Recommendation for electric Buffer and Polish

[PodOne]

One for all you detailers and concourse folk.

My car is Royal Blue and has had a good paint job but is at the stage where a decent polish would not go amiss to maintain the finish. Price is not a issue as long as its not silly money for a car that sees road use.

So what polish would you recommend along with a decent buffer to make the process easier? Any tips and tricks appreciated.

Thanks

Andy

[RogerH]

Hi Andy

I bought a buffer from Machine Mart that works well. Quite heavy but functional.  CP185

As for polish I use Autoglym

Do not dither over sharp edges etc.

 

Roger

[stuart]

No substitute for elbow grease Im afraid, You really do need to be very careful using an electric polisher unless your used to them, its far too easy to burn the paint and go through the edges and high points like swage lines. Water spray all the time really helps keep everything cool.

I have a really good polisher but cant honestly remember the last time i used it. I much prefer to polish by hand

Light wet flat with 1500 W/Dry then Farecla G7, Tcut and then 3M final glaze and then Autoglym polish to finish.

Stuart.

[jimt]

Hi Andy

I bought the below mid range polisher for my 6 - I’d never polished before but after a bit of research and You Tube found it much less scary a subject- the Dual Action polishers are easy to use and you can’t really do damage - especially on harder 2k paint - if your sensible 

When you apply excessive pressure, the DA polisher will slow down or even stall if too much pressure is applied- the stalling or reduced speed is a safety mechanism to prevent you from over-working the paint and potentially damaging it. So these have a very low chance of ‘burn through’ with its dual action - oscillating and rotating - rather than a Rotary polisher that only rotates & is much more aggressive so requires care to avoid heat build up on the paint

I used Menzerna polishes in different cut/gloss stages but you can also get some great ‘all in one’ action compound/polish now to produce brilliant results 

https://www.das6.co.uk/products/das-6-pro-dual-action-polisher-v2

https://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/paint-correction/car-polish-compounds

Jim

Edited April 19 by jimt

[PodOne]

On 4/19/2025 at 7:30 AM, jimt said:

Hi Andy

I bought the below mid range polisher for my 6 - I’d never polished before but after a bit of research and You Tube found it much less scary a subject- the Dual Action polishers are easy to use and you can’t really do damage - especially on harder 2k paint - if your sensible 

When you apply excessive pressure, the DA polisher will slow down or even stall if too much pressure is applied- the stalling or reduced speed is a safety mechanism to prevent you from over-working the paint and potentially damaging it. So these have a very low chance of ‘burn through’ with its dual action - oscillating and rotating - rather than a Rotary polisher that only rotates & is much more aggressive so requires care to avoid heat build up on the paint

I used Menzerna polishes in different cut/gloss stages but you can also get some great ‘all in one’ action compound/polish now to produce brilliant results 

https://www.das6.co.uk/products/das-6-pro-dual-action-polisher-v2

https://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/paint-correction/car-polish-compounds

Jim

Thanks Jim for the links never seen as many polish choices on one site!

Andy

[jimt]

17 hours ago, PodOne said:

Thanks Jim for the links never seen as many polish choices on one site!

Andy

Yes lots depending on what you trying to do  - You say your paint job is good so if no major rectification/scratch removal needed - &  just a polish to improve gloss levels something like Menzerna 3500 or 3800 would suit -it has a very low level of ‘cut ‘ (3 or 2) with a high level of polish(10) to give you the result your probably looking for.  You can also use this by hand on the swage lines & smaller inaccessible areas to the machine polisher if you want but the level of cut is so low with those your unlikely to go through unless your very heavy handed & go on polishing for far too long - with that polish you should get to the gloss level you want well before you start getting to thin paint. 

Please Show us a before and after if you go down this route. 
 

Jim

Edited April 22 by jimt

[Steve-B]

I for one can't see any sense the expense personally as I  use as Autoglym + elbow grease with microfibre cloths from Screwfix make my pain showroom quality...!

[RogerH]

Over the last couple of years I was having to spray and then cut back 2K paint on the BlueRacer TR4.

I started off with elbow grease; but my elbows complained.

I had bought a Sander/polisher from MachineMart a long time ago but never used it in anger.

With all this orange peel etc staring at me I decided to give the MM a go. It worked very well

Having flatted it with all the grades of W&D I then used the polisher with Farcela G3, G10 and Autoglym.

As long as the W&D did it job properly then the liquids performed excellently.

 

Roger