NEW! 3.5 inch ThinPro Foam Pads! Thin is in and you're going to love these new small foam pads!

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

NEW! 3.5" ThinPro Foam Pads! Thin is in and you're going to love these new small foam pads!

A few weeks ago Nick brings me some prototype thin small foam pads using the foam formulas used for the Lake Country ThinPro foam pad line. I'm thinking, cool... we've needed these for a long time. I started using them for various detailing projects here at our Thursday night detailing classes and just as I suspected they worked great on all the small orbital polishers like the Griot's Garage 3" Mini Polisher, the Griot's Garage 3" Pneumatic Orbital Polisher and also the RUPES Mini 12mm orbital polisher.

Most important - because they're ultra THIN they rotate really well and this is what's been needed for small orbital polishers that use a free spinning spindle design instead of being gear-driven.

Yesterday 5 boxes 3.5" ThinPro pads show up in the warehouse. I wouldn't have normally known these pads had arrived except I was helping a customer machine polish a plastic window in the convertible top on his Ferrari. He already owns a FLEX 3401 but wanted to get the Griot's 3" Mini Polisher to remove the swirls, scratches and yellowing out of the flexible plastic window. I told him the best pads for this type of procedure using the Griot's Garage 3" Mini Polisher would be these new 3" ThinPro pads that I had used as prototypes. Then I took a shot-in-the-dark and said, "hang on a moment, let me go see if by chance these pads have come in yet" and to my complete surprise Lucas, our warehouse manager had just unloaded them off a delivery truck.

So before they went up on the website or the rest of the world knew they existed he included them with his order for the Griot's mini polisher.

That takes me up to the the present and this review of these new pads.

Here's my review...

They're AWESOME!

If you have a small orbital polisher and have struggled to get any work done using the more common thick foam pads your struggle is over! You still have to use good technique like holding the pad flat to the surface but with these new thin ThinPro pads you can actually do correction work using your small orbital polisher.

Enough with the words.... let's take a look at these new pads!



Like the 5.5" and the 6.5" ThinPro pads the new 3.5" ThinPro pads are available in 5 levels of cut.

Here's some pictures hot off my trusty, dusty Canon camera...

This side shot shows you just how thin these pads are...

This is the ThinPro Gray Extreme Cutting Pad and this your new best friend when it comes to aggressive cutting with an orbital polisher.

The foam is sharp and dense and with a quality compound it cuts like a son-of-a-gun!

Handy tool
I use the Griot's 3" Mini Polisher a lot but not for polishing paint. I typically use it for either machine applying a wax or sealant (because it's lightweight and compact in size, perfect for holding with one hand while machine waxing vertical panels), or I use it for machine wet sanding paint or headlights.

The reason I don't normally use it for compounding and polishing is because pad rotation was always a little on the weak side with traditional thicker foam pads. With these new thin ThinPro pads - pad rotation is excellent.

The new 3.5" ThinPro pads fit the factory backing plate on the Griot's Garage 3" Min Polisher.

Here you can see they are very thin, about as thin as the backing plate itself...

These new 3.5" ThinPro pads also fit the backing plate on the RUPES Mini 12mm polisher and pad rotation is excellent and there's no increase or obvious vibration due to the thinness as compared to the thicker RUPES factory foam pads.

These are the perfect pad for the Griot's 3" Pneumatic Orbital polisher or the Mighty Mouse as I like to call it.

The new 3.5" ThinPro pads easily center-up on the pneumatic backing plate...

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Now for some action shots!

Last night we had to righteous Mopars here. Frank's Sublime Green Hellcat and Ken's purple R/T Scatpack Shaker. So I brought some of the new pads out to the garage so we could test them out.

First up we did some dry sanding to Frank's Sublime Green Hellcat. Frank maintains the finish on his Hellcat with Wolfgang's Deep Gloss Paint Sealant 3.0 and it has a perfect finish EXCEPT for some DIRT PARTICLES stuck in the factory paint job. We carefully sanded the defects flat and then after removing our sanding marks and machine polishing the paint to perfection we used the Griot's 3" Mini Polisher to machine apply a fresh coat of the Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant 3.0 using the red ThinPro wax pad.


