Wool vs. Foam for Beginner

[jw]

I'll be buying a rotary soon and have read about the wool vs foam debate. Some people have said wool is very dangerous and others said its good for a beginner because it doesn't get as hot. What do you recommend for a beginner? One of the cars I own is a 07 Mercedes with the Ceramic clear coat which is extremely tough. Would this be better with foam?

[cushdrive]

Foam is easier to finish out with little/no holograms, but produces more heat. Wool runs very cool and doesn't seem to hop as much because of that fact. Wool also cuts quicker, some find this dangerous. I've yet to finish completely hologram free with wool. I guess my answer would be to use wool for medium to heavy cutting because the stiffer foam hops easier than the finishing foam. Use foam to finish up because it's easy to control and easy to finish up hologram free. I know SuperBee has had success with finishing wool. I'm still trying to replicate his success. If I'm able to achieve this goal, then I'll give up foam completely.

[D&D Auto Detail]

cush pretty much summed it up. Wool is a lot easier to control them foam cutting pads, at least CCS orange.

[JuneBug]

Wool is a lot easier to control them foam cutting pads, at least CCS orange.
Amen Bro! I think Cush has the plan.

[weekendwarrior]

I would recommend getting a couple of purple wool pads, and a couple of LC White foam pads. I would then buy the 1Z Intensive Paste (to use with the purple) and the 1Z High Gloss to use witht the white foam pads. The 1Z polishes work on ceramiclear, and have a working range of 700 to 1000 rpms, so you can use them at a nice slow speed.

[SuperBee364]

Originally Posted by weekendwarrior

I would recommend getting a couple of purple wool pads, and a couple of LC White foam pads. I would then buy the 1Z Intensive Paste (to use with the purple) and the 1Z High Gloss to use witht the white foam pads. The 1Z polishes work on ceramiclear, and have a working range of 700 to 1000 rpms, so you can use them at a nice slow speed.

That is a *great* plan. New guy safe, yet will produce fantastic results.

[jw]

I have Menzerna SIP, Megs 105, and p0106ff. Which one would I use with the Purple Wool? SIP?

[Roishe Cheng]

I have a Makita rotary. Every single one of my jobs are cut with wool and finished with foam. I like working with wool, I find it smoother and cooler running than foam and cleaning the pad is easier. I have done cars with one wool pad without changing it, just constant spurring. My foam pads would often tend to get loaded up and would perform differently.

I have been through the entire System One, Presta, 3M and Menzerna lines.

I keep coming back to the Presta line for jobs that require intensive 3 step correction jobs (rare).

I have found EXTREMELY good results with Megs 105 and their double sided wool pad. It cuts swirl MARKS out QUICKLY, even cured swirls. I see people on here spending 17-20 hours polishing with multiple compounds and lots of different pads. I used to do that too. The last car I detailed that required almost 2 days of polishing was a black Pathfinder.

I didn't have M105 at that time, I am confident I could have done that whole Pathfinder with M105 and yellow wool in under 5 hours.

95% of my detailing jobs that I am doing now are ALL getting M105 and finishing out with 3M Ultrafina 3000 SE and their light blue wafle foam pad (sold as a kit). I really am that happy with M105.

I just completed a Miata this weekend. Heavy swirls, oxidation, tree sap that had been on the finish for over a year (hard as a rock). After stripping all of the contaminants off, I started with M105 at around 1:30 pm. By 3:45 pm I was done removing every swirl with M105 and at 4:15 I was done finishing out with Ultrafina.

I see a LOT of people here "three stepping" a lot of jobs that don't require it and spending 15+ hours on polishing. From studying the pics, M105 will take out even deep swirls FAST.

Three stepping is a huge amount of time if the defects don't require it. I am not referring to sanding scratches, wet sanding jobs etc. I have my three step arsenal for that.

What does your body feel like after a 17 hour three step job when there was a better way to get it done?

Call me the odd man out but I certainly don't think I can be the only one here with this viewpoint.

[M0nK3y]

Originally Posted by jw

I have Menzerna SIP, Megs 105, and p0106ff. Which one would I use with the Purple Wool? SIP?

IMO I would do Purple Wool w/105.
Orange or white foam pad w/SIP
Black or blue pad w/106FF

[superchargedg]

I just used my rotary for the first time with the pfw pads and m105 and i have never seen a polish or compound flash faster then m105.I will say it took out about 90% of the defects with one pass..........i was chicken to try 2 passes.That whole 15 seconds just killed a ton of cobwebs and swirls but it did leave a lot of holograming which i took care of using 106ff with a white pad and the flex3401.

[Roishe Cheng]

Originally Posted by superchargedg

I just used my rotary for the first time with the pfw pads and m105 and i have never seen a polish or compound flash faster then m105.I will say it took out about 90% of the defects with one pass..........i was chicken to try 2 passes.That whole 15 seconds just killed a ton of cobwebs and swirls but it did leave a lot of holograming which i took care of using 106ff with a white pad and the flex3401.

Incredible isn't it? M105 is really that great. I moved my 3M, System One and Presta lines to the back of the detailing cabinet now

[evenflow]

First time rotary user here as well. Cannot say enough good things about foam wool pads, and finishing with foam pads. Great correction.