Welcome to the Forum !
Pad Rotation is what corrects paintwork.. It always has.. This is why all the manufacturers of anything painted in all the auto, boat, truck airplane, ambulance, 18-wheelers, and on and on, use Rotary Power to finish their painted products initially, and on down the assembly line, catch and fix things that either got somehow missed, or happened on the assembly line..
It takes the
Will to want to learn how to use Rotary Power, and then you have to learn either because you are highly motivated and innovative, or all these, and have someone with gray hair mentor you.. :)
Yes, there are some people who are going out and showing some manufacturers of painted things that these random orbitals of today can actually turn out the same quality as Rotary Power, and I hope they do just that..
But for things like gelcoat on Boats, Imron, or whatever is the paint today on Airplanes, where you are working hard with a big rotary, grinding that finish down so it is perfect, I seriously doubt that any of these little motor machines would last a week before they blew up from overheating, etc...
For example, my best friend, the Best Boat Detailer in all of Seattle, WA and the surrounding areas, routinely blows up the biggest baddest DeWalt Rotaries on Boat gelcoat all the time.. And he even got to work directly with DeWalt to help them design things into that big Yellow Beast to help it work better and last longer.. And I have
seen his Perfect, Flat, Glossy, Clear, Swirl and Hologram free work on big Black Boats in direct sunlight..Blinding would be putting it mildly..
Certainly, machines that are not Direct Drive like Rotary machines, will work just fine.. It just may take a lot longer, and perhaps some defects may not want to come out as easy as they do with Rotary Power.. Then, most vibrate a lot. And you may be limited on the size of backing plates and pads..
A Rotary can use a little spacer (
https://www.autopia-carcare.com/buff...l#.YJCyxdWpH3g) to give you the ability to get into smaller places, see the work easier around the pad, and they make backing plates and pads down to
1 inch/diameter for this machine..
And contrary to popular belief, you Can use this process to make really clear, flat, glossy, hologram, swirl, etc., free paintwork.. If this were not so, every painted vehicle would come from the factories swirled, hologrammed, etc., all over.. If you have ever watched new vehicles unloaded from the truck at say, your favorite BMW Dealer, then you see perfect, clear, flat, glossy paintwork on those Bimmers straight off the Ship that came from the port, from the Factory in Germany..
If you are really interested in making this work for your particular needs, expectations, then you will also need to acquire great lighting, good microfiber towels, pads - lots of them, and great cleaners for just these 2 things alone.. Then there are all the other things needed to clean, recondition, etc., all the other parts of the vehicle/s inside, the engine and compartment, the entire trunk, and on and on...
Good luck with your research and project !
Dan F