You've probably read my posts talking about my cheapy 6" buffer, aka the wax spreader. Mine is a cheap 6" Turtle Wax brand polisher I bought some 11-12 years ago. Well I've had a couple people interested in how to mod a cheapy wax spreader. The existing resources online aren't very good and don't show a decent conversion anyways. Mine I think is a more thorough conversion that's more useful and transfers the polishers power to the pad more directly than the Ryobi mod I've linked to where the velcro goes on top of the foam backing instead of removing the foam backing and velcroing directly to the plastic plate.
This cheap Turtle Wax polisher held up remarkably well through literally hundreds of details. I used this buffer when I had no access to electricity for the DA or rotary or if I was working in more sensitive i.e. nosy complainy neighbors inevitably in the richer more lucrative communities who constantly would complain if they so much as heard a few minutes let alone hours of DA or rotary polishing noise as it seemed to interrupt their mornings drugged up with red wine, sleeping pills and prescription painkillers, the Hollywood wife breakfast. The wax spreader though was silent.
I had a couple large deep cycle batteries in my trunk connected to an inverter and the low power consumption allowed me to do completely mobile detailing, even had my own homemade rinseless wash before they became well known in the detailing community. I used it if I also had no access to water. Thus I had a true off grid mobile detailing setup if need be.
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=202166&Number=3099907
So this is the infamous wax spreader every "professional" says can't do any correction at all, of course I beg to differ. They're all similar so get whichever one you can get cheap. My advice, open a couple up and test the base plate. Some wobble more than others because they use a better ball bearing in the plate. My Turtle Wax one has a very tight bearing even after 10 years of professional detailing use. Actually still better than some of the Harbor Freight and even identical Walmart ones on sale today. Perhaps the saying they don't make em like they used to applies to cheapy polishers as well. Maybe in the strive for ever cheaper they've just given up on using even half decent ball bearings on the newer offerings.
After so many years of using the polisher the foam backing eventually started to disintegrate. The glue held quite strong though. So I had to peel off the old remaining foam and then soak the glued backing plate in a dish of gasoline to soften the glue enough to scrape and clean it off. It's very tenacious and sticky glue. After thoroughly cleaning the plate, you'll notice a rather high plastic center cover on the plate, it covers the nut. I simply cut it flush with a dremel and then cut a piece of old white plastic card material, in my case an old club member card, I forget to where, and used some Shoe Goo to glue it down so it's more flush, still not flat but better and the foam pad will cushion out the lump anyways. You can always just leave it open but I figure I should reseal it to prevent polish dust from working its way into the bearing and needlessly wearing the bearing out.
Afterwards I simply glued some velcro strips with the Shoe Goo on the backing plate. Be sure to evenly coat the velcro strips before pressing them down because they tend to lift off if not thoroughly glued. I also years ago took the polisher apart and replaced the 6" cord with a 20 foot cord. This really helped in detailing as the cord constantly came unplugged when you pulled on the polisher while polishing.
So after this mod I have to say all the drawbacks to using the wax spreader really are fixed except of course the lack of power. So easy enough, just go slower. Of course if you're in a rush you probably wouldn't even consider using this polisher. But for inexpesive gear that can get professional results albeit slower I don't think you can beat a modded 6" wax spreader. In fact this polisher now has gone from my polisher of last resort when I was detailing professionally, to my go to polisher for my casual personal use now. I've only pulled out my DA one time, and it was to do the initial polishing on my new Cadillac CTS coupe. Afterwards every subsequent waxing and light spot polishing was with this wax spreader.
This cheap Turtle Wax polisher held up remarkably well through literally hundreds of details. I used this buffer when I had no access to electricity for the DA or rotary or if I was working in more sensitive i.e. nosy complainy neighbors inevitably in the richer more lucrative communities who constantly would complain if they so much as heard a few minutes let alone hours of DA or rotary polishing noise as it seemed to interrupt their mornings drugged up with red wine, sleeping pills and prescription painkillers, the Hollywood wife breakfast. The wax spreader though was silent.
I had a couple large deep cycle batteries in my trunk connected to an inverter and the low power consumption allowed me to do completely mobile detailing, even had my own homemade rinseless wash before they became well known in the detailing community. I used it if I also had no access to water. Thus I had a true off grid mobile detailing setup if need be.
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=202166&Number=3099907
So this is the infamous wax spreader every "professional" says can't do any correction at all, of course I beg to differ. They're all similar so get whichever one you can get cheap. My advice, open a couple up and test the base plate. Some wobble more than others because they use a better ball bearing in the plate. My Turtle Wax one has a very tight bearing even after 10 years of professional detailing use. Actually still better than some of the Harbor Freight and even identical Walmart ones on sale today. Perhaps the saying they don't make em like they used to applies to cheapy polishers as well. Maybe in the strive for ever cheaper they've just given up on using even half decent ball bearings on the newer offerings.
After so many years of using the polisher the foam backing eventually started to disintegrate. The glue held quite strong though. So I had to peel off the old remaining foam and then soak the glued backing plate in a dish of gasoline to soften the glue enough to scrape and clean it off. It's very tenacious and sticky glue. After thoroughly cleaning the plate, you'll notice a rather high plastic center cover on the plate, it covers the nut. I simply cut it flush with a dremel and then cut a piece of old white plastic card material, in my case an old club member card, I forget to where, and used some Shoe Goo to glue it down so it's more flush, still not flat but better and the foam pad will cushion out the lump anyways. You can always just leave it open but I figure I should reseal it to prevent polish dust from working its way into the bearing and needlessly wearing the bearing out.
Afterwards I simply glued some velcro strips with the Shoe Goo on the backing plate. Be sure to evenly coat the velcro strips before pressing them down because they tend to lift off if not thoroughly glued. I also years ago took the polisher apart and replaced the 6" cord with a 20 foot cord. This really helped in detailing as the cord constantly came unplugged when you pulled on the polisher while polishing.
So after this mod I have to say all the drawbacks to using the wax spreader really are fixed except of course the lack of power. So easy enough, just go slower. Of course if you're in a rush you probably wouldn't even consider using this polisher. But for inexpesive gear that can get professional results albeit slower I don't think you can beat a modded 6" wax spreader. In fact this polisher now has gone from my polisher of last resort when I was detailing professionally, to my go to polisher for my casual personal use now. I've only pulled out my DA one time, and it was to do the initial polishing on my new Cadillac CTS coupe. Afterwards every subsequent waxing and light spot polishing was with this wax spreader.
