OK, so I just received my LC 5.25" CCS Orange pad from Danase a couple weeks ago and had the chance to try it out this afternoon. I wanted to see what kind of a comparison I could get with the regular 6.5" pad. I also threw in the yellow 6.5" pad that I got over Christmas and hadn't used yet. The test subject is my black 2003 Bonneville. The work area was the hood that I had repainted two months ago, so it was unprotected, and of course swirled for free by the body shop.
For the process I taped off three areas in the center of the hood, all about 18"x18" square. I had two sections side by side (referenced as Left and Right) and one section below and centered between the other two (referenced as Bottom). For the bottom section I used the Yellow pad, for the right I used the regular orange pad, and the left was the CCS pad. I then did two separate applications of Optimum Hyper Compound on all three sections, making six perpendicular laps. Then I followed up with Optimum Polish on all three sections with a regular LC 6.5" White pad.
I'm not sure if the hood was just that bad, or if I need to give the steps more working time, but none of the sections came out where I was totally happy. But I did come to my own conclusion that the CCS pad was the best of the three. Below are some pics with a few comments. I had a hard time getting good pictures, so I apologize, and hope that they are somewhat worth wile.
This shot is before I did any polishing. As you can see, it's in rough shape.
This one is the bottom section after the first pass with OHC on the yellow pad. It was a good start, but still a lot of swirls yet. It's hard to see, but you can just make out some little circular squiggles on the left side of the picture. The yellow pad was really bad at leaving this stuff all over the entire section. I'm assuming it's because of the aggressive cut of the pad.
This is the section with OHC on the regular orange pad. This one also left a lot of squiggles, though not quite as bad. Also had quite a bid of swirls yet.
This picture is the left section with OHC on the CCS pad. It clearly looked the best after the first pass. It came out with less severe swirls, and none of the squiggles.
Here we are back to the bottom section after the second pass. Looking better on the swirls, but still some of the squiggles left.
Next is the right section, again the swirls are better, and most of the squiggles were gone.
Here is the left section, looking very nice after the second pass with some minor swirls left.
Here we are at the bottom section again after the pass with Polish on a 6.5" white pad. This section just wasn't coming out very well. It obviously looked like it should have had a pass with an orange pad on the second go around. The polish cleaned it up pretty good, but just wasn't going to get rid of the squiggles.
Here we have the right section after polish on the white pad. The light strip on the left side is the area that was taped off. This section looked much nicer than the bottom, but still not happy with it.
And here is the last section after polish. Comparing the picture with the above one doesn't look much different, but seeing it in person, it looked noticeably better. It's not 100%, but I think with a little extra time in each step hopefully it would be there. Again the area in the right of the picture is the strip that was taped.
For the process I taped off three areas in the center of the hood, all about 18"x18" square. I had two sections side by side (referenced as Left and Right) and one section below and centered between the other two (referenced as Bottom). For the bottom section I used the Yellow pad, for the right I used the regular orange pad, and the left was the CCS pad. I then did two separate applications of Optimum Hyper Compound on all three sections, making six perpendicular laps. Then I followed up with Optimum Polish on all three sections with a regular LC 6.5" White pad.
I'm not sure if the hood was just that bad, or if I need to give the steps more working time, but none of the sections came out where I was totally happy. But I did come to my own conclusion that the CCS pad was the best of the three. Below are some pics with a few comments. I had a hard time getting good pictures, so I apologize, and hope that they are somewhat worth wile.
This shot is before I did any polishing. As you can see, it's in rough shape.
This one is the bottom section after the first pass with OHC on the yellow pad. It was a good start, but still a lot of swirls yet. It's hard to see, but you can just make out some little circular squiggles on the left side of the picture. The yellow pad was really bad at leaving this stuff all over the entire section. I'm assuming it's because of the aggressive cut of the pad.
This is the section with OHC on the regular orange pad. This one also left a lot of squiggles, though not quite as bad. Also had quite a bid of swirls yet.
This picture is the left section with OHC on the CCS pad. It clearly looked the best after the first pass. It came out with less severe swirls, and none of the squiggles.
Here we are back to the bottom section after the second pass. Looking better on the swirls, but still some of the squiggles left.
Next is the right section, again the swirls are better, and most of the squiggles were gone.
Here is the left section, looking very nice after the second pass with some minor swirls left.
Here we are at the bottom section again after the pass with Polish on a 6.5" white pad. This section just wasn't coming out very well. It obviously looked like it should have had a pass with an orange pad on the second go around. The polish cleaned it up pretty good, but just wasn't going to get rid of the squiggles.
Here we have the right section after polish on the white pad. The light strip on the left side is the area that was taped off. This section looked much nicer than the bottom, but still not happy with it.
And here is the last section after polish. Comparing the picture with the above one doesn't look much different, but seeing it in person, it looked noticeably better. It's not 100%, but I think with a little extra time in each step hopefully it would be there. Again the area in the right of the picture is the strip that was taped.
