DA and pad selection for home use

[m249saw]

Mike

Ive been browsing the forums and have your Ebook and am still confused on what would be a good orbital for home use. On top of this which pads are needed for a non professional.

Ive looked at the Meguire DA kit and even the Rupes just for the fact everything is matched (specific pad to a specific polish, wax etc)

Any help would be great.

Thanks
Kyle

[jvs1991]

Well what are you trying to accomplish on your car?

I have both the griots garage 6in polisher and the meguiars polisher and both get the job done from defect removal to waxing. Can't go wrong with either. The griots does have a lifetime warranty keep that in mind.

If you're looking to just polish your paint here and there and apply wax get a few (3-4) polishing pads and maybe 2 finishing pads. I use the lake country ccs pads which I have no issues with. Others like the hydro tech pads by lake country and the flat pads appear to be good also.

Do you have any waxes or polishes already?

[Evan.J]

Well what are you trying to accomplish on your car?

I have both the griots garage 6in polisher and the meguiars polisher and both get the job done from defect removal to waxing. Can't go wrong with either. The griots does have a lifetime warranty keep that in mind.

If you're looking to just polish your pair here and there and apply wax get a few (3-4) polishing pads and maybe 2 finishing pads. I use the lake country ccs pads which I have no issues with. Others like the hydro tech pads by lake country and the flat pads appear to be good also.

:iagree: And to add I have the G110v2 from Megs and have had nothing but a great experience with it. I have all Megs foam pads and the DA system. As asked above it would be great to know what you want to accomplish. AG offers lots of polisher and pad combos that would be great for you.

[m249saw]

I have two 2012 Subarus, a Forester and an Impreza. As is well known their paint is very soft and I already have lots of swirls.

Currently I only have the newest Pinnacle Sovereign liquid wax. Just ordered some IronX and Pinnacle clay as well. Never done anything more than applying hand wax every few months.

[Mike Phillips]

Mike

Ive been browsing the forums and have your Ebook and am still confused on what would be a good orbital for home use. On top of this which pads are needed for a non professional.

Ive looked at the Meguire DA kit and even the Rupes just for the fact everything is matched (specific pad to a specific polish, wax etc)

Any help would be great.

Thanks
Kyle


Hi Kyle,

On page 78 of either version, the paperback or the e-book, I make a general recommendation targeted at people that are new to machine polishing.



http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/1313/which_jpads.jpg



In a nutshell, the Lake Country 5.5" Flat pads or 5.5" CCS pads are great pads to start with and very capable of tackling most detailing projects.

The thin size and small diameter makes it easy for all of the popular Porter Cable style DA Polishers to maintain pad rotation and these two types of pads are open cell, this makes it easy to wash, rinse and then dry them for future use.

Most people can start out with the basic pads in either style and that would be,

Orange Cutting
White Polishing
Black Finishing

You will tend to want more of the orange and white as these are the pads you'll use to do correction and polishing work and you really only need 1-2 of the finishing pads for either final finish polishing or machine applying a wax.

Some people like to get a blue foam pad and dedicate it just for machine applying a wax and it's a little softer than the black foam finishing pads in these two lines. (CCS and Flat).

I'm a flat pad fan for a number of reasons but you can get great results from ether face design.

As for polishers, I tend to let people make their own choice and get the opinion of others off the forum. They will all get the job done. The Griot's has the most power but really, using good technique I can start and finish the same car in the same time with any of them.


For compounds and polishes, you want to get products that use good abrasive technology, if you look at a lot of the show cars we've buffed out here we use a lot of Pinnacle Advanced Swirl Remover and Finishing Polish but my write-ups in all my project threads showcase top shelf products.


Click the link below and note that for every set of pictures, the LINK to the full write-up, which INCLUDES all the pads, products, waxes and tools used is above the picture sets for each car.


Autogeek Portfolio: Cars I've worked on since coming to Autogeek (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/ask-expert-featuring-mike-phillips/56816-autogeek-portfolio-cars-i-ve-worked-since-coming-autogeek.html)


:)

[m249saw]

Thanks for response Mike. Ill just pick up the Pinnacle twins to go with the Sovereign I already have then.

Guess I need to re read the Ebook lol