Bought some pads...

[SchwarzenSchafe]

I went to get a meg's pad with the center nub to align the pads and a W4000 wool pad. Total was $60CAD for the two, but the guy at the counter suggested a "buff and shine" package for the same price that contains a wool pad, foam polishing pad, foam finishing pad, and backing plate with a center nub.

What will meg's pads do that these cheapie pads won't? Should I look at eventually getting a "quality" set of pads, will these fall apart faster?

www.buffandshine.com is their site by the way.

[Tim Lingor]

Hey,

You do not know until you try. But here's the issue; Meguiar's designs its products to work together. For that reason, Meguiar's can be confident that their products will perform as intended if used as intended. Herein lies the problem; by varying the pads, no one knows how the products will work with the non-Meguiar's pads. Who knows, the pads may work great. But if they leave marring...

Secondly, what buffer are you planning to use with these pads: rotary or PC? This too is an important question as Meguiar's does not recommend either the wool or the cutting pad to be used with the PC as they were designed to be used with the rotary buffer only. Using them with the PC will usually haze the finish making a rotary buffer often necessary to correct. Again, this is an unknown variable with the non-Meguiar's pads.

But again, you never know until you try! Please keep us posted!

Tim

[SchwarzenSchafe]

I see your point... for instance the yellow polishing pad looks similar to meguiars yellow pad, but when I use it with #80 what are the chances it'll perform exactly like meguiar's pad? I don't know, I have to do a helmet tomorrow and I'll be taking out 2000 grit scratches so I'll come back and let you know how it goes.

I'll be using it all with a rotary except for #80 which I'm using as a last stage polish. I'd really like to get an electric PC but for now I have a dual action air setup that does the job.

[Mike Phillips]

Give them a try and hopefully everything will turn out great.

For years I used to detail cars full-time, mostly all special interest cars, I never had any problems, I never had to do any job a second time. I only used Meguiar's.

Today I experiment with other products, but if I work on someone else's toy, I never take any chances, I only use Meguiar's.

With cars like these, there is no room for error.

[SchwarzenSchafe]

Nice Mike. I'm just starting out so saving $50 is a big deal for me right now, but in the future I'll probably have the same attitude in sticking with one line.

[SchwarzenSchafe]

Finally got time to use these new pads... I like them. The velcro isn't as strong so they're easier to change, and they have a lip at the edge as well as a button in the middle to align the pad. I didn't notice any real change in cutting action or ease of cleaning... seemed like the same pads for half the price. Only time will tell how long they last.