Going from LC Yellow pad to LC White pad.

B

Bert

Active member
Is this too much of a jump? I will be using Optimum Hyper Compound on the Yellow pad (VERY hard paint) and cleaning up the haze with Optimum Polish. However, I am wondering if this is too far of a jump. Do I need to use Optimum Compound on an Orange or Green Pad in between?
 
tdekany said:
It is paint/color dependant but you should be fine. What color car?
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White car. I was thinking maybe I would use Optimum Hyper Compound on a yellow pad, Optimum Polish on a green Pad (not the one from Autogeek, the normal LC green pad the is between orange and white) and Jeff's Prime Strong on a white pad.
 
the normal LC green pad the is between orange and white)
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I am trying to descipher the LC CCS pad color hierarchy. Looking at the descriptions here at Autogeek:

Spot Buffing 4 inch pads - 30% thicker than the Low Profile Spot Buffs!



I see that Yellow is the most aggressive followed by Orange but then we have White, Green and Gray. It would seem that Gray is the least aggressive but I am confused about White and Green. From the Autogeek oage it would seem that that White is more aggressive than Green.



How many of this sequence wold you need to use with abrasive polishes and an RO machine? Using say the Optimum series of polishes I would guess it would be Yellow or Orange LC pads with Optimum Hyper Compund or Optimum Compound followed, if necessary to remove any haze, by Optimum Polish with the LC Gray pad. Is the Grey pad the correct choice to use with the Optimum Polish?
 
What kind of buffer? PC? or rotary? If it was me, I would start with wool on a rotary and drop back to foam - white pad and you should be ok.
 
FWIW (maybe nothing ;) ), it wasn't all that long ago that there weren't all that many types of pads...used to be there were *only* yellow, white, and gray in the LC lineup and people did OK with just those.



dcampen- FWIW#2, I do *very* little abrasive polishing with the gray "finishing" pads. I can see using them for that in certain unusual cases, but generally the white pad is functionally nonabrasive so it's just the product doing the work.
 
I use the white pad for cleaning up haze with my UDM after compounding. The green pad is more for AIO products like the XMT 360 and grey is very soft so I use it for applying waxes or sealants. let us know how it works out for you
 
FWIW (maybe nothing ), it wasn't all that long ago that there weren't all that many types of pads...used to be there were *only* yellow, white, and gray in the LC lineup and people did OK with just those.
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Thanks that is good to know.



FWIW#2, I do *very* little abrasive polishing with the gray "finishing" pads. I can see using them for that in certain unusual cases, but generally the white pad is functionally nonabrasive so it's just the product doing the work.
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So, as you say, isn't it the product we want to do the work, especially with the diminishing (is this the correct term?) abrasives that get smaller as they are worked? With these abrasives what we want in a pad is for it to be stiff enough to generate the forces needed to break down the polish, correct? So, when using diminishing polishes with a random orbital machine what practical difference is there between the yellow and orange pad.



My confusion re the white vs. gray pad comes from the Autogeek page where they describe the White pad as "made of soft, porous foam" while the Grey pad is "firm enough to withstand added pressure during final finishing to remove buffer swirls". This would make it seem that the Grey pad is stiffer and thus better suited for working a diminishing polish.



What I want to try to do is remove "desert pinstriping" from my 2004 Toyota 4Runner. My thoughts at the moment are to buy a PC7424, LC 4" pads and Optimum polishes for this. My thought is to use Optimum Compound or Hyper Compound with a Yellow or Orange pad followed if necessary by Optimum Polish with a White or Grey pad.



Edit:

I found a LC Pad Application Chart:

Lake Country Mfg., Inc.- Products - OEM



It seems that what is called a Grey pad at Autogeek must be Black in the LC chart.

The LC Chart lists the order as Yellow/Orange/Green/White/Black/Blue.
 
dcampen- Yeah, some people call that LC finishing pad "black" and others call it "gray".



IME the black/gray pad is pretty soft, and it's lack of porosity makes it hard for product to soak in very deeply (which can be a good/bad thing).



Yeah, the diminishing abrasives get smaller/finer as they break down. The yellow pad is pretty coarse and porous compared to the orange one, but either one will allow product breakdown (as will the white). For serious correction I want the most aggressive combo I can get, and with the PC that means a yellow pad. It won't finish out as nicely as an orange one, but if you're following up with a white pad you should be OK.



The whole pad/product thing can get complicated (but fortunately that seldom matters in the real world ;) ). Some pads are so aggressive that they will micromar paint, others aren't. Once you get past the pad itself being abrasive, how the product works with the pad's porosity can be a factor...sometimes a huge factor and other times not one at all.



I'd probably lean towards the yellow pad as I find the PC pretty mild even with 4" pads and I have a *lot* more experience with it than I do with the orange pad (but hey, that's just me). I don't really know enough about the Optimum line to give specific advice though :nixweiss
 
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