Question for you Mike - and others

[Silly Rabbit]

Question Mike,
Your thoughts and opinions on Rupes machines. Searching around I see in the past when addressed you are not really for the 'washer mod'. Whats your opinion on things like the Kamikaze backing plate? There's also the Coatic pieces.

 

[Mike Phillips]

Question Mike,
Your thoughts and opinions on Rupes machines. Searching around I see in the past when addressed you are not really for the 'washer mod'. Whats your opinion on things like the Kamikaze backing plate? There's also the Coatic pieces.

First - Great question and note all the pictures you'll see below I personally took.

Second - Having written a how-to book for the RUPES BigFoot Paint Polishing System, I think it's fair to say, at a minimum, I'm fair and balanced in my thoughts on RUPES machines and any brand for that matter. Note, I detailed every car on the front cover of my RUPES how-to book and every car inside the how-to book and also took probably 90% of the pictures with Yancy Martinez taking the other 10% of the pictures.

Thoughts & Opinions
In my opinion, having been to the RUPES manufacturing plant in Milan, Italy, Here's the obligitory picture everyone takes when they visit the RUPES corporate headquarters in Milan, Italy. I think Todd Cooperider did this shot first but I could be wrong.

RUPES manufactures the highest quality tools on the market today. Not to say other companies also don't manufacture high quality tools, but to state and be very clear, I've seen the tools being built at the manufacturing facility in Milan, Italy and they are no short cuts in any aspect of their manufacturing process. I've seen their Tool Torture Chamber and was impressed with their ingenuity to not only test their own tools but all the knock-offs of their tools.


The RUPES Tool Torture Chamber

In fact, while being given a tour of the manufacturing facility in Milan, Italy by the President of RUPES, Guido Valentini, as we started the tour, Mr. Valentini pointed to the sign in the factory that had the universal image of a camera with a red circle around it and a line through the image, stating,

NO PICTURES

and then said to me,

"For you Mike Phillips, you can take pictures!"

Which I did and unlike all the others that were invited to RUPES in Milan, Italy as special guests before RUPES bought the Cyclo company and manufacturing plant in Colorado - I'm the only person that took pictures and then did something with the pictures.

Here's me in Milan signing a copy of my 3rd car detailing book. I was invited as their Special Guest Speaker for their International Sales Meeting.

The engineers at RUPES put a lot of work into making their tools smooth, low vibration, powerful and fully featured. As for the Kevin Brown Washer Mod, I believe the RUPES Engineers when they state the purpose of the shroud is to,

1: Create a light drag on the back of the backing plate to enable 50% oscillation and 50% rotation of the pad.

2: Prevent the backing plate and pad combo from spinning up to high speed when the tool is lifted off the surface for brief moments while the technical inspects the results and then makes the go/no go decision that the defect is removed to their satisfaction or if they need to continue buffing to remove more of the defect. If I remember correctly, this is a "style" of buffing used on polishing decks at the OEM level and it is a technique used by trained professionals for specific reasons.


So to remove the shroud or insert a spacer washer defeats the design by the RUPES Engineers.

I've never used a Kamikaze backing plate so I don't have a real-world opinion. Same for the Coatic brand.


Here's what I believe today and always have believed - everyone should try as many tools as possible and use what works best for them and their style of detailing.



-Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

Just by coincidence, when you posted this questions, I was doing a check on the readability statistics for a chapter called,

Clearcoat paint is thin

For a brand new book I'm writing. It's one of a series of new car, boat and sanding how-to books. Who knows? There may be a NEW RUPES book in the works?


I normally aim for 9th grade reading level in my writing so I'm off a tick in this chapter. If you look at the stats, this chapter is at Flesh-Kinkaid Grade Level 10.6

That and a brand new YouTube Channel that I've started.


Mike Phillips - Real World Detailing

I took this screenshot last week when I had 6 subscribers. LOL

I'm incredibly late to the YouTube game considering my background but the good news is, all my content will be new and of course... original. No problemo - I love a challenge.


-Mike Phillips

 

[Silly Rabbit]

7 now. Great to see you'll have a dedicated channel. Thanks for the answers as well. I kinda knew what your answers would lean towards, but you gotta ask right. I know manufacturers put alot of time, money, and research into designing products to work the best they can. But.. as with aftermarket in the automotive industry, people make it better. GM, Ford, etc make some formidable weapons, Corvettes are a force. But if you take your Vette to Lingenfelter of Katech, your Vette is to another level. So had to ask you that question with my mindset "well did the aftermarket improve on an aspect?". As I said, in researching I saw your view on the washer mod was there, but wondered if the backing plates would be there??
You see products or people mention things and you gotta investigate... in this case investigate means ask you, lol.
So take a perfectly good machine (Rupes) and keep it a perfectly good machine.... and save some money doing it... keeping it 'stock'.


Thank you Mike

Definetly keep the idea of a new Rupes book too!

 

[Mike Phillips]

7 now. Great to see you'll have a dedicated channel. Thanks for the answers as well. I kinda knew what your answers would lean towards, but you gotta ask right.

Yup - best to ask. Like the saying goes, there's no such thing as a dumb question.

