I'm considering buying a buffer. I've heard it's best to buy an orbital one to avoid swirl marks. I have a black vette with a few minor chips in the hood. They want over 600 bucks to paint it, I'm looking at the Dr. Chip touch up paint also.What wax do you perfer? I have have never done this so any knowledge on how to would be great!

 

Everyone should have a buffer. I recommend the flex 3401 that I have. Read up in the car care section as there is plenty of in depth info available. A buffer is a great tool and you can get the hang of it easily. Use it on a practice car first.

 

Head to this section http://forums.corvetteforum.com/car-care-discussion-10/

 

Adams Polishes! http://www.adamspolishes.com/

Porter Cable Orbitable Polisher

Check out their Instructional VIDEOS http://www.adamspolishes.com/t-videos.aspx

Thanks,Matt

 

I wound up buying the Porter Cable 7424 XP for my Torch Red Z and am very happy with the results. I got mine at another forum sponser Autogeek.

 

This was by far the best purchase I've made for maintaining my cars. I use it at least twice a year now on all three of our vehicles.

 

Porter Cable here, purchased from autogeek

 

Porter Cable!!!

 

As others have said, the car care section is where you want to be looking but since you're here I will give you a quick rundown of the options. I am an avid detailier and very active on a lot of detailing forums so I have heard and read about pretty much all machines associated with paint correction.

Porter Cable 7224XP: I own this machine and it is great. It is an orbital with a random dual action motion. Super easy to use and fairly durable. I have had mine for over 2 years and use it almost every weekend for hours at a time. One down side is the power. If you press too hard it is very easy to stop the pad from spinning and it bogs down. I used a sharpie to make a small band on the outer edge of the backing plate so I can monitor the rotation and insure it is moving as intended. Speed controls 1-6 with instant power setting once the machine is turned on.

Pros: Very reasonable pricing (130ish iirc), Ease of use.
Cons: Not the strongest, bogs down easy.




Flex 3401VRG: I also own this machine and have used it over the last 9 months or so. Very powerful. Like the Porter Cable it is a dual action but the simmilarities stop there. The Flex is a geared, forced rotation and isn't random. What that means is that it always spins in the same pattern and you CANNOT slow this beast down with pressure. Very nice to work with because you don't have to baby it like the Porter Cable (PC). If there are any body guys on here it would be like using a dual action sander (DA) compared to a mudhog. Speed settings 1-6 like the PC BUT, variable trigger adjustment too. You can set it to speed 4 and it will only spin that fast when the trigger is fully depressed. ease up on the trigger and it slows down without having to adjust the machine setting like the PC. The pad does spin counter clockwise and after years of rotary use it is kinda hard to get used to. Also this machine is a little bit harder to control vs. the PC.

Pros: Very powerful, can get a lot of deep defects out.
Cons: More diffcult to control vs. the PC, tad spendy (300ish)



Makita 9227: If you want to go rotary this is it. I have owned this machine for about 4 years and it is very solid. Variable adjustment trigger like the flew. Spins up to 3K rpm. Nothing bad to say about it but it is a rotary and I probably wouldn't recommend it for a new guy.

Pros: works great.
Cons: can leave buffer trails and holograms if you don't know what you are doing (only because of rotary action, not machine itself) Could be dangerous in the wrong hands. (burn through)



And all three next to each other with the Makita on the left, Flex in the middle, and PC on the right.



It is important to note that there are more machines out there. Griots garage makes a nice DA, also a lot of guys like the Meguiars one too. Those three machines are probably the most popular in the detailing world and I own all three so I was able to give you real life experience from using them all first hand.

The swirls you talk about are from not finishing down well enough with the rotary after a heavy pass with a wool pad and compound. They can produce great results if you know how to use them. Right now the current trend is to do all the corrective/heavy cutting with a DA and then do final polishing with a rotary. Here is an article and vid demonstrating this:

http://www.detailedimage.com/Ask-a-P...ffer-properly/

Polishes and compounds plus pads are a whole different world but there is a quick outline of the machines available.

 

I really need to learn how to buff...thanks for the info!