Hello fellow detailing aficionados.

I am starting this thread to show that a newbie such is I...Can detail a car using the Makita 9227C. I am also trying out a new product as well. So follow along if you like. It should be fun. You might see me eating my words and can get the last laugh too.

Anyway, on to my mission. The car that I will be detailing this coming weekend is a small fry in the auto industry. It is my daily driver...a 2001 1.8 VW Jetta. It is white in color as you can see and has never had a spot of polish or wax in the 4 years that I have owned it. So it should be a great candidate for a detail. I can't wait to see what happens.

On to my polish...(Wait a quick disclaimer....I am lazy and will take the easiest way to make a car shine. Hence why I went with System One. They are not paying me anything to do this nor did I get a free kit from them to do this.) I found out about System One on this forum and after viewing the details and talking to the owner at System one, I thought this looks like my type of polish! It has only one polish that is applied with a special dual action buffing pad made of wool on one side and something else on the other. Bottom line...It's one polish and one pad. I like that.

So there you go. This weekend it is. I am going to wash with Dawn soap, clay with Meguiar's clay bar and spray, dry with a CR Spotless and polish and wax using the System One product line. I will do my best to document it as best I can. Also, all you folks that do not like a lot of pictures in a thread....Sorry!

Here is the star for this detail....



Here are the before photos...









Thats all for now. Check back in over the weekend and I will hopefully have much better paint job.

Here are a few picts from the wash and clay.







My overall opinion at this point is WOW. It does a great job of cutting and I amhaving no problem running the Makita. I have to say it is slinging product all over the place. But I am able to control it by starting out slow, then building up speed. I am starting at 900 and going to 1500. Then I switch to the foam pad and do the same. It still takes some adjusting working with the motion of the rotary. Doing horizontal movements works well. But vertical takes some work to perfect. (Not that I know what perfect is.) But the paint looks like glass. Really clean! More to come. I am having a hard time getting a good shot.

 

Looking forward to it. I'm using a machine polisher (Flex 3401) for the first time this weekend as well detailing my wife's Benz. Great fun will be had.

 

Sounds good, the Makita is a great machine and built like a tank. Have you ever used a rotary before, or a pc?

 

Thank you for enrolling in the "Learn while you burn university" Hope you enjoy your stay.

 

Not something I'd ever do as a DIYer when there are safer and better choices out there. Make sure you check your work after each step by spraying the finish down with IsoProp alcohol. Just take your time and go slow....looking forward to seeing your results.

 

LOL Dting Dynamics! Thanks for your humor.

Thanks for the support Moe. Yes, it will be a chore to complete. But, I have been assured that the pad, plus low speeds and constant movement will make this job burn free. But proof will be in the photos.

 

Good luck Brian...and I'm sure you have Brian at detailwerkz as a guide, but please don't hesitate to post here or call me if you have ANY trouble. I've never used system one, I personally would have recommended Gloss It over that since Brian has got the product down and could help you, but I'm curious to see what your results are. I've heard mixed reviews on the System One products. Cheers

By the way, if you do burn something, that's your initiation into the club We've all done it. The trick is not to keep doing it.

 

To help prevent burning clear start out on low rpm and dont go above 1000 until you feel very comfortable with it. Remember let the machine drive itself across the paint, you dont need to apply much pressure. Just keep it moving steady across the paint and dont stay in one spot for to long. Good luck and keep us updated.

 

Honestly I don't think that you are allowed to call yourself part of the rotary club if you haven't burned something.

Start as slow as you can. Use the softest pads that you have first as they are easier to control. Learn to keep the pad totally flat when you polish. It is much easier to tilt it to keep it controlled, but that makes holograms like crazy so it is a bad habit to form. Keeping it flat is much more challenging, especially until you get a real feel for it, but that is how it needs to be done, so practice, practice, practice.

 

Thanks qtrmile. But I have not started yet. The picts above are the before shots.

 

I was gonna say

 

I know Brian uses a Cyclo and not a rotary, but I use a Rotary exclusively so if you have any questions at all and Moe's busy, call me and I can help you out. 214-709-0665, I'm local.

As mentioned, go slow, stay away from edges of panels and door edges and hood edges and seems and any other right angle edge you can think of. I also like to spread the polish quickly on the lowest setting then spritz the surface with water like 1-2 times then turn the speed up, it helps the pad glide better, just hold on tight without pressing down too much so you can control it and if it starts to skip or make a weird screaming/shreaking noise, pull it off the paint quick.

Josh

 

Thanks Josh. That is very nice of you to offer. But it has been a breeze working with the Makita so far. Look at my first post...I updated it with picts and what has been going on.

 

Here is a before and after of the trunk. Amazing!

Before:


After:

 

Looks good, do you have any 500-1000W halogens?? Sometimes sunlight does not always cooperate but halogens work great to double check your work.

Vertical panels took me quite a few months to get down, but what I ended up doing is stabilizing the machine by basically switching hands. I use my left hand to stabalize and my right hand to control the trigger part when on horizontal and on vertical I use my right hand to stabalize and left hand around the machine.

I'll see if I can find some pics to better describe it, otherwise I couldn't get it right and it would skip all around till I switched hands.

Josh