First time DA

Vronsky

Hi everyone. So santa was a great man as usual and bought me a DA polisher for Christmas. My problem is that at the moment I have no skills with it and feel a bit nervous about the idea of putting it on the car. The cars I will be putting it on are an 08 Volkswagen and a 131 Peugeot, with the Peugeot needing the most love as it was clearly put through auto washes by the previous owner.

As a beginner I have a fear of burning through the clear coat and leaving holograms on the paint so I'd love a few tips on what pads and compounds to start out with that are relatively safe. I already have blacklight and collinite and have been applying those by hand up to now.

Thanks!

listermint

The whole point of the da is that it moves in an 8 motion meaning ideal for an amateur.

Take your time it's easy and enjoy the results.

Don't be afraid I've seen many gob****es use them with ease

Vronsky

listermint wrote: »

The whole point of the da is that it moves in an 8 motion meaning ideal for an amateur.

Take your time it's easy and enjoy the results.

Don't be afraid I've seen many gob****es use them with ease

Haha, thanks!

Would you be able to recommend a pad and a polish?

Curran

Vronsky wrote: »

As a beginner I have a fear of burning through the clear coat and leaving holograms on the paint so I'd love a few tips on what pads and compounds to start out with that are relatively safe.

The DA is designed to be safe in unskilled hands, yet be capable of achieving the results of any polisher. Due to the fact that the machine spins and oscillates, heat distribution is much higher with a DA than a Rotary. This makes it safer. It will be near impossible to build enough heat to do damage. Another advantage of the DA is that there is much less chance of leaving holograms.

You'd only really do any damage with the polisher, if you managed to drop it on the car!!

Paint hardness can vary; VW will be tough to correct as its hard, and the Peugeot will be medium hardness...the links of Jap cars tend to have softer paints.

Correction of paintwork will obviously be slower / more difficult on harder paintworks. And with a DA the downside of the almost fool proof nature is that its a slower process.

If you are trying to achieve just restoration of original colour, depth and gloss then giving the car a once over will mean that this will be quite easy. A one stage polish with a finishing pad and polish will do this, but the flip side is, the swirls in the paintwork will remain. If you are trying to achieve correction of these swirls then you are into heavier pads and polishes, two or three sets (a set is the application of polish to the pad, heating the polish, working the polish, finishing)

CarPro Fixer and Reflect are nice polishes to work with. Their new ClearCUT polish would certainly be very good on the VW if you felt you wanted to achieve a lot of correction. Menzerna are good and one or two of the Chemical Guys V-Line of polishes are nice to work with.
CarPro make some very nice pads, as do Royal Pads. Then there is the old reliable Hex Logic from Chemical Guys.

The risk with DA is low, so if you were struggling with foam pads, you could even move up to Microfiber or Wool pads, to give extra bite.

The best approach is to grab a pads of few different cutting ability, heavy cut, medium cut and finishing. Along with the same in polishes. Experiment with your new machine, technique, mixing and matching pads and polishes (as they react slightly different with each combo) and if you feel you are finding the process slow / want more cutting ability, then seek advice on where to go next.

If you need advice on how to use the polisher, say so, and I can do a post on that for you. Some people expect its just a lash a bit of polish on a pad, turn the machine on, and run it back and forth twice and move onto the next section. Theres a bit more to it than that!

Hope this helps!

Vronsky

Curran wrote: »

The DA is designed to be safe in unskilled hands, yet be capable of achieving the results of any polisher. Due to the fact that the machine spins and oscillates, heat distribution is much higher with a DA than a Rotary. This makes it safer. It will be near impossible to build enough heat to do damage. Another advantage of the DA is that there is much less chance of leaving holograms.

You'd only really do any damage with the polisher, if you managed to drop it on the car!!

Paint hardness can vary; VW will be tough to correct as its hard, and the Peugeot will be medium hardness...the links of Jap cars tend to have softer paints.

Correction of paintwork will obviously be slower / more difficult on harder paintworks. And with a DA the downside of the almost fool proof nature is that its a slower process.