Red 3.5" Thin Pro Pad for machine applying a wax or paint sealant

Machine applying a wax or sealant using the Griot's 3" Mini Polisher is not earth shaking news....

But using the Griot's Garage 3" Mini Polisher as a mini ROTARY BUFFER is!!!!!!!



Removing wet sanding marks with the NEW Lake Country ThinPro Grey Extreme Cutting Pad

We machine polished Ken's R/T Scatpack Shaker to perfection using the new and improved Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish. This killer fine cut polish removed all the fine swirls and scratches and perfectly prepared the paint for a ceramic paint coating EXCEPT there were some deeper scratches on the passenger side roof. Ken didn't know how they were inflicted into the hood? They looked like something impacted the roof leaving straight line scratches about a half inch long over an area about 5" square.



Machine sanding

Sorry we didn't take any pictures but our classes are intense and very hands-on and the focus is on creating show cars not creating articles. That said, I machine sanded the scratches using the Griot's 3" Mini Polisher and 3M Trizact #3000 three inch sanding discs. I followed this by refining my sanding marks using 3M Trizact #5000 three inch sanding discs.

Next I asked Jeff aka GSKR here on the forum if he would remove the sanding marks NOT with a rotary buffer but with the same tool we sanded with and the NEW 3.5" ThinPro pads. Now Jeff is a good friend and one heck of a detailer. This guy can make a rotary buffer dance on paint. While I know he would normally make 2-3 passes with rotary and simply obliterate the sanding marks I wanted to challenge him to use what most would consider the least powerful polisher in our shop of 150 polishers.

Normally I wouldn't use the Griot's 3" Mini Polisher to remove sanding marks but with the new 3.5" ThinPro pads and the excellent pad rotation I had already seen and experienced I knew these pads would work great with small orbital polishers.


Here's Jeff working his magic!

This is the 3.5" Grey Extreme Cutting pad with McKee's Fast Compound

Look at the buffing pattern in the film of compound on the paint. Jeff's good and I trust him with any project here at Autogeek

Now Jeff has switched over to a 3.5" ThinPro white polishing pad and is re-polishing the area with Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish.

After all the polishing work was over we applied Pinnacle Black Label Diamond Paint Coating and here's the final results.

If you've been waiting for small thin pads for your small orbital polisher no matter what the brand the wait is over!


On Autogeek.com


3.5" ThinPro Foam Buffing Pads


Other products mentiond...


Griot's Garage 3" Mini Polisher

Griot's Garage 3" Pneumatic Orbital Polisher

RUPES Mini 12mm orbital polisher

Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish

McKee's 37 Fast Compound 16 oz

Pinnacle Black Label Surface Cleansing Polish

Pinnacle Black Label Diamond Paint Coating v2

3M Trizact Hookit 3 Inch Foam Discs P3000

3M Trizact 3 Inch 5000 Grit Foam Discs





2016 Challenger R/T Scatpack Shaker by Dodge - Shine by Pinnacle Black Label

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Just to note...


There's only a limited supply of these new pads. They won't last long so if you want some... get some...

 

[FrankS]

I really like these pads, definitely going to pick some up.

I had a chance to use them at the Thursday night makeover.

They work great on the Griots Mini Polisher, good pad rotation and you can use the GG Mini for correction work with these pads.

 

[Billy Baldone]

I honestly can't believe it took so long to come up with a better solution to the fat 3" pads. They were not very user friendly at all. Great write up, and will be on my next order

 

[57BORNTORUN]

I really like these pads, definitely going to pick some up.

I had a chance to use them at the Thursday night makeover.

They work great on the Griots Mini Polisher, good pad rotation and you can use the GG Mini for correction work with these pads.

Could`nt agree more Frank. Unfortunately for you and I we could`nt buy them on Thursday night as they did`nt hit the site until Friday.I will defiantly pick some up when I return to work next week at autogeek.

