What's the Problem With Cyclo Pads?

A

Accumulator

Well-known member
I see a lot of posts about how people are dissatisfied with the Cyclo brand 4" pads. What's the *functional problem* with them?



I agree they look and feel cheap compared to other pads. The yellow cutting pads seem to wear sorta fast, losing their "cut" in the process. The green and, especially, the white pads are often contaminated with velcro "slubs". The green ad white pads are often discolored; the foam comes "pre-stained", which can look pretty bad. They *do* seem to say "cheap product".



But in my experience (over 20 years' worth), the pads *perform* just fine. I do almost all my Cyclo polishing work with the green polishing pads. I apply LSPs with the white pads (and occasionally use them for very light polishing). On everything from hard Audi clear to the soft lacquer on my Jag, they work just fine, though I do have to watch it with the final processes on the Jag (usually use the PC for that anyhow). The green and white pads seem to last a very, very long time and the velcro never fails.



I'd sure *like* some "better" pads and I wouldn't mind paying extra for them, but I don't seem to have any actual problems with the current ones. So who *does* have problems and what are they? I genuinely want to know and I'm sure not gonna :argue: with you over your experiences just because they differ from mine.
 
Accumulator said:
I agree they look and feel cheap compared to other pads. ... The green and, especially, the white pads are often contaminated with velcro "slubs". The green ad white pads are often discolored; the foam comes "pre-stained", which can look pretty bad. They *do* seem to say "cheap product".
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That's pretty much all I got. That plus they are a rather open foam, so they seem to soak up product pretty well. They are also fairly thin, but that might help the buffer work more smoothly.



They work fine for me too, I just don't like using something that feels cheapy. It's not as fun. At least they don't cost much, though. :)
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Um....what's a "slub"?
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Fabric fragment, in this case a little piece of velcro.



The pads look like they have little black hairs stuck in the foam. I pick them out lest they mar the finish, although Irene at TOL and Terry at CMA say not to worry about them.
 
I pick them out with tweezers too, just in case.

I dont have a problem with the cyclo pads. In the past I have had the green pads create marring (ever so slight but still there). Anthony O. helped put an end to that by telling me I was putting too much pressure on the machine. :o

Other than that I dont have a problem with them, although the comments about *feeling* cheap is also noticable to me.
 
There are no issues with slubs with the LC pads. I had the same experience Accumulator had with the yellow Cyclo pads appearing to wear rather fast. I found that unacceptable and feared they could create marring. When I browsed my LC catalog and found out they made 4" pads in all grades I was quite happy and ordered several when I got the Cyclo. I get the same performance from them as I do with their larger counterparts for the PC/rotary. Upon many uses they still wash clean great and look brand new. That's really all I can ask from a pad unless of course any upcoming ones can do the job faster or produce even finer results.



All I can say to Accumulator is,as Mike Phillips' sig says, looks like you "found a product you like and are using it often". If they do well for you by all means continue to use them.
 
Bill D said:
All I can say to Accumulator is,as Mike Phillips' sig says, looks like you "found a product you like and are using it often". If they do well for you by all means continue to use them.
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Yeah, as I'm not too fond of the VC Lake pads (and haven't heard anything defintive about 4" flat ones) I'm not in any hurry to change what I'm doing. I am gonna try out the VC ones sometime though, since they've worked so well for you.



I would like to know about any problems anyone has encountered with the Cyclo brand ones though. Like what scottabir experienced; I want to have a better sense of how these things work for other people so I don't lead anyone astray with questionable info. Just because something works great for me, well, that doesn't always mean it'll work as well for somebody else.



Oh, and when the yellow pads wear they seem *less* likely to mar, in fact, they don't cut as much as I'd like. Still more than the green ones though. I used a yellow Cyclo pad on the rotary for (the first passes of) taking out the nastier scratches on the S8. Worked well, using with both 1Z Ultra and PI-III RC. Had to follow up of course...
 
I'm using my oldest yellow Cyclo pads as pads for use underneath the sueded mf bonnets, which I really like :up
 
Bill D said:
I'm using my oldest yellow Cyclo pads as pads for use underneath the sueded mf bonnets, which I really like :up
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Yeah, I use the yellow ones under the MF bonnets too :xyxthumbs Though I started with new ones to avoid any contamination. They're plenty "experienced" now though ;) The (thicker) yellow pads seem perfect for this.
 
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