Is it possible to polish a car with a grinder?

In order to polish a car with high quality, it is not necessary to send the car for service or buy tons of expensive products in specialized stores. You can put your car in order very simply and economically - using high-quality polish, a special paste and an ordinary grinder. So, you will not only save money, but also be sure of an excellent result of the work.

Types of polishes

Even the most reliable paint coating sooner or later fades - because of this, chips and cracks appear on the surface of the car body. It is these that polishing destroys, returning your “iron horse” to its original appearance. Of course, to make the game worth the candle, you need to choose the right polish and paste:

Car body polishing products

Abrasives. Polishing using these substances removes abrasions and scratches from the surface of the car. Remember that such products also destroy a small layer of varnish, so after polishing the car it needs to be restored. Of course, you should not overuse abrasive polishing - too frequent use of such products can destroy the paintwork of the car body;
Non-abrasive substances. Using such products, protective polishing is carried out. In order for the car to look presentable, such a procedure must be carried out at least once a year;
Silicone polishes. These substances fill the smallest cracks in the body and give the car a pleasant shine. They are often used in combination with abrasives to secure the polish.

How to polish a car with an angle grinder

Despite its simplicity and economy, this method of polishing causes lively debate among car enthusiasts. Some drivers are firmly convinced that the grinder will only ruin the car, while other car owners diligently polish their vehicles using this particular tool and are completely satisfied with the result. The thing is that polishing is a very important task, so it must be done extremely carefully and carefully. Even one wrong move can ruin all your efforts.

Polishing steps:

Preparing for work. First of all, clean the car of dirt and dust. If you don't do this, polishing will not produce the expected results and you will be wasting the substance. In addition, remove any signs of rust. Every driver knows that corrosion is one of the main enemies of a car, and untimely destruction of rust can lead to expensive repairs.
Sanding the machine with sandpaper. Use only fine-grained sandpaper - it reliably removes all deep scratches and paint chips. Due to the degree of grain, such paper quickly clogs, so do not forget to wet the surface of the body with water from time to time.
Using an abrasive polish or paste. The grinder for polishing must be equipped with a speed regulator - if you choose another tool, you risk severely scratching the car. Attach a polishing wheel to the grinder and apply paste to it. In addition, do not forget to drop a little product onto the working area of the car. Remember that you need to polish in a cross pattern, moving slowly horizontally and vertically. Make sure that the grinder moves smoothly - if the tool starts to slow down, spray the working area of the car with water.
Application of silicone paste. After the surface of the machine is polished, remove any remaining paste with a soft cloth. Then apply a little silicone paste to the polishing wheel of the grinder and walk over the surface of the body.
Applying a protective layer. At the final stage of work, you no longer need the grinder. Now you apply a little protective polish to a soft rag or a special mitten. Try to distribute the layers evenly - then there will be no excess polishing left, and drips can be easily removed with a napkin.

How to polish

Polishing a car with an angle grinder is a fairly simple procedure that is carried out in several stages:

Prepare the surface of the car for processing, remove dirt, remove rust.
Use fine-grit sandpaper to remove paint chips and deep scratches. Periodically, the surface of the body must be moistened with water.
Attach the selected attachment to the grinder and apply the paste on top of it. A little paste should be applied to the surface of the car. Start polishing, moving horizontally and vertically. It is important that the grinder has a speed regulator. The tool should move smoothly. To do this, the surface should be moistened with water.
Remove any remaining paste from the polished surface with a soft cloth.
Apply silicone paste to the nozzle and go over the surface of the body again.
Apply a thin and even layer of protective polish, removing excess with a tissue.

That's all. After that, all that remains is to enjoy the result. As you can see, the polishing process is quite simple and even a beginner can handle it.

Advantages of polishing a car with an angle grinder

The popularity of this method is growing by leaps and bounds. The reason for this lies in the fact that polishing with an angle grinder has a number of advantages:

Availability. A grinder is in every man’s tool kit, so you won’t need to purchase or rent professional tools.
Simplicity. To polish a car with an angle grinder, you do not need to have specific knowledge or many years of experience. It is enough to do this work patiently and carefully.
Versatility. Using a grinder, you can easily tidy up not only the surface of the body, but also the glass and headlights. By the way, when processing headlights, completely avoid silicone products. In some cases, it is necessary to use coarse sandpaper.

Pros and cons of the method

Polishing a car with a grinder has the following advantages:

availability of the method;
simplicity;
versatility (suitable for all parts of any car brand);
low cost (do-it-yourself treatment is much cheaper than a polishing service in a salon).

In addition, when you polish your car yourself, you can be confident in the excellent quality of the work performed. The only disadvantage of this processing is the loss of your own time and effort. But it's worth it.

