If you have a Flex DA, how do you polish with it?

G

Guitarist302008

New member
I have mine set currently about 5 with an orange pad and Menzerna's powergloss. It doesn't seem to cut very fast though... am I better off to go to 6 and not apply as much pressure or is there another method that you all use?
 
If you're using powergloss, the problem is likely your pad choice. A yellow foam or wool pad is better suited for use with a heavy cut compound. Orange is my go to sip pad though. I hope this helps.
 
Time to get a rotary ;). If you're using power gloss you've already comitted yourself to a 3 stage polish anyways, so you may as well get a pad that really cuts well and quickly to begin with. After that the next 2 stages will be a piece of cake because you're not cutting scratches, just getting rid of marring from the powergloss and the polishing to a high shine with 85rd or super finish.
 
How long is forever and how much experience do you have polishing? You may want to watch a few videos online - you should be working maybe a third a panel for a few minutes even with a cut compound, so that may just be the nature of the beast for heavy correction. I don't think you need more power. I can soak a yellow pad with paint using a flex and M105 in a couple of minutes. Also, you can press down a *little* for heavy correction. I say a little not because of the flex but because I don't want you to go and burn your paint off. A benefit of the flex is that it won't slow down as you press.
 
Man, those rotaries scare me... I had a Makita, but I sold it to get a PC because I felt at the time that the rotary was over my head a bit and I wanted to start over.
 
Guitarist302008- For aggressive work I use M105 (as per KBM), often with a burgundy Meguiar's cutting pad. Speed six, some pressure but not enough to force the rear of the backing plate against the felt ring. Reactivate the M105 with a spritz of water as needed (but note that can get messy), don't buff until dry or it'll be a bear to wipe off.



Note that Dave KG's recent thread found P1 to be an M105 subsitute worth considering.



You could also try a SurBuf pad, but I've done OK on very hard clear with the Meg's burgundy one.



And "long time" is relative. Plus, the upside is that you're not being aggressive enough to hurt anything if you're not, heh heh...hurting the marring ;)



And if somebody doesn't feel comfortable with a rotary (or a chainsaw, or...anything) then I'd stick with something you *do* feel OK about. Well, unless you're looking for a new challenge or something. Since most "casual enthusiast" detailers might do one or two corrections per year max, you gotta consider how you want to expend your resources. I can't do stuff quite as fast with (merely) the Flex as I can if I do the aggressive work with a rotary and rocks-in-a-bottle stuff, but I can come close, especially if I do some gentle wetsanding of trouble spots (and I consider gentle wetsanding to be *VERY* safe if you give some considered thought to the whole thing, much safer and easier than using the rotary IMO).



With some 2000 and 4000 sanding media, the Flex can do most anything in a timely manner.
 
yeah, I have used the Meg's 105 and it does cut very well... but yes it is quite dry and doesn't last long at all for me... I have also tried KB's method... perhaps I wasn't doing it correctly.
 
ok today I did the door of the car i'm working on (Mazdaspeed 3)... just the door took me 2 hours and 10 minutes.. now I did do 2 different polishes, but either way you get the idea of the time lol. It does however look fantastic! The flake is just popping out all over.
 
Guitarist302008 said:
ok today I did the door of the car i'm working on (Mazdaspeed 3)... just the door took me 2 hours and 10 minutes.. now I did do 2 different polishes, but either way you get the idea of the time lol. It does however look fantastic! The flake is just popping out all over.
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That *is* a while for that, but since you're doing your own car at your own pace, I'd just be satisfied with the end results and I wouldn't worry about how long it took.



yeah, I have used the Meg's 105 and it does cut very well... but yes it is quite dry and doesn't last long at all for me... I have also tried KB's method... perhaps I wasn't doing it correctly.
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That "dry" aspect and short work time are why you might need to reactivate it with water. But generally I work around it by having a zillion different pads (so I can always grab a clean one) and just taking things one small area at a time.
 
Guitarist302008 said:
ok today I did the door of the car i'm working on (Mazdaspeed 3)... just the door took me 2 hours and 10 minutes.. now I did do 2 different polishes, but either way you get the idea of the time lol. It does however look fantastic! The flake is just popping out all over.
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Whoa! That is way too long for me, even for doing multiple stages. Definitely go to a more aggressive pad and bump the speed up if its taking that long.



I've got 6 different foam pads and typically do almost everything with just M105 and 106fa. I just mix up the pad depending on the project.
 
I have worked the flex on 4 different cars (vag group to mazda clears) and with anything from s34 + lc wool foam pad to 106 fa + lc black. So not much experience, just *relatively* differentiated.



*My* findings:

• wool pad is indeed your friend (look up the following topic)

• speed 6 is definitely worth it.

