My late-April resolution, made at the C5/C6 Birthday Bash on '07, to "do better on car care" coupled with what I learned researching C-Magic Wax (www.cmagicwax.com), had me ordering one of the company's "World Class Corvette Detail Kits". After a week, FedEx Ground shows-up and a few minutes later, open on the work bench is this Kit with one bottle of each C-Magic product along with a couple of applicator pads and a micro-fiber towel.

"Uh-oh" I thought as my heart stuck in my throat, "This looks like work. What this 'shop' needs is a good buffer."

Actually, I'd been thinking about a buffer for a while. I'd polled a few people in my Corvette club who are hardcore waxers (they shall remain nameless) and use a power buffer for at least part of the waxing process and found most of them use a single-disc, random-orbital-buffer such as what Porter Cable (a big name in buffers I come to find), Waxmaster or Griot's Garage sell. It seems that single-disc, random-orbitals in the $75-$125 range dominate. I even tried one of them and while I very-much liked the labor-saving aspects of it, I hated the vibration and disliked the way these buffers, most of which are really industrial-style random-orbital sanders, de-contented to lower the cost to consumers then fitted with buffing heads, felt and handled. I kept on my buffer quest, but looking for more higher-end products that would vibrate less and last longer.

In talking with the C-Magic folks, I learned they recommend a dual-head, orbital buffer called a "Cyclo". Once again, I did some research. It's made by Cyclo Toolmakers in Colorado (www.cyclotoolmakers.com). The patented Cyclo was designed 54-years ago for polishing the bare aluminum and painted surfaces on large aircraft, particularly those owned by airlines. It gained widespread acceptance in the aerospace industry and later in the military and amongst professional car care specialists.

The Cyclo is a timeless piece of equipment which has changed little since it was introduced in 1953. Today, among its many high-profile users is the United States Air Force, specifically the 89th Air Lift Wing. Non-military types will know it better as the folks who fly and maintain Air Force One, the VC-25 (military version of the Boeing 747-200B) used by the President of the United States along with the aircraft used by the Vice President, the Secretary-of-State and the Air Force Chief of Staff. Needless to say, if you've ever seen Air Force One in-person, you've marveled at the aircraft's spotless appearance. How do they do that? Polishing with Cyclos. They have so many of them which are used constantly, that once every five years or so, the Air Force will ship pallets of them back to Cyclo Toolmakers for service. Cyclo "tunes them up" and ships them back to the USAF. There are Cyclos all over the world which have been in service 40 years or more.

The feature which makes a Cyclo unique is the overlapping, rotating motion of the two heads which mimics the two-handed, manual polishing/waxing technique old-school car care aficionados use when they hand-wax their cars. The Cyclo's buffing heads, which are run by a transmission geared to the device's electric motor, are dynamically balanced such that, when the unit is running and the heads are rotating, there is no vibration. The way this works is very similar to how balance shafts in large-displacement four-cylinder and V-6 engines damp vibration at idle and lower engine speeds.

This was a no-brainer.

I ordered a Cyclo.

A week or so later, FedEx Ground was back again with a box from Cyclo Toolmakers. In it was a gleaming, Cyclo Model 5 (PN 80-010), the 110-volt electric unit which features a 1/3-hp motor which turns its heads at about 3000 rpm. There are three other Cyclos, two for use with either U.S. or E.U. 230-volt power and a third which is air powered. All Cyclos share the same transmission and head assemblies. All that differs is how they are powered. My Model 5 was fitted with Cyclo's new, optional DoublePrecision, quick-connect adapters in place of the standard head assemblies. A Cyclo, at six pounds, weighs almost the same as the Porter Cable 6-in., single-head, random-orbital, at 5.75 lbs, but it's ergonomically designed for either one-hand or two-hand operation. I am by no means a muscular guy but I had no problem handling it, either one-handed or with both hands on either horizontal or vertical panels.

