Great, just great. All these new products and a Cyclo to try...

S

Scottwax

New member
...and rain is in the forecast every day between now and Tuesday. :(



I have two Optimum products, the polish and the car wax, Hi-temps light cut and I am borrowing a Cyclo from an Autopian (who will remain nameless lest he be bombarded with requests from others to lend his machine out). I also got some of the Cyclo green polishing pads from Top of the Line...and huge props to them for getting the order out so quickly. I ordered the pads Tuesday afternoon and they were here Thursday afternoon!



Anway, I have the Cyclo for about a month so I hope to give it a good workout. If my first impressions of the quality of this machine mean anything, it appears to be very well built and solid. It also seems to transmit less vibration to my hands and doesn't bog down under pressure as quick as my PC. Did a great job on the top of my dryer and it definitely generates heat. Maybe not as much as a rotary, but noticably more than the PC.



Once the weather is better, I will be putting everything to the test and report back. :)
 
Right now, I have Wolfgang Pre-Cleaner and 2 layers of SG on the washing machine and I polished (with the cyclo) the top of the dryer with Optimum polish and #80 and finished it with Optimum Car Wax...which is a liquid, even thinner than Glanz Wax.



Both are very shiny. ;)
 
Scott,



Let me know what you think of the OCW - I think it would be great to be able to wipe on and wipe off for a quick wax after a wash! Keep us posted!



Cheers,
 
Scott,



Are we turning you into a Cyclo phile too? :) I'm glad you like the Cyclo and were able to hook up with someone to try it out. I would like to enthusisatically welcome you to "the club".



If you can get a hold of those orange Cyclo pads that would be great! I'd like to hear your opinion on those. Hmm.. wonder if TOL would consider selling the 4" Lake Country pads. They're all I use, virtual small replicas of the typical PC pads and they work very nicely :up
 
I didn't like the cyclo the time I tried it, I'm sure w/ some more seat time I'd grow to love it, but it just felt funny, and felt like it was to easy for the little pads to slip from under the machine
 
I can say the LC pads stick to the velcro incredibly well, don't know about the Cyclo brand themselves.Sometimes it even takes a try or two to pull these pads off!
 
Is there a website for Cylco? I feel myself getting sucked into another new toy...Christmas is around the corner. :)
 
damn you!!! no cyclo!!! i can't buy more and more. i have no more room in my dorm! i hope you hate it and that you give it horrible reviews so i have no interest in buying one!!:)



Vernon
 
damn you!!! no cyclo!!! i can't buy more and more. i have no more room in my dorm! i hope you hate it and that you give it horrible reviews so i have no interest in buying one!!
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I doubt that will happen. It is an awkward machine to use at first. But a couple of cars and it starts to feel really nice in your hands. It is just getting past the initial awkwardness (for me at least).



And it does polish out blemishes a lot faster than the PC in my opinion.



Hope you have fun with it Scott. The green pads work really well with the speed glaze you like to use.



and huge props to them for getting the order out so quickly. I ordered the pads Tuesday afternoon and they were here Thursday afternoon!
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That is the same service that I recieve when getting stuff from TOL, a great place to order from.
 
Yes, 50 somewhat years ago it was invented for this purpose. Someone brilliant must have tried it on a car and voila, the wonderful detailing tool story began
 
scottlee said:
didnt the cyclo also get alot of fame from the airstream travel trailer crowd?
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Yeah, polishing big aluminum things like travel trailers and airplanes was its original purpose. The towel-under-the-pads trick that we think is *so* innovative (like with the PC and a MF) was being used with Cyclos on the planes/trailors before most of us were born :D



I always find other people's Cyclo opinions interesting. Most people I know find it more user-friendly than the PC, as do I, but there *are* exceptions (I know one guy who just *hates* the Cyclo but borrows my PC all the time). So I'm not surprised that some people like HotRodGuy don't care for how it handles. I'm sure not gonna slam anybody for liking one machine more than another...



I am a bit :confused: about the pads slipping though; I've just never exerienced that :nixweiss But it occurs to me that when I first got it I was *very* careful with it; I really treated it with a lot more respect than I probably needed to, sorta treated it like a rotary. So I "burned in" good habits with it muscle-memory-wise. Habits which, BTW, transferred quite well to the rotary. I'll admit you can be a *lot* less careful with a PC without anything awful happening so going from the Cyclo to the PC was probably easier than the other way around.
 
Well, I got done early today because of all the rain in the forecast, so in about 30 minutes or so, I'm going to wash my car and test out the cyclo and Optimum products on it. :)



My paint is in really excellent shape though, extremely minimal cobwebbing since my last major polishing about 8 weeks ago so it probably won't really put the cyclo to the test but it will give me a good feel for the machine.
 
I think Anthony Orosco as well as Accumulator use those suede mf bonnets with the Cyclo to remove LSPs. I have a brand new pair and will try them out probably sometime next year at this rate.
 
Bill D said:
... suede mf bonnets with the Cyclo to remove LSPs...
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FWIW, I always use MF bonnets over foam with the Cyclo/PC instead of over wool. With the Cyclo I use them over something thick like Cyclo cutting pads or pads from Lake.
 
Okay, back from polishing out my car with the cyclo. Probably finished just in time for my car to get rained on. :(



I used the Optimum Polish with the green polishing pads first. I talked to Anthony and he says it never really breaks down and dusts like most polishes and he was right. I just worked each section for a minute or so, the pads were warm but still slightly damp from the product. It leaves the paint very shiny and mirror-like. Not quite as wet as #80 but more reflective.



I followed with 3Ms Perfect It III Finishing Glaze (European version I got from jgv a while back), again using green polishing pads. This stuff definitely has a deep, wet look. Added noticable depth and wetness without muting the reflections noticably.



I used Optimum's Car Wax as my LSP. Seemed a bit odd using what works just like a QD as a wax, but I will take Anthony's word it is pretty durable. I put OCW into a spray bottle that mists out the product. I noticed you do have to shake the bottle of OCW occasionally because it will separate into a milky liquid on the bottom and a clearer looking liquid on top. You just mist it on a section at a time, spread with a micrfiber towel and then flip the towel and wipe dry. This stuff is pretty dang slick too. Maybe not as slick as Wolfgang or UPP, but not far behind. It also leaves a shiny, deep, wet finish. Very nice. More carnauba like than sealant, IMO.



My impressions of the cyclo:



This is a very well balanced machine. Vibrations are less than the PC but still noticable. On flat panels, it is a breeze to use, covers more area than a PC. It also does not bog down as quickly when you add pressure and the pads and paint become noticably warm when you work a polish into the paint. On curved areas, of which my 626 has many, you have to change the angle of the cyclo to keep both pads on the paint. Not that it is difficult, just a little awkward at first.



I lost the sun to the clouds about halfway through, so I can't tell for sure if the very minor spider swirls are gone but I know the PC takes care of stuff that mild so I figure the cyclo will too.



All in all, it seems like a very nice machine. I have a few more weeks with it and hopefully the weather will cooperate so I can test it out more.
 
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