Brand New Car........ Should I Get a D A Polisher

[gripross]

Hi all....looking for some help here...
Here's my issue :
Just bought a new A3 Saloon and want to keep it tip top. I was wondering if treating myself to a DA Polisher will save me time and effort therefore allowing me to polish the car more often and more importantly get a better shine?
As yet it doesn't need any correction but i'd like to clay mitt the car then build up the polish/wax coats.
since buying the car i've polished it then waxed it and then just topped off with a coat of glaze.
Is this the correct procedure? And also will snowfoam strip the wax as i have purchased a snow foam lance
Lastly if a DA Polisher will help save my arms and get a better finish..what should i buy? Probably like to keep under £100.
Thanks in advance for any help posted but am now realising that there is a difference between polish and wax etc and am wanting to get my head around it all.

 

[chris fry]

Hi, first off, a DA or even Rotary polisher is a great way to get some pro results, but as with everything there is difference between someone having access to a tool and someone with expertise with a tool, so the key is practice and if you practice on your pride and joy make sure you keep the speed low, the pressure low and keep the temperature of the paint low. The real question is what are you hoping to achieve with it, if you want to use a very mild compound polish to keep the correction at bay then fair enough but if you are thinking of using it for waxing i would stick to hand application. your process is O.K (you cant build up polish, polish is what is used as a very mild abrasive to flat the clear coat, this is done to take out swirls holograms etc) the only thing you can build up is protective wax (or synthetic) protective coat. glaze adds gloss to the paint and i use this before not after the wax. snowfoam (depending on what you have bought) is ph neutral so is intended to leave existing wax intact.

i personally dont think there is a lot to choose on entry level DA's this would be a good start
SLIM'S DETAILING DUAL ACTION DAS6 MACHINE POLISHER (600W)
Hope this helps

 

[Scottyg]

Bang for buck the Kestral DAS Pro 6 packs on eBay are what you want. They come with a selection of pads from heavy cut to wax application.

As above, you really should only need to polish your car, twice a year tops. You can add as much wax or sealant as you like.

Have you thought about getting a ceramic or nano costing?? Much better for your paint work. I use CarPro products for this as do a few others on here. Gtechniq is excellent as well.

 

[gripross]

Hi, first off, a DA or even Rotary polisher is a great way to get some pro results, but as with everything there is difference between someone having access to a tool and someone with expertise with a tool, so the key is practice and if you practice on your pride and joy make sure you keep the speed low, the pressure low and keep the temperature of the paint low. The real question is what are you hoping to achieve with it, if you want to use a very mild compound polish to keep the correction at bay then fair enough but if you are thinking of using it for waxing i would stick to hand application. your process is O.K (you cant build up polish, polish is what is used as a very mild abrasive to flat the clear coat, this is done to take out swirls holograms etc) the only thing you can build up is protective wax (or synthetic) protective coat. glaze adds gloss to the paint and i use this before not after the wax. snowfoam (depending on what you have bought) is ph neutral so is intended to leave existing wax intact.

i personally dont think there is a lot to choose on entry level DA's this would be a good start
SLIM'S DETAILING DUAL ACTION DAS6 MACHINE POLISHER (600W)
Hope this helps

thats very helpful chris and i thank you for taking the time to explain...and ye was mainly thinking to save time as at the moment the swirls are minumal....although some nice person has put a ding in one of the rear doors which really does my box in as car is only just over a month old and i try to park in places with plenty of room

 

[chris fry]

Noooooo!! flipping car park wombats

 

[gripross]

Bang for buck the Kestral DAS Pro 6 packs on eBay are what you want. They come with a selection of pads from heavy cut to wax application.

As above, you really should only need to polish your car, twice a year tops. You can add as much wax or sealant as you like.

Have you thought about getting a ceramic or nano costing?? Much better for your paint work. I use CarPro products for this as do a few others on here. Gtechniq is excellent as well.

Am happy to do a polish/wax now and again so i don't think i need to go for the ceramic/nano but i've heard a few mention the gtech so when ive used up my present suplies i might look into it thanks. i might have a word with one of workmates as he has a DA polisher and see if he will let me try it to see if it indeed helps with polish/wax but looking at the 2 replies so far it may not be necessary

 

[gripross]

Noooooo!! flipping car park wombats

indeed and what makes it worse is that i will drive past a space if it looks tight and park elsewhere but i suppose not everyone is as bothered about their pride and joys as us here

 

[AndyT306]

A DA won't really save you time or effort, it takes as much time to use as polishing manually - however I find polishing is more consistent using one - you will also find that you use a lot less product, so it's cheaper in the long run, and you get a lot less dust (due to less product)

There are obviously a whole host of different pads and polishes out there, some will cut heavy some cut medium, some fine, and some won't cut at all - if your car has no need for correction you don't need any cut - just get a final finish pad and some super glossy polish

