I am looking to find a pad system that is "easy" to teach others what pad and what polish to use (if that makes sense). I personally like LC Flat pads myself. If all goes well at work and I teach the detailers there how to detail and not use 8" pads I need a simple system. I was thinking of Detailers Domain pads or Meguairs Pads? Any of these you recommend? Or any others you recommend?
I think any pad will do the trick although I no longer use the old 8" pads I used to have. The key is the technique. Teach them that well and they can use any pad with it. Pyramid speed technique, keep it moving, check the surface often (for a newbie) and not too fast...keep them under 11 or 1200. That's my advice.
Any pad should work as long as they know what the pad is used for. Uber pads will make this easy as it is written right on the back of them. If you do not want to use Uber pads then stay with one company and just create a chart with cut level and what polishes to use with them. Kind of like what AutoGeek did with the LC and Cobra pads, shows the aggressiveness of the pads and some polishes/compounds that you would use on them. The main thing is to make sure they know how to work the polisher and how to do the most work with the least amount of effort, let the machine do the work as that is what it for. Also that each car will need something different, you could compound every new car then final polish it but that is not what you want to do. Goes back to the least amount of work with the best results and doing the least removal of clear to get your results. This will be the hardiest thing if they come from the background of just use a strong polish and it will take care of anything and using it without thinking what they are doing.
Sal, the Detailer's Domain pads are excellent, inexpensive, and easy to get. Looks like he's got the cutting pad (yellow) up on the website now; I've never used one, but the green and orange ones are both excellent.
5.5" is my pad size of choice i strongly prefer flat pads over everything else. waffle faced pads are also nice, but flat pads are wayyyyy better to me the DD uber pads would be my first choice to introducing someone into detailing. they're inexpensive and very good
I agree, it comes down to technique, technique and more technique. Once you have the technique down you can grab any pad and produce great results. Just my opinion, I still like the Meg's pads, great pads and always deliver good results when partnered up with the appropriate polish but don't forget about the technique.
Yep, they are. I'll have a review on the yellow pad tomorrow or the next day for you guys, I'm getting 2 in tomorrow. They seem like my dream pads, softer than orange but more cut. I can already get Green/M105 to cut very similar to PFW/M105, I can only imagine that the yellow pad is going to replace PFW for me. I would use Uber pads if you wanted a system, top-notch pads, very soft (with the exception of orange) so they go around curves great and are easy to control. Start them with the Blue(finishing) and keep the speeds around 1200 so they get a taste of speed and control, and also start them on a finishing polish like PO85RD.
You just cost me some money! Softer than orange, with more cut, and it's flat to boot? I'm ordering some. :headbang: I'm not a huge fan of PFW. I'm not a huge fan of any wool for that matter - I use it when I have to, I just find it to be a hassle.
Got mine in the mail today, AND IT'S SOFT! Trying it out tomorrow. It's around the stiffness of green, a tiny bit stiffer, and MUCH MUCH less stiff than orange. I always hated orange just for the stiffness, it made it so much harder to use and finish down with. The yellow doesn't seem like it will have any problems, I wanted something with more cut than green but still soft, and Phil answered my prayers. :mounty: EDIT: Just felt it again and compared it to green, it's not Green soft, green is sof tlike a baby's bottom. It's about in the middle between orange and green, slightly more towards green. Just to be clear, I'm talking about the stiffness of the pad.
That's great news, being that I just ordered two of them. :headbang: They sound like just what I've been hoping for. I don't find that I "hate" the orange ones; it's just that the green ones are as close to perfection as I've found, so they've got a tough act to follow. Phil's orange pads seem (to me) like they're softer than the original LC CCS orange, which I really did hate. Could be that my CCS were all worn out. Or, it could be that I just hated them so much that I couldn't see past the hate. Doesn't matter - I threw all my CCS stuff away months ago! :lol: Man, I can't wait to get them in. They should be here Friday. Anyway, Sal - DS752 and I say you should use the Uber pads. If you don't like them, I'll buy them from you.
Dont know if this will help any or even close to being 100% right but just made this when I was looking around for pads trying to fig out what to use with what. Please let me know if there are incorrect so I can correct them in my records. LC Pads PPI Yellow 50 Orange 60 White 70 Black 80 Blue 100 DD Pads PPI Orange - Med Polish 50 Green - Polish 60 Blue - Final Polish 70 Black - Glaze 80
Pores per inch (PPI) As an example you could purchase two seemingly similar pads based upon their PPI rating, but one pad may have thicker walls between each pore, be made of softer material, feature a reticulated or non-reticulated foam structure (basically open or closed cell), or simply be a thicker (1.25 or 0.75-inch) foam, which can affect the machine's movements. Compressible, open cell polyether polyurethane reticulated foam is usually specified by pores per inch (PPI).The greater number of pores per inch generally equates to foam that is softer; and has less abrasive ability, less density, more porosity and easier compression. There is no recognisable standard for the abrasive abilities of foam, other than a colour assigned; most foam manufacturer’s that supply foam to detailer’s product vendor assign their own colours to donate abrasion. On this basis a PPI rating allows abrasive ability comparisons between different foams Remember the flatter and more uniform you make the surface, the greater the light reflection .While most enthusiasts understand this principle when applied to polishing, the same is true of finishing. The more uniformly you apply the final wax or sealant, the greater the shine Scale 30 – 100 PPI • Abrasive Cutting Foam (40 pores per inch) • Medium Cutting Foam (50 pores per inch) • Light Cutting Foam (60 pores per inch) • Finishing Foam (70 pores per inch) • Fine Application (80 pores per inch) • Ultra-Fine Finishing (100 pores per inch) The thicker consistency products (i.e. a hard wax) seem to work best with a more porous pad; a very tight pad used with these types of products seems to load up and clog the pad, which in a turn leads to product clumping. When applying light consistency products (i.e. liquid polymer) a more porous pad will absorb and waste product An extract from one of a series of 110 in-depth, unbiased “Detailing Technical Papers” © TOGWT ™ Ltd Copyright 2002-2009, all rights reserved. These papers will enable direct access to five decades of detailing knowledge and experience
