Mike do I need to purchase a product to keep the pad damp while polishing?
Using a white polishing pad would be ok?
(Light polishing pad)
Thanks Nick
To be honest, I think I can count 2 times when I've dampened a foam buffing pad before buffing. Both times would have been back when I was at Meguiar's teaching the Advanced Sanding Class where the Meguiar's recommendation was to spray a light mist or two to the face of one of their maroon foam cutting pads before use. This foam is very sharp so the idea being to reduce some of the sharpness or cut to make it safer to the paint.
Here's my take...
When foam becomes wet it becomes soft, and this means you lose cut. Not a big deal if you're machine applying a wax and not trying to cut the paint.
- When a foam cutting pad becomes wet, it becomes a foam polishing pad.
- When a foam polishing pad becomes wet, it becomes a foam finishing pad.
The other issue I can point out when it comes to purposefully getting pads wet, is that IF using a free spinning, random orbital polisher, wet pads do not rotate or oscillate as well as dry pads. As a pad becomes wet, it becomes heavier, and this hinders good pad rotation and pad oscillation.
It's a natural by-product from use, but as you use a foam pad, each time you add 3 pea sized drops of product to the face of the pad and then set the face of the pad against paint before turning it on, each time you do this, some of that product goes INTO the foam pad.
Then when you turn the polisher on, apply some light pressure to the head of the polisher and start making section passes over paint, the VIOLENT oscillating and rotating action tends to drive the liquids (in the compound/polish), deeper into the foam. As you continue to do this, (add fresh product to the face of the pad, press the pad against the paint and then turning the polisher on and using it), the pad becomes wetter and wetter, this is called pad saturation.
Because I already know pad saturation is a bad thing, not a good thing, I don't normally help the pad to get wet by using a spray on wetting agent of any type. It's just not a "Best Practice" I adhere to but somehow, all the cars I detail come out looking better than when I started.
Wet pads hold in heat better than dry pads. It's just a physics thing.
Pad saturation is a real problem but only for those trying to buff out an entire car using only a single pad or few pads. This is why historically I've always recommended MORE pads to buff out a car. More pads, or to be more specific, switching to a clean DRY foam buffing pad often increases your efficiency at removing defects, (removing paint), and thus you're working faster and for effectively.
Trying to use a pad or two for an entire car results in the pad wearing out prematurely. This is usually seen where the adhesive bonds the velcro loop material to the foam material. With long stroke polishers, sometimes you'll generate so much heat you blow up the pad.
That's my take. At Dr. Beasley's, there is no official recommendation to use a supplemental wetting agent with buffing pads when using our products. You can do this if you like however, personal preference.
Also, when it comes to using NSP products on foam pads, something I've discovered is because of the nanogel base, these polishes don't seem to soak INTO the pad like products that use mineral oil or other oils and solvents for carrying agents. This means the majority of the product remains on the surface and only saturates in a little ways. This means less pad saturation and the reality of it is, you can use less pads to buff out a car because the pads don't become wet or soggy with product and thus continue to rotate and oscillate well.
Then as I'm working around a car, I use a large flat bristle face brush to clean the spent product and removed paint off the face of the pad and then apply fresh product and get back to work.
I'll take a picture of the brush I use to clean my foam pads today and share it in this thread.
And of course, how everyone else gets to shiny... that's really all that's important.
Mike
