machine polishers any good ?

You want a random da polisher. have a look on cleanyourcar.co.uk. Expect to pay around £100. Well worth the money. Don't by a rotary polisher, you will only end up burning your paint, being a newbie.

From my personal experience they're very good.

I am registered on a few detailing forums and have experienced first hand the levels that some people go to on a hope to achieve a perfect flawless finish.

My experience however of the silver line style rotary polishers is a good one.

I would try and post individual photos but unfortunately I am on my phone. However if you follow this link to my build thread you can see what my Porsche was like when I collected it and again once I had polished it.

retrorides.proboards.com/thread/190353/1983-porsche-944

This was done with a 8 year old silver line rotary polisher, a sold blue pad from tool station and a litre of AutoGlym SRP.

The negative with rotary polishers is they build up a lot of heat in the central point of the pad, DA (dual action) machines rotate in a way to prevent this from happening. I avoided this by making sure my mop was nice and moist/wet, I didn't apply too much pressure and that I was never in one place for too long. Check with your palm on the panel, just to check it isn't getting too warm.

For about £50 worth of polisher I think they're excellent. We have been using this one to mop cars, remove light scratches and refurb aged paint for years now.

Give it ago, I would certainly recommend it.

I second the suggestion to get a variable speed one. I always start slow and then build up speed a bit. I don't think I ever use it on full speed though.

I would also not use it too frequently. I polish my cars only a couple of times a year and then by hand. I only use the polisher for faded paint or on boat hulls that have been affected by UV.

I see one on ebay that has 1000-3200 rpm would this be ok or to fast, it comes with lots of accessories for about £57, or one from argos with 500-3000rpm, only couple bits for £48, what would be better thanks

I will be getting a variable speed one but is it best to go for the dual action, it will be used for polishing and occasional sanding, just hear people saying dual action is better so all.comments appriciated

Depends on the paint. Vauxhall stuff tends to be quite hard, but I burnt through a leading wing edge easily on my old black Lexus because the paint is so soft.

TBH if the paint is bad and matt you wouldn't want to DA it straight away as mop head would simply clog up and potentially cause swirl etc.

If it were me, I'd get a bottle of T-Cut, a rag of a description (Microfibres are not messing and are cheap these days for a massive pack) and simply go over the car with that by hand, just to get rid of of the worst. It doesn't have to involve alot of elbow grease, just enough to smoothen things up a touch.

I had to do this on my now deceased 205 GTi as the roof was covered in bird curse word for over a year. Alot of people, even myself felt it was unrevivable : I did previously try mopping it, but the head just clogged up despite the car being free of bird curse word on the first pass. I was surprised just how good the roof polished up.

Of course, that doesn't apply for a car that has just been painted .

What sort of finish are you looking to achieve, swirl free paint or just adding a bit more gloss and shine?

If you're looking to remove swirls and marks, a machine polisher is needed.
It's not as simple as buy this machine, that polish and these pads.
Different paint types will react in their own way to the abrasion, heat and such when machining. You need to measure the paint depth before you start to make sure there's enough to work with, and check removal rates as you go.

Before using a machine polisher there are decontamination steps to take so that the paint is clean enough to polish without picking something up with the polishing pad and inflicting more damage.

Saying that, they aren't the scary paint eaters they're made out to be.
An all in one polish (AutoGlym Super Resin Polish, Auto Finesse Tripple) with a soft finishing pad will give you better results by machine than by hand.
It's still worth removing tar and claying before doing it though.

Apply a wax after polishing (even by hand) and the results will last much, much longer.