I wouldn't use a clay mitt, I think using a clay bar is safer

Snowfoam shouldn't strip wax off

I have an Autobrite Direct DA, but they are all pretty much of a much ness - I'd suggest to get a DAS6

As already mentioned, you need to work out how to use it properly, but if you are just using it to apply polish, you can't really go wrong with a DA - they are geared, so it's pretty hard to cause damage - Audi paint is also very hard, so when correcting my car I needed to use heavy cut pads and heavy cut compound - and i still had to use high speeds and 2/3 passes - i'll post up a really useful pad guide i've got

 

[AndyT306]

Pad guide

 

[gripross]

A DA won't really save you time or effort, it takes as much time to use as polishing manually - however I find polishing is more consistent using one - you will also find that you use a lot less product, so it's cheaper in the long run, and you get a lot less dust (due to less product)

There are obviously a whole host of different pads and polishes out there, some will cut heavy some cut medium, some fine, and some won't cut at all - if your car has no need for correction you don't need any cut - just get a final finish pad and some super glossy polish

I wouldn't use a clay mitt, I think using a clay bar is safer

Snowfoam shouldn't strip wax off

I have an Autobrite Direct DA, but they are all pretty much of a much ness - I'd suggest to get a DAS6

As already mentioned, you need to work out how to use it properly, but if you are just using it to apply polish, you can't really go wrong with a DA - they are geared, so it's pretty hard to cause damage - Audi paint is also very hard, so when correcting my car I needed to use heavy cut pads and heavy cut compound - and i still had to use high speeds and 2/3 passes - i'll post up a really useful pad guide i've got

thanks for your time Andy.....thats really useful to me.

 

[AndyT306]

No problem, my new car is on its way and I'll be using my da to apply polish to it; the mrs has a new Peugeot and I've already used it on that as it doesn't need correcting

I've used autoglym super high resin on hers, and for a deeper gloss on mine I used

http://www.slimsdetailing.co.uk/scholl-s20-black-one-step-compound.html

Really like this, long lasting shine

 

[gripross]

No problem, my new car is on its way and I'll be using my da to apply polish to it; the mrs has a new Peugeot and I've already used it on that as it doesn't need correcting

I've used autoglym super high resin on hers, and for a deeper gloss on mine I used

http://www.slimsdetailing.co.uk/scholl-s20-black-one-step-compound.html

Really like this, long lasting shine

had a black audi efore the new one and was a mare to keep the swirls away...hence now got nano grey. Am told black means "mucho hardo worko"

 

[AndyT306]

Black is hard work, but once you've corrected the swirls keeping them away isn't that hard, my C6 is 12 years old!

 

[Pinky1959]

Sorry to hear you got a door ding , Have you looked for dent repairers in the area ? I got a ding a few years ago in my then new car and the dentco guy came drilled a hole in the side of the door (where the child lock bit is ) put his tools in and knocked the ding out , Amazing .
Have you tried www.detailingworld.co.uk
Its brilliant and full of info .

 

[steeve]

Look, lets get this straight. A POLISH is abrasive (including Autoglym SRP), why on earth do you want to start reducing the paint thickness on a brand new car that doesn't need any correction????

Don't spend money on something you may not need, and certainly don't need now.

At some point in the future you may get a few swirls, then these can be carefully polished out. The main focus of your efforts is to try and reduce the chances of getting swirls in the first place.

My S3 is just over two years old and has NO swirls. My DA polisher sits on the shelf, unused and unloved. It will get an airing at some point I'm sure.

Any polishing will remove some surface material, so ideally you need a paint thickness gauge. Most Audi cars even solid colours have a clear lacquer finish coat. It's mighty thin and you need to be expert enough to make sure you don't go through it.

You can use a DA machine to bring up the shine of a good quality wax. But no more talk of POLISH for now?

So use a wax or some company's call them glazes like Zymol Glasur or a ceramic coat like GTechniq or Nanolex not a polish.....

But a word of caution, there is a thread on here of some guy who let his 'mate' polish his car and burnt through the clear coat.....

 

[AndyT306]

I'm fully expecting my brand new car not to be perfect!

 

[gripross]

Sorry to hear you got a door ding , Have you looked for dent repairers in the area ? I got a ding a few years ago in my then new car and the dentco guy came drilled a hole in the side of the door (where the child lock bit is ) put his tools in and knocked the ding out , Amazing .
Have you tried www.detailingworld.co.uk
Its brilliant and full of info .

i had one done a few years back and was real impressed.....just waiting a bit to see if i'm going to get it done yet. it only really shows up in bright sunlight so as its coming to winter i might be able to live with it.. and the main reason was that i didn't want someone taking the door card off and then when it goes back on leaving it with rattles etc. but if thats how they did yours it would solve that problem

 

[gripross]

Look, lets get this straight. A POLISH is abrasive (including Autoglym SRP), why on earth do you want to start reducing the paint thickness on a brand new car that doesn't need any correction????

