I have use fg400 with megs mf cutting pad with great success on most paints although they need to be followed up with a polish.
I have not used there finishing pad as most members here and a few pros say foam finishes better
Oh, without a doubt..... foam DOES finish better. On hard paint the finishing pad (along with the finishing wax) will look awesome. But that's not "LSP ready" because it IS an actual LSP in it's own right. It's designed as the last step in the "system". So not exactly something you'd use before applying another LSP because it'd have to be stripped first.
Hi.
Sure it'll work very nice. You just need to make test spots before polishing a whole car.
Meg's MF cutting pads are very versatile, they recommend 4800 orbits speed but I also had success using it at speed 6 and low pressure / slightly fast arm speed. I mean, you will need to test the pads to get most of them for what you need.
I've used Uber Compound (closest I have to FG400) with MF Cutting pad (awesome), and PF2500 on cutting and finishing pad, all good. Already used UC, UP, M205, M100, and a lot others, Meguiar's MF pads are a great addition to any detailer. Lake country DA MF ones are great too, work pretty much the same way with everything.
The point to switch to MF pads is that you'll need to reconsider your actual foam pad technique. MF pads responds differently to pressure and speed, so for the first passes you'll need to get the feel from them. However, Foam and MF are complimentary in many aspects, we'll always need both kinds.
Generally (but not a rule), MF discs (even the finishing disc when using with a polish) may not get LSP ready in black / soft paints, but this is not a problem, because:
a) One single (and fast step) with a finer polish and a finishing FOAM pad gets you LSP ready.
b) Meguiar's included D301 (finishing Wax) is 'a BEAST' when used with the MF finishing disc provided.
I've tried to apply this wax (D301) by hand. Although I had success, I've noted it's 'harder' to spread and work than general wax and sealants.
Equipped with a 'punchy' MF Finishing pad, this cleaner/fine polish/wax is all you need to finish a work with MF. 'Slides' very easy over the paint, polishes well and wax, and is by far the Easiest product to wipe off on earth.
For this underrated and not so popular wax, I call Meguiar's guys Genius. The D301 was made to finish the MF compounding step with a MF pad, it's contents and consistency are ideal for that media. Do not underestimate it (like I've done before testing it myself).
Try all products you have, but do not forget 'the basics' (D300 / cutting disc, D301 / finishing disc). That way you'll have a high standard for comparison to start.
Hope I've helped,
Kind Regards.
Just thought I'd throw this out there.
I'd be very careful running the speed up with the MF pads. As you already know, they have a TON of cut and by design they matt down fairly quickly. Running the speed up doesn't really give you more cut imho, and may just give you less.
Now I may be wrong, but I have a couple of thoughts on that.
First; As you run faster, you are compressing the fibers MUCH faster than normal. You are also heating the pad up both faster, and likely much hotter than normal. Moving away from how they have designed the system to work by running the pads that fast is a sure fire way to, (at the very least) accelerate/shorten the life cycle of the pads, and very likely will result in early (if not catastrophic) pad failure.
Second; By running both faster, as well as matting down quicker (
both of which results in a harder matt) I'm thinking that will instill marring that otherwise wouldn't be there. Not that the MF pads finish down anywhere NEAR as nice as foam, but actually adding micro-marring where it literally wouldn't have been is very likely to happen when you have a hard packed microfiber cutting pad running on the paint. Especially when it's running at speeds 30%~50% faster than it's designed for. That by itself can cause you to end up with twice as much finishing time. Just thinking out loud........
Remember, MF pads in the early stage, were known for early failure. To this day you'll hear more about those pads failing much more than you ever will about foam pads failing. The engineers at Mequiar's in their investigation as to what was causing pad failure ended up finding that most of the heat was being generated not on the paint side, but on the machine side. Moreover, in the Velcro itself!
That is why the Meguiar's "system" comes with it's own dedicated backing plate (
whether it's the 5½" or 6½" system). Since they designed the integrated system as a whole their complaints of pad failures have all but disappeared. :dblthumb2:
All that aside, I really like the Mequiar's system. I just hate it that only now they end up coming up with a polish that fits above the "correction compound" but below the "finishing wax", and has the Mequiar's numbered nomenclature, but is out of freaking order with the other two.
Logic would dictate D300 (cutting), D301 (polishing) and D302 (finishing wax). But nooooooooo it's D300 (cutting) followed by D301 (finishing wax) and now, what a year later.... D302 that is shoehorned in between as the polish. :laughing:
Still has me wanting to get my hands on some though, knowing how good the other two are. (Like what I need about now is yet ANOTHER polish!) OMG! :laughing:
