Can polishing be done by hand?

Ebg18t said:
I would just open the checkbook and order a machine. Something like the GG6 will make your life do much easier..
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I agree with this. I bought a GG6 as my first and only polisher, for now. It's an excellent machine. I will add new machines on an as need basis. I highly recommend it. Lifetime warranty is the icing. I personally like to wax by hand, something about massaging the vehicle's paint appeals to me. For clients cars, a machine works great. Good luck & take care.

Peace,

Darrin
 
Mizzoutiger said:
As time is money, it'll be a lot cheaper, faster and better polishing with machine, especially on black! Hand polishing your entire truck's black paint will likely induce more swirls, scratches and headaches (especially if you're not familiar with process and/or use inferior products...polish, applicators, towels) that will make you wish you never started down that road. With all the sales going on, now's the time to buy the good stuff and properly protect your investment.
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X2^^ I recently applied Megs 21 by hand and swirled the crap out of my dads 2014 black Nissan maxima. I felt like a fool. And this was after many hours of research. I did my homework and still screwed it up. Whatever you choose to do, be sure to do a test spot! And do an IPA wipe down to look for swirls in very good light. If it's cloudy you might not see them. And the next sunny day you'll be in for a surprise if you did the whole vehicle.

That said- i also recently tried removing some light scratches on my truck by hand. After a couple hours of work on just a small portion I barely made a dent in it. I now have a GG6 on the way :)
 
To cut to the chase......NO, it will never turn out as well as machine polishing. In all honesty I'd say you are wasting time and product trying to do it by hand. It MAY look slightly better than it does now but nothing compares to a machine polishing.
 
Hi
I just did my wifes truck by hand. I just bought a 1995 Ranger for her, and I don't think it's been waxed since 1996. The paint was dirty, flat and in poor shape. I polished it by hand, and I know I didn't do a very good job. The one think I had was a little handle thingie I picked up at Autozone, that I could put my pad on. This made the job easier (ha) and saved my fingers. I did see some results. Instead of dull white paint (it was so flat, it looked like white housepaint), it's now a little bit shiny. I spent probably two hours polishing/waxing, and I KNOW I did a poor job on it. Realistically, by hand, I probably should have put another 8-10 hours into it hand polishing. So, yes it can be done. Like Mr. Miyagi says, "Wax on, Wax off" .
 
I'm not sure if tool rental places have DA polishers that they rent but that could be a great option vs. trying to hand polish if you're looking to avoid spending money on a machine. I think some places around me have rotaries but you'll likely want to avoid those if you've never used a machine before. Maybe hit up craigslist to see if anyone is selling a used PC for under $50 also.
 
Yikes, I remember when I got into detailing and did my car by hand

There's plenty of great, non-to-expensive machines out there that can get you started
 
Jrdriver said:
I have a black truck I wanna do a full detail on its only 2 years old and the paint feels pretty smooth but I'm still gonna start with a fine clay bar and of course follow with polish I do not have a machine for this I will be doing it by hand can this be done and still achieve good results and what polishes would work best by hand?
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If you do attempt polishing by hand, maybe this might help: Wolfgang Polishin’ Pal is an ergonomically shaped urethane handle that holds specially designed foam pads using hooks & loops.
 
When I 1st got into this I decided to clay, compound, polish & wax my car by hand. I did the compound & polish steps twice.. But since I was a noob I failed to completely inspect the paint as I was going along which resulted in unfinished results. Btw the whole process took me 5 days and I was nearly dead at the end.
 
Eldorado2k said:
When I 1st got into this I decided to clay, compound, polish & wax my car by hand. I did the compound & polish steps twice.. But since I was a noob I failed to completely inspect the paint as I was going along which resulted in unfinished results. Btw the whole process took me 5 days and I was nearly dead at the end.
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Yup, I went through pretty much the same process
 
Eldorado2k said:
When I 1st got into this I decided to clay, compound, polish & wax my car by hand. I did the compound & polish steps twice.. But since I was a noob I failed to completely inspect the paint as I was going along which resulted in unfinished results. Btw the whole process took me 5 days and I was nearly dead at the end.
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Lol! That's some crazy dedication right there. I stopped polishing after a couple of passes by hand.
 
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