Don't spend money on something you may not need, and certainly don't need now.

At some point in the future you may get a few swirls, then these can be carefully polished out. The main focus of your efforts is to try and reduce the chances of getting swirls in the first place.

My S3 is just over two years old and has NO swirls. My DA polisher sits on the shelf, unused and unloved. It will get an airing at some point I'm sure.

Any polishing will remove some surface material, so ideally you need a paint thickness gauge. Most Audi cars even solid colours have a clear lacquer finish coat. It's mighty thin and you need to be expert enough to make sure you don't go through it.

You can use a DA machine to bring up the shine of a good quality wax. But no more talk of POLISH for now?

So use a wax or some company's call them glazes like Zymol Glasur or a ceramic coat like GTechniq or Nanolex not a polish.....

But a word of caution, there is a thread on here of some guy who let his 'mate' polish his car and burnt through the clear coat.....

The main reason i used the polish at first was because when i got the car home after collection i could see and feel traces of the protection that had been on the car nd didnt want to seal this in with wax, hopefully now it will be easier to keep onto of it all.

 

[Pinky1959]

i had one done a few years back and was real impressed.....just waiting a bit to see if i'm going to get it done yet. it only really shows up in bright sunlight so as its coming to winter i might be able to live with it.. and the main reason was that i didn't want someone taking the door card off and then when it goes back on leaving it with rattles etc. but if thats how they did yours it would solve that problem

Hi Yes it was either drill the door side or take the door apart , It didn't take long and he put a grommit in the hole.

 

[AlexA4Avant]

Use a clay bar and lube to remove any traces. My audi is 16 years old and comes up like new when clayed

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk

 

[steeve]

The main reason i used the polish at first was because when i got the car home after collection i could see and feel traces of the protection that had been on the car nd didnt want to seal this in with wax, hopefully now it will be easier to keep onto of it all.

Seems a bit drastic to polish the car to remove some protection, there's plenty of things to safely remove that without unnecessarily reducing the paint thickness on the whole car. But hey its yours so you can do as you feel fit.

 

[Radford212]

This is my friends A1 after we used a DA on it

 

[gripross]

This is my friends A1 after we used a DA on it View attachment 106125

looks like you did a great job

 

[S3tuart]

This is my friends A1 after we used a DA on it View attachment 106125

Liking that a lot mate … what products did you guys use?

 

[Radford212]

Liking that a lot mate … what products did you guys use?

We used Chemical Guys Mr Pink Snow foam followed by a 2 bucket method with Meguiars ultimate wash wax shampoo, clayed the entire car with Meguiars quick detailer. The polisher we had was the DoDo juice dual action polisher with the Green Fin pad and Scholl S30+ followed by a coat of DoDo Juice Purple Haze pro for good measure

 

[S3tuart]

We used Chemical Guys Mr Pink Snow foam followed by a 2 bucket method with Meguiars ultimate wash wax shampoo, clayed the entire car with Meguiars quick detailer. The polisher we had was the DoDo juice dual action polisher with the Green Fin pad and Scholl S30+ followed by a coat of DoDo Juice Purple Haze pro for good measure

Thanks R212 … that's really helpful, I've been using Pete's wax for mine, see photo. Good job fella

 

[Neil_M]

I personally would suggest the money you spend on a DA with associated pads and polishes would be better spent on a professional detailer.

Unless of course you really want to lean how to do it.

Either way a professional detailer will have the car up to standard, then you just have to maintain it.

 

[Radford212]

I personally would suggest the money you spend on a DA with associated pads and polishes would be better spent on a professional detailer.

Unless of course you really want to lean how to do it.

Either way a professional detailer will have the car up to standard, then you just have to maintain it.

To be fair, thats a pretty good point.

 

[S32B]

Hi all....looking for some help here...
Here's my issue :
Just bought a new A3 Saloon and want to keep it tip top. I was wondering if treating myself to a DA Polisher will save me time and effort therefore allowing me to polish the car more often and more importantly get a better shine?
As yet it doesn't need any correction but i'd like to clay mitt the car then build up the polish/wax coats.
since buying the car i've polished it then waxed it and then just topped off with a coat of glaze.
Is this the correct procedure? And also will snowfoam strip the wax as i have purchased a snow foam lance
Lastly if a DA Polisher will help save my arms and get a better finish..what should i buy? Probably like to keep under £100.
Thanks in advance for any help posted but am now realising that there is a difference between polish and wax etc and am wanting to get my head around it all.

I've used a DA with a soft pad for minor mark, don't like the idea of cutting into the paint! I used Poorboys blackhole and it works well, just a filler but keep on top of it and it's fine, this is the first time I used it when the car was a few months old: http://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/new-da-poorboys-black-hole-g3-wax.250687/

Blackhole + G3 gives an OK shine on black