What does "prime the pad" mean?

[Girn]

What does this mean? do i need to do it for optimum compound/polish?

[Meghan]

If someone said prime the pad to me, I would spray it with XMT Pad conditioner.

[Girn]

oh ok.. and i read in another topic (cant remember which one).. that you use less polish if you prime your pad.. is this true? and also do optimum products not react well or something to being primed

[Rsurfer]

When first polishing with a new pad, you will need a little more product to prime the pad. The next panel will need less product as your pad is already primed.

[Girn]

primed as in the pad being saturated with polish? so it requires less on next panels?

[ASPHALT ROCKET]

No, do not saturate the pad.

[Meghan]

primed as in the pad being saturated with polish? so it requires less on next panels?

If that is the case then put some product on the hood and without turning the polisher and rub your pad over the product to well coat the pad. Then you can....:buffing::buffing::buffing:

[Rsurfer]

With OP I normally start out with a 5" line across my pad for the first section. After that I just use 2 pea size drops for each section.

[Keith Harrison]

Basically you want a thin amount something on the pad, be it spray or the actual polish, before you buff full speed. You do not want to "dry buff" the paint.

[Bert31]

primed as in the pad being saturated with polish? so it requires less on next panels?

In a way you have the idea. The surface of the pad will absorb some polish so on your first go in paint correction, you will use twice as much (or more possibly) product to account for this absorption of product. Once the pad has absorbed that initial amount of polish, you will need much last polish on your successive areas to polish. However, I don't know if saturate is the best term because that almost sounds as if you are dumping product on the pad.

[Jimmie]

If someone said prime the pad to me, I would spray it with XMT Pad conditioner.
:iagree: with Meghan. Then I follow that up with pea size drops around the pad and work them in with my finger tips all over the pad. Then apply normally after that.

[Buddy]

Very well put. After I prime my pad. I think that I have to use the same amount all the way through and I keep on wondering why I get so much splatter when I'm not really using that much but it is to much!!! Go figure

[Girn]

i have another question unrelated to the topic.. when your using lets say optimum compound on orange pad, you should run it at speed 6 with 15 pounds of pressure applied, and moving slowly.. now when you run optimum polish on white pad, should you apply less pressure and use a slightly lower speed? how about for poli-seal on white pad?