What is the next step, Pads or Polish?

The most abrasive combo I have is an Orange pad with SIP. I was not able to remove the scratches and swirls from my 2000 Jeep, so I ordered a few 6.5 inch yellow pads and Megs 105. I am not sure if I need to go Orange pad/105, 105/yellow pad, or orange pad/105.

This is an example, but is there a general rule of what to change first, pads or polish? What would be the next step up in abrasiveness?

On a Side note: All of my pads are 6.5 inches. I have a PC 7424. I have been reading this is too big of a pad, but right now it is all I have. I will step to a smaller one once I use these up. Am I wasting my time with all these 6.5 inch pads? I am not a professional detailer, just a hobbyist.

 

you should be fine with m105 on the orange pad, if not step up to yellow and sip and then yellow and m105

 

First up, you are fine with 6.5" pads on your PC as long as you are using a 6" BP. I prefer the 5.25 - 5.75" pads as they are easier to work with. Are the yellow pads the Megs polishing pads or LC compounding?

 

i had issues when i first started it wasn't product / pad . it was how i was using them. i wasn't letting the product break down and was using too much. not sure your skill level so not trying to offend.

detailersdomain has a lot of great videos that show you how slow / how much / what speed etc.

 

Foam and Polish Combinations

All abrasive polishes are ‘foam pad dependant’ as far as their paint correction abilities are concerned. If we consider the Lake County (LC) White foam (50 PPI) polishing pad as the baseline; any polish used will derive help from the abrasive abilities of the foam. Then consider the LC Blue (70 PPI) finishing pad has no abrasive ability and will contribute nothing to the cutting capability of a polish.

What is derived from this is that a polishes abrasive ability can be ‘fine tuned’ by using different combinations (abrasiveness) of polish and foam (the same thing is true of wool pads) and of course differing the amount of downward pressure (10-15 Lbs is the usual range) applied will also have an effect on the abrasives capability

Different pad / product combinations
a) Base pad / product (least abrasive pad / product) if this combination does not provide the desired results, increase the aggressiveness of the technique or product selection.
b) Step-up 1 - using the same pad with a more abrasive product
c) Step-up II – use a less abrasive pad and the same product as used in step-up I
d) Step-up III- using the same pad with a more abrasive product

An extract from “Automotive Detailing, Inside & Out”, a knowledge base for the perfectionist © TOGWT ™ Ltd Copyright 2002-2009, all rights reserved ​

 

I am not a professional. I have done maybe 5 cars in my life. I am using pads from DetailersDomain. According to the website, they are Uber pads. I am using Menz polishes, and I think you may be right about not letting it break down. I did not realize you need to use pea sized drops and work it until it is gone.

I will try this out next time with varying pressure on the pads. If that does not work, I will follow the advice given here.

Thank you guys. I am learning alot on this site.

 

Dont forget about this step

A-0. ) Sign into DB, CLick search, Advanced Search, in the 'Search by user' field type in "togwt". Click Search

 

I am grateful he is responding to my threads. The more I read his posts, the more I agreee with you.

 

Diminishing Abrasives Technology

A non-linear abrasive that require friction - while the majority of polishes on the market use a form of diminishing (non- linear) abrasive, which you polish to a ‘haze’ (when a polish "flashes" from a liquid paste to a light semi-dry haze, much like a coating of Vaseline®) the diminishing polish has then broken down and is ready for removal.

Diminishing abrasives, as the name suggests; t he abrasives become smaller with friction, and therefore go from removing paint defects to polishing the paint, which produces the shine. If you don't break them down sufficiently, you are just grinding those abrasive particles into your paint, without polishing it, which can leave behind marring and other paint surface imperfections.
It is important to know when a

polish has broken down because if you take it too far you will re-introduce surface marring. During the polishing process, trace amounts of paint and / or oxidation is removed; this can cause the debris and the polish to “clump” together. This can cause a haze to the paint surface, a wipe-down or a paint cleaning product will eliminate this.

 

I went back over half of the car yesterday with the technique mentioned above. I used the same Orangepad/SIP combo as I did before, but started with firm pressure/high speed, then switched to low pressure/low speed. This, along with using less polish and a longer working time did the trick.

The car came out looking great. Most of the swirl marks that were left behind previously were removed. Thank you for your repsonses.

 

Knowledge unshared is Experience wasted-glad the suggestions helped

 

i would recomend getting 4" pads and 3.5" backing plate. a lot easier to work on PC with this. since you not doing detailing as side job(even if you do) this would be gread for combo. you will need change your ballancing weight on PC as well. get some wool pads just in case, but you will deff will need to do 3 step with this combo, 2 if you using 203 after wool and 105. be carefull with paint though. on some hard paints wool works great.

way i used it
powergloss and wool
powerfinish and yellow
85rd and white

sometimes 1-2 passes with 203 get good results


also. some defects cant be removed if they are in paint or been painted over

do test panels before doing whole car

 

Yes, I would like to have smaller pads. Unfortunatley everything that I have is 6.5 inch., around 20 pads or so. This includes many pads that are still in the orginal bags! Perhaps I can call phil and talk to him about sending some of the un opened ones back for a smaller size.