I just bought a PC7424xp through Adam's a month or so ago. I've been using a rotary for decades and feel comfortable with it. The last few years I've switched from wool pads to foam. Yes, like about anything there's a learning curve and the rotary can be a bit unforgiving if used incorrectly. You need to know your limitations and learn on something that's "expendable". On this car I pulled out the old wool pads and compound to do a good comparison.
Before the PC touched/touches my company car, my wife's DD or the Goat I used it on my 19 year old, commuting, college student daughter's car we got from my Mother-In-Law when she passed away several years ago. I think it's been hand washed five times in the four years since we got it and waxed once.
1993 Buick Century (I tell her the door dent adds character):
This 17 year old beauty has seen absolutely no love over it's life and was the perfect candidate for experimentation!
There's a time and a place for every tool:
I'd used SHR on a Yellow pad on the PC and had made around eight passes on the drivers side of the hood. I could see results, but wanted to see the difference between that and the rotary I was familiar with: it's a 2 speed Craftsman 6" sander/polisher that I use on the slower of the two speeds which is 1,400 rpms. I used this mild 3M Rubbing Compound on a wool pad on the passenger side of the hood. I only needed to make two passes with the rotary and compound to get down to where the Yellow pad on the PC with SHR got me in eight. Afterwards I still needed the PC/Yellow pad/SHR to remove the buffing tracks, swirls and holograms the rotary left. Overall time was about the same.
Perfect? Not by any stretch of the imagination, but an awfully lot better (especially in this light, at this angle ):
It's still got scratches and swirls, in reality I don't think it can't be right without a repaint. The scratches are so deep they appear to be through the clear down to the base coat. I'm pretty sure she washed the car with a wand that attached to a hose that had a brush on the end of it. The brush was simply rubbed across the finish with water flowing out of it. The car was garaged, but often left parked in the driveway under some spruce trees.
Here you can see the dirt down in the scratches, this was after "playing" with the hood for four hours using both machines, 3M Rubbing Compound and Adam's products, and several different techniques! Perhaps wet sanding? As I stated above you need to know your limitations. The only time I've ever wet sanded a car was to prepare one for paint back in around 1977. I don't know if I want to attempt this severe a step just quite yet. This car would be a good candidate!
There's definitely more shine to this last picture than the first, you can actually see the reflection of me taking the picture, which is non existant in the first one. Those scratches though. Next spring I may try something else, "just for fun". I might wash the car with APC and a Boar's Hair brush nd use the Green Pad and product that's to come out soon. For now she's all sealed up with MSW and ready for the PA winter. Oh, and I couldn't stop with just the hood. I ended up putting another 19 hours into the rest of the car with the PC. I think I'm ready for the Goat!
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BRZN
I just bought a PC7424xp through Adam's a month or so ago. I've been using a rotary for decades and feel comfortable with it. The last few years I've switched from wool pads to foam. Yes, like about anything there's a learning curve and the rotary can be a bit unforgiving if used incorrectly. You need to know your limitations and learn on something that's "expendable". On this car I pulled out the old wool pads and compound to do a good comparison.
Before the PC touched/touches my company car, my wife's DD or the Goat I used it on my 19 year old, commuting, college student daughter's car we got from my Mother-In-Law when she passed away several years ago. I think it's been hand washed five times in the four years since we got it and waxed once.
1993 Buick Century (I tell her the door dent adds character):
This 17 year old beauty has seen absolutely no love over it's life and was the perfect candidate for experimentation!
There's a time and a place for every tool:
I'd used SHR on a Yellow pad on the PC and had made around eight passes on the drivers side of the hood. I could see results, but wanted to see the difference between that and the rotary I was familiar with: it's a 2 speed Craftsman 6" sander/polisher that I use on the slower of the two speeds which is 1,400 rpms. I used this mild 3M Rubbing Compound on a wool pad on the passenger side of the hood. I only needed to make two passes with the rotary and compound to get down to where the Yellow pad on the PC with SHR got me in eight. Afterwards I still needed the PC/Yellow pad/SHR to remove the buffing tracks, swirls and holograms the rotary left. Overall time was about the same.
Perfect? Not by any stretch of the imagination, but an awfully lot better (especially in this light, at this angle
):
It's still got scratches and swirls, in reality I don't think it can't be right without a repaint. The scratches are so deep they appear to be through the clear down to the base coat. I'm pretty sure she washed the car with a wand that attached to a hose that had a brush on the end of it. The brush was simply rubbed across the finish with water flowing out of it. The car was garaged, but often left parked in the driveway under some spruce trees.
Here you can see the dirt down in the scratches, this was after "playing" with the hood for four hours using both machines, 3M Rubbing Compound and Adam's products, and several different techniques! Perhaps wet sanding? As I stated above you need to know your limitations. The only time I've ever wet sanded a car was to prepare one for paint back in around 1977. I don't know if I want to attempt this severe a step just quite yet. This car would be a good candidate!
There's definitely more shine to this last picture than the first, you can actually see the reflection of me taking the picture, which is non existant in the first one. Those scratches though. Next spring I may try something else, "just for fun". I might wash the car with APC and a Boar's Hair brush nd use the Green Pad and product that's to come out soon. For now she's all sealed up with MSW and ready for the PA winter. Oh, and I couldn't stop with just the hood. I ended up putting another 19 hours into the rest of the car with the PC. I think I'm ready for the Goat!
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