 

[Nick McKees37]

Awesome write up Mike!

Like Mike said, these pads are available in very limited supply until production is fully ramped up. If you want them before they're gone, don't hesitate!

 

[dlc95]

I love the word "sharp" to describe that grey pad!

 

[David Hayward]

Just ordered the griots pneumatic polisher and a 6 pack of pads. Can't wait to try these on my rupes and the griots.

 

[scuff]

I imagine these will stir up some interest in smaller polishers. When I wear out my new 3" muffins, ThinPros will go in the cart.

 

[Joe@NextLevelDetail]

Great write up Mike.

I love that you showed a pad on all the 3' machines, i guess in your experience you know people are going to ask lol.

I have never used the grey thinpro before Mike how do you like it ?

 

[Eric@CherryOnTop]

We got to play with these pads at the Thursday night detailing clinic on the purple scat pack Challenger. Those grey pads are LEGIT at getting out 5000 grit sanding marks with a Griots 3" polisher. We've needed a thin pad for these machines for a long time.

 

[fly07sti]

These pads look very nice. Ordered a dozen orange, white and gray.

 

[57BORNTORUN]

We got to play with these pads at the Thursday night detailing clinic on the purple scat pack Challenger. Those grey pads are LEGIT at getting out 5000 grit sanding marks with a Griots 3" polisher. We've needed a thin pad for these machines for a long time.

The only thing that beats horsepower is torque.The one thing that can beat cubic inches is a turbo.Thinner pads will spin faster with less drag but we will have to be mindful when using them until familiar.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

I love the word "sharp" to describe that grey pad!

I cover a LOT of information in my Competition Ready 3-day detailing classes including going over buffing pads. As we work through the class I show people how to "feel" pads to help them identify the different types of pads since every pad company uses different color coding schemes.

If you run your had over the face of a foam cutting pad you can feel the sharpness.

Great write up Mike.

I love that you showed a pad on all the 3' machines, i guess in your experience you know people are going to ask LOL.

Yeah that's part of my writing style. I think of all the variables and then include and answer every possible and potential question or address every issue in my original work. That way I only have to write the information once versus touching on topics and then providing detail if and when it's asked.

Takes longer initially to be thorough but saves time in the big picture.

I have never used the grey ThinPro before Mike how do you like it ?

I like these pads when I need a hard, sharp fast cutting foam pad. I try not to use them because they are so hard and sharp and this tends to make for a less smooth buffing experience when you first start out.

The pads can also leave buffer trails so if you use one of these pad be sure to follow it with a less aggressive pad and product for professional quality end results.

 

[Justin at Final Inspection]

I just stocked up on the 5.5 in thin pads. You guys are killing my bank account lol! I may have to grab some

 

[Mike@ShineStruck]

i may flock to these pads
Got the low pros for my 21 as they looked...and. now proved to be indestructible..where aa my boss pads would seperate..

I'll def get these for my Rupes mini and prob get them for the forced flex when I buy that!

 

[Jaretr1]

These look cool. As many have mentioned, the 5.5 Thin Pro have become an instant favorite, seems like these would be a logical addition to a tool box!

 

[jackbro]

Brilliant write up! going to be buying these ASAP!

 

[Crispy]

First trial was tonight on front bumper. The bumper cover is plastic and I always have heat issues with the CCS 1.5" thick pads. Typically 4" pads on Girot 3" polisher. This test was done on the small panels in front of the headlights (it is about 3" wide and 12" long). Used the grey cutting pad and 6 passes. Low heat, good pad rotation and lots of cut ( I used pretty good downward pressure, more than I ever could with the 1.5 " pads). I actually thought I could have burned through the clear if I kept at it (imagine that with a 3" Girot DA polisher). Next up white pad and polish. Same deal, far less heat and way better pad rotation. Definately the go to for me on the 3 " polisher. Next up is the 5.5" pads on the PC.

PS they clean up easy as well.