A flex 3401 or a rotary for a newbie

Hi,

I started detailing a few month ago and i own a UDM. After doing a few car with the UDM, i'm not satisfied at all since it take too much time and it doesn't remove all the imperfection.

I'm looking to sell my UDM something more powerfull. I heard that rotary are dangerous to use when u are a newbie.

My questions are:

- how long does it take to be confortable with a rotary? (i'm planning to buy a few scraps panels to practice)

- Do you need a paint thinkness gauge when you use a rotary or just your feeling is enought?

- Also, can you compound, polish and wax with a rotary or do you still need a DA for the little job.

I know the flex 3401 is a powerfull machine but i'm scared that it would not take care of all the imperfection

Also, feel free to give me some advices.

Thanks

 

If you know what your doing with a UDM than I suggest skipping the Flex and moving onto a rotary, but dont sell your UDM just yet! I felt the exact same way when I wanted to buy a rotary but trust me its not that intimidating. Do some reading on how to properly use a rotary, the Dave KG rotary polishing guide is a great source for information and Nica's poishing videos are awesome as well.

If you do choose a rotary then practice on scrap panels first to get the hang of it. Its what I did and it didnt take very long to get used to it. Just work at your own pace, it really is not some vicious machine, its one of the best tools you can use in your detailing arsenal. When I bought my Makita I also bough a paint thickness gauge, no its not an absolute essential item but I feel comfortable having one just to be sure I have enough clear to work with when I polish. But if you buy a rotary and arent going to polish customers car for a while then hold off on the PTG.

With a rotary you can obviously do heavy correction/compund work and polishing but for applying a sealant or finishig glaze use the UDM instead. I own both the 3401 Flex and a Makita and use the Makita most all of the time but when applying a sealant or fine finishing polish I often go back to the Flex.

 

1. Well thats going to be different for everyone. It also depends on what you're working on, the type of panel, level of correction, etc., etc.

2. No you dont NEED one, but it doesnt hurt to have one.

3. I wouldnt apply waxes or sealants with a rotary.

 

Well from my experiance it took me about 10 vehicles with full paint correction process to get confortable with my rotary. It takes time and just when you feel that you got it, you need to pay special attention when you get to this point becuase the body/brain will loose focus and as soon as you do that's when you can cause some damage to the vehicle. The thing with a rotary is that you have to fucus on what you doing at all times, never look away.

The purpose of the paint gauge is to give the user confidence of what your about to do or most importantly to help you gauge what your plan of attach will be for the paint correction process. If you don't use one your guessing, will I burn though the clear coat? Can the vehicle be polished? So far I've had one vehicle that I could not polish beucase of extremely thin clear coat. So the way to look at it is, do you risk it and hope for the best or do you spend spend the $500 to $600 on a paint guage and feel better about the paint correction process your about to begin....well just my :2cents:

Rotarys are meant for compounding and polishing. For wax/glaze I'd stay with the DA.

 

Get the rotary but what is very important is to use wool pads as a newbie. You will be able to control the rotary just fine, remove swirls easier and faster while the panel stays much cooler. You will burn paint with foam pads much easier. After you have removed the imperfections a soft finishing foam pad can clean up the paint. Once you get some practice you can try those stiff foam pads, but I doubt that you'd use them instead of wool (especially the purple foamed wool)

Look at videos of others using the rotary to speed the learning curve. Good luck.

PS: keep the udm and use it to apply waxes/sealants. Or you can finish polishing with it to remove holograms etc....

 

Thanks guy for your help.

I think i'll sell my UDM and buy a flex to start off with. I appreciate alot your help but i dont feel like spending the 500-600$ for a paint gauge right know. I dont think i would feel confortable with a rotary without one.

I spoke with 2-3 professional guys in my area and they all recommand me the flex.

I think i'll update to a rotary next summer.

 

I picked up a Highline PTG for $280

 

Where?

 

Paint Meter, Paint Gauge, Paint Gage - HighLineMeter.com This is a very common PTG used by detailers.