What would your ultimate polisher arsenal be?

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LeadingEdgeDetail

New member
Good day fellow detailers!

I started my autoglass/detailing business in November with a partner, and the detailing was a bit of the wild-card.. we didn't know how busy it would be, how many we could do per week, etc..

It's started getting pretty busy, for instance we have 3 to do Monday, one Tuesday, and it seems to be building steam...it helps there are no other good detailers in our community after the last one shut down from a fire (without insurance)

I've been detailing and polishing since I was a young lad learning from my father, and been detailing professionally off and on for the past 15 years.

I have a Makita 9337? Rotary polisher, and a PC 7424XP D/A.

My Makita has a 8" backing plate for the wool pad, a 5.5" backing plate for my 6" DA pads, and a custom made 3" backing plate (made by trimming down a 5.5 on a lathe).

My 7424 has a 3.5" backing plate for the 4" pads, and a 5.5" backing plate for the 6" pads.



We are doing a lot of car lot quick $200 details, and I would love a machine like the Porter Cable that has a bit more power and throw, thinking maybe the Rupes is a good investment?

I also love the thought of the mini rupes air powered unit..

Price really is no object here as we have the ability to pay off even the most expensive units in a couple of details...

Money no object, what would you want?

One side note, with multiple people available it would be nice to have two polishers going on a car at the same time, however I don't think I want double of the same polisher :)

Thanks for any insight!
 
If it matters, both my Makita and PC were bought in 2004...

I think it might be time to upgrade and speed up my polishing efficiency :)

Most, (80%+) of my polishing is a single-step light polish containing some wax for the car lot cars to A) Look shiny without much time invested (after Nano Skin), and B) Clean easily when they wash the lot cars.
 
If you had the air compressor required, would you want the electric or pneumatic rupes?

electric just because it's easier? Or does the pneumatic one have more power for its size?
 
GO eleftric, cords are alot easier to deal with then hoses. Your ears will thank you as well. You can't really bring a compressor everywhere.
 
I'm not sure I know what the "Ultimate" polisher setup is since I haven't used them all. But really I would want at least on of everything. You can never have to many tools and each one has its place. While the Rupes 21 is very popular now especially for large flat areas I feel like other polishers are better for smaller and curved ares. One polisher I wish I had back is the Flex 3401 due to its forced rotation.
 
The Rupes LHR21ES seems to be out of stock at most places.. must be popular! I would love the extra polishing prowess for the larger vehicles we do, seem to do a lot of F350's, even though correction is rarely most important, I still want them to look good...quickly.
 
I already own Rupes 15ES, Rupes Mini, and Flex 3401. If I can get my hands on a 2-3" polisher, I think I can skip all the hand polishing
 
My vote goes for the Flex 3401 and two standard DA's of some sort such as the GG6, HF DA, or the 7424. I currently own the Flex, the HF DA and a 7424 with a 3" backing plate for the tight work. There isn't much the 3401 can't do when paired with the right pad and polishes. I still like the standard type DA for applying AIO's, waxes and the such.
 
I definitely want the Rupes 21ES HD and a variety of pads, now I'm wondering if my little PC with a 3.5" backing plate and 4" pads is sufficient so I don't need to buy the Rupes 75E and new pads :)
 
I've been working on putting my ultimate polisher arsenal together.

I've got my polishers separated into two bags. Red is RUPES and Black is FLEX.

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Rupes LHR 15ES and LHR 75E. I've got more pads and polish, this was just what I brought for this job.

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Flex 3401 with the 4 inch BP and a Flex PE8 with 3, 2 and 1 inch BP's.

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I've got a Makita 9227C too, but I would love to eventually get a PE14. So far this has been working great for me, but of course the more tools you have the better.
 
Flex PE14 rotary, Rupes LHR21, Rupes LHR15, Rupes LHR75, and Rupes TA50.

Old pic, sold a few and added several others.

 
I've ordered my Bigfoot 21 today with an assortment of pads, along with some new 4" pads for my PC.

So my arsenal currently will be:

Makita 9227C
Rupes LHR21
PC 7424 w/ 3" BP

I am looking at the Flex 3401 as a possible future purchase, I assume it's a middle ground between the Rotary and the Bigfoot?
 
Some sorta-random thoughts from a guy with quite a few polishers:

I can appreciate having multiple units of the same kind, if only for times when one is out of service.

Nobody's mentioning the Cyclo! Love mine, but they're not always appropriate for certain vehicle contours. I can't imagine any polisher being better built than the Cyclo, period.

IMO everybody oughta have a small unit in the 2-3" range.

If I were starting from scratch today, I'd buy Cyclo and Rupes units (note that they're the same company these days).
 
Accumulator said:
Some sorta-random thoughts from a guy with quite a few polishers:

I can appreciate having multiple units of the same kind, if only for times when one is out of service.

Nobody's mentioning the Cyclo! Love mine, but they're not always appropriate for certain vehicle contours. I can't imagine any polisher being better built than the Cyclo, period.

IMO everybody oughta have a small unit in the 2-3" range.

If I were starting from scratch today, I'd buy Cyclo and Rupes units (note that they're the same company these days).
Click to expand...

Isn't a Cyclo a forced rotation dually.
I never tried one and though they look awkward would like to see one in action.
They have an open box pro that hasn't sold yet.. Not that I really need another polisher quite yet.
 
ShawnF350 said:
Isn't a Cyclo a forced rotation dually.
I never tried one and though they look awkward would like to see one in action.
They have an open box pro that hasn't sold yet.. Not that I really need another polisher quite yet.
Click to expand...

No, the Cyclo does have a pretty long throw, but it's *not* forced rotation.

While it does look a bit weird, it's not a bit awkward when you're actually using it, even easy to use one-handed.

Noting that I simply don't like doing this stuff, running a Cyclo is as close as it can get to "pleasurable" for me.
 
Ultimate arsenal would be (1) flex 3401, (2) flex pe-8, (3) GG6. That would do it all for me with that setup. A full size rotary like pe-14 would be nice to have but I don't need it for my car since it's pretty corrcted already. I have the GG and a Rupes 15, but would have preferred the 3401 as I have only one car and the paint Is hard as a rock and has some curvey panels where the Rupes just doesn't work well.
 
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