New Polisher! What to do 1st?

[EVOlved]

You can kinda do a whole car with 1 pad.. Just keep cleaning on the fly

Unless you are running at a slow speed and not much pressure. I don't see it ending up well with either the pad or the BP from the heat. You would have to take a 20 minute break between panels for cool down. To each his own..

[Madness87]

That was my thought as well. I ordered pink-white-green-black-blue-red pads. Pretty much all of them except the mildest and the two harshest.

Eh, you always want to use the least aggressive combination to start. No point in taking off more paint/clear than necessary, especially for daily drivers where you know it's inevitable some swirls will return.

I'd start with the white pad and Ultimate Polish, then inspect the swirls, if you need more aggressive, move up to the pink and use ultimate compound. Ideally though, you'd have wanted an orange pad or two.

As for your products, Meguiars makes decent products, even in the consumer line. You will see good results with the UC/UP while you get your technique down. If you need better products, look at Menzerna, Wolfgang, XMT etc.

As for pads, the more you have, the better. Not only do you need to clean less, but it also saves you time if you can switch to a new clean pad and keep continuing.

[AustrianOak82]

You can kinda do a whole car with 1 pad.. Just keep cleaning on the fly

That is what I read, using the terry cloth method. Is there a telltale sign for when the pad needs cleaned?

[ski2]

That is what I read, using the terry cloth method. Is there a telltale sign for when the pad needs cleaned?

I don't know where you have read you can do a whole car with one pad. Most experienced detailers (pro or hobbyist) will suggest you use 4-6 pads for compounding, at least 4 pads for polishing and then maybe one pad for applying your LSP.

If you try to do the entire car with one pad you are setting yourself up for failure. Spent product (compound or polish) and removed clear coat build up saturating the pad. Cleaning on the fly helps cut down on this and allows you to use the pad a little longer, but even then product and clear build up in the pad which makes it less effective and causes heat to build in the pad and then in the backing plate. Eventually you'll see the center of the pad collapse as it becomes overheated.

Ofcourse you could stop and wash the pad after every couple of panels, but then you have to make sure it is absolutely dry or again heat will build in the pad just as if it were saturated with spent product. So it would take forever to finish just one step as you wait for pads to dry.

Why take the chance of investing all this money in a polisher etc only to have poor results.

[AustrianOak82]

I didn't say I could do a whole car with one pad. I figured I would need more than one, I just asked if there was a telltale sign it needed cleaned/switched out. Give me some credit here.

[ski2]

Originally Posted by Kengo123
You can kinda do a whole car with 1 pad.. Just keep cleaning on the fly

That is what I read, using the terry cloth method. Is there a telltale sign for when the pad needs cleaned?

Sorry for the assumption, but from the above post I assumed you were going to try to do the entire car with one pad for each step. Keep in mind we're talking about multiple pads for each step as an example 4-6 orange pads for compounding, 4 white pads for polishing etc.

As far as signs it needs switched--it's hard to state an absolute as it depends on the product, type of paint, condition etc. I use a product that doesn't require much on the pad and I clean on the fly after every other section and find I use 4-6 pads per car for heavy correction -- about four for polishing.

[AustrianOak82]

Originally Posted by Kengo123
You can kinda do a whole car with 1 pad.. Just keep cleaning on the fly

That is what I read, using the terry cloth method. Is there a telltale sign for when the pad needs cleaned?

Sorry for the assumption, but from the above post I assumed you were going to try to do the entire car with one pad for each step. Keep in mind we're talking about multiple pads for each step as an example 4-6 orange pads for compounding, 4 white pads for polishing etc.

As far as signs it needs switched--it's hard to state an absolute as it depends on the product, type of paint, condition etc. I use a product that doesn't require much on the pad and I clean on the fly after every other section and find I use 4-6 pads per car for heavy correction -- about four for polishing.

Gotcha. I guess I will find out Saturday!