Mike Phillips
Active member
- Dec 5, 2022
- 51,004
- 7
Tip: Clean your pads often!
How often?
If you're a perfectionist then you clean off the face of your buffing pad after each section of paint you buff.
After you buff a section of paint you have two things on the face of your pad, spent product and removed paint and if you don't clean these residues off the face of the pad you'll be grinding them back into the paint when you start buffing again.
When you're buffing out a car it's important to clean your pads often. By cleaning your pad often you will work faster and you will enable your pad and product to work more effectively. Be sure to have both clean terry cloth towels on hand and also a nylon pad cleaning brush. It's also a good idea to have plenty of pads so as a pad becomes wet with product you can switch over to a clean dry pad. Dry pads work better than wet pads.
ANYTIME you're abrading the surface whether you're using an aggressive cutting compound of an ultra fine polish, you have two things building up on the face of your buffing pad...
You need to remove both of these substances from the face of the pad and the panel you're working on before you apply fresh product.
Here's what happens if you don't clean your pad often.
How to clean your pad with a nylon brush
Here's how to clean a pad with a nylon brush.
NOTE: you do this with the polisher turned OFF.
How to clean your pad on the fly using a terry cloth hand towel
Cleaning your pad on the fly is where you take a terry cloth towel, usually a medium size hand towel works best, you fold it in two and then simply hold the towel against the face of the pad and then turn the polisher on and use your hand that’s holding the towel to push the towel into the foam. This will act to draw any excess liquid out of the foam and any excess residue off of the face of the pad.
This is me using the Clean your Pad on the Fly Technique to clean my pad on the fly as I'm working around a car buffing it out.
This video explains the above technique in detail and shows you exactly how to use this technique to clean your pads.
How to clean your pad on the fly
The whole idea behind cleaning your pad on the fly is that you can remove a majority of the spent product and removed paint and then get back to work.
Buffing out an entire car already takes a l-o-n-g time...
Stopping to do some kind of pad cleaning procedure that isn't quick and easy keeps you from buffing on the paint. It makes a long job take even longer.
So get set up to clean your pads often by having a good pad cleaning brush and a collection of clean, dry terry cloth hand towels like you see me using in the pictures above.
How often?
If you're a perfectionist then you clean off the face of your buffing pad after each section of paint you buff.
After you buff a section of paint you have two things on the face of your pad, spent product and removed paint and if you don't clean these residues off the face of the pad you'll be grinding them back into the paint when you start buffing again.
When you're buffing out a car it's important to clean your pads often. By cleaning your pad often you will work faster and you will enable your pad and product to work more effectively. Be sure to have both clean terry cloth towels on hand and also a nylon pad cleaning brush. It's also a good idea to have plenty of pads so as a pad becomes wet with product you can switch over to a clean dry pad. Dry pads work better than wet pads.
ANYTIME you're abrading the surface whether you're using an aggressive cutting compound of an ultra fine polish, you have two things building up on the face of your buffing pad...
- Spent product
- Removed paint
You need to remove both of these substances from the face of the pad and the panel you're working on before you apply fresh product.
Here's what happens if you don't clean your pad often.
- Adding fresh product to spent product and removed paint adulterates or pollutes the fresh product you apply. You're wasting money and time and you're reducing the efficiency of the compounding or polishing process.
- You increase the risk of instilling micro-marring when you buff with a dirty pad. This is working backwards.
- Buffing with a dirty pad will be more difficult on you physically. Clean pads always make buffing smoother and easier.
- The fresh product you add will more easily cake-up on the face of the pad. Again this wastes product which wastes money.
- The product residue you leave behind on the paint will become gummy and hard to wipe off. This tires you out and anytime you have to fight or struggle to wipe product residue off paint you risk putting swirls and scratches back into the paint. This is working backwards.
- You accelerate Pad Saturation. Cleaning your pad using a terry cloth towel acts to remove some of the wetness out of the pad. By not cleaning your pad often the pad will become saturated faster. Wet pads do not work as efficiently as dry pads.
How to clean your pad with a nylon brush
Here's how to clean a pad with a nylon brush.
NOTE: you do this with the polisher turned OFF.
How to clean your pad on the fly using a terry cloth hand towel
Cleaning your pad on the fly is where you take a terry cloth towel, usually a medium size hand towel works best, you fold it in two and then simply hold the towel against the face of the pad and then turn the polisher on and use your hand that’s holding the towel to push the towel into the foam. This will act to draw any excess liquid out of the foam and any excess residue off of the face of the pad.
This is me using the Clean your Pad on the Fly Technique to clean my pad on the fly as I'm working around a car buffing it out.
This video explains the above technique in detail and shows you exactly how to use this technique to clean your pads.
How to clean your pad on the fly
The whole idea behind cleaning your pad on the fly is that you can remove a majority of the spent product and removed paint and then get back to work.
Buffing out an entire car already takes a l-o-n-g time...
Stopping to do some kind of pad cleaning procedure that isn't quick and easy keeps you from buffing on the paint. It makes a long job take even longer.
So get set up to clean your pads often by having a good pad cleaning brush and a collection of clean, dry terry cloth hand towels like you see me using in the pictures above.
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