How do I prime a Rupes Foam Pad on a Rupes Polisher?

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How do I prime a Rupes Foam Pad on a Rupes Polisher?


I get asked this question a lot and I see it asked a lot so here's the answer.


Question: How do I prime a Rupes pad on a Rupes Polisher?

Answer: You don't.

That is you don't prime a RUPES pad with RUPES compounds and polishes the same way you prime pads for other dual action polishers.

​

Instead, you KISS or Keep it Simple Simon and simply apply 3 drops about the size of dimes on the face of the pad like this,

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This is ESPECIALLY TRUE for the Rupes Blue Coarse Foam Cutting Pads as they have a very large open cell foam structure and if it's very easy for any excess product to sling out and off the pad and end up as splatter dots all over the car and even you if you over use the product.


From this thread,

Mind Blowing - Rupes Blue Foam Cutting Pad and Zephir Gloss Coarse Gel Compound

Rupes_Blue_Foam_Cutting_Pad_0021.jpg


Rupes_Blue_Foam_Cutting_Pad_0041.jpg





Here's a tip...
When you go to add fresh product, don't add it to the same place you previously applied the product. Space out future drops of fresh product to different areas on the pad.



Interesting Pattern Develops
I thought this was very interesting, it's a picture of a Rupes pad after placing three dime sized drops of product on a clean, dry pad and then buffing just one section of single stage paint.


Look at the pattern created by the product, it shows how the product settled out under use...


The below pictures were taken from this recent show car/race car we buffed out...

Pictures: 1966 Orange Chevy Nova Super Sport Extreme Makeover

Here's an excerpt...

Rupes Bigfoot Orbital Polishers

First we tested the green medium foam pad with the Blackfire SRC Compound.

Key Points.

No need to prime pad, simply place product directly onto the face of the foam pad, place the pad against the paint, use a medium speed to spread the product out then begin making SLOW overlapping passes with just a little more than the weight of the tool for downward pressure.


1966_Orange_Nova_041.jpg


1966_Orange_Nova_042.jpg




Triangle Pattern
Now look at this crazy patter created from three dime sized drops of product after buffing out one section of paint.

1966_Orange_Nova_043.jpg



And yes... the car came out nice using this simple technique to get the product onto the pad.

1966_Orange_Nova_013.jpg



Before
1966_Orange_Nova_023.jpg


1966_Orange_Nova_024.jpg



:)
 
i always hear not to prime the pads.. I used BFSRC compound on rupes green pad and didn't prime... it seemed to hop a bit??
 
HD.Detailing said:
i always hear not to prime the pads.. I used BLACKFIRE FSRC compound on RUPES green pad and didn't prime... it seemed to hop a bit??
Click to expand...

I've never had a problem with pad hop using Rupes foam pads on RUPES polisher but here's something I do, especially for the first pass with a clean, dry pad.

Turn the polisher on the 3-4 setting and quickly, as in instantly when I turn the power on I get the polisher moving to spread the product out over the section of paint I'm going to work.

Then once the product is spread out turn my speed up.

I do the same thing with any tool I just make sure I do it with the Rupes polishers. That long stroke tend to easily sling splatter dots if you don't get the tool moving when you first start out.

Just have never felt any buffer hop to date. Be sure to apply just light downward pressure to the head of the tool. I'd say this is the most common technique issue for people born and raised using all other tools when they switch to the RUPES polishers.

That is they tend to use the technique they use with other polishers and apply too much downward pressure.


:)
 
Great write up as always Mike. I do exactly what you do except I use four dots of product instead of three.

I have never had my machine hop on me.
 
Prime SMAT products. Otherwise, no need to. I think this is the general consensus?
 
Thanks for coming with this subject, I'm using my Rupes more often and this thread offers rich content regarding how to get the results with it.
 
Evan.J said:
Great write up as always Mike. I do exactly what you do except I use four dots of product instead of three.

I have never had my machine hop on me.
Click to expand...


Good to hear...

As far as number of dots or drops, dabs or dollops, guess it depends on how much product is in each dap/drop/dot/dollop on the pad.


:laughing:


For years I've seen people recommend pea sized drops and peas are very small in my opinion. While I understand the importance of not overusing a product I believe you need a certain amount of product just to provide enough abrasives plus lubrication and enough volume of these two components to create a film of product over the surface to be worked.

Too much product and your pad will hydroplane and cutting ability is diminished.

Too little product and there's not going to be enough lubrication to last through the buffing cycle let alone not enough actual product to work against the paint.

I always use the term ample to describe how much product to use as in use the ample amount.


From The Free Dictionary.com
am·ple
adjective
1. Of large or great size, amount, extent, or capacity: an ample living room.

2.
a. Large in degree, kind, or quantity: an ample reward.
b. More than enough: ample evidence.

3. Fully sufficient to meet a need or purpose: had ample food for the party.
​
Out of the above definitions, I'm using the 3rd definition.
Using too much product
If you use too much you can hyper-lubricate the surface and this will make it more difficult for the abrasives to abrade the surface as they’ll tend to want to glide or slip over the surface instead of bite into the surface.

Using too little product
If you use too little product there won’t be enough lubrication to enable the buffing pad to rotate and thus engage the abrasives against the surface so they can bite into and remove small particles of paint.
​
You want an AMPLE amount of product when first starting out because you pad is dry and some of the product is going to seep into the pad leaving less on the surface to LUBRICATE and ABRADE the paint.


We all find our way....


