Polishing pads...how clean is clean enough??

J

jmeyers278

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Okay so I am relatively new to polishing with a da. I always used a rotary and would buff/compound/polish a whole car with a cutting wool pad and finish the whole car with a different finishing pad and that was it. With a da, I now have piles of pads and it takes several of each to do a vehicle so I am cleaning a lot more pads

Today I did a travel trailer with hd speed and white thin pros. Now they are stained from the speed, which I hear is normal, but I couldn’t get them completely clean

I soaked them for 15mins in McKee’s polishing pad stuff and worked them by hand before rinsing them.

Questions

1. Do these look clean enough?

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2. If not, what else should I do?

Thanks


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You're fine, HD Speed is known to stain pads. As long as you cleaned them and rinsed them out you're good to go.
 
so, ive used my flats countless times with speed and mine look nothing like that, I keep a bucket with soapy water near me and as I switch pads and place the used pad in the bucket and the newest one goes on the bottom. when im done I press them all down so they soak up the solution while I clean everything else up. once im done with clean up I come back and I work the bad with a pad brush, take a water hose and rinse from the center out and spin the pad around by hand until all the water runs clear. then I spin them in the bucket with my polisher, hand to dry and im done
 
Cruzscarwash said:
so, ive used my flats countless times with speed and mine look nothing like that, I keep a bucket with soapy water near me and as I switch pads and place the used pad in the bucket and the newest one goes on the bottom. when im done I press them all down so they soak up the solution while I clean everything else up. once im done with clean up I come back and I work the bad with a pad brush, take a water hose and rinse from the center out and spin the pad around by hand until all the water runs clear. then I spin them in the bucket with my polisher, hand to dry and im done
Click to expand...

Good tip Cruz! I use this method too, and place an upside down Grit Guard over the pads to keep them 'dunked' in the cleaning solution. When I am finished for the day I put the Gamma Seal lid on the bucket and leave them soaking for a day or so. I also use the Grit Guard as a washboard for scrubbing the pads when I clean them.
 
You should be fine. Duragloss 501 stains my white pads too.
 
So then here is another question....is it okay to leave my pads in the mckee's citrus pad cleaning stuff over night? It says 15mins. I didn't try it to see if it degraded the pad over time
 
you know what works really good cleaning pads? The water sprayer on the sink. I typically soak mine .. rinse and squeeze a few times and then I put that sprayer on high right up on the pad and start moving around the pad with it without losing contact. Comes really clean that way. Some pads are closed cell and the water doesnt go through the pad and sprays all over the place ... you'll figure out which ones those are real fast lol.

Today I did that and then put them on my rotary and set that thing to 3500RPM and let them spin for about 20 seconds and they were ready to go right then and there.
 
ski2 said:
Make sure you watch the video!!! Works great and easy to make with a grit guard and a blue bucket from Lowes.

Ghetto Pad Washer
https://www.autopia.org/forums/auto-detailing-videos/181727-ghetto-pad-washer.html?highlight=
Click to expand...

Just plain water right? I said the same thing just a couple of days ago. Plain water is all I used to use when I 1st started using my DA polisher.

It's not until recently that I began using some sort of cleaner to clean my pads, and that's only because I've become too lazy to get to them the very same day I used them. But as long as you don't allow any products to cake over night, I've never had a pad that didn't come 100% clean with just plain water from the kitchen sink/garden hose nozzle/ or in the case of that video, a power washer.
 
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