Exley said:
..What do you guys think about me buying one product like UNO or CUT...
Bad idea IMO as it'd be like buying one grit of sandpaper to do woodworking; aggressive enough would never finish out OK and mild enough would never get the heavy lifting done. Get two products, one aggressive and one mild. Really
You'll be glad you did it that way.
.. and a 5 pack of different buff and shine pads to see what works. Then I would order more of what worked well. That would keep me from having to buy a TON of pads or stabbing in the dark and ordering 4 pads that might not do what I want...
If you can do just *one* panel as a test, OK. Otherwise you just won't get far without all those pads.
My take on it is that unless you have problematic paint, or are using finicky products, it's not all *that* necessary to split hairs with the many different pads. Yeah, one choice will probably be optimal, but "close enough" will work awfully well most of the time.
E.g.- I often use MF cutting disks for major correction. Orange light-cut pads for not so serious, but still significant, work. Then I'll often just use Griot's orange polishing pads and that's it. If (big "if" on most of my vehicles, and I'm awfully particular
) I want to really burnish the finish to perfection I'll do more work with some very mild finishing pads, but most of the time it's just not worth it to me (repeat that I'm not easily satisfied...and when I go the extra mile nobody else in the real world would ever notice it).
So IMO you don't *need* five different types of pads nor do you need to choose just the perfectly-right ones. Betcha that the stuff I listed above would work fine for most folks.
..I understand and I appreciate the advice. The reason I was looking more at the harbor freight was that I might not use the machine that much. Its really only for my daily driver and maybe my friends car. I'll keep and eye out for sales on the GG...
Heh heh, I'll beat you over the head with my opinion even more :chuckle: Being able to do those seemingly infrequent jobs efficiently (hey, most of today's polishers are *effective*) is worth the $ to me. But that's me and it's always easy to spend other people's money. Still...this isn't huge money compared to a lot of automotive expenses.
Oh, also will I know when it is time to change pads? Is there a rule of thumb, or more just when it doesn't come clean with a brush?
The starting point rule-of-thumb is to clean 'em far more often than you think necessary. I'm a bit of a fanatic about it, cleaning my pads all the time. But it's *NOT* like you can do a big panel without cleaning the pad, let alone more than that. Pretty fine line between "no problem" and "hey, this isn't working as well as it did a moment ago" and by that time it's hit the fan with regard to a quick on-the-fly cleaning and you gotta get out another pad.
Note that
pwaug does it after every other 2' x 2' section. Leaving aside that I seldom do areas that're that large (whole 'nother topic!), I *never* do even remotely that much polishing without cleaning the pad(s) out thoroughly. Doesn't mean he's wrong or I'm right, just means that it's one of those "it all depends..." things and you have to find what works best for you.
And as Ron mentioned, you gotta get out a freash one now and then no matter what.
Err on the side of caution and buy plenty of pads. Minimize the chance of buyers remorse by choosing pads that are "usually good choices for most jobs".
Oh, and *DO NOT* buy the dimpled pads! I simply hate 'em and I'm not alone in that.
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