# Test drive - NEW RUPES Mille and Rotary Buffer by Mike Phillips



## Mike Phillips (Jan 26, 2007)

*Test drive - NEW RUPES Mille and Rotary Buffer by Mike Phillips*

The RUPES LH 19E Rotary Polisher and the RUPES BIGFOOT MILLE LK 900E










After the recent RUPES detailing class here at Autogeek with Jason Rose and myself, I had a leftover car. The word car is probably not the most descriptive term when talking about a genuine, iconic 1970 Chevy Chevelle SS 454 with a 4-speed transmission and this is the real-deal, not a tribute car.

I brought down three cool cars for the RUPES class but after the class we ended up not needing the Chevelle. (We used a 1967 Chevelle with a 427 and a 4-speed and a 1948 Ford Coupe Streetrod). Jason had brought 2 of the new RUPES rotary buffers and 2 of the new RUPES Mille gear-driven 5mm orbital polishers to show and let the students use in the class.

The next day, while shooting new RUPES videos with Jason I asked him if it were be possible to keep the new tools. He said if he could he would let me keep them but all the 110 volt new RUPES tools in America were slated for direct RUPES employees.

Jason was leaving with one set of tools for himself and the other set was for Todd Helme. Jason made some phone calls and obtained permission to leave me with Todd's set of tools for a couple of days so I could detail the Chevelle, (a courtesy to the owner who let us use it for the class), and to give me the opportunity to do some real world car detailing on a very cool car in horrible condtion and thus get some real-world experience with the new tools, pads and products.

Thank you Jason and thank you Todd and everyone else at RUPES.

Here's the car... I know under florescent lights the paint looks great. But standing 10 feet away and inspecting the car is *not* how you do it.










*Here's the same car using a swirl finder light...*




































































































*Above Surface Contaminants*
Besides having major swirls and scratches throughout the finish - the car was also heavily contaminated. Some of the students at the RUPES class did a waterless wash on the car so any loose dirt had been removed. Next I did the baggie test and the paint felt as rough as #40 grit sandpaper so I clayed each panel plus the glass and all the chrome and stainless steel.

*Clay lube after claying half the hood....*










*Bonded contaminant coming off the paint....*










Test Spot Time
Next up it was time to do a Test Spot. A test spot is where you test out the products, pads, tools and yes technique - to one small area and check to see what kind results you get. The *GOAL* is to dial-in a process that creates the results you hope for and dream about. If your process can make one small section look *GREAT* then in theory - if you simply repeat the same procedure to the rest of the car you should get the same results.

If you are not getting great results from your first test spot then you can make adjustments and tweak your process until you *DO* get great results and then repeat over the rest of the car.

The *BIG PICTURE* is by only testing your process to a small section and then inspecting, you can know for a fact what you're about to do to the entire car works. The last thing anyone should do is buff out an entire car without first testing and checking because if your process doesn't work you'll waste time, create more work and remove precious paint *NEEDLESSLY*. So always do a test spot on any car you've never worked on before - I do and I've been doing this a long time.

*Doing the RUPES 3-Step*
For my test spot I'm going to test a 3-step process in this order,


RUPES Rotary Buffer with RUPES Rotary Coarse Compound
RUPES Mille with RUPES Mille Fine Polish
Seal with RUPES P808 Protective Sealant










I've placed a strip of painter's tape on the clearcoated black stripe on the hodd and then buffed on just one side using the RUPES Rotary Buffer followed with polishing using the Mille. No sealant was applied for the test.










After compounding and polishing I removed the tape and took these pictures using my trusty dusty swirl finder light to show my eyes the results.





































*Judgment*
In my opinion, the RUPES rotary buffer with the RUPES coarse compound followed with the RUPES Mille with the RUPES polish created a show car finish.

*First step - remove swirls and scratches over the entire car using the RUPES rotary buffer with wool pad and RUPES Rotary Coarse compound*




























After compounding with the rotary buffer, a wool pad and the compound I took a few pictures to show everyone what this type of process leaves for results.

*NOTE: The swirls you see are NORMAL. *

The swirls left by this process are shallow and will buff out easy. The idea is to use the aggressive rotary approach to remove 99.9% of the deeper random swirls and scratches leaving behind a controlled and uniform swirl which will easily be removed by the next step.





































*Without the swirl finder light - just using overhead florescent lights - the paint looks pretty good but note - I have not removed the swirls from the rotary step in this shot.*










*Second step - swirls left by the first step using the RUPES Mille with a RUPES foam pad and the RUPES Mille Fine Polish *





































Here's the results after polishing - no sealant has been applied.










Final results
Here's the final results after applying the RUPES P808 Protective Sealant.























































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_*Final thoughts...*_
I'll have a review for each tool separate from this car detailing job so please wait for my thoughts about each tool individually. Overall the rotary buffer is light, compact is size and nimble making it super easy to use. The Mille is smooth and powerful, it removed the swirls with zero effort and really zero skill. There was no issue with pad stalling as that is the key feature provided by the gear-driven aspect of this new orbital polisher.

*Two very nice additions to the RUPES paint polishing SYSTEM.*

Remember... RUPES is NOT a tool - it's a paint polishing system.


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## Eric the Red (Sep 14, 2010)

Hi Mike
Great job as always, question, if you had to choose 1 machine to do your detailing would you go with Rupes or Flex.

Thanks

Rob


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## Mike Phillips (Jan 26, 2007)

Eric the Red said:


> Hi Mike
> 
> Great job as always, question, if you had to choose 1 machine to do your detailing would you go with Rupes or Flex.
> 
> ...


I get asked that question so much I wrote an article for it on AutogeekOnline.net

To answer you, I just re-created that article here on DW

*FLEX 3401 or RUPES? - A question I get asked a lot! -Mike Phillips*

Read through the article and check out the points I make.

Me?

I can make any tools that works dance on paint.


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