Beginner looking for Rupes pad choices

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SwirlmarkIII

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I spent hours researching which machine I'd like to go with and settled on a Rupes 15. Thought about a cheaper one but looks like everyone steps up to something nicer eventually so no need to buy something twice. Plus I borrowed a Porter-Cable from a friend to do a car as a learning experience and learned that I don't want that style. Now that I got that out of the way...

I know there is no correct answer for this but I've been reading, searching, watching videos...there is an overwhelming amount of options as to what I should get. I'm a forum regular but never signed up or posted so I've taken a lot of time looking before bothering anyone.

I'm just getting into this as a hobbyist. I buy and sell cars to flip here and there a couple times/year, have a couple cars at home so once I have everything I need I will have 4-5 cars in need of work right now.

To the experienced person advising someone starting out at home...wondering if you could apply your current knowledge with what is available now and rewind to building your first setup, what would a good pad selection be to go with? From what I can find I would be best with a couple microfibers, maybe two of each foam color? Should I have a wool also? I just don't want to buy too many and overwhelm myself with options and learn to use the basic stuff or not be skilled enough to take advantage of spending extra money on stuff I don't need yet. Or maybe having all those thing will make things easier? How many of each pad is sufficient on average for doing an entire car? Will 2 do it?

As for paint type or hardness, I will be mostly working with VW/Audi.

Less important and off topic: If you'd like to include your favorite microfiber towel source that would be a bonus
 
I was looking for similar information, and this is what I understand reading a lot of posts.

"You should not regret buying Rupes pads/polishes while using Rupes machine.
You should not regret buying Meguiar's Microfiber DA Cutting pads, Menzerna FG400 (now HC400)
Those products are tested and reliable."
Click to expand...

For example, I'm going to buy
Rupes Blue Foam pads + Menzerna FG400 - for compounding.
Rupes Yellow Foam pads + Rupes Keramik - for finishing or one step. (by using keramik or quarz)

How many pads do I need to buff out my car?
 
Before investing in pads - I would recommend reading my article here,

The Air Test - Using NON RUPES pads on RUPES Polishers by Mike Phillips

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:)
 
Perfect, thanks for the responses everyone. I had already decided that I wasn’t going to be pairing any non-Rupes pads. Just trying to figure out what to load up on. Thanks again.
 
Everyone seems to love the yellows (polishing one step). Blues for compounding. A lot post that their wools are better than their MF’s


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
So got my machine(Mille), got Rupes yellow foam, white foam and blue wool pads with Rupes product. Started testing on a junk hood with the wool pad, results after only a few minutes on the first step were incredible but the machine constantly wanted to walk/grab. I primed the pad per the instructionals, is that just a sign of maybe not enough compound or a symptom of maybe overloading it? I was iffy on the amount of compound I was priming with.
 
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