You really need a selection of pads. I agree that starting with white is a good choice, but it may not have enough cut for your particular paint (depending on what compound / polish you're using).
You won't know until you try...
Couldn't agree more!
I've preached for EVER that guys spend literally more on their pads than they do on their machine, (at least with the PC or the GG). You need at least a dozen pads to not only choose from but to WORK with when doing any sort of correction.
My opinion on the LC orange pad is it will work how you want it to. If you are removing minor scratches its mild enough to do so. If you need to remove heavier scratches it can do that as well. The key here is your polish/compound, your technique, and how many passes. IMO the orange pad is a great pad for doing those monthly details when needed.
OTOH, I've seen the LC orange do HEAVY correction. It depends on the polish and/or compound which you stated exactly right. (Been studying well grasshopper.)
I would not however suggest that anyone start out with an orange pad, not without doing test spots first.
If you have not performed any form of test spot, how will you know if the paint is hard or soft and how deep the defects are.
I have corrected badly swirled Subarus with a finishing pad/polish, that, had I tried a medium cut polish and say a white pad on, would have been left without half its paint.
I cannot stress enough how important performing a test spot with the LEAST aggressive combo you have is if you are not familiar with the paint you are working on.
YES!!!
Test spots are the ONLY way you'll know.
Last weekend my wife and I, (well mostly her with her new Rupes Duetto) did a fairly intense correction on a 2013 Camry Hybrid. It was the worst swirled out car I've ever seen with only 6000 miles on it. Possibly with 60,000 miles!!!! Guys this thing was BAD!
We marked out the hood with half a dozen test spots. We started with white and 205, then orange and 205. Then we did white and D300, orange and D300 then the Rupes yellow and D300. Compared them all.
While the white pad pulled 75% or more out, I just couldn't bring myself to living with it. Then the orange pad and 205 was pretty good overall, but again, couldn't live with it. Were it not for it having a coating applied then sure that might have been close enough. But.... I then did the D300 with both pads. White was good enough to do most everything but the worst areas, and PLENTY good enough to meet the standard of 80% correction (and then some). But the real winner was the Rupes yellow, WOW!
I'd promised the owner ONLY 80%, but what he ended up with was well north of 95%.
Mainly due to the Duetto and it's yellow pad.
rops: (
Although Car-Momma crawled around for 6 hours on the floor doing the bumpers and lower portions of the car with the GG6 and a 4" LC orange CCS pad.) Why that pad? Because it worked better on those heavily damaged areas, and the Duetto will
never be able to do complicated, angled, concave, and convex surfaces like the bumpers and valances on a Camry.
He had bought the car in Chicago and they gave him a whopping $100 gift card for his trouble when he said the paint looked really bad, really dull. He actually thought it was solid black and only after I showed him with a swirl finder light did he actually know it was (is) Attitude Black Metallic. At first he couldn't understand why everyone else he talked to was saying $200 ~ $250 to wash and "buff" his car and I said it'd START at $595, plus options, plus bankcard fees.
Then when we spoke for a while, and I SHOWED HIM buffer trails and holograms that were already there, (even though it was swirled so bad you couldn't even tell it was metallic) he started to understand. In a matter of minutes he went from not knowing, to understanding, to believing. Next day it showed up, 2 days later it left looking better than it did brand new.
The key though, was finding the right pad and product combination that let us get amazing results without spending more time than we were billing for. Just so happens that the results ended up being even
better than we promised. (Like that's never happened before... more like ALWAYS!)
Under promise, over deliver, and they will always come back.
