What pad to use (light oxidation with pics)

**bolinger06** · 04-19-2014, 08:46 PM

Hey guys, I just ordered my first detailing kit. I got a griots 6'' DA and an assortment of the lake county pads. My question is what pad do you think I'm going to need for this. I bought the DA thinking it is all I would need with the orange and yellow pads but now i'm wondering if I need to try to get ahold of a rotary and wool pad. I also ordered the purple wool pad for the DA and would like to give that a try if the cutting pads dont work well enough. I have 3m imperial compound, 3m perfect-it polish and the 3m scotchguard marine to finish it off. My question is what do you recommend I start with for pads. I've never dealt with oxidation but from the pictures and research i've done I would consider the boat to have light oxidation and a foam pad should work just fine and there shouldn't be a need for a wool/rotary combo. The boat was just washed with dawn and the yellow is just tape for the buff job. Thanks, Brady

**TopThatDetail** · 04-19-2014, 09:10 PM

It's always recommended to start with the least aggressive pad and work your way up. Btw congrats on your new purchase and welcome to AGO

**bud659** · 04-20-2014, 05:19 AM

Hard to tell by photo but I see some blotchy spots. Looks like the white gelcoat is inconsistent near the bottom. The orange pad should be fine but use an aggressive medium cut polish. Then follow up with a cleaner + wax. Marine31 line has good products

**bolinger06** · 04-21-2014, 08:52 AM

Ya it seems to be just where the water line is mostly. I'm going to compound the bottom half and depending how it turns out I'll just polish the rest of it and then wax. The top half still has some reflection in it so I'mgonna try not to compound if I don't have to.

**bolinger06** · 05-01-2014, 05:44 PM

There's not alot of boat info on this site and I hate to see threads just die out with no end results so here are some progress pics so far. I did a 3 step process with this and there has been a learning curve along the way. First I ordered a Griots Garage 6'' DA and an assortment of lake county pads. My DA came in the mail and i was excited to get started and first thing it did when i turned it on was spark and start smoking like crazy. Right away I callled the company I bought the buffer from and he talked to his Rep with Griots and he gave me a call and had me a new one at my house 2 days later with a return shipping label for the bad one. Will definitely buy from them again. Once I got it I realized I had bought the wrong compounding product from 3M. I bought a compounding/finish polish all in one. I tried it out and it didn't do the trick. I had some left over 3M Superduty compound that I tried and it seemed to work much better. I used that along with the yellow cutting pad from lake county. I tried the purple wool pad they had but didn't like the results compared to the yellow foam pad. I only had to go over a couple 2x2 sections twice that were oxidized worse than others but it all came off. I then used 3m super fine machine polish and the white polishing pad, I couldn't really tell a difference with it from 2 ft away but getting right up next to it I could see it smooth it out. I then finished with 3M scotchguard marine wax. The pictures currently have 1 coat on them but i'm going to put a second coat on tomorrow. When I applied the wax I used the red Griots Garage Wax pad. It was difficult to tell how much I was doing because the scotchguard seemed to go on clear and I'm not exactly sure if I'm suppose to leave it set and wipe it off after a couple of minutes or right away. I did it in sections like the rest and wiped off a minute or 2 afterwards but there was hardly any wax or excess material to wipe off so i'm not sure if i did it correctly or not. I probably have 10 hours wrapped up in this one side. I still have the whole other side to do along with the top but i think it will go quicker since i have a better understanding of what i'm doing now. Thanks, Brady

**blkSRT** · 05-01-2014, 07:02 PM

Looks like it cleaned up well. I like the first after pic.

**Wed Turner** · 05-09-2014, 11:40 AM

Looks good. I have to do my Bayliner 2855 and I am dreading it. I just hope it goes better than expected. What size pads did you use? I have 5.5" pad that I got for working on cars but I am thinking with the large boat sides 6.5" or 7 might be best.