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Harbor freight polisher

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Old 02-21-2020, 03:37 PM
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Rgarcia
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Default Harbor freight polisher

The past couple months I messaged a couple detail shops in the area for paint correction on my 2005 997, 90k. Prices ranged from $350-1k for a simple paint clean up and correction

It looks like the pervious owner went through tons of automatic wash and had tons of brush marks etc.

I decided to try it myself after becoming YouTube certified. 😄
I purchased a harbor freight polisher on sale for $89.99, because I had a gift card there.
I think it did a amazing job for first crack at it with little experience using one.
Using a meguiars m205 polish pick up at Walmart and hex tech pad $14.
This car is not a show car and never will be.
I recommend the polisher for a novice user and someone trying to save money, because any money saved is going to be spent on other car parts. 🙂


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Old 02-21-2020, 03:53 PM
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nb1234
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Nice work!

This is something I believe more folks should give a try. It's really not that difficult - especially today with a lot of good training content out there for free.
Old 02-21-2020, 03:58 PM
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Sporty
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Nice job! Encourages me - a DIY that could be therapeutic for me, my car needs it. Getting tired of overpaying for simple services for my 997 and Porsche tax, it adds up
Old 02-21-2020, 04:02 PM
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latonnelier
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That's beautiful! I bought the HF polisher, pads and polish a while back, just never got around to it. Your results are so good, it make me jealous. Now I have to do it asap.
Old 02-21-2020, 04:02 PM
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JT77
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Well done!
Old 02-21-2020, 04:14 PM
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qikqbn
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Very nice!! Black paint is so hard to keep looking nice, but you did a great job for a 1st timer. please share your favorite "youtube university certification" vids that helped you most.

For a moment there I thought you had cracked paint lifting on your rear quarter panel... but its just the reflection of your wall paint lifting
Old 02-21-2020, 04:29 PM
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Rgarcia
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Originally Posted by qikqbn
Very nice!! Black paint is so hard to keep looking nice, but you did a great job for a 1st timer. please share your favorite "youtube university certification" vids that helped you most.

For a moment there I thought you had cracked paint lifting on your rear quarter panel... but its just the reflection of your wall paint lifting
This video helped a lot, a little long but very good info.
Chicago auto Pro’s
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Old 02-21-2020, 06:15 PM
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shyamvenky
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Great going! Very encouraging - I might even give it a shot this year. But my car has quite a few stone chips.
Do you patch them up before the correction or do you patch them up after the correction?
I would prefer to patch after the correction, since I'm pretty sure my shoddy chip-patch will be ripped out by my shoddy polishing
Old 02-21-2020, 06:31 PM
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Ironman88
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Originally Posted by shyamvenky
Great going! Very encouraging - I might even give it a shot this year. But my car has quite a few stone chips.
Do you patch them up before the correction or do you patch them up after the correction?
I would prefer to patch after the correction, since I'm pretty sure my shoddy chip-patch will be ripped out by my shoddy polishing
I would recommend addressing the stone chips after the overall paint correction. That's what I did. Here are a few pics of some of it...















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Old 02-21-2020, 06:40 PM
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DesmoSD
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Nice, I was looking at that too since I have a 20% coupon. When it comes to detailing, like most things, it's all about technique. Keep the pressure to a medium, don't saturate the pad and don't burn the paint.
Old 02-21-2020, 06:42 PM
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93Jaffe
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Great results! Before anyone attempts this themselves please watch some quality videos on proper technique. It can be very easy to damage your paint with some of these products.
Old 02-21-2020, 07:21 PM
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alwayswantedone
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Looks great!

I love HF. Definitely some things there to stay away from if you're a pro, but for a DIY hobbyist hack there are some great tools for cheap!
Old 02-23-2020, 09:28 AM
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plc61
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Autogeek has a number of different polishers at a good price; I bought a Porter Cable unit that I'm pleased with. They also have a bunch of videos for paint correction.
Old 02-23-2020, 11:49 AM
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ManoTexas
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Great job! Beautiful job on chips, swing by and fix my chips
Old 02-23-2020, 02:14 PM
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Ripking
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Damn that looks good! I have a 997.2 in black as well. Came to me with a lot of swirling and have been debating doing it myself or having a pro do it. This is encouraging! Did you use a paint meter at all? I was a bit worried with a 10 year old car but people say to start with light correction first and go heavier if needed. With dual action poliahers it seems fool proof but I haven't pulled the trigger yet. How long did it take you?


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