Dirty Pad Diagnosis

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asallwey

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Newbie here again. Due to travel and weather haven't put a pad to sheet metal yet. But as I keep reading here I come up with questions. So be nice!

You all talk about pads needing to be washed during a session, so:

+ How do you know this?
+ What needs to be washed out and why?
+ Does the pad start to drag because it is drying? If so, why not just put more compound, polish, wax, or whatever on and keep rolling.

Thanks!
 
Dog-gone it! I read that! This stuff has me in overload!
 
first I would like to say its better to have multiples of the same pad that way you don't necessarily need to stop after polishing one or two panels, just place them in a bucket with all purpose cleaner with Velcro facing you with that said once you polished out at least two panels(lets say both front fenders) you will want to remove the pad off machine then add a few lines of dish soap, and massage out the polish residue under running water until the water from the pad is cleaner then just pat a general use microfiber towel on the pad to dry it slightly, that's how I go about my polishing pads(in a basic way) but there are many other ways of cleaning
 
You will definitely want at least 3 of the same color pads and should have at least 2-3 types, to start to be easy if you want I'd go with 3 medium cut pads (usually orange) and 3 polishing pads (color varies a bit but green and white or black seem common). If you want to introduce a 3rd I'd go to a MF cutting pad.

If you are doing the whole car in one session I typical will swap between pads after each section to reduce heat transfer. As well cleaning them on the fly with a brush and/or towel. Washing them is relegated to after I'm done using them, which I will have a bucket with some apc and water to soak them in then I just hit them with the PW when finished.
 
+1 on having multiples. I have 2 white, 2 grey, 1 blue ccs pads. Having 3 would be even better when using the same type pad for different products (I use the white for KAIO and Meg's UP/UC, black for glaze and wax. I need at least one orange for that rare necessity of extra cut).


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Thanks for the responses! It has been "burned" into my brain and the method I'll use on my older cars.

But what if it is a new car and all I'm doing is putting on wax. Specifically I have Meg's Gold Class carnauba, which I believe is a pure wax not cleaner wax (at lest there is no mention of it being a cleaner on the car). The car is silver. The wax is pink. I did several panels yesterday and saw nothing but pink. Continued until I had 1/2 the car done and still only a light pink.

After dinner I washed the pad. Wax does not like to come out of foam pads! How clean is clean enough? Yes I've marked the pad for wax (black LC foam) so will only use it for wax. (Yes I'll do the other 1/2 of car today.)
 
Jamesboyy gets my vote. Have 2 or 3 of each. When finished fill about 8 inches of the hottest water in the bottom of a bucket, spray APC on the pad heavily, then some Dawn on top and rub it all in a bit. Then soak in bucket for a while. Remove and repeat cleaners while running under hot water. They take a while to dry so put them in the sunlight if possible. Or dryer. Or....spend $120 on a pad washer.
 
+1 on multiple pads.
Just be sure to wash them well when you are done. Let them dry and put them in a ziploc. Becareful of those white pads. They take forever to dry up. They may seem dry they are not. Let them sit a few days. If pads are not dry they will mold up on you.
 
This brings up a good point about making sure they 110% dry. Not long ago one of my employees didn't wash them at the end of the day Friday like he was supposed to. I came in Saturday to do some of my own work and had to wash out some pads first. Threw them in the dryer, thought they were dry. About 30 seconds of the machine running and the pad flew across the room at lightening speed. the velcro part still on the backing pad. The heat from polishing, combined with the slight moisture left, combined with the force of the machine, caused the glue to loosen so the pad flew off. Lesson learned, for me and for him.
 
I clean my pads after each section. I take a micro fiber towel and hand rub it across the surface. This removes the material when compounding. Wax or glaze leaves no material (no cut) so no need to clean. After I'm done I deep clean with soap and water and Fantastic.
 
Compounds and polishes come out easily enough with a mild APC solution. WAXES on the other hand are a completely different animal, I have found that Murphy's Oil Soap works well at cutting through many waxes in the pads, follow this up with an APC wash and you'll get the pads as clean as you're going to.

I normally apply sealants by hand so I don't "ruin" a pad for other uses, although I do have one or two pads that are wax only for spreading carnuabas.
 
This is old but I use Meguiars D101 neat few sprays to clean pads before I soak them into bucket :)
 
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