Rotary on the cheap: $20 rotary & System One (long)

Radian78 · 03-05-08, 09:22

So I've been wanting a rotary for a while... but was afraid to make the leap. I've been polishing with my 7424 using Green (medium) and Blue (polish) Edge pads. My polishes have been Poorboys SSR 1 and SSR 2.5.
I got pretty good results on the cars I did, but the PC just takes a long time! Also the vibration gets annoying after 5-6 hours of use.

I didn't want to spend too much on a rotary in case I just didn't like it. So... after reading various rotary posts on this site and watching Youtube videos (the Meguiars 5 parts series and more), I decided to start on the cheap and get a $20 Chicago Rotary at our local Harborfreight store. Pretty sturdy device, definitely worth $20 to start try out a rotary. No soft start, and it does bog down.

As for the polishes... my head was spinning as to what I should choose. Optimum, Menzerna, Meguiars... something else? I noticed the System One site. It really looked like snakeoil... the videos showed `noobs` with a rotary just going at it. Scary! The X3 polish did get some good reviews though, and the pad you get is a genuine Edge pad (blended wool on one side, white wave foam on the other).

So after $90 for the kit and $20 for the rotary, I'm ready to go! We have a $500 `95 Dodge Neon commuter we bought off Craigslist. The car definitely had swirls galore and looked very faded. Great car to try out a rotary! Here thus the results: (please keep in mind this is my first time using a rotary)

The paint is in pretty bad shape:

SWIRLS!

From this:

To this: (2 passes with the wool side, one pass with the foam side)

Reflection before:

Reflection after:

50/50: (some deeper scratches remain after 2 passes... and next time I'm gonna tape off the trim

)

After:

For comparison, I also used my 7424. This was after a pass with SSR 2.5 on blue (not enough cut), then a pass with SSR 2.5 on green, and SSR 1 on blue to finish. It looked pretty good, but there were tiny scratches left that the Rotary was able to get rid of. This is the portion from the 7424:

So what do I think of `System One`? Thoughts:

- It's easy to work with. The wool side has quite a bit of cut, and the foam finishes off nicely.
- The paint didn't get very hot. This must be due to the wool blend and the `Wave` foam side.
- The rotary is much smoother than the PC, however I can see that it likes to move, grab and skip around. The foam side more so than the wool. The PC is more forgiving.
- The polish finishes off very nicely, and is easy to wipe off. Trim cleans off easily with water.
- I believe that there are definitely compounds out there that have more cut than X3 with the wool. But as is, the rotary with X3 and wool was more effective than the PC with a green pad and SSR 2.5.
- I didn't burn through any paint! System One claims that this system is `burn proof` but I'd rather err on the cautious side

mr.ikon · 03-05-08, 10:29

Those are some awesome correction results that you got there. Seems like you got a winning combination.

Yal · 03-06-08, 07:49

Wow!

CleanGSR · 03-06-08, 08:22

How much faster did you get your results using the rotary? It looks like you had to do 3 sets with the rotary and 2-3 with PC (couldn't tell if you did 2 or 3). Just curious how much time it the rotary saved you.....cause for $110, that's a killer setup.

Radian78 · 03-06-08, 08:57

I would say that the rotary was about twice as fast for me. The PC on speed 6 is pretty fast, but it still takes many more passes to break down the polish.

However wouldn't mind getting the 6" wool/foam pad for the rotary. The 8" is good for large flat surfaces but gets a bit unwieldy in tigher spots. (bottom of doors for example)

Gemini13 · 03-06-08, 09:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Radian78

However wouldn't mind getting the 6" wool/foam pad for the rotary. The 8" is good for large flat surfaces but gets a bit unwieldy in tigher spots. (bottom of doors for example)

From what I read on another site Edge is supposed to be making 6 and 4 inch pads for System One.