In fact, the unit's weight allows it to make your job easier on horizontal surfaces. Its six-pounds provides the right amount of pressure on the surface being polished or waxed. You don't have to push down. I just turn the Cyclo on and use my hands to guide it's course letting it's weight provide the pressure. Lastly, some might balk at the Cyclo's price, about 300 bucks, but consider this...I have three Vettes, for a total investment of about 100 grand. I think I can afford $300 for a tool which helps me keep them nice-looking. While the made-in-USA Cyclo is about twice the price of a good, single-head, random orbital, it does a better job, does it faster and will last a lifetime. Chinese-made, 6-in. orbital grinders fitted with buffing pads will last...what? About three years-maybe?

So far I've polished four vehicles with C-Magic World Class Wax and the Cyclo, two Vettes-a Dark Purple Metallic '95 ZR-1 and a LeMans Blue, '04 Commemorative Z06-a Blue '07 Chevy HHR and a White '01 Camaro. I apply the product with the Cyclo, one panel at a time, which is the best way to evenly spread the polish to all parts of the car. I wait until it hazes. Then, I sparingly spray C-Magic Detail Wax on, again, going panel-by-panel. Lastly, I wipe the haze away with micro-fiber towels. Yeah, this part you do by hand, but you apply no significant pressure nor do you hand buff anything. Just wipe enough to remove the haze. So easy even a five-year-old could do it. C-Magic Detail Wax is a sort of activator for the C-Magic World Class Wax. The polish can be used alone, but the two together ensure the best durability of the finish-figure six months before you have to redo it.

I tell you what, the three dark cars, especially the Purple ZR-1, had a shine that was deep and warm with clarity unlike that of the polish I'd been using before which, was either RainDance or Turtle Wax. I learned a key lesson: as is true with many Corvette related products, with car polish, you get what you pay for. If you buy an $8 tub of wax, you're going to get an $8 shine. If you buy a $20 dollar bottle of World-Class Wax, you're going to get an impressive finish that is equal to that of any other high-end polymer-based products and which exceeds the visual quality of high-end, carnuba-based wax products. In talking with the people tho make C-Magic I learned that on dark cars, multiple applications of C-Magic further improve the look, whereas multiple applications of any natural wax product eventually "yellow" the finish, so, I'm getting ready to do horizontal panels on the Z06 a second time.

The last thing I want to say about C-Magic products is they seem to be the only car polish products in the high-end of the market-amongst the Zanios, Zymols, Klassies Adam's and so forth-which are made by a company owned by Corvette people. When you talk to Kermit Dye, one of the owners of C-Magic, you soon learn that, yeah, he owns a company which makes car care products; but he's first and foremost a Corvette owner and enthusiast. I have to admit, that's part of the reason I gave the products a try. That, plus how my Corvettes look and that getting them to look that way-ok, I had help from the best buffer in the world, the Cyclo-has me firmly in the C-Magic camp.

The beauty of the Cyclo is no vibration and that, while it looks heavy, it's really not, weighing about the same as many single disc orbitals.

The Cyclo is built to last made of beefy alunimum castings, an HD electric motor and shafts riding on ball or roller-bearings.

The Review Author is sold on C-Magic Wax. His polished '04 Z06 is in the background.

Until recently, I hadn't had an impact wrench in my tool box since I was in my '20s, working in the automotive service trade. Once I left the trades and began to work on race cars and other project vehicles, there was no need to be in a hurry to beat the flat rate and I sort of developed this somewhat elitist attitude that really good mechanics weren't in a hurry, were much more careful and, thus, were above using those brutish, noisy impact guns.

That was my thinking for many years, but in the last 12 months or so I've run across several jobs that had me rethinking the impact wrench issue. The first was the harmonic balancer bolt on the 3800 Series II V6 in my Camaro. The damper is a modest press-fit on the crank snout, but its bolt is about 3/4" in diameter with a 15/16" hex and is incredibly tight. The service manual says it's tightened to 111 ft/lbs plus 114¡ additional rotation, read off a torque angle meter...that's seriously tight! To get it off, I used a15/16" socket on a three-foot breaker bar, braced my feet on the right front tire and really pulled on the breaker bar with both arms. That got the bolt loose, but it took every bit of strength I could muster. That would have been much easier with an impact.