:xyxthumbs:
Click to expand...
 
Mike, should the question be changed to "How do I prime a Rupes foam pad on a Rupes Polisher?

I saw in one of your videos for the Rupes MF pads, you had prime it really well into each fiber
 
Mike.Phillips@Autogeek said:
I've never had a problem with pad hop using Rupes foam pads on RUPES polisher but here's something I do, especially for the first pass with a clean, dry pad.

Turn the polisher on the 3-4 setting and quickly, as in instantly when I turn the power on I get the polisher moving to spread the product out over the section of paint I'm going to work.

Then once the product is spread out turn my speed up.

I do the same thing with any tool I just make sure I do it with the Rupes polishers. That long stroke tend to easily sling splatter dots if you don't get the tool moving when you first start out.

Just have never felt any buffer hop to date. Be sure to apply just light downward pressure to the head of the tool. I'd say this is the most common technique issue for people born and raised using all other tools when they switch to the RUPES polishers.

That is they tend to use the technique they use with other polishers and apply too much downward pressure.


:)
Click to expand...

This is something I learned thru trial and error. I too was using too much pressure at first and it messed up some pads.

HUMP
 
ZL1 Mark said:
Prime SMAT products. Otherwise, no need to. I think this is the general consensus?
Click to expand...

Hi Mark,

This article is for Rupes pads with Rupes compounds and polishes on Rupes polishers.

It's called... staying on message... something I learned from Mike Pennington while I worked for Meguiar's and something I practice when representing over 70 brands here at Autogeek. It could be easy to blur the lines and go off message as Mike Phillips but that's where discipline kicks in.

People that don't officially represent any company brands can share whatever message they want but I don't fall into that category.

Make sense?

I know people will all find their own way of dialing-in a process that works for them using all types of non-Rupes pads and polishes and in fact Jason Rose told me that the Rupes polisher is a tool Meguiar's is going to support (that means something), but in my position I try really hard to stick to every company's message or official company recommendations.


Also, while I attended the RUPES National Sales Meeting in Italy, which was also a training session for a variety of new products, I was given permission to take pictures but was asked to not share these pictures till given permission and I aim to keep the trust I've earned.

That said, while testing out products at the training session I also watched all the RUPES staff use the various tools and everyone used the method my pictures shows above. That's staying on message.


Not sure when I can share all the other pictures but when I get the wink and nod I'll do so...


:xyxthumbs:
 
For those that followed the pictures I posted to my Facebook page while I was in Italy you may have already seen these pictures, if not this would be your first time.

These pictures are the clean pictures I took at the training session at the Rupes National Sales Meeting at the Rupes corporate office in Milan, Italy.

By the word clean there's nothing in these shots that show anything....


Here's some of the International Sales Staff watching as Marco D'Inca uses a tool called the Bodelin ProScope HR2 to view surface defects at the microscopic level and share them on the monitor.

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Bodelin ProScope HR2
Marco has all the cool toys... :xyxthumbs:

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Marco is using it to view and area he just polished as part of the training session...

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I don't have the before picture, I was too slow on the camera, but there were a lot of defects in the paint before this shot...

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During the break I tried out the ProScope by holding it next to the yellow and blue foam pads. :D

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Here's one of our training cars...

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I consider it a real privilege and an honor to have been a guest during their meeting and training session. Had a great time and made a lot of friends....

Luca Valentini, the son of the Presidente Guido Valentini took this picture for me right before leaving the Rupes facilites...

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I think I saw Todd Cooperider in the same type of shot so I thought I would keep the tradition going...


:xyxthumbs:
 
Mike.Phillips@Autogeek said:
Also, while I attended the RUPES National Sales Meeting in Italy, which was also a training session for a variety of new products, I was given permission to take pictures but was asked to not share these pictures till given permission and I aim to keep the trust I've earned.

That said, while testing out products at the training session I also watched all the RUPES staff use the various tools and everyone used the method my pictures shows above. That's staying on message.


Not sure when I can share all the other pictures but when I get the wink and nod I'll do so...


:xyxthumbs:
Click to expand...

Not sure if you can see me Mike but I'm winking and nodding :D

So feel free to go ahead and post those pictures anytime now :laughing:

Just kidding of course. Looking forward to the new products ... whatever they may be.
 
Atticus808 said:
thank you

it's just so hard to grasp the concept of NOT priming any Rupes pads lol
Click to expand...

You can get away with it on the smaller cell size foam pads, green, yellow and white, but if you read what I wrote in the first post....

Notice the words,

especially true

Meaning you can you can get away with it on the smaller cell size foam pads, green, yellow and white

Mike Phillips said:
This is ESPECIALLY TRUE for the Rupes Blue Coarse Foam Cutting Pads as they have a very large open cell foam structure and if it's very easy for any excess product to sling out and off the pad and end up as splatter dots all over the car and even you if you over use the product.
Click to expand...

And I explain why this is more true with the large cell size of the blue cutting pad.


After a few section passes the pads will be self-primed....

Hey everyone can find a way that works for them, I'm showing you what Rupes recommends. That's called staying on message. I work for Autogeek, I represent all the brands Autogeek carries.

People that don't work for AG, or Rupes, or any other company with their own message or recommendations as free agents can post whatever they want but if it's different than the company message it's off-message.

I think I've posted about this elsewhere on this forum...



:laughing:
 
Ha!

The Rupes S.P.A. videos they use four dots... Of course they're a few years old.

I like starting with the four, and reloading with two or three on foam pads.
 
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