How do I prime a Rupes Foam Pad on a Rupes Polisher?

[Mike Phillips]

Prime SMAT products. Otherwise, no need to. I think this is the general consensus?

Hi Mark,

This article is for Rupes pads with Rupes compounds and polishes on Rupes polishers.

It's called... staying on message... something I learned from Mike Pennington while I worked for Meguiar's and something I practice when representing over 70 brands here at Autogeek. It could be easy to blur the lines and go off message as Mike Phillips but that's where discipline kicks in.

People that don't officially represent any company brands can share whatever message they want but I don't fall into that category.

Make sense?

I know people will all find their own way of dialing-in a process that works for them using all types of non-Rupes pads and polishes and in fact Jason Rose told me that the Rupes polisher is a tool Meguiar's is going to support (that means something), but in my position I try really hard to stick to every company's message or official company recommendations.


Also, while I attended the RUPES National Sales Meeting in Italy, which was also a training session for a variety of new products, I was given permission to take pictures but was asked to not share these pictures till given permission and I aim to keep the trust I've earned.

That said, while testing out products at the training session I also watched all the RUPES staff use the various tools and everyone used the method my pictures shows above. That's staying on message.


Not sure when I can share all the other pictures but when I get the wink and nod I'll do so...

[Mike Phillips]

For those that followed the pictures I posted to my Facebook page while I was in Italy you may have already seen these pictures, if not this would be your first time.

These pictures are the clean pictures I took at the training session at the Rupes National Sales Meeting at the Rupes corporate office in Milan, Italy.

By the word clean there's nothing in these shots that show anything....


Here's some of the International Sales Staff watching as Marco D'Inca uses a tool called the Bodelin ProScope HR2 to view surface defects at the microscopic level and share them on the monitor.




Bodelin ProScope HR2
Marco has all the cool toys...








Marco is using it to view and area he just polished as part of the training session...




I don't have the before picture, I was too slow on the camera, but there were a lot of defects in the paint before this shot...





During the break I tried out the ProScope by holding it next to the yellow and blue foam pads.







Here's one of our training cars...






I consider it a real privilege and an honor to have been a guest during their meeting and training session. Had a great time and made a lot of friends....

Luca Valentini, the son of the Presidente Guido Valentini took this picture for me right before leaving the Rupes facilites...




I think I saw Todd Cooperider in the same type of shot so I thought I would keep the tradition going...

[dpk20x]

Also, while I attended the RUPES National Sales Meeting in Italy, which was also a training session for a variety of new products, I was given permission to take pictures but was asked to not share these pictures till given permission and I aim to keep the trust I've earned.

That said, while testing out products at the training session I also watched all the RUPES staff use the various tools and everyone used the method my pictures shows above. That's staying on message.


Not sure when I can share all the other pictures but when I get the wink and nod I'll do so...

Not sure if you can see me Mike but I'm winking and nodding

So feel free to go ahead and post those pictures anytime now

Just kidding of course. Looking forward to the new products ... whatever they may be.

[Atticus808]

what if you are using a different compound/polish with a Rupes pad?

[Mike Phillips]

what if you are using a different compound/polish with a Rupes pad?

The physics will be the same so use the same technique.


Good question...

[Atticus808]

The physics will be the same so use the same technique.


Good question...

thank you

it's just so hard to grasp the concept of NOT priming any Rupes pads lol

[Mike Phillips]

thank you

it's just so hard to grasp the concept of NOT priming any Rupes pads lol

You can get away with it on the smaller cell size foam pads, green, yellow and white, but if you read what I wrote in the first post....

Notice the words,

especially true

Meaning you can you can get away with it on the smaller cell size foam pads, green, yellow and white

This is ESPECIALLY TRUE for the Rupes Blue Coarse Foam Cutting Pads as they have a very large open cell foam structure and if it's very easy for any excess product to sling out and off the pad and end up as splatter dots all over the car and even you if you over use the product.

And I explain why this is more true with the large cell size of the blue cutting pad.


After a few section passes the pads will be self-primed....

Hey everyone can find a way that works for them, I'm showing you what Rupes recommends. That's called staying on message. I work for Autogeek, I represent all the brands Autogeek carries.

People that don't work for AG, or Rupes, or any other company with their own message or recommendations as free agents can post whatever they want but if it's different than the company message it's off-message.

I think I've posted about this elsewhere on this forum...

[Mike Phillips]

Ha ha....

RUPES Evolution

At the time I went to RUPES in Milan, Italy the official recommendation for priming a RUPES pad was three drops of products.








Now days it's 6 drops. From this thread,


Buffing curved panels with NEW RUPES Mark II BigFoot 21 & 15 Polishers







Looks like Todd put on 7 drops. We'll have to start all over...

[dlc95]

Ha!

The Rupes S.P.A. videos they use four dots... Of course they're a few years old.

I like starting with the four, and reloading with two or three on foam pads.

[Mike Phillips]

Ha!

The Rupes S.P.A. videos they use four dots... Of course they're a few years old.

I like starting with the four, and reloading with two or three on foam pads.

It's vitally important no one messes this up... otherwise the car will look like dog doo...