Recieved my new Porter Cable 7424XP....Time to tackle these swirls!!

la_fx35 said:
Cool, another thing to add to the "buy it" list!
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Do it! No regrets especially since you have a garage you can detail inside of. I bought a Meguiars g110v2 from Jeff a few months back and love it! It has a cruise control feature so when you increase downwards pressure on it, the buffer counters by spinning faster instead of it just stopping.
 
la_fx35 said:
Wow, that's one shine OB :top: What's particular about the Porter Cable 7424? Isn't any polisher would do that same thing? Is that just a preference? I have use a 10" Craftsman Buffer/Polisher for years. http://www.sears.com/craftsman-10-in-buffer-polisher/p-00910723000P
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Also the Porter Cable is the next best thing of achieving rotary buffer like results without the worry of burning the paint. It's damn near impossible to burn the paint with the Porter Cable 7424xp since it's a DA buffer. Actually if you apply too much pressure the motor bogs down and the speed cuts down unlike a rotary buffer. Only downside to having something safe is that it takes longer to get good results that a rotary buffer could achieve with in minutes. But then again a rotary buffer is recommended only for proffesionals and not DIY guys like us.

And that Craftsman buffer you posted doesn't spin fast enough to actually see any results. Good thing about the PC is that it has 6 speed settings for your preference.
 
Hey going to be letting my Porter Cable 7424XP buffer and a whole bunch of pads go soon and will have it up for sale in a few days on here so keep an eye out on a great deal to come.

Since I've gained some experience of working on this paint, I figured it's time to step up to a Flex XG3401.
 
Curious that you will "step up" to the flex - there are some reasons to use a DA over a forced rotation polisher. That's why most pros have both? Using only the forced rotation polisher is going to start cutting away your clear coat from day one. The DA is a much better choice for removing swirls because it's less aggressive. With as good as you are about keeping your car clean, I doubt you'll ever really need the capabilities of the Flex.

If your goal is paint correction every time you detail then I can see getting a Flex but still - I don't think it's really what you need. Unless you are starting a detailing biz?

And won't the pads transfer from one polisher to the other with whatever backing plates you have? No need to sell those too if you do sell the DA.
 
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jumbosrule said:
Curious that you will "step up" to the flex - there are some reasons to use a DA over a forced rotation polisher. That's why most pros have both? Using only the forced rotation polisher is going to start cutting away your clear coat from day one. The DA is a much better choice for removing swirls because it's less aggressive. With as good as you are about keeping your car clean, I doubt you'll ever really need the capabilities of the Flex.

If your goal is paint correction every time you detail then I can see getting a Flex but still - I don't think it's really what you need. Unless you are starting a detailing biz?

And won't the pads transfer from one polisher to the other with whatever backing plates you have? No need to sell those too if you do sell the DA.
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Sorry for the late reply. I was wanting something to get the job done faster and the Flex seems like a good choice. The PC does really good correction work, but if it means getting it done faster then why not?

I plan to use the Flex for very light polishing with a blue finishing pad and Meguiars M205 finishing polish just to keep the paint looking nice without the need of heavy correction since it's swirl free.


The pads I don't think I will be able to transfer because the Flex backing plate is 5.5" and the pads I have for my PC are all 4" pads.

What's your thoughts? I thought the Flex is better hmmmm
 
The Flex is definetly faster because of the forced rotation but that's also what makes it dangerous in an amatuer's hands. I know from your activity here on IS that you would take the time to learn how to use it before attacking your FX so that's not really the issue. I really think the DA is much better for your particular situation, which is really just paint maintenance and protection. You won't be doing any paint corrections because you maintain your car and that's really what the Flex is good at. If you want faster, try a more aggressive pad and product on your DA.

The backing plates are interchangeable between the Flex and PC DA - you can use different sizes on both the flex and the PC. I have three different size plates for my DA and the pads to match. Smaller pads are more aggressive (same pressure with less surface area) and I have found that even the same polishing compounds work differently with the same color pad in two different sizes because of that. I have found so many levels of increasing aggression by using the pad size, pad color and product combinations. I really think you can increase your level of agression if you think things are taking too long.

I think the Flex would compliment the DA, but not replace it. You might use the Flex to take out scuffs or more serious damages but its more than you need for removing light swirls, for polishing and for sealant & wax application, which is all you'll ever have on your FX, not considering any accident of course.
 
the flex that he's talking about is a da, just like the porter cable... the difference is that the portercable is a random orbit da where the flex is a direct drive da, so this also makes the flex rotate as it does it's dual action but rotation is not the cutting method, it is not really a rotary and it does not cut anything like a rotary, I use a rotary all the time myself but I got a chance to check out soons new flex and I gotta say that it really is a nice machine, def not aggressive like a rotary but not wimpy at all.. in the past I've tried other da's and honestly I've found the ones I've tried to be kind of wimpy, great for buffing and polishing waxes and stuff, light buffing, but wimpy when it comes to paint correction, but I have not tried the portercable unit itself, only assume it to be similar to other random orbit da's... with most random orbit da's the da action can be affected and even partially halted by pressure where the flex can't because it is direct drive but it is def a da not a rotary

truth is if you already have the portercable and it's doing the job for you I'm not sure if I'd run out and sell it to get the flex, if your ever out my way on a friday evening then maybe you can bring your portercable by and I'll get soon to bring his flex and we can side by side them to see...

of course there are other models of flex units that are rotary too, I'm guessing brad is thinking more about one of those, the flex DA is relatively new...
 
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I was talking about the forced rotation (non-DA) flex polishers. If Aaron was talking DA style - I think my points still stand but not to the same degree - the Flex DA would be less agressive than a forced rotation (non DA).

Either way my advice would be to explore the PC DA capability more with pad sizes types and compounds.
 
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