Garage - A360 - Pads and Tools

[GarageA360]

Hi Sir,

Are the pad colors (blue, maroon, yellow, white, and black) standardized across all manufacturers, or do they vary by company?

How can I identify the corret one?

Beginner's Guide to Car Polishing | Step-by-Step Tutorial

 

[GarageA360]

Beginner's Guide to Car Polishing | Step-by-Step Tutorial

Hi Sir,

Do you think, Is that ok for Us to do the machanical decontamination during the contact wash? Though we save our time interms of additional washing after claying, the problem is that you are not using a proper clay lube because sometimes soapy water might not exclusively helping you to glide on the surface? Am i correct?

This part you have taught me already..

If you comeacross lots of contamination such as Tar and Iron fallout, then the chemical decon is mandatory isn't it?

 

[Mak]

Hi Sir,

Are the pad colors (blue, maroon, yellow, white, and black) standardized across all manufacturers, or do they vary by company?

How can I identify the corret one?

Beginner's Guide to Car Polishing | Step-by-Step Tutorial

No, they are not standardized across the various manufacturers. I always have to check the manufacturer’s chart to make sure I’m getting what I want.

 

[GarageA360]

No, they are not standardized across the various manufacturers. I always have to check the manufacturer’s chart to make sure I’m getting what I want.

Well noted Sir. Thank you for the headsup

 

[Mike Phillips]

Hi Sir,

Are the pad colors (blue, maroon, yellow, white, and black) standardized across all manufacturers, or do they vary by company?

How can I identify the corret one?

Beginner's Guide to Car Polishing | Step-by-Step Tutorial

Just to piggyback on what Mac shared, there is NO universal color code for buffing pads of any type. In the video you reference, I'm pretty sure I shared how to tell what the different colors of foam are for the Buff and Shine line of EdgeGuard pads, but the same technique will work with any brand of pads, that is you simply FEEL the surface texture of the pad and compress the pad with your hands.

A foam cutting pad will have a SHARPNESS to the texture of the foam. A foam cutting pad will also be denser or more stiff when you try to compress or squish it between your hadns.


A foam polishing pad my have a LITTLE sharpness, like with the RUPES yellow foam DA pad, when you draw your finger tips across the face of the pad, you can feel a little sharpness that gives it a little cut. Same for the orange Lake Country SDO and HDO pads, you can feel a SLIGHT sharpness to the foam , at least when it's dry. In the Buff and Shine line of EdgeGuard pads, the yellow foam is a polishing foam formula but when you feel the surface of a DRY pad, you can feel a LITTLE sharpness.


A foam finishing or waxing pad tends to be super soft with ZERO sharpness to the foam texture when you feel it.

The above is a real simple way to determeint what a pad is or isn't and it's not that hard to do. You can also check out the info from the pad manufacturer as all pad manufacturers state what the color code for their line of pads means as far as cutting, polishing and finishing.


Here's the part in the video you referenced, here's the point in the video where I share how to TEST a foam pad to determine if the pad is a cutting, polishing pad. This starts at the 5:58 timestamp.

Mike

 

[GarageA360]

Just to piggyback on what Mac shared, there is NO universal color code for buffing pads of any type. In the video you reference, I'm pretty sure I shared how to tell what the different colors of foam are for the Buff and Shine line of EdgeGuard pads, but the same technique will work with any brand of pads, that is you simply FEEL the surface texture of the pad and compress the pad with your hands.

A foam cutting pad will have a SHARPNESS to the texture of the foam. A foam cutting pad will also be denser or more stiff when you try to compress or squish it between your hadns.


A foam polishing pad my have a LITTLE sharpness, like with the RUPES yellow foam DA pad, when you draw your finger tips across the face of the pad, you can feel a little sharpness that gives it a little cut. Same for the orange Lake Country SDO and HDO pads, you can feel a SLIGHT sharpness to the foam , at least when it's dry. In the Buff and Shine line of EdgeGuard pads, the yellow foam is a polishing foam formula but when you feel the surface of a DRY pad, you can feel a LITTLE sharpness.


A foam finishing or waxing pad tends to be super soft with ZERO sharpness to the foam texture when you feel it.

The above is a real simple way to determeint what a pad is or isn't and it's not that hard to do. You can also check out the info from the pad manufacturer as all pad manufacturers state what the color code for their line of pads means as far as cutting, polishing and finishing.


Here's the part in the video you referenced, here's the point in the video where I share how to TEST a foam pad to determine if the pad is a cutting, polishing pad. This starts at the 5:58 timestamp.

Mike

Well noted Sir..

 

[Mike Phillips]

Hi Sir,

Do you think, Is that ok for Us to do the machanical decontamination during the contact wash? Though we save our time interms of additional washing after claying, the problem is that you are not using a proper clay lube because sometimes soapy water might not exclusively helping you to glide on the surface? Am i correct?

Doing the mechanical decontamination step DURING the wash process saves,

• Time
• Steps
• Towels
• Clay lube

This speeds up the overall process. The downside is, you don't find out if the paint is hard or soft until you do a proper Test Spot. Because you do the Test Spot AFTER washing and drying the car, this means you will not find out if the paint is hard or soft until after doing the Test Spot.

And what this means is, if you mechanically decontaminate during the wash process and in the moment, you don't know that the paint is soft, and then you find out later when doing the Test Spot that the paint is in fact soft, it's totally possible you put a lot of marring into the paint that may have been avoided had you known the paint was in fact soft.

With soft paint, I prefer to use a fine grade and even an ULTRA fine grade clay instead of a clay substitute like a clay towel, clay mitt and/or clay disc. If the paint is soft, the act of claying the paint even with an ultra fine clay will still leave clay marring, but in my experience, an ultra fine clay bar will leave LESS marring that a polymerized, rubber substitute.

