I've always admired the results achieved by people using machine polishers, and was keen to try it out myself on one of my own cars. However, due to the cost of the kit, as a student I couldn't really afford to get one worth having to use on my old Rover 25.

Late last year though, my folks got me the one I was after as a present for my birthday, which I was over the moon about. Unfortunately, the bad weather set in and I couldn't really make use of it. As soon as the weather started turning this year though, I was straight out and got to work.

So here's the kit I've got together;
  • 1 x CleanYourCar DAS-6 PRO Machine Polisher
  • 2 x Menzerna Compounding Pads (5")
  • 2 x Menzerna Polishing Pads (5") 
  • 2 x Menzerna Finishing Pads (5")
  • 1 x 250ml - Menzerna Power Finish 2500 
  • 1 x 250ml - Menzerna Final Finish 3000
  • 1 x 250ml - Menzerna Super Finish 4000
  • 3M Scotch 3434 Tape
  • Dodo Juice Purple Haze Wax




With all the kit assembled I got on with the polishing. Rather tediously though, each panel had to be washed, clayed and taped prior to polishing. This meant that the average time per panel was 1hr 30mins.

Having tried a low end machine polisher before, I was aware just how much polish dust gets into gaps and nooks, so I spent quite some time taping off to reduce this as much as possible.





Anyway, the first panel to get some TLC was the bonnet, as this is such a large panel I split it into two halves, so overall it took 3 hours to do.

The general process was as follows;
  1. Wash
  2. Clay
  3. Dry
  4. Tape
  5. Polish
  6. Wax x2 layers.

As the bonnet was quite badly swirled up, I had to use the compounding pad with the power finish 2500.

I added a few blobs of power finish to the pad and dabbed it round the panel, then did a number of passes at a slow rpm with no pressure to allow the polymers to breakdown.



With the polymer broken down I wound up the rpm and started the polishing process, alternating between horizontal passes and vertical passes to make sure all areas were covered.

On every panel I finished off with a finishing pad and super finish 4000, once the polish was buffed off with a microfibre I added two layers of Dodo Juice purple haze.

It was quite difficult to show on the bonnet but here are the before and afters, trying to compare like for like views, with and without swirls. 

Before (left) and After (right)





Reflection shot after waxing



Very encouraged by the results I pressed on over the following week and finished the whole car off.

Overall the whole process took me around about 20 hours to complete, followed by a final wash and layer of wax which took a further 3 hours.

Here's the rest of the photos I took throughout the process, thrown in are some reflection shots to try and show the level of gloss achieved.

Roof
Before (left) and After (right)



Horizontal half and half (nearest half is corrected)

Before (left) and After (right)


Finished



Boot Lid
Before (left) and After (right)


Finished



Unfortunately didn't get many photo's of the front fenders being done, but did get a before and after shot of the front passenger side.

Before (left) and After (right)



Again, I was concentrating on getting the polishing done in a timely manor rather than taking pictures at this point, so from here onwards there aren't many pictures. Nevertheless here are the results I got with the front passenger door.



After I'd done all the doors, I did the entire back end in one go (an entire Friday afternoon). I only have the after pictures of the back end, so don't try to compare.




After more than 20 hours of washing, claying, polishing, waxing and buffing it was finished. Was it worth it? Absolutely yes, the car looks completely different, the colour is deeper, reflections crisper and has taken 3 or 4 years off the cars age.

As for the kit I used, I can't fault the machine polisher at all. The only thing I did was to remove the D shaped handle seen in the first picture, I found it easier to just hold the top of the orbital (the black bit) as it gave you more control.

The Menzerna polish and pads were excellent, they managed to remove all the swirls completely, and significantly dulled the appearance of scratches and stone chips. The pads were on their last legs by the end of the job though, so if you plan to do a whole car like I have you WILL need at least 2x each pad type.




The Dodo Juice Purple Haze wax is absolutely fantastic. The initial cost of £30 a tub might put some people off, but believe me when I say this will last you years. I must have used about 3mm of wax to do three layers of the entire car, at that rate I could do well over a hundred layers with one tub.

So without further a do here are the photos of the results, they don't really do the paintwork justice, but still look good. Enjoy.