Newbie Pad Cleaning Question

[B8TTYVILLE KID]

So...........not understanding I would need multiple pads of the same type to buff my car I received my PC kit today and it only came with one orange and one black pad. (just like I ordered) After doing a little lurking around here I now realize that when you buff the car out you all use a number of pads to complete the car and you have to clean the pads off during the process. I will order multiple pads but I cant wait to at least give this a try on the hood. So my questions are
1) how do I know when to clean the orange pad ?
2) Think I can buff the hood of a Pontiac G8 without having to clean the pad ?
3) if I use the "on the fly" method of holding a towel while the buffer is spinning to clean the pad do I put water on it first or just hold the towel to it and then get back to buffing
4) how do you know when the pad is clean enough

Thanks

[SheldonH]

I recently purchased some pads(my first ones) and i ran into the same problem. After some research i just gave it a shot. I was doing a minor paint correction on a large black suv. I polished the whole car using one pad, and i used the microfiber technique after every panel or so. While I know it would be best to put a new pad on half way or so, this worked fine for me, and i achieved great results. So in your case, purchase a few more, but i think as long as your cars paint is not terrible you should be ok

[B8TTYVILLE KID]

Thanks

[shoeless89]

So...........not understanding I would need multiple pads of the same type to buff my car I received my PC kit today and it only came with one orange and one black pad. (just like I ordered) After doing a little lurking around here I now realize that when you buff the car out you all use a number of pads to complete the car and you have to clean the pads off during the process. I will order multiple pads but I cant wait to at least give this a try on the hood. So my questions are
1) how do I know when to clean the orange pad ?
2) Think I can buff the hood of a Pontiac G8 without having to clean the pad ?
3) if I use the "on the fly" method of holding a towel while the buffer is spinning to clean the pad do I put water on it first or just hold the towel to it and then get back to buffing
4) how do you know when the pad is clean enough

Thanks

A lot depends on the type of pad. CCS pads use open cell technology so they hold a lot more product. I clean those much more often, about every or every other section. Flat pads use closed cell technology so they don't need to be cleaned quite as much but still important that you do. The whole premise about changing pads as you polish out a car is a new pad cuts much better then one that's been used for a while. Also used pads soak up a lot of polish and can wear out prematurely from all the heat and extra weight of the polish. I hope that makes sense lol

1 pad if for sure enough to clean just the hood. Out of all the pads available, you have to change out hydrotech pads more then any other and you would be able to do the hood with 1 hydrotech (1 for each step, compounding, polish, then sealant/wax).

Do NOT put water on the pad when you clean it with the "on the fly" technique. The goal isn't to get it super clean, just to remove some of the excess polish and stuff that has accumulated on the pad. This just helps the pad retain its cutting ability and not to prematurely degrade. If you look at the pad before and after you've cleaned it, you should know when its clean enough. Most of the cells of the pad should be much more clear. Hope that helps!

[Mike Phillips]

Clean your pad after every section pass or after every other section pass, here's why,


Why it's important to clean your pads often... (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/tricks-tips-techniques/28755-why-s-important-clean-your-pads-often.html)


ANYTIME you're abrading the surface whether you're using an aggressive cutting compound of an ultra fine polish, you have two things building up on the face of your buffing pad...

Spent product
Removed paint
You need to remove both of these substances from the face of the pad and the panel you're working on before you apply fresh product. If you don't,

Adding fresh product to spent product and removed paint adulterates the fresh product, it also dilutes it.
Buffing with a dirty pad will be more difficult.
The product will cake-up on the face of the pad.
The product will become gummy on the paint and hard to wipe off.
How to clean your pads and other options to make buffing clean again...

You can scrub the face of the pad with a nylon brush like a pad conditioning brush or even a nylon toothbrush
If using a Dual Action Polisher or a Rotary Buffer you can clean your pad on the fly (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/how-articles/20135-how-clean-your-foam-pad-fly-when-using-porter-cable-style-da-polisher.html) with a terry cloth towel
You can wash your pads in a bucket of water
You can wash your pads in a sink under running water
You can wash your pads in a pad washer
You can switch to a clean, dry pad
You can switch to a brand new pad
I just buffed out half the hood on an oxidized 1959 Cadillac and used the technique along with a nylon brush and it works adequately enough to allow me to work clean and get back to work quickly.


That's the whole idea behind cleaning your pad on the fly... you can remove a majority of the spent product and removed paint and then get back to running the buffer... buffing out an entire car already takes a l-o-n-g time... stopping to do some kind of pad cleaning procedure that isn't quick and easy keeps you from buffing on the paint.


Fast methods include,

Pad Washers
Cleaning your pad on the fly with a terry cloth towel
Using a nylon pad conditioning brush
Using a Spur if you're using a wool pad on a rotary buffer


Slow methods, (they might work well but they take you away from buffing on the car)

You can wash your pads in a bucket of water
You can wash your pads in a sink under running water



Here's one way to clean your pads when using a PC style polisher,


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.


This is me using the Clean your Pad on the Fly Technique to clean my pad on the fly as we removed the oxidation off this Neon (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/show-n-shine/31073-dodge-neon-extreme-makeover-dodo-juice.html).

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/994/EODodgeNeon010.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/994/EODodgeNeon011.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/994/EODodgeNeon012.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/994/EODodgeNeon013.jpg



:xyxthumbs:

[Mike Phillips]

I show the terry cloth towel technique about half way through this video


Video: How to remove shallow RIDS and how to machine apply both a paint sealant and a finishing wax (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/show-car-garage-how-videos/48365-video-how-remove-shallow-rids-how-machine-apply-both-paint-sealant-finishing-wax.html)


:xyxthumbs:

[B8TTYVILLE KID]

Thanks so much. These were very helpful