How many pads per car?

[lando]

Just wondering how many pads, of each, do you guys average on a car?

[CharlesW]

Re: How many pads per car?

Just wondering how many pads, of each, do you guys average on a car?

One per product.
Since I usually apply wax/sealant by hand, that would quite often mean only one pad for the polishing/swirl removal step.

[CAShine]

Re: How many pads per car?

I average about 2 pads minimum per car. As CharlesW said, one pad per product. So the number of pads will vary from car to car depending on what type of paint correction is needed if any.

[onawrxhigh]

Re: How many pads per car?

When I detail a car after the test spot is completed and I know my plan of attack I will break the vehicle down into sections. Large cars,trucks,suv's may get broken down into thirds while smaller vehicles may get broken down into halves. I do this so I know that I will need at a minimum of 2-3 pads per product used. Example My F-150 I broke down into thirds. One pad for the hood, front fenders and grill, one pad on the roof and cab doors, one pad for the bed sides and cap.then one for the 21. so if everything goes well I will have used a minimum of 4 pads 3 for polish 1 for wax. Now if I had to do 83,80 then 21 minimum of seven. The reason I am using so many pads is once they become over loaded with product they have a greater chance to stop spinning and just sit there shaking around and not correcting paint. When I notice that a pad is getting over loaded I take it off and put on a dry/clean pad and start buffing again. Sometimes even when I have the vehicle broken down in halves or thirds I may still use more than one pad per section. Like if I need to do 2 passes with 80 .

Andrew

[AeroCleanse]

Re: How many pads per car?

I agree with the above, however this is for single sided pads. There are double sided pads available on the market, which require a special adapter. So when the pad loads up, you flip it over. I would still keep one double sided pad per product.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: How many pads per car?

Just wondering how many pads, of each, do you guys average on a car?

Theoretically you can use one pad per chemical for the entire vehicle, in reality however more pads are better. We've posted this in the past, not sure what search term we would use to find it however.

Because the nature of the foam pads is to absorb liquid, and the oscillating action tends to help drive product into the pad, over time, that is as you start out on the hood and then move onto the fender and then a door,(this is "over time"), your pads will become saturated with whatever product you're using. As they become saturated the combination of the foam and the liquid will absorb the energy and/or power coming out of the tool and the result is you lose rotating action of the pad on the finish. If you're trying to remove defects, this means you're trying to remove paint, then you'll remove more paint faster when the pad is rotating versus just vibrating against the paint.

Thus dry pads, not dry like in no product on the pad but dry like in the pad is fresh and not saturated with product, will rotate better thus the cleaning effect will be more effective and you'll be able to do the work faster.

So in a way, it's up to you. If you don't mind working slower and less effectively, then one or two pads will get you by. If you want to work as fast and as effectively as you can then more pads are better.

When working on a car for a customer, time is an issue, the longer you take to do the job the less money you make, plus doing a "Complete" buff-out on a car in bad condition takes a long time to start with 6-8 hours being a minimum. The last thing I want to do after driving to a customer's location is waste time working slowly, so a general rule of thumb is one clean, dry pad per panel and at least 2-4 pads for the hood depending upon how large the hood is. And of course you have to temper this rule of thumb by the size of the rig you're working on, there's a huge difference between buffing out a Ford Expedition and a Mini Cooper. We would take the Mini Cooper any day over the Excursion just due to the size factor alone.

Somewhere on this forum or on the now archived forum we typed up something very similar to this, the reply was to a person that asked where they should spend more money on detailing supplies and our answer was more pads as they already had plenty of chemicals.

Hope this helps...

[CharlesW]

Re: How many pads per car?

