Mike Phillips
Active member
- Dec 5, 2022
- 51,004
- 6
How to use the Harbor Freight Polisher to remove swirls and scratches
Anytime I get questions via e-mail, a PM or a FB message I prefer to invest my typing time where
A: It's easier for me to share links, pictures and videos.
B: More people can read and thus benefit from the information. (no just one set of eyeballs
So I get an e-mail asking,
Good Day Mike,
Thou I know you are extremely busy, kindly request your advice.
I have a 2012 Toyota Camry, Silver color with 35,000 mileage . My wife has a 2004 Honda CRV, white color with 150,000 mileage .
I want both car to get little shine.
I clay the Toyota Camry with Meguiar's smooth clay kit last week. After that I found ver light swirls on the paint. I found light swirls on my wife's Honda CRV even I still haven't clay my wife car yet.
I bought Meguiar's ultimate compound, ultimate polish & ultimate liquid wax.
I bought a Harbor Freight 6" DA polisher.
I bought lake country's 5" backing plate & 5.5" foam pad [ 2 orange, 2 white & 2 blue ] from Autogeek & received last week. I intend to use the Lake country backing plate & pad on the Harbor Freight 6" DA polisher.
This is my first time using DA polisher machine.
If you don't mind, could you pls advise how many pressure & OPM I need to apply on the Harbor Freight 6" DA polisher when I use apply Meguiar's ultimate compound, ultimate polish & ultimate liquid wax to my both cars.
Also if you have any other suggestion for the first time machine user, it will be very helpful to me as well.
Thanking you in advance for your help.
Brgds
Tun
I made his question BOLD in the above e-mail and below are my answers and after I type this out and hit the [Submit Reply] button I'll send him the link.
Simple Simon.
When using a copy of the Porter Cable 7424 orbital polisher, for the most part here are the speed settings,
5-6 for compounding to remove swirls, scratches and water spots.
4-5 for polishing - this is to refine the results created by the compounding step while maximizing gloss and clarity
3-4 for machine waxing - for this step you're NOT trying to remove defects so you don't need speed or pressure, simply use a low speed to spread out a thin, uniform layer of the wax.
As for downward pressure
Compounding
For this type of tool, for compounding you want to apply around 10 to 15 pounds of pressure. Be sure to place a black line on the back of your backing plate to make it easy for your eyes to SEE and MONITOR pad rotation. If the pad is NOT rotating you are NOT doing anything, at least in my opinion and years of experience although others seem to disagree.
Polishing
For polishing, you need less pressure BECAUE any defect you want removed should be removed during the compounding step. So polishing is simply refining and key word, ensuring there's no compound or cutting pad haze or micro-marring.
Note: You cannot always see haze because the polishing oils in the compound will mask it. You often can't see it on light colors either, only dark colors. BUT it can and will still be there and this is why you re-polish using less aggressive pads and products.
Machine waxing
For machine waxing, just the weight of the tool.
Sure....
First - Join this forum and post your questions to the forum instead of sending them to me via e-mail. If you can type an e-mail you can join a forum and type on a forum. I'll even make it easy for you, here's the link to the registration page.
Click here to join the AGO forum
And note how I'm able to format text, include links and videos in a linear manner to "help" you take in the information in a easy to learn manner. You can't do this on Facebook and that's why I don't like trying to teach people or impart information of Facebook as the user interface is horrible.
Second - Watch this video, it will show you EVERYTHING you need to know and do when first starting out. Most of the techniques shown in this video are from articles I've written or techniques I teach in my classes over the decades as I am the original source for this information.
Then read these articles. I'd highly recommend reading the first one before starting and avoid all the common mistakes most people make when first starting out by getting HEAD KNOWLEDGE FIRST.
DA Polisher Trouble Shooting Guide
Video: Mark your backing plate to make it easy to see pad rotation
Downward Pressure....What is "Moderate"? --> another guy started this thread by the actual "how-to" information is something I wrote back in 2004 --> original source
How to divide larger body panels into smaller sections for machine buffing
How To Do a Test Spot
And that will get you going....

Anytime I get questions via e-mail, a PM or a FB message I prefer to invest my typing time where
A: It's easier for me to share links, pictures and videos.