Some people believe that polishing with a grinder will only ruin the surface of the car. However, as practice has shown, this is not at all the case. The result exceeds all expectations. Try it and see for yourself.

Process description

Grinding the metal with a grinder is mandatory before polishing and painting. To work, a support bowl is required, on which the linings are changed. Their choice depends on the quality of the surface and the required degree of processing.

During the process, it is advisable to comply with the following requirements:

In order for the tool to be securely fixed in the hands, an additional handle is needed;
during grinding (polishing), the grinder should be positioned at an angle of 30-40 o, that is, only part of the disk works;
a separate disk is required for each type of metal (it is advisable to consult a specialist before purchasing);
During operation, it is necessary to monitor the condition of the disk (if it has become too thin, the likelihood of rupture increases);
To prevent overheating of the metal and disk, you should not linger for a long time on any part of the surface.

Important! Upon completion of grinding (polishing), all areas of the surface must be treated equally.

If the part is planned to be painted after sanding, it must be immediately coated with a primer. Otherwise, all surfaces will begin to rust in a few days.

How to choose a grinding machine?

Before you start purchasing, you need to decide what specific device you need and what functions it should perform. The tape machine is designed to work instead of a plane. That is, the job of the tool is to roughly peel off the paint and level the surface. For vibration, work on wood, plastic and metal is more common. This machine produces high-quality cleaning and polishing of the material. The orbital sander is designed to work with convex and curved surfaces. Thus, before purchasing this kind of tool, it is important to decide what surface you will be working on and what requirements the electrical device must meet.

There are a large number of models offered on the power tool market; it is important to purchase a tool with a function that signals the force of pressing on the body. This will not only extend the life of the tool, but will also allow you to control the work process.

Required Equipment

To secure the attachments, a support circle is required, which is mounted on the shaft. To grind metal on an angle grinder, grinding wheels with different diameters and thicknesses are installed on it. The most important indicator is the grain size. If the product becomes rusty during storage, pre-treatment with a wire brush is required.

For metal processing, you should buy large grinding wheels. Another option is skins, which can also be attached to a circle. Each type of work (rust removal, grinding, polishing) requires attachments with different grain sizes. For fine polishing you need an eccentric attachment.

Circle selection criteria:

outer diameter indicator (the larger it is, the longer the circle will last);
bore diameter (if the size is too large, an adapter will be required);
thickness (thick circles last longer);
grain size (fraction depends on the type of processing).

The nozzles are hard, medium and soft. Using hard ones, cracks and chips are removed, using medium ones, metal parts are polished, and using soft ones, they are polished.

When purchased in a store, the degree of hardness is determined by color:

white – the highest hardness;
orange (universal) – medium hardness;
black – soft.

Discs for angle grinders for metal polishing can be made from:

woven or pressed felt (may contain an admixture of synthetic fibers);
cotton (not stitched, stitched, special);
foam rubber with different cellularity (the choice depends on the requirements for the processing result);
leather (single-layer or stacked).

Regardless of the type, the fiber must be strong and capable of holding the paste.

Lightness, elasticity and electrical conductivity can also be considered important indicators. The most popular discs are those made from felt.

When polishing, solid and liquid pastes are used.

The hard ones are dense enough to be applied to a cloth disc and need to be liquefied with oil. The movements must be cross-shaped for the processing to be of high quality. Work stops after the surface acquires a mirror shine. The remaining paste is removed with a soft cloth.

Types of cutting attachments for grinding wood angle grinders

Sanding boards with a grinder is one of the main tasks for which this tool is used. Special care is required from the craftsman, since wood is a fibrous material. To avoid the appearance of burrs, chips, and large scattering of chips, you need not only reliable fixation of the workpiece, but also special attachments: standard diamond cutters will not work. The work is performed with special grinding attachments.

For rough processing

Primary processing of wooden products is carried out using grinding discs of the following types:

Roughing. This type of nozzle is used to remove old, hard-to-clean coating from the workpiece: varnish, dried paint. There are steel wire bristles across the entire area of the disc.

Cord brushes. After the initial rough processing, the wooden surface is smoothed and leveled with cord brushes made of wire or rigid wire bundles of a horizontal or perpendicular arrangement.

End Designed for cleaning the ends and edges of wooden boards, aligning miter cuts.

For grinding and polishing

Following rough initial processing, the wood is sanded and polished. The following types of disks are used for this:

Petalaceae. The most famous and widespread type of attachments for angle grinders. The disc looks like a flower with long thin petals, the role of which is played by an abrasive material. The petal attachments wear out slowly. As you sand, it is recommended to gradually replace coarse-grained nozzles with fine-grained ones.

Adhesive abrasive wheels. They are glued with Velcro onto the round metal attachment of the grinder. The kit comes standard with several circles – usually five. A worn disc can be easily removed from the attachment and replaced with a new one. The abrasive wheel contains sandpaper, felt, sponge, and high-density fabrics.

