Why are Long Throw Polishers Not Good For Beginners? How to tell Hard Paint from Soft Paint?

[Mike Phillips]

Why are Long Throw Polishers Not Good For Beginners? How to tell Hard Paint from Soft Paint?


Always happy to help
I get a lot of questions about car detailing via email and/or all the different types of ways we communicate on social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

I never mind answering people, but with email, only ONE set of eyeballs see the answers. Yet we all know, if one person has a question, it's highly likely other people have the same question.

So, in order to LEVERAGE my typing time, (I'm on the clock so there must be a benefit to the company), I simply answer questions on this forum.

PLUS - Google does a GREAT job of analyzing the content on this forum and then ranks it high in the search results. So helping one person, ends up helping a lot of other people and that's what I'm all about.

Here's a recent question from email.

rom: blank​

Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2026 7:46 AM​

To: Mike Phillips <mike@drbeasleys.com>​

Subject: Re: Foam polishing pad. ​

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Mike,​

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I have a couple questions: why are long throws not good for beginners. Are 15m considered a long throw. Also how do I determine if my car paint is hard or soft. ​

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Last Question: is either optimum hyper polish or SONAX profile perfect finish a good product to use for a beginner. ​

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Thanks ​

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You asked 3 questions, I'll do my best to answer all three in order.


1: Why are long throws not good for beginners?

I would never say long throw polishers are not good for beginners. It's none of my business, which type of polisher a beginner or a seasoned veteran prefers.

Here's my OPINION and no one has to agree with it. Do your own testing and come to your own conclusion.

I made a video last year and I shared my opinion is that LONG stroke polishers suffer from PAD STALLING worse than short stroke polishers and I share why in this video. And for what it's worth, in the video I share my theory and I ask for ANYONE ELSE to share their opinion and so far - no takers. So watch the video and if you want to start out using a long stroke, free spinning, random orbital polisher like the Harbor Freight 20mm Long Stroke Polisher then go for it. It will get the job done, it's just my experience, the 8mm free spinning, random orbital polisher will suffer from pad stalling less than the long stroke.

2: How to tell hard paint from soft paint?

I covered this in my second how to book, and here's what I wrote, (no one like the answer)

The only way to tell hard paint from soft paint is from EXPERINECE. You need to buff out a lot of cars using pretty much a similar approach, and then PAY ATTENTION to each car you detail and do your best to determine if the swirls and scratches came out easy or if they took more aggressive pads, products and more buffing time.

There is no easy answer. About the only way you can flatten out the learning curve is to take one of my classes as we do a lot of TEST SPOTS on all the cars I bring in and that's where you discover soft or hard paint.

Here's a snapshot of the training cars from last year - lots of cars means lots of test spots means lots of first-hand learning thus flattening the learning curve.

2025 Recap - 34 Training Cars Went Through Dr. Beasley's Car Detailing Classes in 2025!

3: Last Question: is either optimum hyper polish or SONAX profile perfect finish a good product to use for a beginner.

I have not used Optimum Hyper Polish since it was first introduced. I did some of the initial product testing for Dr. David Ghoudussi back in June of 2010 - so about 17 years ago.

As for SONAX Perfect Finish? I have not used this product since it was introduced the first time, so I don't really have a valid opinion. Suffice to say, both Optimum Polymer Technologies and SONAX makes great products as does Dr. Beasley's. If I didn't trust the abrasive technology in the Dr. Beasley's NSP Primers, I wouldn't be working for Dr. Beasley's.


Hope the above helps a little. Thank you for the questions.


Mike