Mike Phillips
Active member
- Dec 5, 2022
- 51,004
- 7
- Thread starter
- #21
I am fairly new at detailing but that is one thing I am so unsure to be true.
If you work a 2 X 2 area for say 2 minutes, at slow arm speed you will be doing say 8 section passes and at fast arm speed you might be doing 16. So in the end the area has been worked the same. This is just a theory of mine, but that's how I feel.
How you feel is important but consistent results are just as important. Remember, paint systems are different, some paints are hard some are soft and some are in-between, what you want is technique that works consistently on all paint systems, as well as products that use good abrasive technology, good pads and the right tools for the job.
Here's what I've been using and teaching as it relates to doing correction work with dual action polishers, rotary buffers are a different animal altogether,
When trying to remove defects, or in other words, when you're trying to remove some paint off the car, because realistically that's what you're doing in order to level the surface and thus make the "appearance" of the defects disappear,
You want the combination of,
- Abrasive Technology --> Huge factor
- Pad Material --> Huge factor
- Oscillating/Rotating Action --Huge factor
- Downward Pressure
- Time - Total time spent on one section
- Arm Speed
To all work together.
If you move the polisher over the paint too fast you will not give all of the above factors time to "affect" the paint. In context, the word affect means abrade it and change it.
In other words, if you move the polisher too fast over the surface, your pad and the abrasives it's supposed to be forcing to take little bites out of the paint will instead just be skimming over the surface.
Give the above some thought next time you're doing any correction work with a DA Polisher.
I agree that a person can still remove paint moving the polisher quickly over the surface but I think you lose cutting or abrading efficiently when you do this.
You can always call it personal preference. If it works for you and it works for Larry then that's all that's important. I've met Larry a few times, he sat through all my detailing classes at Mobil Tech Expo last year.
