How to clean your foam pad on the fly

[turbos17]

I'm assuming this speed and method will work with the Flex 3401?


Any DA polisher! I have even used my old PC @ speed 6 and boy did my arm get a workout holding the towel. LOL! :laughing:

[zinc02gt]

Any DA polisher! I have even used my old PC @ speed 6 and boy did my arm get a workout holding the towel. LOL! :laughing:


Lay it on the ground and use your feet to hold down the corners. Yes, this technique only allows you to use one side of the towel, but I wouldn't clean on the fly with the same pad more then twice anyway.

[Mike Phillips]

Lay it on the ground and use your feet to hold down the corners.


I've never done it this way and never seen it done this way, seems like you would really be bending over as far as you could to hold the face of the pad against the towel. Besides that the ground is hard and flat and part of the cleaning action from cleaning your pad on the fly comes from your hand squeezing the pad somewhat with the towel. But hey if that method works for you then it's the right method.



Yes, this technique only allows you to use one side of the towel,


And for anyone reading this, just to explain, if you place one side of a towel against the ground it would now be contaminated with dirt and abrasive particles that you wouldn't want to hold against the face of your buffing pad and you would want to hope would wash out 100% clean in the washing machine.




but I wouldn't clean on the fly with the same pad more then twice anyway.


How often I clean a pad on the fly just depends upon how many pads I have to work with, I only have one cleaning or polishing pad I'm going to be cleaning it over and over again.

The towel will get used up and you'll want to replace it often, kind of depends upon how large the towel is. Hand towels size work pretty good like the ones I show on page 1 of this thread.


:)

[WRAPT C5Z06]

How to clean your foam pad on the fly (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/how-articles/20135-how-clean-your-foam-pad-fly.html)


When using a dual action polisher to remove below surface defects with any type of abrasive product you’re going to have two things building up on the face of the foam pad that you need to clean off.

Spent residue - From the product you’re using.
Paint - Small particles of paint that are coming off the car as you abrade the surface



If you’re working on a clear coat finish then keep in mind you won’t see the paint residue building up on the pad because the clear coat paint is clear. :idea:

Make sense?


If you’re working on a clearcoat finish, all you're going to see is the color of the product that you’re using. For example if you’re using a white colored polish you’ll see white residue building-up on the pad.

Now if you’re working on as single stage paint then you’ll see the color of the paint on the car on the face of your foam pad,. For example if you’re working on a single stage yellow paint system then you’ll see yellow paint on the face of your foam pad.

The important thing to understand is that as you work on the car with your polisher you’re going to be removing a little paint and there’s going to be used-up product and paint building-up on the face of the foam pad. It's important to clean this gunk off your pad often.

So the question is, how to you clean this gunk off the pad?

The answer is there’s a number of ways to clean your foam pad, the three most common are,

Pad Washer
Nylon Brush or Pad Cleaning Brush
Terry Cloth Towel

Out of the 3 options listed above, cleaning your pad on the fly is probably the most popular because it’s fast, and most people have a terry cloth towel in the linen closet that they can use to clean the pad.

The best way to clean a pad is with a pad washer but before you can use a pad washer you must first own one. Pad washers are worth their weight in gold if you buff cars out with any kind of regularity. If however you’re just buffing out your own personal cars, then chances are you don’t own a pad washer but chances are very good you do own a terry cloth towel or two that you can use to clean your pads on the fly.

Brushes work good if you’re using a rotary buffer but the only way you can use one with DA Polisher is to turn the polisher off, hold the polisher and pad in such a way that the pad won’t spin and then rub the brush over the face of the pad to scrape off the residue.

While this works, it means turning the polisher off, (now you're not buffing out the car, remember the time issue?) and grabbing your brush and then brushing the pad. Nothing wrong with this but when you consider how long it already takes to do the cleaning step, (about 4-6 hours for an average size car and that’s if your good at this and if you work fast and don’t take any breaks. So stopping the polisher and using a brush to clean the pad works but it’s not as fast or effective as using a terry cloth towel.

The whole idea and success behind the cleaning your pad on the fly technique is in that it allows you to clean your pad quickly, (that’s the on the fly part), and then quickly get back to work.

