Whole car with 4 inch pads?

[stonedpirate]

Hello

I am in Australia and getting detailing supplies has proven difficult :P

I want to order a dual action polisher that comes with 5,5" pad but the 5" backing plate is out of stock. Then i go for the kit with 6.5" pads and they are in a brand i dont want.

Ideally, i would get 5.5 with a 5 backing plate but for some reason, australia only has 3 5.5 pads in stock for 1997. :P

Anyway, I am detailing one car abut 3 times per year so am not worried about taking a few extra hours each time to do it.

Other than the time factor, would color correcting, polishing etc with 4 inch pads have any down sides?

Any reason for not doing it?

As far as i can tell, 4" pads are cheaper, they milk more power out of the lower end buffers and are easier to clean.

Anything i'm not seeing here? How significant is the time loss from going 4"?

Thanks for any advice

[Setec Astronomy]

You can do that. It's hard to quantify the time penalty...it might take you twice as long. Only other thing is while you are "milking more power" out of the buffer, there is also a higher chance of burn-through.

All in all you can do it, it will be fine, etc.

[parttimer]

Yes, slow and possible. Also I believe there will be a downforce difference if I recall correctly. By pressing down with 15lbs on a 4" pad, you are applying more pressure per square inch than you would be applying to a 5.5 or 6.5" pad. So you may get better faster results on the smaller area if you use the same pressure.

[Tato]

You can do it, for sure, but it'll take a lot of time (I wouldn't mind at all if time is not a concern).

My best recommendation for you, when polishing using 4" pads, is to not do it 'in a hurry'.

Since 4" pads are really small, and a car is 'really big', you'll have to pay HUGE attention to OVERLAP your passes properly.

That said, do your best to overlap at least 50% of last pass, preferable 75% since with such small pads, it'll be likely you may miss many spots on the long journey.

1 spot in an area may be nothing, but if you sum up all the spots you may miss, ...

That's why it can take a long time. If you overlap your passes properly, do it slow and carefully, you'll get impressive results at the end.

Just a suggestion, please, let us know what are your thoughts.

Kind Regards.

[Guessless]

I'd stick to 5.5" for the car and 4" or 3/3.5" ones for tight areas. A 5" backing plate should weight no more than 200-250 grams or 7-8 ounces and it wouldn't cost much to ship it from the USA to Australia. While you are at it get a 3 and/or 3.5" plate at the same time and have'em shipped together, you'll be happy to have those handy down the road.

[Rsurfer]

What DA are you buying? If it's a PC wait for the 5" backing plate or get it from someone else. IMO unless you are polishing a motorcycle, jet ski or something small, you will take forever to get the job done. It's like cutting down a big tree with a hand saw. Like Guessiess suggested, pay the price and get it from the US or the UK.

[Dr_Pain]

I am right with Rsurfer, it depends on the DA.

Remember that the 4" pad will increase your work and will have more chances of overheating and will have the slight disadvantage of premature wear over a larger pad (due to the overlap footprint Tato was talking about). Can it be done?? yep! Would I do it? Not a chance! It makes no business sense from a time management nor financial reasoning standpoint because although you are saving on the cost of the pad, you will need more pads to do the work and will wear through them faster (the pads being responsible for more relative surface area)

[Tato]

I am right with Rsurfer, it depends on the DA.

Remember that the 4" pad will increase your work and will have more chances of overheating and will have the slight disadvantage of premature wear over a larger pad (due to the overlap footprint Tato was talking about). Can it be done?? yep! Would I do it? Not a chance! It makes no business sense from a time management nor financial reasoning standpoint because although you are saving on the cost of the pad, you will need more pads to do the work and will wear through them faster (the pads being responsible for more relative surface area)

What he said. :iagree:

Like I've said, can be done, but it's far from the optimal way of doing this.

The considerations regarding you'll need to switch pads more often (due to spent product and 'paint' building up faster when on smaller pads), going through a lot more pads is also spot on.

Kind Regards.

[stonedpirate]

Thanks guys.

I never considered importing from the US so i guess that increases my options greatly :)

Cheers

[chet31]

I'm not sure 4" pads would that much slower for heavy correction. My PC does not correct that quickly w/ 5.5" pads. With 3" pads, I get better rotation and correction. So, I correct a smaller area w/ the 3" pads, but the correction goes faster in that smaller area.

The 5.5" pads are good for final polishing and sealant/wax application. I think my PC would be too underpowered to do much with the 6.5" pads.

OP, if you can spare the cash, you could go with the 3 or 4" pads for now. They are great for tight areas, bumpers, etc. Then at a later date, you could get into the 5.5" pads.

[HateSwirls]

If you have the time the four inch pads will work fine, just make sure to overlap, that's what slows the process down but go for it:)