Debating whether a rotary is right for me.

G

Gopher

New member
Well, I'm posting on this site, which means I get a kick out of car care and detailing my ride. In the past, when my car is up to spec I've taken on my fiancee and family's cars just to see how good I could make them.



Well.. I've only use the PC for a year and am pretty tired of how many passes it can take to make corrections, if it's capable of them at all, on BMW, Land Rover and Nissan paint. I've done a lot of correction on Porsche and Acura with the PC, but I'd rather everything go faster....



Here's the thing though. My car is titanium silver, and in my experience, even swirled to hell, as long as its clean and waxed it looks pretty darn wet and reflective. I want a rotary on general principal, but am not sure what more I can bring to the table on my OWN car.



I'm reluctant to come out of my pocket to purchase a rotary just to improve the appearance of other, non-enthusiast' vehicles...



What do you guys think? Can a rotary do much for a car that already presents itself like this when swirled?
29166362po7.jpg
 
Oh god yeah. A rotary and a fine polish on silver will bring out a great effect, the clarity and brightness of the reflections will go up 10x. If you get it right, it looks like the reflections are "floating" over the paint.
 
As I recently made the switch, I would say if you have 200$, get one....the PC is a tool used well on soft to medium paint. if you care about correcting 'hard' paint, the rotary is your only chance to reduce time. Also, I think for final polishing the rotary is very harmless, and it delivers ridiculousness levels of gloss and shine over the PC.



If you don't have 200$, stick with the PC, you are not pursing perfection, so why stretch the budget to accomplish a goal you have already achieved with an appropriate tool (the pc)



My .02...

IB
 
themightytimmah said:
Oh god yeah. A rotary and a fine polish on silver will bring out a great effect, the clarity and brightness of the reflections will go up 10x. If you get it right, it looks like the reflections are "floating" over the paint.
Click to expand...



Exactly. I love doing silver cars. The owners always end up making statements about how they had no idea silver could look like that.



As long as you educate yourself before hand, you'll be fine. You can always tell the guys that are going to be good with the rotary. They're the ones that post here and say stuff like, "should I go to the rotary? I'm a bit nervous" or "Debating whether a rotary is right for me". :) They are the ones that you know will be careful and educate themselves before they ever pick it up. And invariably, they're the ones that post drop dead beautiful click n brags of their first rotary work. I await your first click-n-brag...
 
themightytimmah said:
Oh god yeah. A rotary and a fine polish on silver will bring out a great effect, the clarity and brightness of the reflections will go up 10x. If you get it right, it looks like the reflections are "floating" over the paint.
Click to expand...



While your Bimmer may look pretty good now, you don't have any idea how great it can look from the proper prep of a rotary. There's definitely a learning curve to it, based on how well you can adapt and how comfortable you are on the surface you're working on. For me it was a no-brainer considering that we have 7 vehicles in the family fleet alone. If I can save time somewhere in the detailing process, I'll take that opportunity. ;)
 
If the difference in my car will be night and day, it's on. Mostly I was getting hung up on buying it just to work on OTHER peoples cars for free. I'll order a Makita from coastal tools later this afternoon.



My next question is, will my existing backing plates be alright? I see most rotary users seem to use larger pads than I have been with the PC and I'm trying to wrap my mind around how big a financial commitment everything will be.
 
You'll have to get new backing plates. The spindle on a rotary is a 5/8", so your PC backing plates won't work.



You certainly can't go wrong with the Makita 9227, but I gotta throw the Flex 3403 in the ring, too. It's almost half the weight of the 9227. It's a bit louder, but I'll take the noise over the weight any day.
 
IMO the "do I need a rotary" question depends on the paint. We have a few silver cars... I simply do not need one to do the medium-hardness clear of the MPV or the soft lacquer on the Jag. But on the Audis, the rotary took their silver paint to a whole new level, something I'd never been able to accomplish before. I'm still a little :confused: about why they turned out so great, not like they were all marred up, but for whatever reason I just can't get 'em as nice without the rotary (note that I still finish by Cyclo).



But however you accomplish it, silver is just like any other color- the closer it is to marring-free the better it'll look. IME the hardest part is the *inspection*; it can take forever to evaluate a silver vehicle and all that "little marring that doesn't show" is what makes it look less-than-swell.
 
thanks for the feedback guys. Do you vets find silver hard to photograph? I've spent some time looking through the C&B for silver cars trying to wrap my mind around the effect/where I should be able to bring my car and am having a hard time.



I do realize that a lot of the times c&b pictures look better than the actual results. At the same time, many times the results don't present themselves as well in pictures as in person.
 
Gopher said:
thanks for the feedback guys. Do you vets find silver hard to photograph? I've spent some time looking through the C&B for silver cars trying to wrap my mind around the effect/where I should be able to bring my car and am having a hard time.



I do realize that a lot of the times c&b pictures look better than the actual results. At the same time, many times the results don't present themselves as well in pictures as in person.
Click to expand...



I find *any* color hard to photograph. My photography skills suck. :(
 
Gopher, dooooo it. I made the move a month ago. I am able to do MASSIVE paint correction now in probably a 1/4 of the time I did with the PC and remove much deeper swirls. I would start with wool if I were you and stay with wool. It runs much cooler and IMHO is safer for newbies. Get a scrap panel too so you get a "feel" for the machine and how to make it move around. It's not just the time savings, but the actual appearance of the paint that looks a lot better after being under rotary surgery :). I've been burnishing black paint with 3M's Ultrafina, man, like a MIRROR.
 
Gopher said:
thanks for the feedback guys. Do you vets find silver hard to photograph? I've spent some time looking through the C&B for silver cars trying to wrap my mind around the effect/where I should be able to bring my car and am having a hard time.



I do realize that a lot of the times c&b pictures look better than the actual results. At the same time, many times the results don't present themselves as well in pictures as in person.
Click to expand...



Silver is most definitely one of the most difficult colors to photography. It is so reflective that it is very difficult to not get major blown out highlights.



Here is a C&B thread on my Arctic Silver Lotus below. As stated in the first post, I was not real happy with the first overall shots of the car because of the lighting, and mention how difficult Silver is to photograph (note the blown out highlights in several of the pictures):



http://www.autopia.org/forum/click-brag/106526-2007-arctic-silver-lotus-exige-s.html



And yes, removing all swirls from a Silver car makes a noticeable difference. Frankly, even if I am the only person in the world who would notice the swirls, it would drive me insane knowing that they were there.
 
A lightweight rotary like the Flex 3403 with some 6inch wool pads is a pretty awesome combo for beginners. Wool pads are much safer and easier to get an excellent finish. 6inch size will give you more control over the pad and the first car you do will most likely turn out better than any cars you have done with the PC.



Take the normaal precautions and a rotary is not difficult at all.



Most of the difficulty with a rotary comes from the choice of pads. Big 8inch foam cutting pads would make like difficult for even the best professional.



6inch soft finishing wool pads you'll be hologram free every time.



Holograms are often produced by angling the pad the pad then it grips the paint providing an aggressive cut where it grabs. As wool pads are curved it doesn't grab as much when you tilt the pad when compared to foam. Wool is also softer which further reduces the grabbing.



If your going with the edge 2000 wool pads (which is the only company that has soft wool pads available online) then you could even look into the 4.5 inch system one pad which uses the edge 2000 system. The twisted wool side would be great for scratches and the soft foam would be great doing badges and grills.
 
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