Again, buffing out an entire car using a dual action polisher from start to finish is an all day job. There is no time for lollygagging. If you lollygag or take long breaks, you either won’t get the job done in one day or you’ll sacrifice doing a quality job during the cleaning step in order to get to the waxing step so you can put the car back into service. :dunno:



So let’s take a look at how to clean your pad on the fly

Cleaning your pad on the fly is where you take a terry cloth towel, usually a medium size hand towel works best, you fold it in two and then simply hold the towel against the face of the pad and then turn the polisher on and use your hand that’s holding the towel to push the towel into the foam. This will act to draw any excess liquid out of the foam and any excess residue off of the face of the pad.


After polishing a section of the trunk lid on Harvey,

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/719/Harvey.jpg


Max's classic 1964 Ford Falcoln Future, we took a brand new 100% Cotton Terry Cloth Towel and held it against the face of the foam pad and then turned the polisher on and pushed and smooshed the towel against the pad for about 45 seconds or so and here are the results.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/719/CleaningPadOnTheFly004.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/719/CleaningPadOnTheFly005.jpg



Question: Why use terry cloth instead of microfiber?

Answer: Great question!

100% cotton terry cloth is very good at absorbing liquid, so when you push the terry cloth into the foam the liquid in the foam will transfer into the terry cloth fibers through capillary action where the cotton fibers will more or less hold or trap the liquid inside of themselves.

There’s more to it than that however, the nap of terry cloth, that is the little cotton loops, will help to slice into the caked and gummy reside which will loosen its hold so the residue will transfer to the towel as well as some will fall to the ground.

Compared to most microfiber polishing cloths with a nap, not the type that has flat woven surface, the terry cloth nap, (the nap is the the little tiny loops of cotton fiber), is more stout and it’s this extra stoutness that enables a large, nap terry cloth towel to work better to break-up the residue on the pad.

So it’s both the absorbency of the cotton fibers plus the larger size of the cotton nap that together make a terry cloth towel better for cleaning your pad on the fly.

Does that make sense?

The nap of 100% Cotton Terry Cloth Toweling
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/719/TerryClothNap.jpg

Conversely, isn’t one of the reasons microfiber polishing cloths are so popular for wiping paint is because the fibers are microscopic in size and thus are more gentle to paint than larger cotton fibers? (The answer is “yes”)

You can use what you like and make up your own mind. Besides the case I’ve made above for using terry cloth another reason is to save your microfibers for where they excel best and that’s wiping residues off polished paint.

Some might also make the case that 100% cotton is better at absorbing while microfiber materials are better at adsorbing but that’s probably getting just a little too deep for what is actually a very simple method of cleaning your foam pads while buffing out a car.

Try both the next time you’re working on a car and come to your own conclusion but for me I’ll use terry cloth towels for removing residues off my pads and I’ll save my microfibers for carefully cleaning residues off paint.


Question: What about pad cleaning brushes?

Answer: I touched briefly on this above, but let's drill down a little deeper. Pad cleaning brushes or even a nylon toothbrush work great for cleaning residue off the face of a foam pad when the foam pad is on a rotary buffer but they don't work well at all when the pad is on a dual action polisher.

About the best you can hope for is to clean the very center of the pad when the tool is turned on but as you draw the bristles of the brush towards the outside of the pad the increased pressure over a small area, (the bristles of the brush pushing down on the foam), is enough pressure to engage the clutch in the tool and stop the pad from rotating.

The brush only cleans the pad if the pad is rotating. Thus brushes don't work well for cleaning pads on dual action polisher when you're trying to clean the pad while the polisher is turned on. Give it a try sometime and you'll see exactly what I mean.

For years when someone asks about the cheapie rotary buffers you can buy at Harbor Freight for buffing out paint, I would always mention that if nothing else, they make a great pad cleaner. That is take your dirty pads and one at a time place them on the backing plate of the rotary buffer and then use the rotary buffer to clean your pads. Rotary Buffers are direct drive tools and have a lot of power and a little brush held against the face of the pad isn't enough to slow the tool down so they work great for cleaning pads as well as removing a lot of paint quickly if you're using a RB to buff-out paint.


