victorofhavoc
Autocross Champion
- Location
- Kansas City
Yeah, a gti takes no time to polish and you don't hold the polisher vertically very long... A large suv on the other hand is an entirely different beast. My wife's q7, the hood is basically the same height as my gti roof and it takes me doing it in 4 sections with one either really reaching ( shoulder pain) or being on a stool and leaning (back of knee pain). Her roof has to be done in either 4 or 6 sections (if not doing the glass), and each requires me leaning with a stool. In total there are 25 total sections at least, and it takes roughly 10 mins per section to polish and wipe down. Do it as two steps and you're looking at 50 total section touches and 500 mins of total effort. Over 8hrs...its no surprise detailers charge what they charge to polish this car to 80%. That's a lot of time to account for the difference of a battery that probably weighs 2-3lbs. In comparison, I break the gti into 12 sections, and they're all super easy to reach.Good job!
Well, to be honest this all depends on the technique. When I first started I used to get neck and back pain, once I did the detailers course with Yvan I realized I was the one causing all the pain. Death grip on the machine, tight shoulders while polishing, etc... Yvan not a young dude and he polishes a car in less than 1/2 the time most "professionals" do, with no pain. Once I started to relax and let the machine do the work my pain as 90% gone. I used to grip the tool as if it was going to fly out of my hands, now I barely grip it. I set the speed lock and just glide it where it needs to go.
Also, in comparison, my old electric DeWalt rotary weighs more than the new DeWalt battery rotary with a 5aH battery on. The DeWalt battery rotary weighs almost the same as my Flex PE 14-2.
I didn't see this till now... I'm old, so I rarely use a mask when doing this. This said, the Adams Graphene does smell a little stronger than the other brands I mentioned. There are guys that use a mask, Larry (from AMMO detailing) use a freaking 3M filtered mask like the ones I use for spraying urethane paints, a little overkill in my opinion. Also to note, I use a wash pad between panels, so my polisher really don't create any dust.
I don't put any pressure on the polisher and just let it do all the work. There's no death grip here, or pressing, or shoulder lifting, or anything else abnormal. Inevitably, time and just control of the thing is what gets to me.
Heres some shots of recent effort... Still looks okay for a nearly 7 year old car.
Just a note on the mask thing... It's not about the respirator but about the vapor. The solvent vapor from ceramic coatings can be pretty intense and it's an organic suspension... It requires an activated carbon filtration in order to filter out properly. Probably won't kill you doing it once or twice, but do it daily or weekly and you'll want that p100 mask filtration designed for it. The rule with any general chemical usage is "if you can smell it, you should mask".