If you are trying to achieve just restoration of original colour, depth and gloss then giving the car a once over will mean that this will be quite easy. A one stage polish with a finishing pad and polish will do this, but the flip side is, the swirls in the paintwork will remain. If you are trying to achieve correction of these swirls then you are into heavier pads and polishes, two or three sets (a set is the application of polish to the pad, heating the polish, working the polish, finishing)

CarPro Fixer and Reflect are nice polishes to work with. Their new ClearCUT polish would certainly be very good on the VW if you felt you wanted to achieve a lot of correction. Menzerna are good and one or two of the Chemical Guys V-Line of polishes are nice to work with.
CarPro make some very nice pads, as do Royal Pads. Then there is the old reliable Hex Logic from Chemical Guys.

The risk with DA is low, so if you were struggling with foam pads, you could even move up to Microfiber or Wool pads, to give extra bite.

The best approach is to grab a pads of few different cutting ability, heavy cut, medium cut and finishing. Along with the same in polishes. Experiment with your new machine, technique, mixing and matching pads and polishes (as they react slightly different with each combo) and if you feel you are finding the process slow / want more cutting ability, then seek advice on where to go next.

If you need advice on how to use the polisher, say so, and I can do a post on that for you. Some people expect its just a lash a bit of polish on a pad, turn the machine on, and run it back and forth twice and move onto the next section. Theres a bit more to it than that!

Hope this helps!

Absolutely super advice there Curran, and I really appreciate the time you took to write that. Until I get used to the DA, I think I'll just do a one stage polish with a finishing pad.

I absolutely understand that you can't pick up these machines, run them over a car and expect them to sparkle like they've been in the hands of a professional detailer. After a bit of practice I'd like to be close to that though.

So say to start, looking at detailing shed, car pro fixer and chem guys hex logic red?

After I've gotten used to the feel of the machine I'll try two or three stage correction with a heavy cutting polish and pad. When it comes to that, I'd say I'll be ok on the big flat surfaces, it's the creases and folds that would give me a little worry. I'd be half tempted to pick up an auld banger or a couple of panels from a breaker just to learn on.

Curran

The CG's Hex Red is extremely soft - I'd move up more like Blue, or perhaps even the White.
While these combo's wont give the ultimate, ultimate gloss and shine, it will finish down quite nicely and give a very glossy finish...Im talking the difference a finishing pad and finishing polish would jewel up to, wouldnt really be noticeable to an untrained eye. But it will be a better line in the sand for you to see correction occurring before your eyes / where you need to go in terms of how much extra cutting ability you will need.

MetzgerMeister

No offence but you'll be a long, long time doing a one stage polish with a finishing pad.

vectra

My favorite Hex pad when I was doing machine polishing was the Green pad.

ianobrien

OP, I was in the same boat as you, afraid to do damage. What I did was dug an old car door out of the back of the garage and practiced on that. If you want to practice, head to your local scrapyard go grab a door/bonnet/boot/etc. It doesn't even have to be straight!

I tried different pads/polishes/amounts/etc and it really helped. Since then I've done a few polishing jobs and the practice helped.

I'm on the move so I can't check what pads/polish I have. I know there is a Hex-Logic green pad, another pad of a different colour and I think Chemical Guys V36 & V38 polish.

Vronsky

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

No offence but you'll be a long, long time doing a one stage polish with a finishing pad.

None taken. I don't mind how long it takes really as long as I don't damage the paint. I do take your point though as well as Currans above - that a medium cut pad and polish would give a good beginner result.

ianobrien wrote: »

OP, I was in the same boat as you, afraid to do damage. What I did was dug an old car door out of the back of the garage and practiced on that. If you want to practice, head to your local scrapyard go grab a door/bonnet/boot/etc. It doesn't even have to be straight!

I tried different pads/polishes/amounts/etc and it really helped. Since then I've done a few polishing jobs and the practice helped.

I'm on the move so I can't check what pads/polish I have. I know there is a Hex-Logic green pad, another pad of a different colour and I think Chemical Guys V36 & V38 polish.

It might be overkill, but this is what I'll do. When I get the time, I'll get a wing and a bonnet and practise on that first before I dive headlong in and do the car.

Thanks for everyones input

Lekrub

I'm going to be using a DA soon for the first time. How did you get on?