Cutting discs

To cut wood with a grinder, cutting circles are used. They are made of tungsten carbide, a high-strength powder material, since cutting work requires increased durability. Do not use a cutting wheel for stone, metal or ceramics on wood. The consequences can be disastrous: the wooden workpiece will be damaged, the disk will break, the grinder itself will burn out.

In addition to the diameter and cutting depth, the key classification parameter for cutting wheels is the shape of the teeth:

straight – for soft wood;
variable beveled - for all types of wood;
trapezoidal - for fiberboard, medium-density chipboard, laminate.

If you look at a cutting disc, the notches along the circumference or slot immediately catch your eye.

Cut-off with different teeth and slots

This is a special design solution that prevents overheating of the material. For example, when working with stone or metal, the water cooling method is used, but this is not applicable for wood. Therefore, the manufacturers did everything in advance to minimize the risk of the wheel overheating.

Important! On all modern angle grinders the standard shaft diameter is 22.2 mm; on older models this size may be smaller or larger. A cutting wheel can be placed on a shaft of a smaller diameter using an adapter attachment, but it will not be possible to install a disk of this type on a large shaft.

Application area

The market offers three types of grinders: household (with one handle), professional (with two handles) and industrial. Household angle grinders are the best option for short-term use at home. They are not very productive and powerful, their capabilities are limited, so they need to be turned off every 15-20 minutes. The advantages are low cost and ease of use.

A professional grinder for metal grinding is more profitable, as it has sufficient power and a wide range of functions. Its components are made of more durable materials, so it can be turned off less often. Wide discs can be used for grinding and polishing to achieve a mirror-like shine. Models with variable speed control are especially convenient.

Professional tools are used in auto repair shops and construction sites. At metal processing enterprises, industrial models that can operate almost around the clock without shutdown are preferable.

Advantages and disadvantages

Household grinders are lightweight and easy to use. If the amount of work is small, you should not spend a lot of money.

For work related to construction and car repairs, it is better to buy a professional model. While in a workshop a tool can be connected to an electrical outlet, this is not always possible on a construction site. But before buying an angle grinder with a battery, you need to take into account that the battery ages over time, so it should not be completely discharged.

An angle grinder is a rather dangerous tool that requires compliance with safety precautions. The worker must have safety glasses, overalls, gloves, and a respirator. The disadvantages include the need to purchase a separate attachment for each type of work.

Is it possible to polish with a grinder with variable speed control?

I get asked a very common question. Is it possible to polish it with a grinder? I have a cool grinder with speed control. I want to make less revolutions, I want to make more. To which I answer, it would be more advisable to buy an attachment for a drill to put on a polishing wheel. Yes, polishing is extremely inconvenient, but without fish there is fish. You can polish it with a drill, but this is if you painted your car yourself and the point of spending money on a polishing machine is reduced to zero, because after polishing one or two elements, you will simply leave it to gather dust, because even though it looks like an angle grinder, it will not work the same way and will not perform the functions of an angle grinder. I suggest you watch the video where I review the grinders, which are not bad in my opinion and just started the topic of polishing and showed how to polish a car.

Publication date: April 10, 2022. Category: Automotive equipment.

No matter how carefully the driver operates his favorite “iron horse,” sooner or later small scratches, chips, abrasions and cracks will begin to appear on the surface of the car’s paintwork. Such damage occurs not only as a result of careless driving, but also due to small stones, branches flying towards you, temperature changes and much more. To renew and protect your car’s paintwork, all you need to do is purchase an angle grinder and select the right wheels for polishing your car.

Polishing discs have different characteristics and are suitable for different purposes, so when choosing products you need to pay attention to their types and scope of use.

What to look for when choosing a polishing wheel

Sometimes polishing attachments are already included with polishing fluids, however, if the products are purchased separately, you need to take them into account:

Form. There are two types of discs: surface grinding (circular) and flap (cone-shaped). In order for polishing to be carried out as efficiently as possible, it is better to purchase products of several forms.
Rigidity. This parameter directly depends on the type of polishing paste. If the liquid is used to restore the body, then it is necessary to select more rigid polishing wheels. To choose the right disc, just pay attention to its color: black ones are considered the softest, orange ones are medium hard and are suitable for all pastes, white circles are the hardest, so they are most often used to remove the most serious scratches.
Diameter. It is better to purchase several discs of different diameters, then it will be more convenient for you to polish different parts of the car and hard-to-reach places. Large discs are usually chosen for polishing the body, and the smallest ones for headlights.
Mounting type. The discs can be attached to a polishing machine or a regular drill in two ways: screwed onto a thread or fixed with Velcro. The latter option is considered universal, since you do not have to select discs based on thread diameter.

