LC pad for liquid wax?

[clapton924]

I'm a bit of a newb when it comes to DA polishers. I bought a PC7424XP a few months back and have only used it a few times. I bought a LC red pad for applying liquid wax; as recommended by the manufacturer. Last time I waxed my car I found that the red pad had soaked up a ton of the wax...I could literally squeeze wax out of the pad when I was cleaning it. I thought the red pad was supposed to keep the wax on the paint. Could my technique be improper? Too much pressure? Or is there a better pad for the job?

 

[evilwrx]

I use the red pad also for liquid wax. I have also used the grey pad. The red pad had less wax in it when I was done waxing the car than the grey pad. I do not believe your technique was bad as that is going to happen with whatever applicator you use, including applying it by hand.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

It's probably technique related. When applying a wax, paste or liquid you only need to lay down a thin coating. If you're saturating a foam red finishing pad it sounds like you're using too much wax.

How are you applying the wax?

Applying some to the paint or to the face of the pad?

If the face of the pad, how much are you applying?

Keep in mind, when you apply wax to the face of the pad and then place the face of the pad against the surface of the paint, for that brief moment before you turn the polisher on and start spreading out the wax, the liquid wax is being pushed up inside the foam.

That's why I use the "Kissing the Finish" technique outlined in this thread,

Tips and Techniques for using the PC 7424XP Dual Action Polisher to remove Below Surface Defects

The above article is probably of the most detailed articles I've ever written and if you scan down aways you'll find the below but I recommend you take a few minutes to read the entire article if you haven't already.

Kissing the Finish
Kissing the finish is kind of the lazy man's method of applying wax to a car by machine, (it's the method I like to use and the term I came up with to try to explain what to do). To do this you place a strip or bead of product onto the face of your foam finishing pad and then instead of laying the pad against the paint where pressure will force most of the wax into the inside of the pad, you just dab the pad down onto the surface at an angle and deposit a little bit of the wax onto that section of the paint. In other words you use the pad to lightly kiss the finish. Continue this until you've deposited most/all of the wax that was on the face of the pad to the car panels.

Now with the pad flat against the paint, turn the polisher on and begin spreading the wax still on the pad over the car's panels. When you come up to a small dab of wax on the paint, simply tilt the polisher a little and snag the wax and pull it under the pad. Then lay the pad flat and continue spreading the wax over the paint and working your way around the car. Not a perfect system but the fast, lazy man's method.

 

[sullysdetailing]

I use Red LC Flat Pad

 

[clapton924]

Typically I will drizzle some of the wax on the panel that I am working on...or about a 3ft x 3ft area and spread it with the PC. I try to keep the coating of wax thin. The wax was NXT 2.0....not sure if it has anything to do with the wax or not. Its not a big deal with the cheap NXT, but as I start using more expensive LSP's I don't want to be wasting any product.