How many polishing pads per car?

[Bdubbs]

I'm curious, how many pads are you guys using per car?

I'm using lake country orange cutting pads, white polishing pads, and black pads for the final step for laying down wax sealant.

How do you know when it's time to change them out? Become too soiled?

Getting ready to start the first stage with the orange cutting pads, but I may need to order more.

Side note: Found some tar spots, which clay didn't remove. So I'll be using Carpro Tar X on those areas. I also use Carpro eraser after each section I polish to remove residue from polishing.

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[PaulMys]

5 minimum for your Mustang.

You will see the pads getting loaded up with product, which allows them to heat up quicker. (Bad for the pads).

And the "loaded up" pads will stop cutting effectively.

You can always clean them on the fly with a terry towel and/or a pad cleaning brush, but that is nowhere near as good as switching to a fresh pad.


Also, the harder you work your pads, the shorter their life span.

 

[Bdubbs]

5 minimum for your Mustang.

You will see the pads getting loaded up with product, which allows them to heat up quicker. (Bad for the pads).

And the "loaded up" pads will stop cutting effectively.

You can always clean them on the fly with a terry towel and/or a pad cleaning brush, but that is nowhere near as good as switching to a fresh pad.


Also, the harder you work your pads, the shorter their life span.

Great information thank you. I forgot to mention, I'll be using some smaller 3" pads for tighter areas.

I still consider myself a novice when it comes to this. The more I do it and get comfortable with it, I'll get a better idea.

I really like doing it, so hopefully I can keep getting better.

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[noorth]

Nice car.

This is a question i've pondered over many times lol. Honestly, you can do it with 1 pad if you are not in a hurry. It doesn't take long to hand wash and spin dry a pad.

For your car i would shoot for 1 clean pad for about the size of your car bonnet. But i'm no pro.

In a perfect world i would either want the lake country pad washer 4000 or about 8 pads for 1 step correction.

 

[PaulMys]

Great information thank you. I forgot to mention, I'll be using some smaller 3" pads for tighter areas.

I still consider myself a novice when it comes to this. The more I do it and get comfortable with it, I'll get a better idea.

I really like doing it, so hopefully I can keep getting better.

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Yes, you absolutely will.

Just like anything else, you'll get better with practice.

 

[Bdubbs]

Nice car.

This is a question i've pondered over many times lol. Honestly, you can do it with 1 pad if you are not in a hurry. It doesn't take long to hand wash and spin dry a pad.

For your car i would shoot for 1 clean pad for about the size of your car bonnet. But i'm no pro.

In a perfect world i would either want the lake country pad washer 4000 or about 8 pads for 1 step correction.

I never knew that existed, might be on my list of things to buy.

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[PaulMys]

I never knew that existed, might be on my list of things to buy.

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Quite honestly, and this is just my opinion......

For the price of one of those pad washers, I would just use that money to stock up on pads.

 

[Bdubbs]

Quite honestly, and this is just my opinion......

For the price of one of those pad washers, I would just use that money to stock up on pads.

True.

I'll be ordering more pads and cleaner tonight. I need to see what I actually have.

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[PaulMys]

If you use multiple pads, you simply toss the used ones in a bucket of cleaning solution as you go, and when you’re done, they look like this.

Easy cleaning.


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[dgage]

It also depends on the type of pads. My favorite pads now are the Rupes blue (coarse) and yellow (fine/med) wool and you can blow them out effectively with an air nozzle connected to an air compressor. With that I might need only a couple to do an entire car. The heavy lifting is done with my wool pads so my final passes with with Rupes yellow or white foams pads are pretty quick so I don’t use as many foam pads.

But with foam pads for everything, usually takes 5-8 depending on how much you’re polishing and the size of the car.

 

[Eric7810]

5 minimum for your Mustang.

You will see the pads getting loaded up with product, which allows them to heat up quicker. (Bad for the pads).

And the "loaded up" pads will stop cutting effectively.

You can always clean them on the fly with a terry towel and/or a pad cleaning brush, but that is nowhere near as good as switching to a fresh pad.


Also, the harder you work your pads, the shorter their life span.

This


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[Paul A.]

I would use 6 to 8 pads on that 'Stang.

 

[Dr Oldz]

I would use 13.

2 hood
2 roof
1 trunk
1 per each fender and door =6
1 front end
1 rear

Plus any smaller pads you may need.

 

[Coatingsarecrack]

When I did my 16 vert GT I used (6) 5” and (2) 3”.

I would add 1 more for your roof. I used a pad brush after each section. I had 10 totals for just in cases (like dropped pads). Have a couple extra.

If you have compressed air blow them out from middle to end. Don’t get to close with air. Also watch out if your pads are closed cell foam as I saw on a TRC video it can break them down.

The pad cleaning brush worked well for me


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[Bdubbs]

I would use 13.

2 hood
2 roof
1 trunk
1 per each fender and door =6
1 front end
1 rear

Plus any smaller pads you may need.

When I did my 16 vert GT I used (6) 5” and (2) 3”.

I would add 1 more for your roof. I used a pad brush after each section. I had 10 totals for just in cases (like dropped pads). Have a couple extra.

If you have compressed air blow them out from middle to end. Don’t get to close with air. Also watch out if your pads are closed cell foam as I saw on a TRC video it can break them down.

The pad cleaning brush worked well for me


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Sorry guys,

Are you using this many pads total? Orange, white and black? Or for each?

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[2011 302]

I usually use 8-10 5" pads and 4-6 small 3".
I do use a pad brush after each section so pad doesn't load up,then a spritz of pad cleaner and into the bucket of pad cleaner mixed in a 5 gallon bucket.

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[2011 302]

Sorry guys,

Are you using this many pads total? Orange, white and black? Or for each?

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That's total for me,I seldom do 2 step or 3 step polishes.
That's car show quality and big money, big hours.


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[Desertnate]

I normally work on my own cars and even then I never do a two-step unless the vehicle is new to me and the paint is in bad shape.

With that in mind, for a mid-sized car like the Mustang I'll typically use around 6x 5" polishing pads and a around 2x 3" pads. With that number I rotate them such that I never use a pad more than two times and I'll clean them on the fly using a pad cleaning brush.

 

[Paul A.]

6-8 each step plus 4-6 smaller pads for tight areas.

 

[Dr Oldz]

Sorry guys,

Are you using this many pads total? Orange, white and black? Or for each?

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Each compounding/polishing step. If applying a LSP, then only one pad for the whole vehicle.