Pad recommendations

[Patrick73RS]

Hi there, long time member but I spend most of my time reading and not posting. I am a car builder or old cars and i do work on exotics. Lately ive been asked to see what i can do about cleaning up paint imperfections. I currently have a mixture of pads as I have acquired then over a period of time. I’d like to get to 1 pad type for both my 3401 and the XFE7-15. I am using Wolfgang products.

I would like to hear exactly what pad(s) & color you recommend for:
1) Uber Compound
2) Total Swirl Remover
3) Finishing glaze
4) DGPS

I am leaning towards the LC thin pro 5.5” line up but I am not dead set on that. I just have several different types in the kit and I want to dump it all and go with 1 system where the color of the pads are all the same for the same compound that I am using.

Thank you for any guidance / help, its greatly appreciated

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Go with the 6.5" Lake Country Force Hybrid Pads for both tools. These are the pads I show for these tools in all my classes and use personally.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

I am leaning towards the LC thin pro 5.5” line up but I am not dead set on that.

Couple of comments...

When it comes to a gear-driven tool - pad thickness is not a negative. Thicker pads "feel"better on the BEAST.

When it comes to free spinning random orbital polishers like the Finisher - this tool goes against the grain and it's actually easier to maintain pad rotation with thicker pads than thinner pads. I've talked a lot about this phenomena with this tool and these pads and the only I've been able to explain it is with the word,

inertia

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Here's three recent details, see the pads I used....

Review: Wolfgang Si02 Paint Sealant

Review: Hybrid Solutions Ceramic Polish & Wax

Review: 3D Paint Coating and 3D One Cutting Compound and Finishing Polish

I don't use free spin tools much, but when I use the Finisher I use the same pads you see in the threads above.

I usually include links to the stuff I show in my write-ups.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Make that 4 recent write-ups....


1976 Corvette Original Single Stage Paint - Paint Correction and Waxing

 

[WRAPT C5Z06]

Buff & Shine Uro Tec pads work well on both. With that said, I still buy different pads geared for each machine.

My favorite on a long throw DA are Rupes Foam pads and MF pads.

My favorite on the 3401 are LC Force Pads and wool pads.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[WaxMaster1]

Mike, you always recommended the 5" pads on the 3401. Why do you prefer larger ones on the XCE?

-Chris

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Mike, you always recommended the 5" pads on the 3401.

-Chris

Actually, I always recommend the 6.5" Lake Country Force Hybrid pads for the BEAST.

I recommend them and use them for the Supa BEAST also but you have to first swap out backing plates, see my article here,

Supa BEAST backing plate swap

Here's one on pad recommendations.

Which buffing pads for the FLEX XCE 10-8 Supa Beast?



The only time I recommend and use myself 5.5" pads on a gear-driven FLEX tool is when I'm using the CBEAST. I think I have an article on this topic too somewhere?

 

[WaxMaster1]

Actually, I always recommend the 6.5" Lake Country Force Hybrid pads for the BEAST.

I guess I just got churned and burned.

 

[Patrick73RS]

Mike,

thanks for the reply.

what do you default to as far as pad colors for the below

1) Uber Compound - Orange Pad
2) Total Swirl Remover - White Pad
3) Finishing glaze - Black
4) DGPS - Red

Is that what you would use?

Thanks

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

I guess I just got churned and burned.

Ha ha :laughing:

No worries, there are so many pads on the market as well as every other kind of product in every other kind of category -it's hard to keep track.


:cheers:

 

[Patrick73RS]

Mike,

thanks for the reply.

what do you default to as far as pad colors for the below

1) Uber Compound - Orange Pad
2) Total Swirl Remover - White Pad
3) Finishing glaze - Black
4) DGPS - Red

Is that what you would use?

Thanks
Sorry i keep asking but having 4 types of pads in the drawer is driving me nuts

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Mike,

thanks for the reply.

what do you default to as far as pad colors for the below

1) Uber Compound - Orange Pad
2) Total Swirl Remover - White Pad
3) Finishing glaze - Black
4) DGPS - Red

Is that what you would use?

Thanks
Sorry i keep asking but having 4 types of pads in the drawer is driving me nuts

Yep - that's the basic pad color code.

 

[Patrick73RS]

Thank you sir. Ill grab a bunch for both machines

 

[Patrick73RS]

Just when i started to like the 5.5 pads, mike suggests a switch.. ��

 

[Bruno Soares]

As far as I remember he always suggested 6.5” for forced rotation as it won’t struggle spinning a big pad and bigger pad means faster correction due to more coverage. Free spinning DA, especially long throw machines, can struggle with a large pad due to friction and that’s when he said use 5.5” pads. One exception I recall was the Griot’s G9 which he said was so powerful it could run large pads with no issue.

 

[Patrick73RS]

Yeah but here he is saying the 6.5 for both machines hence why that threw me a off a little

 

[jankerson]

Mike,

thanks for the reply.

what do you default to as far as pad colors for the below

1) Uber Compound - Orange Pad
2) Total Swirl Remover - White Pad
3) Finishing glaze - Black
4) DGPS - Red

Is that what you would use?

Thanks
Sorry i keep asking but having 4 types of pads in the drawer is driving me nuts

Not Mike, but I do use WG Products, my personal favorite by far.

Here is what I would use.


1) Uber Compound - Grey or Orange Pad
2) Total Swirl Remover - Grey or Orange
3) Finishing glaze - White or Black
4) DGPS - Red


I really like how the Grey Force and the CYAN Hydro pads finish out with Uber Compound and Total Swirl Remover, almost ready for an LSP, makes the next step (Polishing) so much faster, would be more jeweling than polishing really. One could literally go straight to the LSP on a light colored car depending or just do a quick once over with an AIO and done or Polish and then LSP.


Anyhow that's just me and what I think, I am sure opinions will vary.