Originally Posted By: john_pifer
Better results? No.
May be faster than doing it by hand, but beware of swirls. It's going to be much easier to screw up the paint with any kind of machine. You get any grit at all on that pad and you're going to swirl it.
... only if you fail to 1) properly prep the paint first, and 2) use a cruddy/dirty/old pad.
I regularly use my Harbor Freight DA and a nice clean finishing pad to apply wax/sealant on my Fusion. The last time was immediately following a full front-to-back paint correction (Wash/clay/compound/polish). Following the correction, which left the paint completely smooth and swirl-free, I used the same DA, with a new pad, to apply a coat of Meguiar's NTX 2.0 synthetic wax to the car. Once I had applied and then removed using MF cloths, I can tell you that there were absolutely zero swirls in the paint. Why? I prepped the car properly first.
Using a DA won't put it on any 'better', but it WILL apply it more evenly and minimize the possibility of missing a spot. It also lets you put it on thinner, thus reducing the work required to remove the wax afterwards. If anything, using a DA could possibly REDUCE the likelihood if introducing swirls.
