Are My Pads Ruined?

[Simon777]

I just finished a car with metallic single stage paint which I did improve, but created tiger stripes due to the flakes causing uneven paint removal.

I was just wondering if the flakes stay in a soft buff 2.0 pad after you machine wash them. I don't want to do another car and create swirls because of leftover flakes in my foam pads.

[techjazz]

Re: Are My Pads Ruined?

I believe anything can be washed out of the pads... I guess they are foam pads, which means it's not a bad idea to use a soft nylon brush to help get the metallic flake out of the foam's cell structure.

This is a great article by the great Mike Phillips, about working with older single stage paints... I do believe there is talk in the article about metallic finishes and tiger stripes and some tips to help you out.

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44023

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Are My Pads Ruined?

The pads should wash out quite thoroughly. If the black oxidized material is sufficiently removed and the pads look decent, you should be fine. But if there is any doubt in your mind following a thorough wash, then the pads should be relegated to "dirty work" for lack of a better term.

Otherwise, we'd have to do some digging into whether or not you are truly pulling actual bits of metallic material into the pad or just polishing it up and getting that nasty oxidized residue into the pad.