Griots Garage random orbital buffer
 

Anyone have any experience with these? I've seen some good reviews online but was wondering if anyone here has actually used one. I need something to work out some light swirls/ice scratches from my opticoated car. It's between this one and the Flex 3401. I know the Flex is probably better but if the Griots Garage will do the job, i'd rather save $200

I just bought the Griot's Garage RO and I think it does the job just fine. To be perfectly transparent, I have never owned a random orbital/buffer/polisher before, so I would definitely consider myself a newbie to the game. If a newbie (aka me) can successfully polish out light swirls/scratches from his car, I'd say give it a go.

ok thanks. Do you find that it orbits ok when applying pressure? What polish are you using for light swirls? My old porter cable would give up and just kinda vibrate if i applied even a little pressure. It ultimately just completely died and wouldn't do anything if it even touched the surface.

I've got one and I've never felt that the power or torque of the thing holds me back. With a little pressure it is perfectly fine.

cool deal. I might order one of the kits that comes with the pads and the griots polishes from autogeek.

I ordered mine from Detailer's Domain with the 6 Uber pads and Sonax 5/4 polish, as recommended by Phil @ Detailer's Domain.

hmm i see they actually have one that comes with 5 pads and all the optimum polishing products for a good price. Might get from them :) @DetailersDomain do you guys carry the Griots with the 25 foot power cable? worst case i can just get a good extension cord if you dont

actually nevermind i found a 100ft waterproof extension cable at home depot for 15 bucks and the "newbie" promo code for @DetailersDomain. Can't go wrong for $185 shipped with all that extra stuff included. Ordering it up!

shipped already! damn good service :)

The griots is the best for the hobbyist without a doubt. Best low speed torque, lifetime warranty, less vibration then other d/a's. Its the one I recommend to any customer looking to tackle the project themselves!

I use the griots often and find its easier to use than the flex. and you really have to lean on the griots to get it to slow down (unlike the PC which has less power).

and they re-designed the griots to make it a little more ergonomic. the on / off is now on the top (like the PC) and not the side (which I'm used to now but did not like at first)

stick with 5.5 inch pads. the 6.5in pads I use with the flex

Very cool. Just got delivered... less than 24 hours from when I ordered it. Can't beat that! I'll have to give it a try as soon as we get good mild day which should be soon. Hopefully i can work out some of those ice trails without undoing your opticoat :) What speed setting do you recommend for this? I assume i should probably start with just the poliseal and the lightest cutting pad? If it ends up looking like its worn through or if i screw up, i'll let you know when i schedule to come by with the new spoiler.

start with poli-seal and the lightest pad you have (black or maybe red). Can always work your way up from there to get more aggressive with it

if you got it in a day, I assume it was from detailers domain. Love that quick delivery from phil

I own the Griots Orbital and I was a total noob when I started working on this car. I absolutely love it and the car comes out perfect.

This!

I did detailed and Opticoat the car myself with a different Orbital polisher (DAS 6 pro). But they are lla pretty much the same unless you want to go to a higher more expensive product and use it on a regular basis for other cars.

I used menzerna polishing compounds and they worked wonders.

I would recommend to start with speed one, spread the product on a part of the panel you want (say half your rear trunck or something) then increase the speed to say 4, 5 or 6 depending on how aggressive you want to be.
I reckon 4/5 final finish from Sonax would work just fine. I would also recommend doing this in a garage, and have some flood light, and hight intensity light ready to check the scratches and stuff.

Good luck!

Where's the best place to buy the Griots DA polisher? I mean which vendor. I read a lot of autogeek forums so I would lean toward them.

Hoping for a Father's Day gift!

I dropped the hint on my 7 year old son today. Hoping for some magic on Father's Day. Chose griots because it has more "guts" then PC and Meg's polishers. Looking to use it on boat also.

I bought mine from detailersdomain.com.