G8 as my next tool?

Desertnate

Desertnate

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Happy Monday!

I'm looking at a way to better polish small areas on vehicles and wondering about the effectiveness of various tools and wondering if the G8 will meet my needs.

I know it will make doing things like the curved areas on A/B/C/D pillars, side mirrors, various small surface design areas, and headlights much easier. However, I'm questioning the ability for the polisher to get into tight areas like the flat surfaces around air intakes below the front bumper. A typical DA polisher doesn't get into those area very well not only because of the size of pad/throw, but also due to the size of the polisher itself. How does the G8 fair in those situations?

Now I have a G15, my HF DA polisher is in semi-retirement and available to use with a 3" backing plate, but I'm not sure it's sized properly for work in small areas like the G8 will be.

I know many will say the Rupes Ibrid is the answer, but for as little use as it will get for me as a hobbyist, I can't justify the cost.
 
The G8 does get into a lot tighter spaces than something like the G15 but it won't fit everywhere. If you want to cover all spots by machine you'll still need something like the Rupes ibrid nano. Even the Flex pixie which can do 1" pads has a large body and will not fit very tight spots like the Rupes would. I don't do enough work to justify such an expensive polisher for small areas so I resort to hand/finger polishing those spots.
 
Thanks. Overall I think it will be a big help with areas I struggle to reach/get/properly polish with any normal polisher and a 5" pad, but it sounds like I'll still have to resort to a few tricky areas by hand.
 
The G8 was my first tool. As you know I'm a noob. You've probably given me some advice as I recognize your handle.

I loved it so much and it was so easy to use, I immediately bought the G9 so I could for my cars.

I'm really happy with it. It's really stout, very easy to change the backing plate, and it's great for smaller areas and both convex and concave curves.

I've practice a bit with it on my truck, but used it for the first time on my rear fender. Pretty curvy with tight spots.

I taped up the screws and the little runners, and the two inch plate did a great job in those tight spots.

View attachment 73185
 
Another great use for the G8 is spot correcting. Let's say you got one water spot or scratch that requires more aggressiveness than the paint around it. It's easier to focus on a smaller area (and remove less paint of the bigger area) and get just the problem spot taken care of. I often tackle those spots with a microfiber cutting pad on the G8 and a compound, then go over the entire panel with foam pad and a polish to finish the job.
 
There's always this,

Review: Griot's Garage G8 Headlight Sander


The Griot's Garage G8 Headlight Sander

Griots_G8_Headlight_Sander_001.JPG





:)
 
CaffeineBuzz said:
The G8 was my first tool. As you know I'm a noob. You've probably given me some advice as I recognize your handle.

I loved it so much and it was so easy to use, I immediately bought the G9 so I could for my cars.

I'm really happy with it. It's really stout, very easy to change the backing plate, and it's great for smaller areas and both convex and concave curves.

I've practice a bit with it on my truck, but used it for the first time on my rear fender. Pretty curvy with tight spots.

I taped up the screws and the little runners, and the two inch plate did a great job in those tight spots.

View attachment 73185
Click to expand...

Thanks. My car alone has enough strange curvy areas I can see it being helpful. Glad to hear you found it to have plenty of power.

BSoares said:
Another great use for the G8 is spot correcting. Let's say you got one water spot or scratch that requires more aggressiveness than the paint around it. It's easier to focus on a smaller area (and remove less paint of the bigger area) and get just the problem spot taken care of. I often tackle those spots with a microfiber cutting pad on the G8 and a compound, then go over the entire panel with foam pad and a polish to finish the job.
Click to expand...

Great advice! Thanks. I hadn't thought of that, but now that you mention it I can see a random coating high spot would be a similar scenario...not that I'm not dealing with those right now...
 
Desertnate said:
Happy Monday!

I'm looking at a way to better polish small areas on vehicles and wondering about the effectiveness of various tools and wondering if the G8 will meet my needs.

I know it will make doing things like the curved areas on A/B/C/D pillars, side mirrors, various small surface design areas, and headlights much easier. However, I'm questioning the ability for the polisher to get into tight areas like the flat surfaces around air intakes below the front bumper. A typical DA polisher doesn't get into those area very well not only because of the size of pad/throw, but also due to the size of the polisher itself. How does the G8 fair in those situations?

Now I have a G15, my HF DA polisher is in semi-retirement and available to use with a 3" backing plate, but I'm not sure it's sized properly for work in small areas like the G8 will be.

I know many will say the Rupes Ibrid is the answer, but for as little use as it will get for me as a hobbyist, I can't justify the cost.
Click to expand...

Griot is coming out with a 1" forgot the number.
 
4d4bc53c5b846de8f0127a80e8ec51fc.jpg


Nate, you can also get an extension with a 2” BP (as seen here on my GG3).


Thanks, AA! :)
 
I believe that is their new rotary that uses the same body as the g8. It comes with 1" and 3" backing plates. 750 watts so it should be plenty strong.
 
Rsurfer said:
Griot is coming out with a 1" forgot the number.
Click to expand...

Any place I can find more info? Understand you probably can't put a link here due to forum rules, but a quick Google search didn't find anything.

This becomes a real rabbit hole. Other than areas under exterior mirrors and the tight corners on the vents in the front facia, I'd probably find much more use for a 3" polisher. I can't imagine doing the area along the A pillar which transitions along the entire body line of a car with a 1" polisher.


PaulMys said:
4d4bc53c5b846de8f0127a80e8ec51fc.jpg


Nate, you can also get an extension with a 2” BP (as seen here on my GG3).


Thanks, AA! :)
Click to expand...

Thanks Paul. My bigger question about the smaller polishers is more about the size of the polisher itself and less about the pad size. Pad size is important and the smaller polisher will really help in many ways.

When you use the 2" pad, or even the 3" for that matter, do you find the body of the polisher itself still keeps you out of some areas, or is it small enough to allow you to get into most of the needed areas?
 
Desertnate said:
Thanks Paul. My bigger question about the smaller polishers is more about the size of the polisher itself and less about the pad size. Pad size is important and the smaller polisher will really help in many ways.

When you use the 2" pad, or even the 3" for that matter, do you find the body of the polisher itself still keeps you out of some areas, or is it small enough to allow you to get into most of the needed areas?
Click to expand...

To be quite honest, I just got this set-up about 2 weeks ago from a good friend and I have not used it yet. But...... it will be used exclusively on the Wife's Wrangler where I am anticipating it to reach into about 95% of the areas that were a PITA with the 3" set-up and no extension.
 
Desertnate said:
Thanks. My car alone has enough strange curvy areas I can see it being helpful. Glad to hear you found it to have plenty of power.
Click to expand...

thought I'd give you an idea how it turned out as well

I did a three step correction

Wolfgang Uber > Wolfgang Total Swirl Remover > Wolfgang Finishing Glaze > Prep > CanCoat

I used a a hard white Boss foam cutting pad with the Uber, an orange Boss pad with the Swirl Remover, then a black Boss pad with the glaze

Here is a pic where it's pretty dirty. You can see the outline from the rear taillight assembly, there were lines chaffed into the surface where the gasket lay against the rear fender.

View attachment 73205

Here is another, you can see a long white line. Again, this was chaffing from the filler panels between my hard bags and the fender. I took the panels out to get more access to the fender, but have already reinstalled them. I had no intentions of correcting this chaffing line.

Here are some after pics:

View attachment 73206

Here you can see, even though I didn't need to, I nearly completely corrected the chaffing from the tail light assembly.

View attachment 73207

Here is where I appreciated having the smaller but stout power of the G8. Getting between these screws and the top side was easy to do with a 2" attachment.

View attachment 73208
 
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