How To Use A Dual Action Polisher – 5 Tips You Need To Know – Boost And Camber

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Polishing a car is becoming what feels like a long process, our time on this earth is limited and sometimes you just want to get your stuff done and get on with your day, this includes washing the car. Polishing is so time consuming, but do you know how to use a dual action polisher?

Maybe it’s time you learnt, this way you can save yourself some precious time for the rest of your day and your car will still come out perfect, if not better.

In this post we will go over 5 things that will help you get a great finish using a dual action polisher, including what good polishes to use, good machines and what pads are ideal. Giving you tips throughout.

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1. Good Preparation

To get a good finish on your polish you need a good start. Make sure you wash your car down thoroughly, using a pre wash and decontaminate. This is because when you machine polish you could be scrubbing in all sorts of dirt, grit and grime, which will damage your paint.

You can use products like Demon Foam along with an Autobrite Lance on a Nilfisk pressure washer to help with your pre wash, then we recommend using a clay bar to pull up any pesky iron deposits or anything else stuck in the paint.

The more time you take decontaminating the paint and prepping it the better because once you’ve got through this stage, you’re onto polishing and you don’t want to be locking in anything unsightly or swirling dirt around. Take your time preparing and clean the paintwork to within an inch of its life.

2. Picking A Good Machine

A bad machine can do more harm than just your pocket. You don’t want something that’s not going to cut the mustard or pack up half-way through your polish. You want a decent machine that you know will work on demand, offer great results and still be affordable to your bank account.

Some great machine polishers include:

These brands are all perfect examples of machine polishers that will do the job and give you a great head start in those glass like finishes for the future.

3. Use Good Clean Pads

We always recommend using a good clean pad, emphasis on the CLEAN. If you drop a pad, you’re using another, no one likes to finish with more swirl marks than they started with.

There are 3 different pads you will be mainly working with:

  • Compound pads
  • Polishing pads
  • Finishing pads

All 3 are used with different products, your compound pads would be used with a more aggressive compound to take away the worst of the imperfections. The polishing pads will be used with a medium polish and will take out further imperfections, whilst adding protection and the finishing pads are used to add sealants.

All three are going to give a great finish, remember to not press on, just use the weight of the machine, this will save you from damaging the paint further. Just go with the flow man.

4. High Quality Polish

Using high quality products is always a great way to add more shine to your finish. You wouldn’t wash your car with Fairy washing up liquid, so why use something less than satisfactory for your polishing stage, it’ll only cause more problems.

You can buy really great products online and most of them can be found on Amazon. They also come in box sets for all the purposes you might need them for, including the compound, polish and wax.

Some of the top brands include:

These are going to give you a perfect glass finish if used properly and won’t cost you an arm and a leg.

5. Wipe Down And Admire

After all the hard work is done, you’re all polished up to an absolute shine, glass like finish, your all ready for wiping down and sitting back with a beer, unless you really want to take it to another level and use a Ceramic coating. If you really want an easy ceramic spray, check out this link below.

But if you are completely happy with your finish, just sit back and relax. We recommend getting a deck chair, sticking the radio on and just admiring your work for a while, staying out the way of the significant other. Ahh peace and quiet.

Overall

All the products and processes used in this are just the tip of the iceberg and are just tips. You can go really in depth with machine polishing but we just wanted to outline some basics.

What do you guys think? Do you want to add any tips to help someone else? Drop a comment below and share your experiences to help someone else. Good luck to anyone on their detailing journeys.

Best of luck

Kevin

Kevin@boostandcamber.com

Founder of Boost And Camber

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