Now that spring has sprung, I’m thinking about lavishing a bit of TLC on the bodywork of my '5 (and the V70 as well - I think she deserves it!).
I really can’t justify the expense of a top-end polisher like a PC or G220 (much as I’d like to) - but on the other hand, being the workshy fop that I am, the idea of mustering up sufficient elbow-grease to do it all by hand fills me with horror. Is a cheap and cheerful electric polisher a good ‘halfway house’ between a top-end machine and doing the job by hand? Or do they cause more problems than they solve?
Reading the Auto Express product tests, I see that they rate a £30 one from Halfords pretty highly - is that sort of thing any good? I couldn’t run to £200 for a ‘pro’ machine, but that would be far easier to justify!
OK, that all sounds quite positive! As long as a cheap polisher isn’t going to do my paintwork more harm than good, that’s all I was worried about. Think I’ll have a look at the £30 Halfords one that AutoExpress raved about.
You are not wanting a polishing machine just to put a bit of polish on the car then polish it a nice shine are you? It’s not worth the trouble having to wash the mops out after you have done it. Now if you want you really want to do, is to bring the colour of your car back to life that is a very different thing. For starters the various grades of polishing mops are not cheap plus the compounds to get a nice finish before you start to polish are all to buy.
Once you have done all the hard work getting it nice and clean and highly polished you do not want to be doing it every week.
Well, I have the best kept secret that I am only going the tell a few people about, mainly because I am finding it dificult enough to get hold of it myself and have to keep stocking up, for in case others catch on.
This product is magic, simply pour a cap full into a watering can and sprinkle over, after you have done your normal wash, add shinny stuff to watering can, sprinkle and dry off. Over time is builds up into a deep shine without the hard work.
Sorry, but I don’t quite see what your point is. Yes, I’m wanting a cheap and cheerful polishing machine to aid in the application of detailing products to the car(s) in order to get the paintwork looking as nice as I can (“polish it to a nice shine”) - isn’t that the point of a polisher?!
And yes, I’m aware that it’s quite possible to spend a lot of money on detailing equipment and consumables, but that’s not my intention - I’m not about to turn into an obsessive car detailer. I wish I had the time and inclination to do that, because I’d love to see my cars restored to a like-new finish - but I don’t!
However, I do want, from time to time, to give them something more than a run-of-the-mill wash and dry so I’m looking for something to make that a little easier and less time-consuming. Heck, I might even experiment with a clay bar kit on the Mazda, just to see if they’re as good as people say - but in all honesty, that’ll be as far as it goes, as I just don’t have the time to spend hours and hours cleaning cars, so it’s not worth spending a fortune on top-notch kit and consumables.
Microfibre cloths are great for car detailing, just keep washing them. I would use 2 removing wax from the 5.
Please take care when using any mechanical polishing kit, I get regular calls (at least once a month) from people who have, either themselves or the local ‘cheap’ pro cleaner, polished their way through the lacquer or paint on their car. Usually they seem to think I have a magic machine that runs in reverse and puts the lacquer / paint back for 5p.
Treat edges with extra care and every swage line. Work towards them from both sides, but not over them. With the exception of the pure wax products almost all the rest are abrasive to some extent, so you can polish the car too much. This is true doing it by hand and even more so with a machine.
It is not bad polishes up the car well, but it is slightly too big to handle It is good for general bodywork but it is slightly too big so it is not very easy to control when it approaches to places like door handles, windscreen frame and places near the hood
If you are just looking for a polisher, it would be ok if you use the RAC polisher and then do the small bits by hand or I would suggest, if you will need an angle grinder at home, probably you can invest a bit more (£39.99?) on a halfords variable speed angle grinder/polisher as the polish mat is actually smaller (4 inches diameter?)
Hi Mozza, sorry for delay. With modern paintwork (that with a clear coat of lacquer) I would usually advise no more than twice a year if the Customer is really in need of a life. In reality it is a bit like the 3 stage method for keeping alloy wheels clean:
Clean them every week.
Clean them every week, and finally
Clean them every week.
For an older car, especially solid colours like my '93 V-Spec they have probably lost most of their paint over the years. I went over mine with clay once I had washed the car really well and then gave it a good wax. I find the best wax depends on the colour, though this may not be true if you are using something like Swissvax at £80 and up a pack ( http://www.swissvax.co.uk/products/wax-products.asp ). I used to find Zymol really good on my black Elise but Meguiars works better on the GRB Eunos.
The thing to remember is that almost all cleaning products are abrassive to some degree, you can see this with solid colours when the polishing cloth takes on the colour of the car and if you polish your car every week you WILL eventually remove all the paint. Metallics and pearls with a clear lacquer will eventually get polished through to the paint at which point the area will take on a different colour and not a good shine. For the last few years manufactures have had to use water based paints, which are very good but need lacquer to take a shine, even solid colours, all my repairs use this type of paint.
So even by hand I limit myself to 3 or 4 waxes a year and use a wash / wax product to clean the car every week. There are some drivers hints and tips on my web site ( http://www.morethanjustchips.com/?cat=14 ) I have not used a machine on this car.
I read that Ford used 23 kilos of paint on the last of the Escorts then upped the spec for the Focus and only used 14 kilos (that was primer, colour and clear coats) the paint is better but clearly thinner. I get about 1 call a month from people who have polished through paint with T-cut and advise people to throw it away. In general if a scratch still shows when the panel is wet it WILL NOT polish out. I have juggled my diary to do a job for a guy in town whos curtesy car goes back wednesday and at the weekend he opened the door onto the corner of a brick wall, the dent is 10mm deep 50mm long and 40mm wide with most of the paint missing at the bottom and his opening line on the phone was “I tried to polish it out with T-cut.”
After more than 5 years even I still hear amazing stories.
I’m new to owning a ‘Pleasure Car’ and new to detailing. But after my first proper attempt to ‘Clean a car better than you could get from a dealer when buying new’, after shelling out nearly £80 on cleaning products/materials (I already had SRP and a few other cleaners), I can honestly say it was money well spent.
That Hi-Def wax from Autoglym will last eons, and therefore works out at next to nothing, therefore seeming quite ‘Cheap Polish’.
Roll on those long summer nights [H], but gonna loving buggering about with it over winter [;)]