When choosing a nozzle for polishing a car, it is necessary to pay the greatest attention to the material of the sanding coating, since it will depend on it for what kind of work the wheel is most suitable.

Types of grinding machines

It is a tool where surface grinding occurs unidirectionally, using a sanding belt, which is located on rollers provided for rotation. This type of tool is suitable for polishing large surfaces.

This type of machine is also called a surface grinder. It is an instrument with a flat sole, hence the name. Surface grinding occurs using reciprocating movements of the sandpaper. It is this action that is vibrational in nature. This type of machine also has vacuum cleaners for collecting construction dust.

For working on ledges and corners, there is another type of vibration-type machine, this is a delta sander. The sole of this type of tool has a triangular shape, which allows you to work in hard-to-reach places.

This type is commonly called orbital. The name again comes from the appearance of the grinding pad. It resembles an orbit or, more simply, a circle.

This type of machine rotates around its own axis. In addition to grinding, the angle machine can cut metal, concrete and other materials.

The function of this tool is to polish metal and painted surfaces.

The brush performs the functions of a grinder, rotating along its axis.

What material to choose a disc from?

Today, the market offers a wide range of car polishing attachments that help remove both small cracks and deep chips. Let's take a closer look at them.

Wool wheels

Wool discs are the most popular due to their low cost and efficiency. Such products are suitable for rough processing of paintwork.

A harder finish can be achieved using a polishing wheel made from twisted wool thread. Such products are suitable for medium-depth cracks and small defects.

Abrasive discs

Wheels made from abrasive materials are also considered hard, but unlike their woolen “colleagues”, they are more efficient and, accordingly, more expensive.

The products have these properties due to the special chemical composition of the polishing surface coating itself. More often, the abrasive layer is made of electrocorundum, chromium and silicon.

Felt discs

Circles made of felt are most often used for metal car body parts. Such products come in different types, depending on the level of wooliness of the polishing coating. For polishing, it is recommended to purchase thick-wool wheels, which work best at removing fairly deep scratches from non-ferrous metal surfaces. Fine wool circles are used the least often.

The diameter of felt discs can be from 70 to 250 mm, and the width remains the same - 25 mm.

Vulcanite (rubber) wheels

Such discs remove a thin layer of paintwork, after which the surface has a mirror shine. Therefore, vulcanite wheels are used only at the final stage of polishing, when coarser disks have already been used.

The polishing surface of the wheels is made of vulcanized rubber with the addition of abrasive components.

As a rule, only metal surfaces are treated with a rubber polishing disc at the final stage of restoration work.

Felt discs

Felt wheels are used at the stage of basic work, after rough processing, but before final polishing.

Felt products cope with most types of damage and work effectively not only on metal surfaces, but are also suitable for headlights, glass, bumpers and other body parts.

When using such a universal product, one important nuance must be taken into account - the disc must be periodically moistened in water. Then it will be several times more effective.

Also, felt discs are suitable for almost all polishing pastes, together with which they remove scratches even faster.

ZM disks

This type of wheel is used after the car parts have been coated with primer and varnish. Such products are the easiest to attach, and sometimes even used without grinding machines. By and large, ZM is a cheap consumable material for washing and dry polishing body parts made of any material.

Foam rubber is most often used as a polishing layer in such discs. When choosing foam discs, it is worth considering one nuance - the smaller the cells of the circle, the better it will polish the paintwork.

Please note that the attachment on a drill for polishing a car will be less effective compared to a disk mounted on a grinder (or as it is popularly called, an angle grinder). Therefore, let's look at some recommendations for choosing specialized equipment.

Choosing a car polishing machine

To purchase a reliable and inexpensive grinder for polishing a car, you should pay attention to the following technical parameters of the tool:

The power of the unit should be about 1200 - 1400 W. In this case, the grinding machine will cope with more tasks.
Please note that there is a speed control function. If you have them, you will be able to carry out all stages of polishing with the highest quality. In addition, thanks to such modes, it will be possible to process different types of surfaces.
Availability of a compensator. Thanks to power compensation, you can change the load level while maintaining the speed of the unit. The fact is that jumps in speed (when pressing and releasing the machine) can lead to rapid overheating of the paintwork surface, which is sensitive to high temperatures.
Smooth engine start. This function will protect you from inrush currents during long-term operation of the tool. Thanks to this mode, the machine can be turned on when it is already installed on the surface of the body. In this case, “burning” will not occur.

Popular functions of the grinder

Soft start function
. Devices that have this function are very convenient to use, due to the fact that the device starts working at lower speeds, gradually gaining power.
Balancing
. This function is present only on the highest quality models.
The brushes are turned off
. This function is also present only on high-quality devices. The brushes themselves automatically turn off in the event of a power outage.