Microfiber polishing pads

casvg5

casvg5

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Ok, ive a wealth of knowledge and experience polishing with foam pads.

Last night I tried to use some cutting and polishing pads. I could not get them to work right.

Under any pressure the fibers just laid down and formed this big flat shiny matted down surface. Is that the surface youre supposed to polish with?? Im sure it shouldn't be like that. Im sure the fibers should remain fluffed and free and not matted down in one contimuous surface. Maybe Im wrong.

I tried several times to fluff them with the pad cleaning brush, and even did a full clean with water and pad cleaner soap, and still, no luck.

What am I doing wrong? I cannot seem to pull off a pad/polish/speed/pressure combo to get a flawless finish on this 35th anniversary Camaro I am working on. Ive blasted through all the swirls that were present, and now am just instilling small hairline scratches no matter how light or how slow I run my buffer.

Sort of perplexed.
 
Ok well that will get matted down after one section pass but they are working.

You need to be sure you are cleaning them after every section and not panel. They are best cleaned with compressed air over the conditioning brush.

Working at a speed no more than 4 on any DA you will do a normal 6 section passes. Make sure then pad is rotating at all times. Once you do that section blow it out. When reapplying product less is more so very small 3-4 pea sized drops. Make sure you are changing you pads often as heat will kill them and cause them to fail.

When your working with the cutting pad you will see a light haze and this is good. You will then need to remove the haze with a polish or the finishing pads and the finishing wax. I tend to go with a foam pad and polish though.
 
Evan.J said:
Ok well that will get matted down after one section pass but they are working.

You need to be sure you are cleaning them after every section and not panel. They are best cleaned with compressed air over the conditioning brush.

Working at a speed no more than 4 on any DA you will do a normal 6 section passes. Make sure then pad is rotating at all times. Once you do that section blow it out. When reapplying product less is more so very small 3-4 pea sized drops. Make sure you are changing you pads often as heat will kill them and cause them to fail.

When your working with the cutting pad you will see a light haze and this is good. You will then need to remove the haze with a polish or the finishing pads and the finishing wax. I tend to go with a foam pad and polish though.
Click to expand...


So that big flat matted down mass that seems like it would mar the hell out of paint....is actually what youre looking for? That big shiny almost crusty surface of matted down fibers?? Really?
 
casvg5 said:
So that big flat matted down mass that seems like it would mar the hell out of paint....is actually what youre looking for? That big shiny almost crusty surface of matted down fibers?? Really?
Click to expand...

Yes thats how it should look after one section.

Think about it how would those fibers stay fluffed up while polishing and applying downward pressure? They can't but just make sure you are cleaning the pads after every section.
 
here is the video
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhJYFLgIjhE]Meguiars Microfiber DA Correction System - YouTube[/video]
 
MF pads dont like any pressure and slower speed 4/3 finish better.
 
Which compound or polish were you using. Some people have reported that certain products don't work as well with MF pads.
 
Used compressed air after each section. No exceptions. You need about 2-3 oscillations per second to get the best cut. Mark your bp if you haven't already. I get the best results around speed 4 on my griots. 5 if I'm edging and using pressure to remove a heavier defect. 2-3 med/heavy passes and 2-3 light quick passes. Prime the pad with 6-8 pea sized drops and then only 2-3 pea sized drops after that.

Never use a wet pad. It will lose all effectiveness and also overheat and possibly delaminate. Keep them very dry.

I spray them off with water and clean them with my extractor when I'm finished.

Give these pads a chance. They are the future of detailing.
 
I'd like to add that I hated these pads with a passion at first. I'm now getting unreal results in waaaaaaaaaay less time!
 
casvg5 said:
So that big flat matted down mass that seems like it would mar the hell out of paint....is actually what youre looking for? That big shiny almost crusty surface of matted down fibers?? Really?
Click to expand...

Yep, that big shiny flat matted down pad is what you work with.
Air, air, and MORE AIR is the only thing you need when working with MF pads.

statusdetailing said:
Used compressed air after each section. No exceptions. You need about 2-3 oscillations per second to get the best cut. Mark your bp if you haven't already. I get the best results around speed 4 on my griots. 5 if I'm edging and using pressure to remove a heavier defect. 2-3 med/heavy passes and 2-3 light quick passes. Prime the pad with 6-8 pea sized drops and then only 2-3 pea sized drops after that.

Never use a wet pad. It will lose all effectiveness and also overheat and possibly delaminate. Keep them very dry.

I spray them off with water and clean them with my extractor when I'm finished.

Give these pads a chance. They are the future of detailing.
Click to expand...

Where you would use 5~6 or more foam pads to do a car you can literally do an entire vehicle with only 2 MF pads. The KEY is pulling them off regularly and letting them cool. Meguiar's did a study after the pads went on sale (with the reports of failures) and found that the heat buildup on the BACK of the pad was what was causing all the failures. IOW's, feeling the surface of the pad doesn't tell you what is going on.

The heat was being generated on the Velcro side between the backing plate and the pad material itself. For this reason Meguiar's has stated you use their backing plate and their pads as it's designed as a system. That's not to say they still don't get hot, but not as hot as they could be getting.

Just be careful, clean after each section, NOT after each panel. If you try doing it with a brush you'll be sorry. And you can forget about "cleaning on the fly". I recently did a job with another local guy that left me to do a black Porsche (his customer, his supplies) and told me to use Megs MF pads yet he didn't have any AIR! His ignorance with the system meant I could not complete even one panel and do it correctly. He became livid over it later, saying I changed his "method" by going to foam pads that I could clean on the fly. Yet his method (as it was called) would never work in a hundred years!
 
I didn't see if this was mentioned anywhere... but, what brand of pads are you using? I've only used Meg's, B&S, & LC MF pads but I noticed the LC MFs are IMPOSSIBLE to fluff back up after 1 or 2 section passes. Even with compressed air they remain matted down.
 
Nicholas@Autowerx said:
I didn't see if this was mentioned anywhere... but, what brand of pads are you using? I've only used Meg's, B&S, & LC MF pads but I noticed the LC MFs are IMPOSSIBLE to fluff back up after 1 or 2 section passes. Even with compressed air they remain matted down.
Click to expand...


I am using chemical guys pads. Compounding with a pad, even with light pressure last night ended up maring the panel soooooooooooo bad. Worse swirls than were present. Not the nice even compound haze, like aggressive, heavy, nasty swirls.
 
This doesn't sound normal at all, even for CG pads. I can tell you, I've never had that happen with meg's mf pads. As a matter of fact, most of the time the cutting pad paired with m105, d300, or m100 finish so well, it almost feels like I'm not doing anything with the subsequent polishing step...especially when compounding with 105. Wow! it finishes well.

Another thing I've found is that I'm using much less product since I switched to the mf pads.

I really like the fact that they force you to work clean. I've been guilty and I think we all have, of not cleaning a pad after each section. You have to with these pads.

For whatever reason, wipe off has become enjoyable. I no longer ever have any problem removing compound or polish...even on dark colored vehicles. They leave a thinner film, imo than foam. Could be simply because I'm working cleaner. Would anybody like to comment on this last point as well?
 
It does sound unusual. All I hear is good thing with MF pads. As a matter of fact I had a very good experience with meg's MF pads and D300 on the camaro I just worked on. The pads saved me a lot of time then just using foam on my own camaro.
 
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