• it *does* needs its time and 'timing' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taR6JP2yNfI&feature=youtube_gdata_player. I honestly do not know how people manage to do whole cars (2 steps) in something like 8 hours.

• pushing down when needed can help, but I think slowing down or making more passes is more appropriate.



All the best with your efforts.
 
8 hours to do 2 steps? Hang it up cuz. Once You've figured out the cut and polish pad of choice on a car, it should only take about 4 hours depending on size of vehicle to do both steps.
 
tssdetailing said:
8 hours to do 2 steps? Hang it up cuz. Once You've figured out the cut and polish pad of choice on a car, it should only take about 4 hours depending on size of vehicle to do both steps.
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Well, the figuring out is the most time consuming part, isnt it?
 
tssdetailing said:
8 hours to do 2 steps? Hang it up cuz. Once You've figured out the cut and polish pad of choice on a car, it should only take about 4 hours depending on size of vehicle to do both steps.
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Huh? "Hang it up"?!? :think: :grinno: That seems awfully harsh to me.



I've been doing this stuff for decades and I can still spend a lot of time at it. Two hours for a single panel isn't anything crazy IMO when working via non-rotary, plenty of people spend longer than that (I know I have).



I'd rather somebody take a lot of time and get the results they want with zero problems than see them try to speed things up and have an "oops!".



Yeah, he could up the pad and the product a bit, but note that he didn't care for M105 and if working via Flex that doesn't leave a lot more (aggressive) options.



usdm said:
Well, the figuring out is the most time consuming part, isnt it?
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Along with masking, clean up, and of course countless inspections under different lighting conditions :D
 
Accumulator said:
........Along with masking, clean up, and of course countless inspections under different lighting conditions :D
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Im starting on my dads car later this week. Ive already guesstimated sorting out decklid, roof, and the hood is gonna take me a good chunk of hours; about 6-8 hours just on those panels alone. And thats including rotary use, small hand drill for the edge work, and either the mak b06040 or the G6 for the final finish. Meanwhile, I smashed thru a customers entire car with abc decon, wash, clay, one-step polish, and wax in just under 6 hours with the b06040 and a few foam polish pads. Go figure.
 
tssdetailing said:
8 hours to do 2 steps? Hang it up cuz. Once You've figured out the cut and polish pad of choice on a car, it should only take about 4 hours depending on size of vehicle to do both steps.
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Maybe 8 hours is stretched to make a point... Or is it?



My assumptions first of all.

* working the flex 3401 on speed 6.

* working a 3x3 5.5" pad area (i.e. 1.3x1.3 ft)

* making 50% overlapping moves side to side / top to bottom (i.e. 5 moves per pass)

* each move to last 5 seconds (i.e. 25 seconds per pass).

* 8 passes per section.



1 section = 8 passes*25' per pass = 200 seconds = 3 minutes & 20 seconds.



This is just the polishing. I think it is fair to say that adding the loading of the pad with polish, the spreading around passes and a quick cleaning of the pad for the next section, would take it all up to 4 mins per section.



Thinking a mid sized sedan I figure there must be roughly:



6 sections trunk + 6 sections boot + 8 sections roof + 4 sections for all bumpers + 10 sections per side = 44 sections



This brings the total time for a single stage polish to



44 sections x 4 minutes per section = 176 minutes or 3 hours (rounding it up).



That is 3 hours without taping, doing a test spot, changing plates for the small areas, buffing off the polish, wiping down with ipa, inspecting with at least 1 light etc.



So for me 6-8 hours for 2 stages sounds right. 4 hours represents 30-50% improvement.



I am trying, without any luck so far, to figure out where the improvement would come from, as 8 passes and 40 seconds per pass are on the low side as these figures go.



Admittedly an important figure is the number of sections involved. The number I came up with is roughly based on my car (vw eos).



I would be more than happy to get some constructive criticism on my argumentation. It is kind of late now and it has been a long day, so maybe it is all horribly flawed.
 
Ch96067 said:
Maybe 8 hours is stretched to make a point... Or is it?



...[calculations based on expectations]...



I would be more than happy to get some constructive criticism on my argumentation. It is kind of late now and it has been a long day, so maybe it is all horribly flawed.
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I wouldn't say it's horribly flawed by any means, but you know what they say about the best of plans ;)



It's been a long time since I tried to figure out how long a big job would take me, but you're certainly in the ballpark. Will the compounding take longer? Will the final polishing go quicker? Hard to say.



Plus, depending on the color, I can spend almost as much time inspecting as I do correcting!



I know some Pros who've had some big surprises that utterly changed how long jobs took, and those guys are doing this stuff all the time.
 
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