Cleaning pad after each panel...

M

machboy

New member
Quick question about pad cleaning.



I only have a couple pads to use on my cars. From what I've read I should be cleaning my pad after each panel. How exactly do I do that? Obviously I cant let it soak in a bucket or anything as the car needs to be finished.



Would simply dunking it in water and squeezing the product out be enough to continue using the pad? Does the pad need to be 100% dry before it's back on duty?



Thanks guys.
 
machboy said:
Quick question about pad cleaning.



I only have a couple pads to use on my cars. From what I've read I should be cleaning my pad after each panel. How exactly do I do that? Obviously I cant let it soak in a bucket or anything as the car needs to be finished.



Would simply dunking it in water and squeezing the product out be enough to continue using the pad? Does the pad need to be 100% dry before it's back on duty?



Thanks guys.
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You're wasting time. Clean after the 1st half of your car is done. You should only need to clean it once, maybe twice if you're using too much product and gum up your pad.
 
I think i read somewhere that you can take a terry cloth in one hand, and the polisher in the other and let the pad spin on the cloth to clean the pad out. You have to use a some pressure though, because otherwise the polisher would grab the cloth. I havent had a chance to try this out yet, so I'm not to sure on the specifics.
 
I thought I read somewhere about cleaning it with water or APC, reattach pad, turn on polisher in an empty bucket, and let the water splatter out.



Also, do you really need a fancy $12 brush?



A soft-bristle tooth brush won't do the job?
 
With some products/techniques, I do clean the pads out *very* frequently.



Most of the time I can get the pads clean enough (to continue working) with just a cotton or MF towel and some Meguiar's #34. Spritz the pad with #34, rub/wipe clean and dry.



Sooner or later the pad will require a more thorough cleaning, and compressed air is very helpful. The air can clean the pad by itself, or help dry it out after a regular washing with Dawn/pad cleaner/whatever.



I only seem to use the brush approach with my rotary's foam pads. And yeah, a stiff toothbrush-type thing works just as well for me as my fancy "pad brush". Don't use something too soft and gentle or it won't get the job done.
 
Thanks so much guys. I'll brush it out every so often with toothbrush. Then once it's caked I'll wash it.



Really appreciate all the advice. Thank you.
 
cpufreak3 said:
I thought I read somewhere about cleaning it with water or APC, reattach pad, turn on polisher in an empty bucket, and let the water splatter out.



Also, do you really need a fancy $12 brush?



A soft-bristle tooth brush won't do the job?
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I find this to be very helpful. I spray a pad(with pad cleaner) after a quarter, or two, and keep going with a new pad. When I run out of pads, I wash them all, spin them in a bucket, and have a fresh batch of pads. Works well, and doesn't even take 5 minutes.
 
cpufreak3 said:
I thought I read somewhere about cleaning it with water or APC, reattach pad, turn on polisher in an empty bucket, and let the water splatter out.



Also, do you really need a fancy $12 brush?



A soft-bristle tooth brush won't do the job?
Click to expand...



Soft bristles won't do a whole lot. You need something with thick, stiff bristles.





For those who are saying you only need to clean your pad once per car...isn't that a pretty vague statement? With something like M205 it can definitely hold true. But with a compound like M105, I find myself going through 5-7 pads on an average sized car.



Matt
 
Matt@Autogeek said:
Soft bristles won't do a whole lot. You need something with thick, stiff bristles.





For those who are saying you only need to clean your pad once per car...isn't that a pretty vague statement? With something like M205 it can definitely hold true. But with a compound like M105, I find myself going through 5-7 pads on an average sized car.



Matt
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i have always wondered what the correct way of doing things was as well as the creator of this thread.



I guess it sounds like i need to invest in a ton more pads LoL.



Matt, are you talking about 5-7 pads total or 5-7 pads for say something like M105 alone?



I personally don't even have that many pads of the same color so that might be out of the question. I tend to worry when using a stiff bristle brush as i don't want to tear the pad or anything like that.
 
vtec92civic said:
... I tend to worry when using a stiff bristle brush as i don't want to tear the pad or anything like that.
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As long as you don't get really aggressive with a *very* soft pad, that isn't as much of a problem as you might expect.



I use a very stiff brush, well beyond what any (real) toothbrush would be like, and it doesn't tear the pads at all. And a little bite out of a pad isn't all that big a deal in most cases anyhow.
 
Pad cleaning techniques are dependant on what style of machine you're using. Rotary or DA. Regardless, it a best practice to clean your pad as often as possible. With a rotary you can introduce water because it will not effect the performace of the pad. With a DA, it's almost critical to use a clean, dry pad. After each pass, I brush and blow out the entire pad. I usually change out pads are each average sized panel, sometimes every other. The more you use your pad, the more it gets embedded with dried polish, abrasive clumps, polishing oils and abraded paint. You can only clean a pad so much before it looses it's cutting power and introduces unnecessary micromarring.



There was great thread on another forum explaining this whole issue that I could have linked, but for some reason it got deleted? :nono
 
David Fermani said:
Pad cleaning techniques are dependant on what style of machine you're using...
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And on products/techniques too. M105 via the KBM is very popular these days, and that generally requires more pad cleaning than anything else I can think of.
 
vtec92civic said:
i have always wondered what the correct way of doing things was as well as the creator of this thread.



I guess it sounds like i need to invest in a ton more pads LoL.



Matt, are you talking about 5-7 pads total or 5-7 pads for say something like M105 alone?



I personally don't even have that many pads of the same color so that might be out of the question. I tend to worry when using a stiff bristle brush as i don't want to tear the pad or anything like that.
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5-7 cutting pads alone with M105 or most other compounds. M205 or any other finishing polish, I usually only go through 2-3 pads to do an entire car.
 
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