Originally Posted By: user52165
Originally Posted By: BlindBaby
What's out there that you would recommend?
Your right or left arm.
My neighbor across the street lives to the East of me. He used a D/A polisher on his nice red F250 truck. Every day as the sun goes down in the West I can see the swirl marks. He can't see them because he is too close as he gets in to drive away and the angle is not right. He's a great guy, not sure I have the heart to tell him.
Unless you have massive amounts of panels like an RV, I would not recommend one.
I'm 71 Y.O and find it good exercise to do by hand. Collinite 845 makes it easy.
That's really just because he is an idiot, or he only used a polish and didn't do anything to remove paint marring.
A DA is the least aggressive way to correct paint. A forced rotation polisher the next most, and a rotary the most aggressive. Those wax spreaders are just that, I would like to see the results of those when compared to a true polish and a IPA wipedown!
I would recommend a DA over a forced rotation or rotary, just due to the fact that damaging paint with a DA is difficult to do.
I will say it again, the the HF DA. It's cheap and you can always upgrade while still keeping all your pads and materials. Heck, buy it with the 20% off coupon and you could sell it for $5 less years later. The backing plate is [censored], so replace that, and the grease is junk so change that out too. I don't find mine to be loud at all. It is even well liked on dedicated detailing forums.
But, if your income is a bit more disposable then the recommendations here are all great