Which pads to use with Menzerna Power Finish?

Hello again fellas,

I just ordered some Menzerna Power Finish just to try it out.

Since I am still a beginner at rotary polishing, I think I will try out the Power Finish with my Flex 3401 instead.

Which pad should I use? I am guessing an orange or a white pad?

I'm gonna detail my brother's silver GS430 next week, which only has extremely minor swirls here and there.

I'd really like to hear your opinions.

Thanks

Roman

 

Def start with a white.

 

Definitely white, I use Phil's Uber Blue. Start the first 1-2 passes with more pressure while the abrasives are still large then use the rest of the polishing time to refine the paint. Power Finish is my favorite polish, cuts nice and finishes down great with only finishing pads, I use it for 1-steps all the time.

 

Usually white or green for me. On occasion I will use orange when I need more punch and seems to work well.

 

I just used a green pad. Did the job. Love the PF.

 

How many passes do you guys normally do for a 1 step to get rid of swirls from drying?

 

Swirls from drying??? Do you mean polish from drying?

 

He means swirls that were the result of drying the car
.
I do enough passes to dry the PO203S completely and wipe off and take a look.
If it needs another set of passes, then I do it again.

Have just finished detailing out a 2001 Honda CR-V Silver Metallic, 171,800 miles, had a ton of embedded dirt in the paint that actually protected it those 10 years and uber-miles. A lot of Clay Magic Blue Bar took the dirt out. and left the paint finish dull, but healthy. I used the Lake Country Cyan Hydro-Shred Pad x 2, the Tangerine Hydro-Shred x 1 and the finish is absolutely beautiful, great metallic showing, smooth, etc...

All Flex PE14-250 Rotary Power, This Menzerna product has a cut of 3.5 out of 5 and just about took out everything with the above pad combo, except for a few medium scratches, where I used a Purple 3" 3M Foam pad with the same product, and the scratches were history...

Menzerna says the Gloss Level of this product is 3.8 out of 5, but on this Honda paint, it looks like a 5+ right now. Imagine what a jeweling with PO106FA - cut = 2.5, gloss = 5 and a softer pad would do!

Dan F

 

Thank you so much for the help guys,

Do you guys have good success with PF and black finishing pads? Most of my family's car's I already corrected, so just looking to see if I should order some more PF to use in the future with a black pad maybe once a year to get any new minor swirls out without removing too much clearcoat. Is PF good for that if used wit ha black pad or should i get Super Finish instead?

 

I have used PF with every pad from black, green, white, orange and yellow. If the swirls are very light, I'd use 106 (Super Finish ) as it will leave a bit nicer finish than Power Finish. If you are doing a one step on a clients car, you can use it with Uber Yellow or green with great success.

 

+1 with Ken -

The Power Finish has a cut of 3.5, gloss of 3.8, the PO106FA Super Finish = cut - 2.5, gloss - 5

I have all my personal vehicles paint set so that I only use PO106FA on them now to detail them for the year, and if I have time, and want to amp it up a little more, go to PO85RD cut = 1, gloss = 5, with a Hydro Crimson pad.

Dan F

 

Very nice! Thanks for the help.

 

uber blue first, if you need more cut uber green pad.

 

I am surprised that a blue pad would do any type of cutting at all Phil. Isn't that the softest pad you have? Or was black the softest uber pad?

 

the black pad is the wax pad.

 

We should point out that these numbers are based on a scale of 1-5, not 1-10. Power Finish does cut quite well.

 

I think its the fact that Powerfinish on a blue pad would be basically the polish only doing the defect removal. With B&S(uber) green, you start getting into additional mechanical action. I think DD was going on the least aggressive first idea.


When you start looking at foams like Buff and Shine(uber) the finishing pads (blue then black) don't offer that much difference between themselves. We are looking at a difference of 10ppi between the blue and black(they are 70ish and 80ish) respectively and to a human, you simply will not see a difference. Green which is 60ppi then black which is 80ppi would be an appreciable difference... so just keep this in mind

Black pads(and blue for that matter) are simple finishing pads, they don't need to be wax or sealant only and 80ppi foam is a VERY popular finishing porosity for a lot of detailers out there. You can work your finishing polishes with either black or blue and EVEN apply wax/sealant etc.. with black or blue it seriously will make no difference in the finish aside from improving it slightly regardless of the pad(and really you could finish polish with 80ppi black , then apply wax/sealant with 70ppi blue) - it only helps burnish at the higher porosity.

Mike

 

For one steppers I have used LC Orange and White as well as Buff and Shine Green and Yellow

 

I agree 100% which is why we only sell the Yellow, Green and Black. The Uber ( B&S ) pads work really well so there is no point to having five different ones. Keep it simple.

 

What speed should I use Power Finish with a 3401 Flex? 4-5?