Mike, what makes you prefer foam over microfiber pads?
Here's what I always say, you can quote me on this....
All things being equal, foam pads will finish out nicer and more consistently on a wider spectrum of paint systems than microfiber pads.
So if anyone is trying to increase the potential for success and reduce the potential for failure, (at least for the finishing step on what we all know are scratch-sensitive clearcoat paint systems), then you'll have a better chance with foam versus any fiber pad.
The fibers that make up any fiber style pad, be it microfiber pad or a wool cutting pad or a purple foamed pad or even a Surbuf pad can act as an abrasive in and of themselves.
The individual fibers that make up a fiber pad have the ability to
cut the paint just like an abrasive particle.
Nothing wrong with this if you're doing correction work but not if you're trying to create the best finish during your last machine polishing step.
The microfiber pad system introduced by Meguiar's was
originally targeted to the production detailing industry to replace the use of rotary buffers to help change the industry.
We all know what the traditional detailing industry does and that's swirl-out cars with holograms. It's still happening today. Last Saturday I buffed out a BRAND NEW 2014 BMW with HOLOGRAMS from a rotary buffer from the BMW Dealership. Now in today's day and age this is a crime against the paint, a crime against the car and a crime against the owner as it destroys the paint they just paid for.
Back to the point....
Originally the Meguiar's Microfiber DA Correction System was created for and targeted at replacing the rotary buffer in production detailing environments to end holograms while improving customer satisfaction as well as solving a host of other issues like training curve, consistent results, etc.
Since then more microfiber pads have been introduced by other companies but not as a "system" to the degree that Meguiar's created. And now, Meguiar's has introduced more pads and chemicals for their system to enable it to be used on a wider spectrum of paint systems including re-paints. The original system was formulated for factory paints. That is harder paints.
So why do I like foam over microfiber?
First, I don't do a lot of
production detailing work. Almost all the cars I detail are either brand new or custom cars like muscle cars, streetrods or classics with custom paint, that is they no longer have a factory paint job but have been re-painted at a body shop.
Production detailing is doing one or two steps to (for the most part), newer cars with normally factory paint unless they've been wrecked and repainted.
So I don't need the fiber part of the microfiber pad do do my correction step. I'll either use a wool pad on a rotary buffer or a foam pad on a rotary buffer or a foam pad on a dual action polisher.
I also like the cushion provided by foam pads versus the stiffness of "most" microfiber pads. Lake Country and Optimum both have microfiber pads with thicker foam backing so these pads provide plenty of cushion, but we're still back to the fiber issue.
Now all of the above is just me... It's my preference. I know a LOT of guys love microfiber pads and that's all that really counts, what works for a person and what they like.
For the record, because I worked for Meguiar's from 1987 to around 1990 and then again from 2002 to 2009, I was given the original Microfiber Pads invented by Claude Sevigny back in probably 2005. Now back then we didn't have the chemicals/abrasive technology we have today so they was still work going on to dial these new type of pad in and as we can all see it took quite a few years before the pads were officially released.
Suffice to say, Richard Lin and I buffed out the factory paint on the 2006 Viper using these early Meguiar's microfiber pads and Meguiar's M86 Mirror Glaze Solo Cut & Polish Cream when it was first introduced and I was BLOWN AWAY but how well the microfiber pads and M86 removed all the swirls, scratches and water spots out of what I would call a HARD factory paint system way back then. (That's 8 years ago).
Before
After
Good question.... thank you for asking....
