Too Much Splatter

[Northwoods]

I recently used a DA polisher for the first time and polished my Tundra. I used the GG G9 with 5" backing plate, 5.5" green LC flat foam pads, and BlackFire One Step.

It took a little getting use to but after a while I got the hang of it. I used 5 pads to do the whole truck. I would condition a new pad by Mike's recommended condition method by apply a couple rings of product to the face of the pad and then smeared it around covering the entire face. I would then use 3 dime/nickle sized drops per panel. I would start off on speed setting 2 to cover the panel with the product and then increase the speed for my section passes. Problem is when I when to speed 5 or 6 I got some bad splattering where product would splatter all over. It would happen when I was on flat horizontal or vertical panel surfaces and when I was working over panel edges or smaller/narrower panel sections like pillars or bumper. Also down pressure on the pad didn't seem to make a difference. Splatter also seemed to be worse when I put on a new pad compared to once I had one nicely lubricated with product.

After this happened maybe 4 times and I took the time to clean all the splatter up each time (royal pain in the a$$), I used speed setting 4 instead of 5 or 6 and it worked MUCH better and I still made sure the pad was rotating. I hardly got any more splatter so I just finished the truck using speed 4 and about 4 to 5 section passes per panel. The pad would rotate better on speed 4 when it was well lubricated with product.

Again I'm brand new to this, so things like down pressure on the pad, amount of product and how far I can make one pad loading go are all new to me. I just have never seen the splatter I was getting on speed 5 and 6 in any of the how to videos on here and was wondering if I was doing something wrong? I did not mask many areas for sake of time but when it splattered on speed 5 or 6 I'm not sure masking would of helped much, product went all over.

The truck turned out well for my first DA polish job, but I'm sure it's far from perfect for many of your standards and I can still see some deeper scratches and swirls but it did certainly correct some. The good news is, it's the best the truck has looked in years and the BF One Step is easy to clean off areas where you don't want it... if it wasn't I'd still be cleaning up splatter.

Any suggestions on my process and what I might do different or if the splatter I was experiencing is common? Is speed 5 or 6 on the G9 higher than on older models? I'm sure I would of polished paint better on speed 5 or 6 but the splatter was too much. Thanks.

[Bruno Soares]

Sounds like your pad was too wet. Maybe too much product on the face of the pad.
I'm assuming you only turned on/off and changed speed while the pad was flat on the surface. If it's lifting it will splatter for sure.

[Desertnate]

Other than polish, your pads are dry aren't they? How much polish are you putting on the pad?

The only time I get splatter is when I mistakenly don't keep the plad flat or put too much polish on the pad. Speed isn't a factor. When doing it right, I've never encountered splatter.

[Northwoods]

Sounds like your pad was too wet. Maybe too much product on the face of the pad.
I'm assuming you only turned on/off and changed speed while the pad was flat on the surface. If it's lifting it will splatter for sure.

Yes, I'm talking about splatter after the pad was against the flat surface and I only changed speeds while against the surface. Some of the splatter was fine specks, some were larger dots, and others were larger splats that were thrown close to the pad.

[Northwoods]

Other than polish, your pads are dry aren't they? How much polish are you putting on the pad?

The only time I get splatter is when I mistakenly don't keep the plad flat or put too much polish on the pad. Speed isn't a factor. When doing it right, I've never encountered splatter.

Yes, completely dry pads. For a new pad, I put 2 rings of product on the pad face and smear it out with my finger until it completely covers the pad face then start on a section. Then for subsequent loadings, I put 3 nickle sized drops per section.

If I'm was working around corners, edges, or narrow panels, a portion of the pad was not touching the surface all the time and I really didn't have any spatter issues on speed 4 but I did wait until I used up most of the product on the flat portion of the section before working the edges.

[oneheadlite]

I’ve found I really don’t spend much time above 4/4.5 on my G9.

Seems like you probably had a bit more product than you needed. You could have just done a ring or two on the pad, then done pad prints on the paint with it, spread at speed 2, then bumped your speed up to actually work the product. Buttering the pad and then adding three drops sounds like a lot.

Also, with a fresh pad, it takes a little bit before the product gets “absorbed in” vs just sitting on the face of the pad. So if you’re going up to speed 5 or 6 in short order I could see where any product near the edges gets flung (especially with that machine).

[Bruno Soares]

I would skip the priming of a foam pad. Go straight with just the dots. Maybe on a fresh pad put one extra dot and carry on. Nickel size might be too big but I hear with All in Ones you want to go heavy so perhaps that's ok. I don't really use AIO products and for normal polishes 3 nickel size drops would be too much IMO.

[camaro2ssblack]

Nickel size blobs are your problem. Back it down to like a Skittle size dot, lol.

[Northwoods]

I’ve found I really don’t spend much time above 4/4.5 on my G9.

Seems like you probably had a bit more product than you needed. You could have just done a ring or two on the pad, then done pad prints on the paint with it, spread at speed 2, then bumped your speed up to actually work the product. Buttering the pad and then adding three drops sounds like a lot.

Also, with a fresh pad, it takes a little bit before the product gets “absorbed in” vs just sitting on the face of the pad. So if you’re going up to speed 5 or 6 in short order I could see where any product near the edges gets flung (especially with that machine).

Thank you. There was definitely a difference between new and "absored in" stage with the pad. Once it was absorbed in, I could control it better although I still got splatter.

[Northwoods]

Thanks for the other replies. I'm going to try to use less product and pay more attention to that which brings up another question on amount of product to use, I think I'll start another thread on that.