Foam Pad Failure

Rockeey

Rockeey

New member
Joined
Dec 12, 2012
Messages
105
Reaction score
0
Was buzzing around on some other auto related forums and came across an interesting thread. A gentleman indicates he was buffing his front bumper with a DA when his NEW foam pad all of a sudden failed causing a decent sized chunk of paint to exit the car.

Anyone ever have something like this happen? I can't imagine how a foam pad could come apart like this on a DA. I've used plenty of the cheap foam pads before on a ROTARY and never experienced anything even close to this.

photo4.jpg


photo6.jpg



photo2.jpg


photo3.jpg
 
I've seen the thread on the other forum, and commented. He claims he was using his PC, then the pad just failed, allowing the backing plate to petrude through the pad and damage the paint like you see in the picks. I've been doing this a while, and I couldn't do that with my PC if you gave me $100 to go and purposely try to damage my pad.
 
07RS4 said:
I've seen the thread on the other forum, and commented. He claims he was using his PC, then the pad just failed, allowing the backing plate to petrude through the pad and damage the paint like you see in the picks. I've been doing this a while, and I couldn't do that with my PC if you gave me $100 to go and purposely try to damage my pad.
Click to expand...

That's kind of what I was thinking. I don't know if I could do that to a pad even if I tried.
 
The pad could have been over saturated. Also front bumpers are plastic and tend to heat up more. Could just be poor technique as well. Too much pressure and speed, etc.
 
rider9195 said:
The pad could have been over saturated. Also front bumpers are plastic and tend to heat up more. Could just be poor technique as well. Too much pressure and speed, etc.
Click to expand...

Yeah, or he could have caught the pad on the edge of a badge or something. But even at speed 6 on a PC with 4" pads, it doesn't develop enough heat to do that to a bumper. It may have had pre-existing damage, and he says it wasn't a re-paint. All I know is too shred a pad like that and create that amound of damage is near impossible to do with a PC, unless the perfect storm was in place....the worst technique in history + pre-existing damage. My .02, haha.

BTW, the polishes and pads he was using, although that doesn't look like the correct color in that pic, only recommend a speed of 4 with 4" pads, and we all know how slow that is on the PC.
 
I have burnt up a couple microfiber pads and CCS pads. Speed 6 plus lots of pressure gets you those results. Lol.
 
When I first started detailing, I caved an orange CCs pad on my PC. It got really hot and was over saturated. I find the harder compounding pads heat up more. Im guessing it was bad technique.
 
It looks like it melted the paint, he simply got it too hot. I've done it very similiarly with a rotary and foam pad. It happens much quicker than you might imagine on some cars.
 
Here is what I discover over the last 6 months. If I don’t keep a fresh pad (about 1 per panel) the product builds up. That is to say, the moisture content, keeping in mind that the products we use are water based. On small surfaces where the pad does not come in full contact, rotation stops (or slows) and only the orbiting takes place. This creates a lot of friction between the backing plate and the pad at the center of the orbiting action. Friction creates heat and the heat creates steam from the moisture of the built-up product. The steam will melt the center of the backing plate and hollow out the center of the pad. I have had melted foam between the pad backing material and pad surface before. This tends to happen mostly on irregular surfaces but I have had my pad begin to break down on flat panels. What I have done to correct this is to keep my pads washed out between panels. I use the WG pad cleaner, wash with warm water and Meg pad brush, wring out most of the water by hand without twisting, press between several layers of towels then mount on a 3” backing plate mounted in a drill motor. I run the drill wide open for several minutes to sling out as much moisture as possible and I now have a fresh pad for the next panel. I also stepped up to the Flex 3401 for this very same reason.
 
Somebody I know has a detailing business here and once he saw my 6.5crimson hydro tech pad laying in the garage, he wanted it, so I sold it to him along with a 6.5 ccs orange pad with the pockets. Tell me why thus guy calls me up the next day and asks what I did with the pad because it physically melted away im assuming just like the picture shows. He was using a gg and told me that this was his first time having a pad melt on him like that. Well it was a pretty big pad for a da but damn. He must have saturated that pad, I don't know but I hope it never happens to me lol
 
cgreen1120 said:
Here is what I discover over the last 6 months. If I don’t keep a fresh pad (about 1 per panel) the product builds up. That is to say, the moisture content, keeping in mind that the products we use are water based. On small surfaces where the pad does not come in full contact, rotation stops (or slows) and only the orbiting takes place. This creates a lot of friction between the backing plate and the pad at the center of the orbiting action. Friction creates heat and the heat creates steam from the moisture of the built-up product. The steam will melt the center of the backing plate and hollow out the center of the pad. I have had melted foam between the pad backing material and pad surface before. This tends to happen mostly on irregular surfaces but I have had my pad begin to break down on flat panels. What I have done to correct this is to keep my pads washed out between panels. I use the WG pad cleaner, wash with warm water and Meg pad brush, wring out most of the water by hand without twisting, press between several layers of towels then mount on a 3” backing plate mounted in a drill motor. I run the drill wide open for several minutes to sling out as much moisture as possible and I now have a fresh pad for the next panel. I also stepped up to the Flex 3401 for this very same reason.
Click to expand...
Very good description of how this occurs. I think it's funny how people think that heat from the polisher itself travels through the 5/16-24 threaded arbor, then through the rubber backing plate and into the pad causing this...That's just silly...It happens just as cgreen1120 has described above. I have blown many pads apart like this until I finally figured out what was causing it and how to avoid it. Luckily my pad destroying shortcomings have never ended in paint damage like shown in the above photos.
 
Using the correct size pad for the job is key as Mike would tell us but this is not always possible as we all know. The hook and loop system allows some freedom of movement. (Think of wearing your boots loosely laced on a 10 mile hike. You will surely have blisters.) The forced rotation of the Flex 3401 is no guarantee you will not heat up but it does greatly reduce the effects caused by the reduction of rotation. When we look at where this gentleman was working, he only had 20% engagement on his pad plus it was at a semi-hard body line. When working on the plastic components of today’s vehicles, I am constantly feeling the painted surface and my backing plate for heat. (Feeling the pad surface is almost pointless.) It’s not uncommon for me to clean my pad 2 or 3 time on a very cut-up or curvy bumper.
 
Well, I have had two pads do that to me a 6" and a 3", I just think GG makes bad pads, or they are not meant to go past speed 5. So the motto is at speed 1-5 pad stay alive! now I tend to keep an eye on them more. Never caused any accidental damage on a car, you can normally tell they are coming apart when a bunch of foam pad pieced start flying (that means STOP).
 
rolop6 said:
Well, I have had two pads do that to me a 6" and a 3", I just think GG makes bad pads, or they are not meant to go past speed 5. So the motto is at speed 1-5 pad stay alive! now I tend to keep an eye on them more. Never caused any accidental damage on a car, you can normally tell they are coming apart when a bunch of foam pad pieced start flying (that means STOP).
Click to expand...

GG pads are cheap and are designed for very light correction work IMO. If you want to do real correction work, LC or Megs pads are the way to go.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top