jdthompson
New member
I'm in the UK and would like to get a polisher. I'm hoping it will be for occasional use only as, to my mind, once your paint is in good shape you shouldn't need to be getting a polisher out every week?
We don't have as much choice as in the US - we can get Porter Cables but you have to import them and pay duty and get transformers so you end up at around the $250 mark - that's a lot to pay for the amount I'm hoping to need to use it.
This got me looking at rotarys as you can get them quite cheap off eBay (I accept that for week in, week out use it makes sense to go for a known quality make), for example - Rotary seems to have the necessary variable speed control, I'm not paying much attention to the included foam pads but that's about the starting price in the UK for that sort of thing.
It looks very similar to the Vector at Proper Autocare and the Chicago Electric at Harbor Freight (I can't believe you guys can get those things for $25
)
I've done a bit of reading and on the one hand I see a lot of posts saying avoid rotary's you'll trash your paint unless you train with a Jedi Master for 50 years, but there are also articles such as this About Rotary Polishers that suggest that if you use the right pads and products and keep the speed low you're as safe as you would be with a random orbital.
The car is a 1999 Saab 9-3 convertible in Cosmic Blue Metallic, the paint is in good shape with some light swirling.
I suppose what I want is some advice, if I were in the US I would simply get a P/C but as I said it's not that cheap and simple over here and I'd rather not consider spending that sort of money unless it is totally and utterly the only workable option, but likewise there's no point going for something cheaper if I'm likely to do a ton of damage.
cheers,
Paul
We don't have as much choice as in the US - we can get Porter Cables but you have to import them and pay duty and get transformers so you end up at around the $250 mark - that's a lot to pay for the amount I'm hoping to need to use it.
This got me looking at rotarys as you can get them quite cheap off eBay (I accept that for week in, week out use it makes sense to go for a known quality make), for example - Rotary seems to have the necessary variable speed control, I'm not paying much attention to the included foam pads but that's about the starting price in the UK for that sort of thing.
It looks very similar to the Vector at Proper Autocare and the Chicago Electric at Harbor Freight (I can't believe you guys can get those things for $25
)I've done a bit of reading and on the one hand I see a lot of posts saying avoid rotary's you'll trash your paint unless you train with a Jedi Master for 50 years, but there are also articles such as this About Rotary Polishers that suggest that if you use the right pads and products and keep the speed low you're as safe as you would be with a random orbital.
The car is a 1999 Saab 9-3 convertible in Cosmic Blue Metallic, the paint is in good shape with some light swirling.
I suppose what I want is some advice, if I were in the US I would simply get a P/C but as I said it's not that cheap and simple over here and I'd rather not consider spending that sort of money unless it is totally and utterly the only workable option, but likewise there's no point going for something cheaper if I'm likely to do a ton of damage.
cheers,
Paul
No, it's *NOT* as safe as a RO unit. That's what's good about it and what's bad about it.