Smyrna, my dad had a new 55 4 door and then a 58 ranch wagon with a 390. The funny thing was that dad was the Shipping Manager for GM at the Oshawa plant. We picked up both cars at the Oakville, Ontario Ford Plant. Two weeks after dad got the 1958, GM asked him to sell it or he was fired. He quit and started his own business. Never looked back either.

It seems that the Ford production line made a mistake with his car, because he ordered a 289 V8 and got this T-Bird 390. The shipper at Ford told him to keep mum. It was too much trouble to do the paperwork.

We were lucky back then, because our little town of 8,000 only had one Policeman, who was also the Chief, and a member of my dad's rifle club. Otherwise, my old man would still be paying traffic fines and he passed 4 years ago. He just couldn't resist fast cars and hitting the hammer down.

He really got the bug, when a junkyard customer took him out in his new Hemi-Charger. It scared the hell out of him so much, that he decided to 'confront his fear' with something as fast or better. Before, he was just lead-footed, after that, he was wired for FASTER! We graduated together in University as Engineers, and did everything except ... together. I'm sure he's still looking for a competitor, wherever he is.

I mentioned earlier that I downloaded what I considered the key comments and pictures. I put them into Word 2000 format on the first file of nearly 80 megs. Part 2 is only 8 megs.

I went scouring the major Polisher manufactures and found a lot of comments on tool forums. 69Charger is right. The 10" is the right tool. Noisy and everything, the pricier ones, except the really expensive Cyclo unit or one from England at a whopping 16 pounds, all have issues for this Painting technique. When I think of dropping $200 or $300 for a polisher or even a Sander/Polisher for this rough, dusty task, it doesn't make sense.

We have both Princess Auto and ToolTown Canada (The US ToolTown is not related and sells namebrands) who sell the cheaper, Asian ones. The nice thing about these big hulks of 6 pounds or more is that they do the pressure work, not you. And if they burn out the bearings, so what! The Cyclo is way out of my league for a polisher. If I owned a Porsche, well ok, but they were made for Aircraft:

The English Pro machine (circa $600):
http://www.orbitalpolisher.com/index.html

The Cyclo twin head the Beemer guys buy:
http://www.cyclotoolmakers.com/products/prodcomp.html

Or this Antique aircraft guy:
http://www.russellw.com/planes/ryan/polishing.htm

The 90 degree ones (look like grinders) mean you're doing all the weight bearing, pressing down. As Danny Glover used to say, "I'm getting to old for this sh*t!". I can see me trying to reach to the centre of my wagon's roof or hood and watch the machine, press down and direct it for even 20 minutes. Let the noisy fatboy do it. If it dies, you can always get another without using the diaper money.

Some tool forums argued about the Porter Cable units. MeGuiars gives a Lifetime guarantee, but PC doesn't. Others argued about how they couldn't reach small crevices and dips in body contours, but this paint job isn't the same. We aren't working around the ornaments - they should be off, for the most part.

Even the Chinese Ryobi 10" polisher is better for this job. I make fine furniture as a hobby and I use specialized European high-end tools and I even have some no-namers for the real crud tasks. When its all done, I may blow my brains out on a Cyclo to keep the Mirror Finish, but the cheapies are good grunt-work machines. How much dust is there from polishing the family Porsches?