The cleaning your pad on the fly technique works well for all the popular dual action polishers on the market including,

Porter Cable 7424XP
Porter Cable 7424
Porter Cable 7336
Ultimate Detailing Machine – The first generation was Autopia’s design. The second generation is a re-badged Porter Cable 7424
Meguiar’s G100a – Re-badged Porter Cable 7424, came with a lifetime warranty
Meguiar's G100 – Re-badged Porter Cable 7424, came with a 1 year warranty.
Meguiar’s G110 – Meguiar’s design
Meguiar’s G220 – Meguiar’s design – 220 Volts
Griot’s Garage Professional Random Orbital Polisher – Griot’s design

Products mentioned

Dual Action Polishers
Porter Cable 7424XP (http://www.autogeek.net/porter-cable-7424xp.html)
Meguiar’s G110 (http://www.autogeek.net/meguiars-dual-action-polisher-g110.html)
Griot’s Garage Professional Random Orbital Polisher (http://www.autogeek.net/griots-random-orbital-polisher.html)

Pad Washers
System 2000 Pad Washer (http://www.autogeek.net/system-2000-pad-washer.html)
http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/autogeek_2069_56035322


Grit Guard Universal Pad Washer (http://www.autogeek.net/grit-guard-universal-pad-washer.html)
http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/autogeek_2066_109373346


Pad Brushes

The Edge Foam Pad Conditioning Brush (http://autogeek.net/padtool.html)
http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/autogeek_2066_96817874

Duo-Spur at Autogeek (http://www.autogeek.net/spur100.html)
http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/autogeek/duospur2.jpeg

Cobra Detailing Brush Kit (http://www.autogeek.net/pindetbruski.html)
http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/autogeek_2068_207913



Further Reading
Tips & Techniques for using the Porter Cable 7424XP (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/rough-draft/20021-tips-techniques-using-porter-cable-7424xp.html)


Resources
Autogeek Online Detailing Forum (http://http#37;3A//www.autogeekonline.com/)
Autogeek Online Store (http://www.autogeek.net/)

:xyxthumbs:
Mike,

How did you get a perfect circle on the terry cloth towel? When I tried it, the other parts of the towel would get wrapped up within a second of turning the polisher on.

[A4 1.8tqm]

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/719/CleaningPadOnTheFly004.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/719/CleaningPadOnTheFly005.jpg

Mike, in your technique, do you lay the terry towel on the pad, place your hand against it applying pressure to absorb excess liquid/residues and let the towel spin with the pad? Or how do you keep the towel from spinning? That's what the above pics make it look like, I imagined wrapping the terry around 2-3 fingers and pressing against the moving pad to breakup the polish/paint buildup. TIA:xyxthumbs:

[Harleyguy]

Mike,

How did you get a perfect circle on the terry cloth towel? When I tried it, the other parts of the towel would get wrapped up within a second of turning the polisher on.


Mike, in your technique, do you lay the terry towel on the pad, place your hand against it applying pressure to absorb excess liquid/residues and let the towel spin with the pad? Or how do you keep the towel from spinning? That's what the above pics make it look like, I imagined wrapping the terry around 2-3 fingers and pressing against the moving pad to breakup the polish/paint buildup. TIA:xyxthumbs:What i learn to do taught by MIke is Hold the terry in the palm of you hand place the pad on top of the and hold the towel against the pad while you turn on the machine need to hold it fairly firm so it doesn't get pulled out of you hand.Like 07 said if not the towel can get wrapped up.

[anson89]

What i learn to do taught by MIke is Hold the terry in the palm of you hand place the pad on top of the and hold the towel against the pad while you turn on the machine need to hold it fairly firm so it doesn't get pulled out of you hand.Like 07 said if not the towel can get wrapped up.

I tried this on the Flex today at speed 4. My towel just spins with the buffer and eventually got stuck, I had to pull it out by force. So that means, I have to hold and press it firmly to the point where it doesn't move?

[A4 1.8tqm]

I still can't figure out how, with an open palm, you can keep the towel from spinning with the pad. Wrap the corners around thumb/pinky? I think a video is in order. :D:D

[Mike Phillips]

I just hold the towel in my hand and then against the face of the pad.

I've been demonstrating this for years in front of large groups of people and practice doing it in a way to show a circle of transferred spent product and removed paint residue because that type of picture creates a mental anchor that drives the point home.

We're shooting a new video Saturday and I'll see if we can do a clean your pad on the fly video...


:)

[A4 1.8tqm]

We're shooting a new video Saturday and I'll see if we can do a clean your pad on the fly video...

That would be great info for the forum, Thanks!

[Harleyguy]

I tried this on the Flex today at speed 4. My towel just spins with the buffer and eventually got stuck, I had to pull it out by force. So that means, I have to hold and press it firmly to the point where it doesn't move? I don't clean my pads on the fly while using the flex.Cleaning the pad on the fly i believe is more used with a pc .I don't think you can really hold a towel against a flex Bp without it getting ripped out of your hand .Maybe Mike can chime in on that.

[A4 1.8tqm]

I don't think you can really hold a towel against a flex Bp without it getting ripped out of your hand. Maybe Mike can chime in on that.