A while later, working on the same car, I had to replace the rear axle pinion seal. I don't know how tight the pinion nut is because it's tightened until you achieve a specific pinion bearing preload measured by rotate the pinion with an inch-pound torque wrench, but the nut is takes a 1 1/4" socket and the GM J-tool needed to loosen it is a four-foot spanner wrench. That nut's gotta be majorly tight.

And then, the next job on the list after that was to get the heads off my 1971 Big-Block Coupe with the engine in the car. These heads have been on the motor for 15 years and were installed with ARP Head Bolts Pro Series bolts which are tightened to higher torque than stock bolts.

I'm not in my 20s any more. I was tired of fasteners which are really hard to break loose. I'm tired of being an elitist, no-impact-gun kind of guy. My solution...go down to Sears and get a Craftsman impact gun.

I selected one of the top 1/2-inch drive, air, impact wrenches in the "Craftsman Professional" line, the model 199050, which is made for Craftsman by Ingersoll Rand, the renowned power tool maker. This tool generates 1250 impacts per minute and is capable of 400-500 ft/lb torque running forward (tightening) and 500 ft/lb in reverse (loosening). It's designed for a maximum air pressure (PMAX) of 90-psi. A great feature of the Craftsman 199050 is that it's the lightest of all the company's 1/2-drive units at 4.5 lbs. because its housing is a composite material. Its hammer case and all the rotating and reciprocating part are metallic.

I got my new impact back to the garage, installed a 1/4 NPT air fitting in the grip, squirted a few drops of Red Line Synthetic Air Tool oil in the air intake, chucked the gun into my air line and pulled the trigger. Wow...the squeal of an impact gun, free-running at 9500 rpm brought back memories of my days in the service trade.

My first job with this new toy was that rear axle pinion seal. I marked the pinion threads, the nut and the pinion yoke. I snapped a Craftsman, 1/2-drive, 1 1/4-in. socket on the gunÑyou have to use a non-impact, thin wall, conventional (chrome finish), six-point socket for this because the thick wall impact sockets won't fit on the nut due to the closeness of the surrounding structure of the pinion yoke. I pulled the 199050's trigger and zz-rrrr-ip. That nut was off.

Hey, I'm liking this impact stuff.

A month or so later, I had the Big-Block in my '71 torn down to the point that I was ready to lift the cylinder heads. Since the bolts are ARPs with 12-point heads and Craftsman does not market 12-point impact sockets, I rang-up my Mac Tools guy and ordered a 1/2-inch, 1/2-drive, 12-point impact socket. When it arrived, using it along with using either a short- or medium-length Craftsman impact extension bar, I zipped those head bolts out in no time. The only bolts that are a little tough are the two rear bolts on the left head. Because of the proximity of the brake booster, you have to get the right combination of the socket, a 1/2-drive impact universal and an extension. Once you have that, the Craftsman 199050 spins those two out easily. Of course, with the Craftsman impact, getting the bolts out was easy. Now, I had to lean over and lift those cast iron heads off the motor.

I've been using the Craftsman impact for about two months. The thing I like the most is its lightweight. Next, I like the ease with which the forward or reverse buttons on the back of the tool can be selected by simply pushing one with your thumb while still holding the gun's grip with the rest of your hand. The large, power select dial is a neat feature for those who use mechanic's gloves when working on cars. I also like the look of this impact wrench--polished aluminum hammer case and black composite grip/housing.

For serious DIY work or light-to-medium, service trade use, you can pay more for name-brand, premium impact guns but the Craftsman Professional model 199050 Impact Wrench seems a pretty darn good value and it works quite well. It available at your Sears store or at www.craftsman.com and its fully-guaranteed for two years.

The Craftsman Impact Wrench, along with a selection of Craftsman impact sockets. That type of socket is advised in almost all occasions when the impact gun is used because they are made of a harder grade of steel and, thus, have better durability when driven by an impact tool. Image: Author.

Be it a Camaro rear axle or a Cadillac XLR differential assembly, an impact wrench makes removal of the pinion nut much easier. Image: Author.