Review: SONAX 6.5" Foam Cutting and Polishing Pads

[Mike Phillips]

Review: SONAX 6.5" Foam Cutting and Polishing Pads


New 6.5" Foam cutting/polishing and foam finishing pads from SONAX





Review

The real way to know how good or how great or in the case of really cheap foam pads, how lousy the pads are would be to buff out a couple dozen cars. This is the best way to know the pads and then write a review. We just received these so I'll need some time in order to buff out a few dozen cars using only these pads.

Until then, there was a car in the garage that has neglected paint so I tested one each of these new pads and here's my initial review.

These are really nice pads. They are both somewhat firm, that's normal for a foam cutting pad but out of the norm for a finishing pad. They are thin when compared to most other pads of this diameter and look to be very precision in their cut and bevel. The picture on the packaging shows a RUPES polisher in the background so I used my personal RUPES BigFoot Mark II 21 - it's #16 Production Unit given to me personally from RUPES at SEMA the year they were introduced.

After claying, I compounded using the read foam cutting pad and the polished using the yellow finishing pad and throughout the buffing process they ran smooth and true. They were easy to clean with a pad cleaning brush and seem to play well with the SONAX CutMax and EX 04-06. I also used the red foam cutting pad with the FLEX 3401 today on the car I did the headlight correction and sealing job to and this pad worked just as well on the gear-driven short-stroke polisher known as the BEAST!

SONAX has a reputation of making top shelf product and my initial experience shows these pads are no exception to the rule. I'll have to use more of them over time to share how they hold up to punishment but at this time I would recommend them for any tool that uses a 5.5" to 6" backing plate.

See some pictures of them in action below....



On Autogeek.com


SONAX Red Hard Cutting/Polishing Pad - 165 mm

SONAX Yellow Dual Action Polishing Pad - 165 mm

[Mike Phillips]

Continued....


Can't read German, so I'm not sure what the below means except this red pad is a foam cutting pad and a foam polishing pad, probably just depends on the product you use.





And my guess is this is a foam finishing pad but it's as stout as a foam polishing pad. I'm interested to see how it works with a one-step cleaner/wax.





Roughly 6.5" in diameter...






And approximately 3/4" thin







In case you didn't know, one way to tell a foam cutting pad apart from a foam polishing or finishing pad is to simply run your hand over the face of a CLEAN pad. A foam cutting pad will have a sharp feel to the foam. A polishing and finishing pad will feel much softer to the touch.







SONAX recommend that you dedicate your pads to specific products and don't cross contaminate as you work into the future.

[Mike Phillips]

Continued....


Behind the car is my victim, err I mean test vehicle....





Here's products staged and ready to test....





The overhead lights were washing out the metallic silver paint on the hood as they shined downward so for this test I simply turned them off and used my SCANGRIP Sunmatch Swirl Finder Light for a light source.





After doing a waterless wash to the hood I prepped some clay to clay the paint - this car feels like rough concrete.





Yep... another picture of dirty clay....




Here I've taped the hood down the middle. I'm only going to buff out one half of the hood as we're going to use this for a training car at a Wednesday night class.





ALWAYS CENTER YOUR PADS ON THE BACKING PATE OF YOUR POLISHER

This is very important for the performance of the pad, the tool and the product.

[Mike Phillips]

Continued....


Okay, this is all pretty basic procedure as far as buffing out half a hood and in the process, testing out these pads. You can see I've placed 5 NICKEL sized drops of CUTMAX onto the face of the pad. No priming for long orbit stroke orbital polishers, just dab and go....





Here's the face of the pad after doing 1//3 of the hood....




Here you can see the first area I buffed....





Fresh product....




After doing a second section - now you can really see spent product and removed paint building up... time to clean the pad...





As a rule of thumb, I clean pads after every other section. In a perfect world you would clean pads after EVERY SECTION.





Fresh product and then I buffed out the thin portion of the hood between the raised body line and the edge of the hood next to the passenger side fender. For the angled portion I went up on edge and forced the pad to reverse rotate.




This side is now compounded....





And the results looks amazing! No haze from either the abrasive technology or the pad...





Next up polishing....






You get the idea....

[Mike Phillips]

Continued....

Here's a portion of the EX 04-06 wiped off, paint looks even better after polishing.





Time top seal the deal with SONAX PNS







Here you can see I've applied a thin layer....







Now to gently wipe off the excess PNS





Ahh.... now that's what I'm talking about, crystal clear results, which is what you want when working on CLEAR paint....

[Mike Phillips]

Continued....

Now I'll remove the cover-up towels and we'll take a look at the before and after difference....





BEFORE





AFTER





Before




After - the metallic flake is "popping" (at least that's what Internet detailers call it)





Here's the wall sign reflection on the paint on the driver's side half of the hood....




Here's the wall sign reflection on the paint on the passenger's side half of the hood --> so much more DOI





Now let's remove the tape line....





Before





Down the middle....





After





Looks good to me!


On Autogeek.com


SONAX Red Hard Cutting/Polishing Pad - 165 mm

SONAX Yellow Dual Action Polishing Pad - 165 mm

[WRAPT C5Z06]

Excellent results!!!!!

But $20 for a single pad, no thanks.

[Mike Phillips]

Excellent results!!!!!

But $20 for a single pad, no thanks.

Quality never costs money it make money...



The good news is I sent the link to this thread to all my friends at SONAX so they can read your feedback Mark.

[SWETM]

My first polishing I did with the old version of the Sonax red compounding pad. And used Menzerna FG400 on 21mm longthrow polisher. Did 5 passes on the test spot. A Volvo 740GL '88 with a slightly oxidized red SS paint LOL. Came out a little nicer than before



Will look if I can get the newer thinner pads. You got great results with them Mike! I really like how the red foam pad is finishing. And I would even test with the red foam pad and the Blackfire One Step Finish AIO. On a neglected paint that is

/Tony

[Dr Oldz]

Very nice results. CutMax is truly an amazing compound and one of my current 2 go-to compounds. While I personally do not like to compound with a long throw DA ( I prefer a rotary or the 3401), I will say the clarity after using the polish and yellow pad is rather impressive. Very nice work, Mike!! I have been impressed with every Sonax product I have tried. I’m sure these pads are no different even tho I agree with Mark as these are pricey. Buying 10-14 pads can be a costly adventure compared to other pads on the market.

Can you comment if this paint was on the hard or soft side?