<center><img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/37492/audi_1st_cleanup_015.jpg"></center><p>Hey guys:
I am at a crossroads.
My newly acquired A6, as well as my van and my buddy's Expedition needs a full detail(exterior)
I am very happy with 3M Imperial Hand glaze..But doing my van and the Expedition with the "hand" glaze sounds almost suicidal.
Asking around, I have found that there are as many people who swear by the Orbital buffer as there are who despise it..Including the owner of carcareonline.com where I buy most of my supplies from.
IF, I decide on going the buffer route, I am totally unaware of the differnt models, pads etc that I need to consider.
What do ou gus suggest..

Here is what the A6 looked like after the Imperial Hand Glaze and Blizt wax. I did even Clay the car, which it desperatly needs.

 

An orbital polisher has the pad directly attached to the motor spindle. In the wrong/unexperienced hands, it can pretty quickly trash a paint job. In the right hands, it can buff out paint damage/remove swirl marks faster than anything. As such, it's a great tool for a professional.

A random orbital polisher (also known as a dual-action or "DA" polisher) operates differently. It is mounted in such a way that the pad does not move in a purely orbital motion, but with a random component added. This dual-action reduces the heat generated, and thus the cutting action of the polisher. BIG difference. When combined with the right pads/products, it really takes a lot of work (i.e., serious intent or even more serious stupidity) to hurt your paint with a DA polisher.

For a first outing with my recently purchased Porter Cable 7424 (the preferred tool by most people on this forum), I went at a nasty scrape on my SUV with a relatively agressive polish -- Menzerna Intensive Polish (just on the fringe of being considered a rubbing compound). It removed the foreign paint that had been scraped onto my SUV, but only after quite a few repeated passes. An orbital polisher would have taken it off quicker, but I might have ruined the underlying paint -- something I did NOT do with the PC. The results were truly amazing and something I never envisioned doing on my own. The rest of the paint was in generally good shape, but had never seen polish in it's 8 year life and was thus pretty tired. Now, other than paint chips that I've yet to touch up, the paint looks show-floor new.

Here's a great link to provide more details on using a DA polisher: <a href="http://www.autopia-carcare.com/inf-porter-cable-7424-car-polisher.html">Autopia How-to article on DA polishers</a>.

As part of the work I describe above, I used this tool for doing the intensive polish, a finish polish, a glaze, and the wax (all steps removed by hand). I would say that the investment in this tool and pads (around $175 for both) paid for itself on the first use. NO way I could have done this job (particularly not on something as big as a Mitsubish Montero) on my own and would easily have paid a detailer a couple of hundred bucks to do the job I did.

Final note: Make sure you read up on using the right pads (surf the Autopia car site -- they have good reading on this as well). That's another part of not being too agressive (e.g., wool = WAY agressive. A no-no for us non-pros).

 

What you want is something that will remove swirls and not fill them if your going to use and orbital. I think if you use the porter cable you will be very happy with the results. The machine is very easy to use and if you want to read on how to use the machine there are some good read ups at http://autopia.org. Also see www.properautocare.com, they have a lot of pics you can view and pad uses etc. check that out and come to us with some questions. I will say this a machine can be your best friend when used properly. You will easily learn through proper education and mostly by playing around and using it