Flex 3401 backing plate surgery

[tuscarora dave]

Hi all.. Ever since I started detailing I have tweaked my process, products and tools in order to produce better results faster and now that I am doing this for a living self improvement is more important than ever. I am admittedly hard on tools, pads and will push my tools to the limit and even modify them as needed to get the job done faster and with great results. Thinking outside of the box has never been a problem for me.

I have found as most Flex owners have that this tool (3401 VRG) is a bullet proof machine, tough as nails construction and will hold up to some serious abuse as I have found out when polishing out some commercial vehicles. I have done an all aluminum Grumman Olson truck that required me to push real hard into rivets and edges etc. etc. I have also machine applied a cleaner wax to a few buses per week for a while now with this machine. The Flex 3401 VRG has passed the extreme torture test with flying colors and I am convinced that no average detailer will ever break this tool. Those are some pretty positive and passionate claims huh? Yes they are, and with not an ounce of exaggeration either.

However, there is one thing that I absolutely hate about the 3401 VRG. That one thing is the hook and loop material on the backing plate. It seems that Lake Country has the polishing pad market cornered, most suppliers that are selling pads are selling LC pads with their name printed on them and I have not been too thrilled with many of them except for the Variable Contact pads that LC makes for Poorboy's World and I can actually get them from a local dealership supplier but they are the larger size pads. I like them because of the way the pads have a double glued plastic backer with the loop side of the hook and loop on the plastic backer. S.M. Arnold and a few other manufacturers use a similar pad making process and they do not come unglued from the foam no matter how hard you work them.

The problem though is that the Flex hook and loop is not a good match for the LC pads or other great pads that I have found. I can't tell you how many times I have been frustrated when the pad gets off centered or completely flies off of the machine while attempting to polish a curve or the crown of a fender. However the hook and loop of the LC backing plates have a superior bond with all of the pads that I have owned.

I had an LC 6.5 inch backing plate that I got from PB that I will never use on a DA (too big) so I thought it would make a good donor for this project. So here is a write up of the process with pictures of the hook and loop transplant project.

This first pic will show how hard my Flex polisher gets used.



First I used a single edged razor blade to slice as far in behind the hook and loop backing of the LC donor backing plate. I cut about one half the way around the circumference of the plate so as to be able to safely get started cutting with my big chef knife. With much patience and care I sliced right behind the hook and loop material keeping the knife blade flat against the foam rubber of the donor plate so that I would have as little as possible yellow foam left on the hook and loop material.

"EXTREMELY IMPORTANT"!!!!!!!!!

"I would like to say at this point in case anyone sees this and decides to undergo this project that a thick leather glove or a kevlar fish filleting glove would be advisable to protect the hand from severe cuts in the event that the knife should slip."

I found that a knife that is sharp enough to be patiently worked through the foam but not sharp enough to cut through the hook and loop material was the best bet. I did have to resharpen with a kitchen sharpener twice during this process.

Here is what I was left with after the cutting.





I had cut a little too close to the hook and loop in one area so I sliced off a little of the foam and glued it in to fill in that spot so that I would have an even and flat hook and loop surface to ensure the maximum hook and loop attaching bond between the backing plate and the pads.




As shown in the first photo of this write up the Flex OEM backing plate has taken some severe abuse and had become overheated and had come unglued and curled up.
In the interest of achieving the strongest most permanent glue bond I went ahead and trimmed off the curled up and unglued edges of the Flex OEM hook and loop backing.



I had decided to go with Gorilla Glue for this project. When I first started detailing at a true detailing level I was using a Cyclo polisher in which the hook and loop backing material had come unglued from the rubber pad holder boot. I used Gorilla Glue to reattach that backing and it is still holding after a few years so I have faith in this glue for this project.



If you have never used Gorilla Glue, this stuff can make a mess of things. It is suggested that you apply a thin coat of the glue on one half of the project to be glued and to moisten the other half of the project to be glued with water. When you put the two halves together, a chemical reaction occurs between the glue and the water which makes the glue foam up and expand by 3 to 4 times.

[tuscarora dave]

I made the decision with the nature of this particular bond and with the depth of the hooks on the Flex OEM backing plate, I would rather apply a thick coat of glue to the OEM plate and dampen the foam on the back side of the hook and loop material to be grafted to the plate and just deal with more cleanup. I want to achieve the most permanent bond as possible and I only had one shot at this. Here is the OEM backing plate all glued up.



Next I charged a trigger sprayer with water to spray the the yellow foam on the new hook and loop backing to be glued on.



I sprayed the hook and loop material with a fine but somewhat generous misting of water and being careful to get the new backing on center I placed the OEM backing plate on top of the new hook and loop material.



As I stated earlier, this glue will foam and expand 3 to 4 times so it is very important to have either a clamp or something of sufficient weight to prevent the foam from building between the two bonded surfaces. For this I used a book and a riding mower engine flywheel to supply the required weight.



I am not kidding when I say that this glue expands but I would rather have a big cleanup than to have a bond that is going to fail as a result of not using enough glue. so here is what I was left with after a few hours of drying time.

[tuscarora dave]

Having a little trouble posting the remainder of this articl please stand by.

[tuscarora dave]

This glue is not that difficult to remove from smooth plastic so the clean up was not as tough as one might think. I used a couple of dental picks and a pair of scissors to clean up and trim off the excess foamed up Gorilla Glue.

[tuscarora dave]

[tuscarora dave]

OK there is more to come but I can't post it without a error right now. I don't know if it's the site of on my end.

[tuscarora dave]

In closing, it would seem that this might be a lot to go through to correct a problem like a pad getting off center or flying off the machine in the middle of a detailing project but I think not. In the circles that I run in, "insanity" is defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. No truer statement has ever been made. This project took me about 2 hours total (excluding drying time) which is minor compared to having your only orange pad fly off and land face down in the dirt.

It remains to be seen whether the Gorilla Glue will hold up to the extreme heat that the Flex 3401 VRG produces so I will update this thread from time to time to let you all know how it holds up. One thing I know for sure is that if a pad ever flies off of this machine again it will be because the glue failed and not because the hook and loop didn't work well.

Thanks for looking, TD

[tuscarora dave]

Well for some reason I could not post the rest of the text in this write up so I posted the rest of the pics and the closing statements. It was a thorough write up but oh well. I couldn't post the text over at DC either.

[IID]

Well for some reason I could not post the rest of the text in this write up so I posted the rest of the pics and the closing statements. It was a thorough write up but oh well. I couldn't post the text over at DC either.

Excellent detailed write-up

BTW,just to clarify.You don't have any problems with the actual Flex BP (plate) "hook" with any LC BP (pad) "loop",have you?

[tuscarora dave]

The molded plastic backing plate is fine. The problem I do/did have is the hooks on the original velcro of the backing plate doesn't work well with LC pads.