How many pads?

B

buja

New member
Just wondering, how many pads do you guys go through for one mid sized sedan ?

and how do you clean them if in the middle of it, you used up all your pads ?
 
Buja- I recently polished my wife's A8 with the Cyclo (after doing RIDS with the rotary). For each polish (via Cyclo), I used just *one* set of pads. I wiped the excess product off with a MF after each panel, and and when they looked a little loaded up I sprayed them with #34 before the wiping. Had they become *too* loaded up, I woulda washed them with Dawn, squeezed them out in a cotton towel, and then resumed work.



Be careful spinning pads dry, they can fly off the PC (doesn't happen with the Cyclo or rotary IME).



But it pays to have a few extra pads on hand; note that I'm pretty careful to *not* use more product than necessary. You will probably go through more pads than I did, but I dunno if it's gotta work out that way (IMO most people use way too much product).
 
For my TL, I never did my whole car at one time, since I think it's too much work :) I usually do a section. For the hood I used 1 pad to polish (yellow/orange), and a 1 pad to finish (white).



Same thing goes for the 2 door panels.



My estimate... if I had to do the whole car at one time.. I'd say 3 pads in all?? 1 for polishing, and an extra one after the first pad is caked, and the 3rd one just for AIO product.
 
In my experience, on a typical polishing effort with my PC I'll go through two LC orange pads and one white pad. Occasionally I'll add one yellow pad (and a white one) to that, depending on the severity of swirls/scratches.



Although I always have a pad brush, QD, and pad conditioner with me, I'm lazy. :D When I'm in the groove of polishing, so to speak, I'd rather rip off one pad and stick on a fresh one than to go through the process of unloading one.
 
With a rotary, doing a full sized truck it took 3 LC white pads. If I run out of pads I wash them in Megs APC, rinse them out well, spin dry at 2500RPM for a minute or 2( I keep a bucket in the workshop just for this.
 
I clean my pads farily often, not because i need to its just i like to put them away clean. I use a diff pad for each dif product. I have the grit guard pad washer also. But i probably go through 2 or 3 cleanings for each step.
 
baseballlover1 said:
I clean my pads farily often, not because i need to its just i like to put them away clean. I use a diff pad for each dif product. I have the grit guard pad washer also. But i probably go through 2 or 3 cleanings for each step.
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+1.

I always put my pads away clean after a full detail. I alse use a new pad for every product. :woot:
 
Using Menzerna polishes, I can pretty much get through any size car or truck with one pad. I spur (or brush if I'm using foam) after every application. Menzerna polishes don't really load up pads too bad, so a quick brushing/spurring really brings back the life to them. Ultrafina, OTOH, really loads up pads fast. I'll go through 3 pads per car when I'm using Ultrafina. It is so viscous it loads up the pad like a sponge. It's worth it, though, cause it's sooo fast and easy to use.
 
Might sound stupid, but for a soon to be Flex user, how do you hold the buffer sturdy enough while its spinning at 3000rpm and use the toothbrush to clean the pad? lol I'm just trying to imagine it in my head :dance
 
mrgoochio said:
Might sound stupid, but for a soon to be Flex user, how do you hold the buffer sturdy enough while its spinning at 3000rpm and use the toothbrush to clean the pad? lol I'm just trying to imagine it in my head :dance
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I place it across my leg while squating down and I can get away with holding it with 1 hand. I only brush the pads at 1000rpm, though.
 
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