At the end of the day, you're still going to need to clay the paint using something and this means at a professional level, you'll need to do at least one machine paint correction step to remove the marring from the claying process.

Kind of going down a rabbit hole at this point. In the really BIG PICTURE - you'll want to dial in a process that works best for your operation.

This part you have taught me already..

If you come across lots of contamination such as Tar and Iron fallout, then the chemical decon is mandatory isn't it?

For tar, you want to some type of solvent that will dissolve the tar, and you want to do the BEFORE you do a contact wash otherwise you risk contaminating your wash mitt with tar.

For Iron contamination, what I already shared with you is it is my opinion, that unless you're dealing with Rail Dust, or some other form of iron particle, as in a feelable, chunk of iron, that any topical iron contamination will be removed when you machine polish the paint.

And because I ran into a iron and fallout remover that SPOTTED the anodized aluminum trim on a VW Passat, that after that experience I QUIT using iron removers on cars. I don't want to ever go through putting spots on some other dude's car. Make sense?


Mike

 

[GarageA360]

For tar, you want to some type of solvent that will dissolve the tar, and you want to do the BEFORE you do a contact wash otherwise you risk contaminating your wash mitt with tar.

For Iron contamination, what I already shared with you is it is my opinion, that unless you're dealing with Rail Dust, or some other form of iron particle, as in a feelable, chunk of iron, that any topical iron contamination will be removed when you machine polish the paint.

And because I ran into a iron and fallout remover that SPOTTED the anodized aluminum trim on a VW Passat, that after that experience I QUIT using iron removers on cars. I don't want to ever go through putting spots on some other dude's car. Make sense?

Mike

Sir, Does Iron and Tar removers come after pre-wash?

 

[Mike Phillips]

Sir, Does Iron and Tar removers come after pre-wash?

Inspectiong and removing tar should be first. It's usually sticky and hard to remove off of any type of cloth material used for a wash mitt or wash pad. If you get it on your wash mitt, you normally have to use some scissors to cut it completely off. So inspect and remove tar first.

As far as the order to use an iron remover.

There are two schools of thought

1: Spray iron remover on dry car - first thing - let dirt on car trap iron remover onto paint, instead of running onto the ground, allow the iron remover to dwell without drying and then blast off with water.

2: Pre-rinse car and the spray on iron remover. This might be safer as the water on the car will dilute the iron remover so you're not spraying full strength iron remover on to the car, but when the iron remover hits the WATER on the car, it will break the surface tension and both the water and the iron remover will run off the car and now you're decontaminating the ground.

Pick your poison as the saying goes.


Mike

 

[GarageA360]

Inspectiong and removing tar should be first. It's usually sticky and hard to remove off of any type of cloth material used for a wash mitt or wash pad. If you get it on your wash mitt, you normally have to use some scissors to cut it completely off. So inspect and remove tar first.

As far as the order to use an iron remover.

There are two schools of thought

1: Spray iron remover on dry car - first thing - let dirt on car trap iron remover onto paint, instead of running onto the ground, allow the iron remover to dwell without drying and then blast off with water.

2: Pre-rinse car and the spray on iron remover. This might be safer as the water on the car will dilute the iron remover so you're not spraying full strength iron remover on to the car, but when the iron remover hits the WATER on the car, it will break the surface tension and both the water and the iron remover will run off the car and now you're decontaminating the ground.

Pick your poison as the saying goes.


Mike

Noted well Mr. Mike..

 

[Mak]

Well noted Sir..

Just to piggyback on what Mac shared, there is NO universal color code for buffing pads of any type. In the video you reference, I'm pretty sure I shared how to tell what the different colors of foam are for the Buff and Shine line of EdgeGuard pads, but the same technique will work with any brand of pads, that is you simply FEEL the surface texture of the pad and compress the pad with your hands.

A foam cutting pad will have a SHARPNESS to the texture of the foam. A foam cutting pad will also be denser or more stiff when you try to compress or squish it between your hadns.


A foam polishing pad my have a LITTLE sharpness, like with the RUPES yellow foam DA pad, when you draw your finger tips across the face of the pad, you can feel a little sharpness that gives it a little cut. Same for the orange Lake Country SDO and HDO pads, you can feel a SLIGHT sharpness to the foam , at least when it's dry. In the Buff and Shine line of EdgeGuard pads, the yellow foam is a polishing foam formula but when you feel the surface of a DRY pad, you can feel a LITTLE sharpness.


A foam finishing or waxing pad tends to be super soft with ZERO sharpness to the foam texture when you feel it.

The above is a real simple way to determeint what a pad is or isn't and it's not that hard to do. You can also check out the info from the pad manufacturer as all pad manufacturers state what the color code for their line of pads means as far as cutting, polishing and finishing.


Here's the part in the video you referenced, here's the point in the video where I share how to TEST a foam pad to determine if the pad is a cutting, polishing pad. This starts at the 5:58 timestamp.

Mike

Kind of a stupid question, but do any of the manufacturers produce a “polishing” pad that has the softness/pliancy of a “finishing/waxing” pad? Like the foam has that sharpness for cutting, but easily compresses and more easily conforms to the contours of the panel? For instance, I find using the polisher far easier with a black Lake Country finishing pad as opposed to their light polishing white pad… I’m sure a lot of it is experience and getting used to properly gripping and applying pressure, but I find it much more taxing to use the cutting pads compared to the finishing.
I’m guessing the answer is no, and the cutting ability is directly proportional to the stiffness of the pad, but figured I would ask since I haven’t tried all the manufacturer’s yet. I last noted this last week when using my C-beast for the first time, but seems to have been the same even on the free spinning Porter Cable.
Thanks