I know manufacturers put alot of time, money, and research into designing products to work the best they can. But.. as with aftermarket in the automotive industry, people make it better. GM, Ford, etc make some formidable weapons, Corvettes are a force. But if you take your Vette to Lingenfelter of Katech, your Vette is to another level. So had to ask you that question with my mindset

"well did the aftermarket improve on an aspect?".

As I said, in researching I saw your view on the washer mod was there, but wondered if the backing plates would be there??

If we take the 30,000' view of just exactly what are these companies doing that are making different backing plates to improve or maximize pad rotation on RUPES free spinning tools - why are they doing this?

RUPES WANTS the rubber shroud they designed to cause drag and slow down rotation. These outside companies want to undo the RUPES Engineers "engineering". Why? The reason why is, from their point of view, their engineering ideas/products will supposedly enable the RUPES tools to better maintain pad rotation/pad oscillation and probably also to increase pad rotation speed? I don't know for sure as I've never looked that deeply into the Kamikaze and Coatic mindset?

Another way of looking at this issue of maximizing pad rotation and pad oscillation (remember it's TWO actions, not just ONE action), or dealing with the topic of pad rotation and pad oscillation, is instead of trying to out-engineer the RUPES Engineers, pick, choose and use a different tool that doesn't have pad rotation and pad oscillation issues.

For example- the RUPES Mille. For those reading this into the future that don't know what the RUPES Mille is - it's a 5mm GEAR-DRIVEN orbital polisher and because it's gear-driven, there's no need for a Kamikaze or Coatic backing plate or even the KBM Washer Mod.

Just turn the Mille on, place the buffing pad on the paint you want to correct and let the Mille do it's thing.

For what it's worth, when RUPES was still NEW to the detailing world and also to America - I had two of the RUPES Engineers take my detailing class.

From left to right

Andreas, Marco and me

Here's Marco D'Inca giving a demonstration on how to correctly use the RUPES BigFoot 21 on a 1940 Chevy Sedan Streetrod- this would be the Legacy or first generation model.

Here's Andreas testing out the FLEX XC 3401 VRG aka The BEAST on a 1940 Chevy Sedan Streetrod

The streetrod you see is just one of HUNDREDS that I've brought in for my classes to train on.

Car Wax History
Here's the link to this class that took place in 2013

Pictures: Detailing Boot Camp Class - May 4th & 5th, 2013

On page 2, there's a great review for our classes by Kevin Davis of the Detailer's Helper fame

You see products or people mention things and you gotta investigate... in this case investigate means ask you, lol.

So take a perfectly good machine (Rupes) and keep it a perfectly good machine.... and save some money doing it... keeping it 'stock'.


Thank you Mike

Definetly keep the idea of a new Rupes book too!

When it comes to modding the RUPES polishers or any versions of the RUPES polishers now on the market - I say do like you did. That is, do your research and then make up your own mind as to which direction to go with either leaving your polisher in it's stock configuration and/or modding it.

I have 4 RUPES polishers in the AutoForge Garage, the Number #6 BigFoot 15, the Number #16 RUPES BigFoot Mark II 21 and two prototypes. All 4 tools are in their stock configuration and all continue to work perfectly fine.

 

[JohnU]

What a compliment to be invited as a speaker! Getting insights from the “King of the Pad” will make them more effective in getting the story out to the street.

YouTube is up to 11 subscribers!

 

[Silly Rabbit]

I will say one thing that does interest me is Coatic's nano micro kit. It's for Flex and Rupes Nano. Flex has an in house micro kit and a few companies have offerings, but nothing for Rupes. This kit interests me alot. I will keep the machines stock, but this looks like a decent attachment.

Flexible Shaft Polisher fits Flex PXE80 & fits Rupes Ibrid

Coatic Flexible shaft kit compatible with Flex PXE80 & Rupes Ibrid and rotary We've designed some extremely handy adaptor bolts to allow users the opportunity to adapt their polishers into nano polishers. The 1m long high quality flexible shaft allows users to utilise a huge number of machine...

www.coatic.co

What's your opinion on this kit Mike??
Or any micro kit.

 

[Dr Oldz]

Since you said MP and “others” , I’ll throw my thoughts in.

ANY time I messed with any of my free spinning DA machines including backing plates and or washer mods, I have noticed 2 things……..

1 Smoothness diminished AKA vibrations increased. Maybe only very slightly but still in the wrong direction..

2 When actually polishing paint with a load on the polisher, I noticed absolutely zero difference in performance.

My suggestion: Rupes really works best with Rupes pads. So save money on mods and buy more Rupes pads.

 

[Mike Phillips]

I will say one thing that does interest me is Coatic's nano micro kit. It's for Flex and Rupes Nano. Flex has an in house micro kit and a few companies have offerings, but nothing for Rupes. This kit interests me alot. I will keep the machines stock, but this looks like a decent attachment.

Flexible Shaft Polisher fits Flex PXE80 & fits Rupes Ibrid

Coatic Flexible shaft kit compatible with Flex PXE80 & Rupes Ibrid and rotary We've designed some extremely handy adaptor bolts to allow users the opportunity to adapt their polishers into nano polishers. The 1m long high quality flexible shaft allows users to utilise a huge number of machine...

www.coatic.co

What's your opinion on this kit Mike??
Or any micro kit.

I like it!

I think these types of tools come in super handy for tight spots in hard to access areas.


Mike