B: More people can read and thus benefit from the information. (no just one set of eyeballs
So I get an e-mail asking,
Good Day Mike,
Thou I know you are extremely busy, kindly request your advice.
I have a 2012 Toyota Camry, Silver color with 35,000 mileage . My wife has a 2004 Honda CRV, white color with 150,000 mileage .
I want both car to get little shine.
I clay the Toyota Camry with Meguiar's smooth clay kit last week. After that I found ver light swirls on the paint. I found light swirls on my wife's Honda CRV even I still haven't clay my wife car yet.
I bought Meguiar's ultimate compound, ultimate polish & ultimate liquid wax.
I bought a Harbor Freight 6" DA polisher.
I bought lake country's 5" backing plate & 5.5" foam pad [ 2 orange, 2 white & 2 blue ] from Autogeek & received last week. I intend to use the Lake country backing plate & pad on the Harbor Freight 6" DA polisher.
This is my first time using DA polisher machine.
If you don't mind, could you pls advise how many pressure & OPM I need to apply on the Harbor Freight 6" DA polisher when I use apply Meguiar's ultimate compound, ultimate polish & ultimate liquid wax to my both cars.
Also if you have any other suggestion for the first time machine user, it will be very helpful to me as well.
Thanking you in advance for your help.
Brgds
Tun
I made his question BOLD in the above e-mail and below are my answers and after I type this out and hit the [Submit Reply] button I'll send him the link.
Tun said:how many pressure & OPM I need to apply on the Harbor Freight 6" DA polisher when I use apply Meguiar's ultimate compound, ultimate polish & ultimate liquid wax to my both cars.
Simple Simon.
When using a copy of the Porter Cable 7424 orbital polisher, for the most part here are the speed settings,
5-6 for compounding to remove swirls, scratches and water spots.
4-5 for polishing - this is to refine the results created by the compounding step while maximizing gloss and clarity
3-4 for machine waxing - for this step you're NOT trying to remove defects so you don't need speed or pressure, simply use a low speed to spread out a thin, uniform layer of the wax.
As for downward pressure
Compounding
For this type of tool, for compounding you want to apply around 10 to 15 pounds of pressure. Be sure to place a black line on the back of your backing plate to make it easy for your eyes to SEE and MONITOR pad rotation. If the pad is NOT rotating you are NOT doing anything, at least in my opinion and years of experience although others seem to disagree.
Polishing
For polishing, you need less pressure BECAUE any defect you want removed should be removed during the compounding step. So polishing is simply refining and key word, ensuring there's no compound or cutting pad haze or micro-marring.
Note: You cannot always see haze because the polishing oils in the compound will mask it. You often can't see it on light colors either, only dark colors. BUT it can and will still be there and this is why you re-polish using less aggressive pads and products.
Machine waxing
For machine waxing, just the weight of the tool.
Tun said:
Also if you have any other suggestion for the first time machine user, it will be very helpful to me as well.
Sure....
First - Join this forum and post your questions to the forum instead of sending them to me via e-mail. If you can type an e-mail you can join a forum and type on a forum. I'll even make it easy for you, here's the link to the registration page.
Click here to join the AGO forum
And note how I'm able to format text, include links and videos in a linear manner to "help" you take in the information in a easy to learn manner. You can't do this on Facebook and that's why I don't like trying to teach people or impart information of Facebook as the user interface is horrible.
Second - Watch this video, it will show you EVERYTHING you need to know and do when first starting out. Most of the techniques shown in this video are from articles I've written or techniques I teach in my classes over the decades as I am the original source for this information.
Then read these articles. I'd highly recommend reading the first one before starting and avoid all the common mistakes most people make when first starting out by getting HEAD KNOWLEDGE FIRST.
DA Polisher Trouble Shooting Guide
Video: Mark your backing plate to make it easy to see pad rotation
Downward Pressure....What is "Moderate"? --> another guy started this thread by the actual "how-to" information is something I wrote back in 2004 --> original source
How to divide larger body panels into smaller sections for machine buffing
How To Do a Test Spot
And that will get you going....
