I see a tendancy for holographic swirls developing that I never had with a pc. although I always do finishing work with a pc run which always removes these types of rotary artifacts.

 

So the initial hood/trunk polishing with the rotory should come first, then do the usual routine over the car? Holograms are easy to get out with finer polishes.

What brand would you recommend to start off with? Is 1000-3000 RPMs the standard?

 

Here's a thread where some brands were discussed. I got a Dewalt 849 from the recommendations and it was priced right. Do a search on rotary and lots of threads show up.

 

I made the jump to a rotary about 6 months ago, and it was definitely a lot tougher to get the hang of than the PC. I picked up the Hitachi SP18VA, and it's a very nice machine. It's much quieter and smoother than the PC, and you can control the rpm's on the fly by feathering the trigger. That said, learning to control the rotary was the hardest part for me. Although it's much smoother than the PC, you'll find that it likes to move around on its own and will sling a lot of product around when you first start using it. It will take you a few sessions to get the hang of

Holograms are also an issue when compounding. I find it impossible to do to any serious swirl removal WITHOUT leaving holograms--it always takes a pass or two with some finishing polish to get them out completely. With that said, the rotary works about twice as fast as the PC does (for me at least). I know it can work faster than that, but I'm always super careful when using it because of the risks of catching an edge or leaving excessive holograms behind.

Also, you'll find that you can use a less abrasive pad/product combo to achieve the same results that you would normally get with a PC. A light cutting pad and polishing compound is more than enough to remove 98% of swirl marks, and a finishing pad with some finishing polish takes care of any holograms/micromarring very nicely. All in all, I think the rotary is an excellent tool in the right hands--it just has a much steeper learning curve compared to the PC, and you can easily damage your paint if you're not careful

 

Great advice, thank you

I think I might want to try making the jump soon, so I'll start pricing some nice setups. I just feel that there isn't any room for improvement for me with my current PC - I'm great with it and about as fast as anyone can be - but when you're spending all day with a car - an hour saved per car would be more than worth it to me.