Ok. I bought compound to buff my gelcoat on my fiberglass boat. There's a 8-10" wide black stripe on the top hull that fades and needs buffing on a 25' boat. Pretty much the rest of the boat is white and looks great. Which DA buffer should I buy? I hear good things about the harbor freight buffers especially for not pro/ daily use. They have a couple different models. 5.7 Amp, 6 in., 8 mm Short-Throw Random Orbit DA Polisher/Sander https://share.google/ouOy4jcn5kUveBTfZ And then. 7.5 Amp, 6 in., 20 mm Long-Throw Random Orbit DA Polisher https://share.google/nrN4HE4RjFDiH09oL Will the 5.7 amp one be up to the task? Or should I spring the extra $$ for the 7.5 amp one? It's a 6" buffing head in the kit I bought. TIA
For some reason harbor freight website doesn't fully load for me but it looks like they have a link to an answer for you question?
I have a Rupes Bigfoot Mille LK900E and really like it. It's forced rotation. Makes quicker work out of things vs random orbital. It's not cheap though. RUPES Bigfoot LK900E Mille Gear Driven Dual Action Polisher I've got an old Porter Cable DA random orbital polisher from the mid 2000's sitting in my closet that resembles the products you are looking at from that garbage tool place. It works fine, but it's nowhere near the tool the Rupes is. The Rupes is MUCH smoother and just a much better piece. My Porter Cable can vibrate seeing it's random orbital and cause my hand to go numb after awhile.
Hmm. Here's the 5.7 amp ",short throw" one that's on sale thru tomorrow https://www.harborfreight.com/57-amp-6-in-8-mm-short-throw-random-orbit-da-polishersander-64528.html And the slightly more expensive one. 7.5 Amp, 6 in., 20 mm Long-Throw Random Orbit DA Polisher https://share.google/DAjB1f4OLK97bPSYM What's the difference between the ⁶ and 20 mm stroke as far as polishing I don't need any crazy expensive buffer. This should be a once a year, maybe longer interval after I ceramic topcoat it.
Logically thinking I would guess that the longer stroke should work better/faster in open areas but might be tough to run tight up against an edge of sorts. A slow speed rotational buffer would be best but can do some damage if you're not paying attention while still learning to use it. I'm pretty sure I've seen guys use an angled 1/2" drill before.
In theory the longer strokes can correct paint faster. But they don't always rotate in that manner seeing it's not forced rotation. It will "randomly" do it when it feels like and if you have a larger pad or apply pressure it may not rotate much at all. The longer the stroke the higher the chance it won't rotate the full stroke.
I really like my Griots. I have the G9. The shop I work at now has a guy that runs a detail business there. He has several brands, I’ve tried em and let me tell you.. (just my .02, not trying to be disrespectful to anyone), the horror freight ones aren’t closely compared to a “good” brand premium one. Night and day difference. If you’re only going to use it once, every 3-4 years then I can see getting the cheapest one possible. He never used the Griots and liked it enough to order the 3&4” one for small radius and motorcycles. Haven’t tried it yet but I sure will soon. The G9 is one that if you push too hard, it will not continue to cut. The 21 I believe keeps going no matter how hard you push. Being it was my first foray into random orbitals, I went conservative and I’m still completely satisfied. Couple random pics of our vehicles that I’ve done. Their products work well too. Blue CRV Buy once cry once. I’m at a point in my life where I can’t tolerate crappy cheap tools.
While I like buying quality tools, this is such a small bit of gelcoat that needs to be freshened up. It's just the top black stripe on both sides. The bottom stripes are fine. I'll buy the one that's on sale and I'll see how it works out. I bought the skwol gelcoat restoration and the ceramic topcoat as well as pads to do the job. This is really good stuff.
Blue Firehawk.... German Menzerna polishes My factory paint doesn't have much for orange peel, you can see some in the OEM paint on your CRV. Nothing you can do about that other than block sand it and then polish it back out. That's a lot of work though and you risk the chance of sanding through the clearcoat. LOL
