Cleaning Pads after Polishing

Herrmann22

Herrmann22

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Real quick question:

I'm going to attempt to polish my first car a little later this evening. If I don't finish the whole car, which I may not have time to do...What is the best way to store, or clean the foam polishing pad until I use it again. Or, can I?

I want to take my time and not rush this ya know?

:xyxthumbs:
 
I clean mine with Dawn

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I also clean with dawn and warm water. Rinse and ring it out really well. Then put Velcro up on a towel on the dryer. Then run some laundry through to help dry pads faster, or they'll mostly dry overnight.

Or use an air compressor, or rotary polisher to spin it out then set on a towel.

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:iagree: +3 Dawn...in fact just used the 845 i got in trade, and washed as has been described here...warm water, squirt some dawn and work the wax out...i find some waxes have much more residue than others and you really have to work the water and dawn through the pad to get it out. I don't have a pad washer yet as i really don't use enough pads to justify getting one, and i don't mind cleaning up the pads, its just a continuation of detailing.
 
How I clean my pads:

1) Sink sprayer to dislodge any heavy compound/polish/wax build up on surface of pads.
2) Spray with APC, let dwell for 10-20 mins.
3) Agitate pad surface with a brush under running water to flush away remaining residue.
4) Wring out by hand.
5) Spin dry on rotary.
6) Leave to dry overnight and they are ready to use the next day.
 
I pretreat with xmt pad cleaner, toss in front loading washing machine with all free and clear and prewash setting and longer cycle and spin dries and they are good to go.
 
If you're only storing it overnight, you can get by with sticking it in a Ziploc style bag. Any longer than that, wash it as directed above.
 
Could never justify a pad wash so I got creative. Take an old litter box (to catch the runoff) and place a grit guard in the center. Spray your pad with Simple Green or any other APC. Speed set to 1.5 on the Flex (probably 3 ish on a PC). Holding the grit guard in one hand and the DA in the other, turn the power on and let it work for about 15-30 seconds-no additional downward pressure. Rinse with warm water and allow to dry foam side down on the grit guard overnight. Pad will look brand new. My brother doesn't care about the run off so he simply places the grit guard on the driveway and rinses it off when he's done. Virtually no splatter - try it, you'll be pleasantly surprised with the results.
 
I presoak all my pads during a session. I have a dish pan filled with water and 1/2 cup of Purple Power. When a pad gets spent in the presoak it goes to keep products from drying in the pad.
They get rinsed out during clean up and squeeze out any excess water. Let sit in a dish rack velcro side up. When I'm ready to clean them spray with CG foam pad cleaner 16:1. Squeeze to get it to foam up. Let them sit about 15 minutes in the dish rack velcro up rinse them well then let dry velcro up. Before they get packed away I hit them with a little compressed air to blow out any loose dirt or dried product that may be on the surface of the pad.
 
I use the universal pad cleaner. Get pads clean and mostly dry. I let them dry Velcro up on a ventilated shelf. Dries in a few hours.

Ed
 
Thanks everyone! Simple rinse out, soak in a little dish soap, squeeze out and let dry. Worked fine.

I did notice my pad got a few bad spots in it from me being a rookie. I got my pad too close to the grill area, or someplace, and must have scratched it on something. I will be needing a new pad for my next vehicle but I was able to get through this one, thank goodness.

I must also remember to stop lifting up the pad from the surface and slinging polish all over. Doh! Must have done this three times trying to position myself. Again, rookie mistake. I'm learning! Not as easy as one would think never doing it before. My shoulders will be sore, I can tell. The frustrating part is not being able to get into the tight and small areas using a 5.5" pad.

How do you all get the trim or smaller areas?

Next up is my Collinite #845! Can't wait. The polish does look nice but since my car has nearly 150k I have plenty of nicks and scratches from the road junk, especially on the front and lower hood areas. This would require more work than a simple polish. It needs a paint job in those areas since some of the pits are through the clear coat and paint. Oh well, I will just live that. Car is paid off and will go to my son next year.
 
I put dawn on the pads, then take them in the shower with me. I work the soap in with my hands then rinse and squeeze a few times until the soap is completely out. I find its a lot easier do in the shower where you don't have to worry about making a mess.

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After washing, I lay mine out, Velcro side up, on grit guards. Sometimes I'll even take them out in the garage and hang them from my wire racks with some Velcro bundling straps that I cut into 3" strips, and pint the fan at them. They are dry within a matter of hours! If you need to dry them quickly, you can roll them up tightly in a clean towel and wring them out.

For the bigger pads, I use my pad washer.
 
Personally I use backfire pad cleaner let that soak for a minuet or however long it takes me to get it to the sink then I wash out as much product as I can with water then I use dish soap to clean it all out and keep on tuning water on it and squeezing it out until there's no more suds


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Herrmann22 said:
I did notice my pad got a few bad spots in it from me being a rookie. I got my pad too close to the grill area, or someplace, and must have scratched it on something. I will be needing a new pad for my next vehicle but I was able to get through this one, thank goodness.

The frustrating part is not being able to get into the tight and small areas using a 5.5" pad.

How do you all get the trim or smaller areas



Tape the trim and emblems.
Click to expand...
 
I used to use Dawn. It worked OK for polishes, but it takes forever to get the pad 100% Dawn free. Some pads (Hydrotechs), its almost impossible to get all the Dawn out. I made careful inspection of this by wringing out a Dawn cleaned pad in a glass. Then I compared the wrung out liquid glass to a glass filled with water from the same source. The glass from the pad always makes bubbles. So, I stopped using Dawn

Then I started using Blackfire Pad Cleaner. This stuff works very well for polishes, and very well for some LSPs. The only issue with it is it costs a lot. I've also tried the DP/WG powdered pad cleaner stuff. I use this stuff as a pre-soak. Honestly, it doesn't perform too well for me. Even mixing it as an ounce to 32 oz its bit that great.

Then, I started using LA Awesome to clean pads. Its pretty cheap, you can use it liberally. This works as well, if not better than the BF pad cleaner. In fact, it sort of feels the same on your hands. I wouldn't doubt if they both contain similar ingredients. The LATA, is a little more work than the BF pad cleaner to get out of pads 100%, but only a little. Its less than 1/12 the price of the BF stuff. I buy many bottles of LATA at a time and dump them into a gallon container.

I've also have a few bottles of the WG Pad Cleaner & Extender. This works well, but not as well as the BF stuff. Again, I use these products liberally, so they get pricey.

So, I'm sticking with LATA.

For waxes and LSP, nothing works as well as mineral spirits and IPA. If you think your wax pad is 100% clean, squeeze it in some mineral spirits and you will see the carnauba quickly come out and cloud up the solution. MS followed by IPA will get the most difficult LSPs out of your pads 100%. Of course, its time consuming and can get expensive, some may just choose to throw the pad out or leave wax in it.
 
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