Flex 3401 vs 4inch backing plate system carnage

I`ll let some of the pictures I took speak for itself!!

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h4...psfqamhepg.jpghttp://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h4...psozvmlhb7.jpghttp://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h4...psxa2ri4e2.jpghttp://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h4...psvjgdtmdm.jpghttp://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h4...ps2yihc554.jpg

Been giving my rupes alot of love lately but decided to switch back to the Flex 3401 for correction here and there. I decided I wanted it to be a bit more diverse so I purchased the backing plate system with the 4 and the 6 inch backing plates. Then took advantage of black Friday sales and purchased a starter amount of pads for it 5xhybrid orange 5inch 5xhybrid white 5inch. This is what happened after 5 corrections.

didn`t get to far into this one..got the hood and fender partially corrected. Used Flex 3401 w/ 4 inch plate, speed 6, HD cut, LC hybrid orange pad. Vehicle is an Audi a3 SLine

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h4...ps07lxs585.jpg


This ever happened to anyone?

My backing plate system hasn`t left the package it came in.

Worried now.

Ouch! I`ve read about that hybrid BP system failing like this before. It`s one of the reasons I went with the Flex OEM BP`s instead.

Lake Country is a good company, and stand behind their products - I`m sure they`ll sort this out ASAP.

On a positive note, the polished section of car looks great. BIG improvement

I love all LC products I`ve used but I was surprised this failed as it did. I was lucky no damage was done to the flex or the vehicle. Happened in between panels when cleaning the pad. Broke off and hit me in the chest I kinda looked at it stunned lol

hhmmmmmm

seems to be a common problem. Guess mine stays in the package

OEM or go home...

Glad nothing happened to the car though!

You think this was from pushing the product too hard? I just can`t imagine they would sell a piece like this knowing this issue exists.
Have you contacted LC? It`d be interesting to see what they say.

I have heard of the failures of this system when I was researching them. This was the main reason I decided to sand down a factory BP to a 4" size instead of buying the LC "system".

I too have heard of these issues for over a year and a half now. I think the $36 is STUPID for the OEM one but that will be the one I buy if I ever feel the NEED to get a smaller backing plate. Cant risk it with the LC one. Shame LC that this problem still exists.

Sorry this had to happen to you..

I look at this and wonder how anyone would ever think that a piece of metal that is taking all the abuse from the machine is just glued into a piece of plastic?????

Back in the day of the Flex 3401VRG introduction, we all figured out very quickly that the 6" backing plate was too big so we all cut it down to fit 5" pads and then it was great..

And a few years later, Flex came out with their own smaller backing plate for these pads and have even made smaller backing plates for it..

Seeing that Flex is a company that makes machines that polish huge Stones, I think their design is probably going to last a long time, or they would not be able to support their stone finish polishing Clients very well...
Dan F

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ronkh

hhmmmmmm

seems to be a common problem. Guess mine stays in the package

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Interesting Ron. Mine has been sitting in the package unused as well. I might have to break it out.

Hasn`t happened with the rupes but I did have a problem with a box [12] white pads for my rotary that I bought because they were cheap, they fell apart as I used them I went trough 10 on one car,the pad came away from the backing plates the glue had failed,i suppose you get what you pay for.