Old guy, new obsession

G

gdvan01

New member
Joined
Jan 23, 2018
Messages
26
Reaction score
0
Old Guy:
So for any old school baseball fans out there, I actually attended a Washington Senators game at RFK while playing little league.

New Obsession:
Not new to detailing, learned a boatload from my Dad who was former military. That's right, you know it...once you learned the proper cleaning process, you'll forget your name before you forget it.

A Christmas present to myself was a new PC DA polisher, from AG, and naturally all the goodies to make it shine.

Maybe this weekend will be the maiden voyage for the Porter-Cable, if I can keep the freakin' pollen off ma'dang vehicle.

:xyxthumbs:
 
Good luck, take your time and dont get discouraged
TONS of info on here to help
 
Welcome to AGO! My 1st DA was the Pc7424XP. You made a good choice! You will learn a lot from here. Once you drink the Detailing Kool-Aide you will become OBSESSED! LOL

Word of advice on your 1st DA Have patience and MOST of ALL have FUN doing it!

Pictures when you are done!
 
Welcome!!

The PC is a great machine. Learning curve is measured in minutes.

Good luck. :)
 
Kamakaz1961 said:
Welcome to AGO! My 1st DA was the Pc7424XP. You made a good choice! You will learn a lot from here. Once you drink the Detailing Kool-Aide you will become OBSESSED! LOL

Word of advice on your 1st DA Have patience and MOST of ALL have FUN doing it!

Pictures when you are done!
Click to expand...

You got it...
 
gdvan01 said:
A Christmas present to myself was a new PC DA polisher, from AG, and naturally all the goodies to make it shine.

Maybe this weekend will be the maiden voyage for the Porter-Cable, if I can keep the freakin' pollen off ma'dang vehicle.
Click to expand...


Welcome to AutogeekOnline! :welcome:


In my humble opinion, this is the BEST online destination to learn the craft of detailing and the art of polishing paint. The people here are friendly and helpful and we don't ever allow the kind of riff raff you fine on other social media touch points to hang out here.


Last year I wrote the below article, while it references the Griot's Garage polisher (it has the most power for this category of polishers), it is a copy of the Porter Cable unit you own. Also the video in the below link showcases a Porter Cable. The key to getting GREAT results with the Porter Cable polisher is to use a 5" backing plate and outfit it with 5.5" thin pads. The good news is there are a LOT of thin pads on the market now days. It wasn't like this just 10 years ago when all we had to choose from were these HUMONGOUS thick foam pads. Thick foam pads absorb the energy coming out of the polisher and DISSIPATE it and it shows up to your eyes as low, slow or no pad rotation.

If the pad is NOT rotating you are NOT doing anything.

I've actually found experts that will argue you can get correction out of a pad that is vibrating against the paint but they know that's as they say in the political world, an untruth. :laughing:


Anyway, click the link below, watch the video and also check out all the rest of the information in this one single thread.


Here's what you need to get into machine polishing - Recommendations for a beginner by Mike Phillips



This last week we had at least 2 people that joined this forum that wanted to know how to make their car's paint look good but neither owned a polisher. At some point, they will get a polisher and if they get the right one, (like a PC or variant), they will say,


Wow! I should have done this years ago!


Been there done that. And what I mean by this is I've seen hundreds if not thousands of people have that light bulb go on in their head.



:)
 
Mike Phillips said:
Welcome to AutogeekOnline! :welcome:


In my humble opinion, this is the BEST online destination to learn the craft of detailing and the art of polishing paint. The people here are friendly and helpful and we don't ever allow the kind of riff raff you fine on other social media touch points to hang out here.


Last year I wrote the below article, while it references the Griot's Garage polisher (it has the most power for this category of polishers), it is a copy of the Porter Cable unit you own. Also the video in the below link showcases a Porter Cable. The key to getting GREAT results with the Porter Cable polisher is to use a 5" backing plate and outfit it with 5.5" thin pads. The good news is there are a LOT of thin pads on the market now days. It wasn't like this just 10 years ago when all we had to choose from were these HUMONGOUS thick foam pads. Thick foam pads absorb the energy coming out of the polisher and DISSIPATE it and it shows up to your eyes as low, slow or no pad rotation.

If the pad is NOT rotating you are NOT doing anything.

I've actually found experts that will argue you can get correction out of a pad that is vibrating against the paint but they know that's as they say in the political world, an untruth. :laughing:


Anyway, click the link below, watch the video and also check out all the rest of the information in this one single thread.


Here's what you need to get into machine polishing - Recommendations for a beginner by Mike Phillips



This last week we had at least 2 people that joined this forum that wanted to know how to make their car's paint look good but neither owned a polisher. At some point, they will get a polisher and if they get the right one, (like a PC or variant), they will say,


Wow! I should have done this years ago!


Been there done that. And what I mean by this is I've seen hundreds if not thousands of people have that light bulb go on in their head.



:)
Click to expand...

Thanks Mike!

I've been watching the vids and reading like a madman, now I'm all stocked up and ready to go.

My 2017 4Runner is Barcelona Red, can't wait to see how it turns out!

Forgot to add....I've already marked the backing plate with a sharpie...
 
Welcome into the passion! You'll soon be like me...old guy, old obsession. It is incredibly rewarding to do all this stuff yourself. For me being an old guy, I always keep an open mind to new things that this industry offers. Maintain a progressive mindset and you'll learn a ton!
 
gdvan01 said:
You know it!
Click to expand...

I saw Frank Howard play...watched him hit a home run on a pitch that bounced in front of the plate. Had a nice conversation with him when he was the third base coach for the Mets, when they were playing the Phillies at The Vet. Welcome to the forum and to the obsession
 
I'm 70, and still love to detail. Luckily. I'm extremely healthy. Come from a long line of centenarians. So hopefully. I can do this for many more years. My first da was a griots 6 ", and I still use it quite a bit. It's a great machine, and autogeek is a wonderful company to do business with.
 
Kamakaz1961 said:
Welcome to AGO! My 1st DA was the Pc7424XP. You made a good choice! You will learn a lot from here. Once you drink the Detailing Kool-Aide you will become OBSESSED! LOL

Word of advice on your 1st DA Have patience and MOST of ALL have FUN doing it!

Pictures when you are done!
Click to expand...

So, here we go.

Porter-Cable 7424XP
McKee's 37 360
LC polishing pads (white)

Primary goal - shine and some protection
Secondary goal - swirl removal

Wash, dry, clay and then I saw this. (first pic) Truly a 'what the...' moment.
The McKee's on the hood are before/after pics, Had to set the bottle on a MF towel after I was finished because it was so slick!
Fourth pic is how it sits now while I enjoy a tall Vodka and Iced Tea. With lime.

...and the last pic? Yup, that's splatter on the windshield. No matter how many times I told myself
to NOT pick up the polisher until it has stopped...

As far as the scratches go, the McKee's/white pad combo took care of about half of what was there.
There were also a few spots with light swirl marks prior to polishing today that were reduced by about half.

I have a couple of the orange light cut LC pads, maybe I'll try those to see how they do and then evaluate the need for a different product on the remaining light swirls/scratches on the hood.

Lessons learned:
- the windshield is one...
- as a beginner, you really need to focus on not matching the speed of your polishing with the speed of the machine.

Overall, I'm very pleased.
 
The way I look at it, a detail isn't complete with out a little splatter! Looks great and welcome to the forum.
 
Welcome,
Being a senior Geek I to have found a lot of good info here from people and Mike, He is right with the thin pads. In early post I got my grandson a polisher and thin pads they work great...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top