Just ordered a rupes 21 from Phil. I got the complete kit along with the nanoskin autoscrub. I can wait to get my hands on it. I have a four door wrangler that I am going to do first, it has lots of little scratches from being on the trails. Thanks Phil for a great deal and amazing customer service. I ordered it this morning and it's already on it's way here.
You are going to love the new machine. Don't forget to do the washer mod. There is a small learning curve with the Rupes. At least with me I was wanting to apply pressure and not let the large stroke do it's job. Once you get the hang of it the rest is a piece of cake.
In what order would you use these products? Menzerna Fast Gloss 400 Sonax Fine Abrasive Polish 5/4t Sonax Nano Polish 3/6
I am about to make the purchase for a rupes but having a hard time deciding between the 15 and 21. Any particular reason you went with the 22 instead of the 15? And if I get the 21 I will probably get the smaller backing plate as all my pads are 5.5
My car is a Lincoln continental, it has large panels. I figure that I can get the job done in less time. Also my best friends jeep is all flat panels. I don't really see the larger pad as a hindering factor.
That is the proper order, but do a test panel first because FG400 finishes VERY well, you may be able to skip straight to Sonax Nano 3/6. The best setup IMO, would be a 21 with a 5 inch backing plate. The larger throw cuts a bit faster and saves time, but the 5.5" pads are more versatile. As for me, im ordering a flex 3401 this week to pair with my PE14. The unstoppable combo, love me some flex tools.
Got the 5.5 (15) bp to compliment my 21. Picked up some Rupes pads at the same time and I'm happy with them so far.
Correct me if I wrong I thought rupes 15 pad could not installed on Rupes 21. It will cause unbalance movements during operation.
I have the 21 and got the 5" bp as well as most of my pads are 5.5". IMHO, there is a substantial amount of vibration when using the 5" bp on the 21. It works, but it's just not set up for it. If you want to continue using 5.5" pads, I'd recommend the 15.
I just had an email conversation with Kevin Brown about this. He said the weighting between the 15 and 21 machines is exactly the same, so its not an imbalance, etc., condition. Would have to guess that the 21's bigger reach harmonics are better absorbed with the larger pad than the smaller. Ken, how much more vibration is this than a normal Flex 3401VRG with the 5" baseplate combination? I have this configuration and since I hardly ever use it, I cant really speak to the amount of vibration, but there is some compared to NO vibration with my trusy Rotary Power twins... Dan F
Since Rupes are not a rotary and Rupes 21 have bigger throw than Rupes 15. I guess for best performance; I feel and leaning to use Rupes 21 with 6.5 pads and Rupes 15 with 5.5 pads. It just my thoughts.
