Largest pads for PE-14 and 3401?

[firstbase]

Getting ready to one step compound/polish and then wax a large boat hull. Want to max out the coverage capability of my PE-14 and 3401. What is the largest size backing plate/pad combo I can reasonably use without getting crazy or hard to control? Large flat to mild curves areas and in good shape. Light oxidation at most. Thanks for any comments.

[Paul A.]

The Flex info on the PE 14 says no larger than 8" pads but I would spin an 8" pad on the PE 14-2-150 all day if I had to.

The largest pad I've used with my 3401 was 6.5". Never tried anything larger and wouldn't want to on that backing plate.

Just my opinions...

[firstbase]

Thanks for the response. What size backing plate would you use on the PE-14 with the 8" pads? The stock BP that comes with it and just let the pads extend out or would you go up a size? Not sure I have seen large plates than the 6". Also, would I see a significant decrease in time spent polishing if I went to the 8" on the PE14? Seems to be the quandry. I'm little more than a novice rotary user so if I use the rotary with the compound/polish I think it would force me to add another step with a final polish before waxing thereby eliminating any time savings. I have been wondering how a two step process of one step compound/polish followed by a one step polish/wax would work. Two steps that would take me from compound to wax. Assuming the products work as advertised. I know that any short cut is going to affect quality but it isn't a show car but a cruising boat. Just need it to look reasonably good and be protected.

[Ronin47]

Just be careful going larger than 6” pads on the PE-14. Both my PE-14’s run crazy hot to the point where you can’t even hold them when using 6.5” pads. With 8” pads I can’t imagine howmuch hotter the machine will run. I now only use 5.5” and no larger than 6” on them. I’ve sent them in to Flex and they said the machines are fine,they can’t find anything wrong.

[Paul A.]

I use a 6" BP with my 7 .5" wool pads. The way i do 2 step corrections is rotary first on a section and then I reach for my Flex 3401 to finish out final gloss. Then move over to the next section. I keep both machines plugged in on my cart and advance around the vehicle that way. My rotary cools down between uses but yes, machine heat is an issue. My pads don't seem to heat up much though. My rotary sits, rests and cools down while I work the Flex.

BTW, the Flex gets very hot as well.

My approach is that a hard clearcoat that's trashed takes at least 2 steps to level down. My rotary does the significant amount of cut but inevitably leaves some stuff to clean up...thus the 3401 DA with a finer polish and pad to extract max gloss and shine.

I had a black Escalade this weekend and with a LOT of paint to cut and buff I do believe I saved some time by going with a 7.5" wool pad and my rotary.

[firstbase]

Thanks guys, appreciate you taking the time to respond. I would think that the whole thing is a balance of speed and energy spent. The 8" pads are 25% bigger than the 6.5"'s but seems to me that it would be more tiring doing the larger pad buffing which would then slow me down and...there goes the time savings! Probably just stick with my 6.5"'s and see how it goes the first time....