:doh: That's why it doesn't work for me...Flex=Forced rotation :doh:

[Harleyguy]

:doh: That's why it doesn't work for me...Flex=Forced rotation :doh:It's four months now, need to change the number :dblthumb2:

[A4 1.8tqm]

It's four months now, need to change the number :dblthumb2:

:laughing: You really ARE keeping your eye on me huh? :help:

Well my confusion is gone, thanks Harleyguy and Mike. I was in the other room with my Flex in one hand and a terry cloth towel in the other... Why won't this work for me... LOL

[Mike Phillips]

Cleaning the pad on the fly i believe is more used with a PC .

Maybe Mike can chime in on that.



Be happy to...

The original article I wrote on "How to clean your pad on the fly" was targeted at cleaning pads one the fly while use a Porter Cable DA style polisher, that would include,

Porter Cable 7424XP and all Porter Cable variations of this model
The Griot's Garage Random Orbital Polisher
The Meguiar's G110v2 and all variations of this mode

It's also a way you can clean a foam pad on a rotary buffer but you want to be careful so you don't hurt yourself by getting your towel caught into the spinning pad and pulling your hand into the mix at the same time.

We'll shoot a video on both techniques tomorrow.





I don't think you can really hold a towel against a flex Bp without it getting ripped out of your hand .



Correct.

You can't hold a towel against a foam pad on the Flex 3410 in the same way you would for a DA style polisher, it will simply be pulled out of your hand and flung into the air or onto the ground.


Lets go back and take a look at how we got to this point of the discussion on the topic of using the cleaning your pad on the fly technique in this thread...

07 z-oh-6 posted, (Note the part I made bold and blue


Mike,
How did you get a perfect circle on the terry cloth towel?

When I tried it, the other parts of the towel would get wrapped up within a second of turning the polisher on.



07 z-oh-6 didn't mention what type of polisher he was using. From the thread I think it became apparent he was referring to a Flex 3401.


Now lets go look at my original post to this thread, after the blue clickable link, which I start all my article with so the title of the article can be quickly highlighted and copied and then pasted into any message on any forum on the Internet to link back to the article, (a speed and efficiency thing), the first sentence starts out...





How to clean your foam pad on the fly (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/how-articles/20135-how-clean-your-foam-pad-fly.html)

When using a dual action polisher



Now I know that a segment of online enthusiasts will argue that a Flex 3401 is DA Polisher, that is a Dual Action Polisher and some will go on on rants about how it's one of the only true dual action polishers, in the context of this how-to article I was referring to the Porter Cable "STYLE" of polishers and if you look down towards the end of my article, you'll see I even list most if not all the specific models this article applies too.





The cleaning your pad on the fly technique works well for all the popular dual action polishers on the market including,

Porter Cable 7424XP
Porter Cable 7424
Porter Cable 7336
Ultimate Detailing Machine – The first generation was Autopia’s design. The second generation is a re-badged Porter Cable 7424
Meguiar’s G100a – Re-badged Porter Cable 7424, came with a lifetime warranty
Meguiar's G100 – Re-badged Porter Cable 7424, came with a 1 year warranty.
Meguiar’s G110 – Meguiar’s design
Meguiar’s G220 – Meguiar’s design – 220 Volts
Griot’s Garage Professional Random Orbital Polisher – Griot’s design




I actually never recommended the "How to clean your pad on the fly technique" for other types of polishers. I know that in our society people are "Scanners", I do my best to break up my text with plenty of white space, write short paragraphs not huge clumps of text and place bold headings on top of paragraphs that tell the reader what the rest of the text will be about but it's all to easy for people to scan and not read the entire article.

If you're using a Flex 2401 and you need a way to clean your pad as your work around the car there are some options.


Turn the polisher off and scrape any built-up residue off using a nylon brush like a toothbrush
Use a pad washer like the Grit Guard Universal Pad Washer
Turn the polisher off and use a terry cloth towel bunched up in one hand and scrub any residue off.
Switch to a clean, dry pad
Remove your pad off the Flex and place it either on a DA Polisher or a Rotary Buffer to clean your pads using the the methods that work best with each of these tool.


The really cool feature about the Flex 3401, that is the FORCED ROTATION dual action motion of the buffing head which give it more power to remove defects than the Porter Cable style polisher but with less risk than a Rotary buffer also means that it doesn't work well for the "Clean your pad on the Fly" technique.

And that's just how it is...


:)