1st purchase - missing anything?

The griots is about the same price as the porter cable, why choose it?
 
Thanks everyone, order placed. It's beer:30! Have a good weekend.
 
List looks pretty good.

Couple things that are a must-

Pad cleaning brush-need this to buff-it's the easiest way
Pad cleaner-get the DP that is on BOGO. I am ordering some later tonight.
 
I don't own the Flex so I can neither support it or denigrate it.

I do own a PCXP. Based on the feedback from forum members, the Griot ROP is more powerful than the PCXP but I'm not planning on replacing my PCXP with a Griot. You can buy either one and have a quality tool. If you buy either machine, buy 5.5" pads with a 5" backing plate for major surfaces. Many of us have invested in 4" pads and 3.5" backing plates for our DAs too.

The Flex is more powerful and if you are doing many cars or every damaged paint, the Flex offers some advantages. It seems that many of the guys with a Flex also own and use either a Griots ROP or a PCXP. You may find that you will want both and you may find that you can't do everything you want with the Flex and will end up doing sections by hand if you don't have one of the other DAs.

I have Surbufs at home but didn't get the two cars that I planned to test them on over Christmas. The Surbufs may offer the cutting capability of a rotary with a Griots or PCXP, so the Flex might not have the advantage you expect especially if you are only doing a couple cars and not really damaged or difficult paint.

Don't get me wrong, the guys with Flex's love them. However, I'm pretty sure that most have more than the Flex for situations. If you can afford it and plan to get "involved" in detailing, buy both a Flex and a DA.

Buy good Microfiber towels. You have lots of choices. The Cobra edgeless MF towels are very good towels, however their supplier recently sent a shipment that was not produced as spec'd. Give them a chance to bring in a new lot that meets their expectations and I will then recommend them fully. I personally will hold off until that the proper towels are stocked again.

ONR is a pretty good clay lube, but you have a lot of choices. If you have a Mother's or Meguiar's clay kit, you'll be fine for basic claying. They both include adequate clay and clay lube for a single car. I might not use it on a $500K exotic now but my daily driver BMW's were fine for the years that I used them.

I may be crazy but I really like Optimum Power Clean as an APC. Yeah, it's a little more expensive however it works great in many situations and seems safer than some other cleaner/degreasers.

I also like Wolfgang DGPS3.0 for a sealant. The Megs twins (105/205) are a good combo with cut and finish with a DA.

Good Luck and Welcome!
 
the flex is great but i think you should work up to that and start with the griots and get a feel of diferent polishs and how they break down while working inside and outside-imo
 
The comment about the surfbufs and a DA is so true. You can get some incredible cut and is much safer then a rotary and far less of a learning curve.
 
While the Flex 3401 is great, after awhile it got really annoying when you can't use anything smaller than 6.5" pads. It's very hard to polish some cars with only 6.5" pads, you need smaller. I picked up a Griot's DA to use with 5.5" and 4" pads. I really like the unit and find myself using it more so than the Flex 3401. I'm not bashing the Flex, I will never sell it. I guess I just like the change for now.
 
Towels are my weakness. Whatever towel you decide to use check it with a blank CD/DVD, If it mares the surface of a cd then it will do the same on your paint. Pay extra attention to the banding. I've had some towels that were great on the interior but the "silk" banding scratched the crap out of the CD. I thought they were great towels but now I've decided that they wont be used on my exposed painted surfaces.
 
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