When I detail a car after the test spot is completed and I know my plan of attack I will break the vehicle down into sections. Large cars,trucks,suv's may get broken down into thirds while smaller vehicles may get broken down into halves. I do this so I know that I will need at a minimum of 2-3 pads per product used. Example My F-150 I broke down into thirds. One pad for the hood, front fenders and grill, one pad on the roof and cab doors, one pad for the bed sides and cap.then one for the 21. so if everything goes well I will have used a minimum of 4 pads 3 for polish 1 for wax. Now if I had to do 83,80 then 21 minimum of seven. The reason I am using so many pads is once they become over loaded with product they have a greater chance to stop spinning and just sit there shaking around and not correcting paint. When I notice that a pad is getting over loaded I take it off and put on a dry/clean pad and start buffing again. Sometimes even when I have the vehicle broken down in halves or thirds I may still use more than one pad per section. Like if I need to do 2 passes with 80 .

Andrew

When I read this, I thought it was definitely overkill, but.... then I read the following.

Theoretically you can use one pad per chemical for the entire vehicle, in reality however more pads are better. We've posted this in the past, not sure what search term we would use to find it however.

Because the nature of the foam pads is to absorb liquid, and the oscillating action tends to help drive product into the pad, over time, that is as you start out on the hood and then move onto the fender and then a door,(this is "over time"), your pads will become saturated with whatever product you're using. As they become saturated the combination of the foam and the liquid will absorb the energy and/or power coming out of the tool and the result is you lose rotating action of the pad on the finish. If you're trying to remove defects, this means you're trying to remove paint, then you'll remove more paint faster when the pad is rotating versus just vibrating against the paint.

Thus dry pads, not dry like in no product on the pad but dry like in the pad is fresh and not saturated with product, will rotate better thus the cleaning effect will be more effective and you'll be able to do the work faster.

So in a way, it's up to you. If you don't mind working slower and less effectively, then one or two pads will get you by. If you want to work as fast and as effectively as you can then more pads are better.

When working on a car for a customer, time is an issue, the longer you take to do the job the less money you make, plus doing a "Complete" buff-out on a car in bad condition takes a long time to start with 6-8 hours being a minimum. The last thing I want to do after driving to a customer's location is waste time working slowly, so a general rule of thumb is one clean, dry pad per panel and at least 2-4 pads for the hood depending upon how large the hood is. And of course you have to temper this rule of thumb by the size of the rig you're working on, there's a huge difference between buffing out a Ford Expedition and a Mini Cooper. We would take the Mini Cooper any day over the Excursion just due to the size factor alone.

Somewhere on this forum or on the now archived forum we typed up something very similar to this, the reply was to a person that asked where they should spend more money on detailing supplies and our answer was more pads as they already had plenty of chemicals.

Hope this helps...

Since I rarely have any major correction to do on our vehicles, I have never experienced the "loaded pad" syndrome.
It does make sense when you give it some thought.
As is often the case, I didn't know as much as I thought I did.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: How many pads per car?

When I read this, I thought it was definitely overkill, but.... then I read the following.

Since I rarely have any major correction to do on our vehicles, I have never experienced the "loaded pad" syndrome.
It does make sense when you give it some thought.
As is often the case, I didn't know as much as I thought I did.

Sometimes good information comes from people that have actually done the thing they're writing about. All too often you can go to just any old detailing forum and post a question and get all kinds of answers from various forum member but how do you know if the person giving the answer has actually done the thing they're talking about?

All too often people posting answers are just retyping something they read without giving credit to the person that wrote it.

[kty10]

Re: How many pads per car?

What about cleaning a pad "on the fly" using a rotary and brush? I only have a PC, so I'm not sure how clean you could get your pad while using a more powerful tool. I know when I use a towel with my PC, it helps a little to remove some product, but there's still some in the pad. Would using a rotary remove most or all of the saturated product? Are there more steps to cleaning the pads this way without using water to wash them?

[CharlesW]

Re: How many pads per car?

Sometimes good information comes from people that have actually done the thing they're writing about. All too often you can go to just any old detailing forum and post a question and get all kinds of answers from various forum member but how do you know if the person giving the answer has actually done the thing they're talking about?

All too often people posting answers are just retyping something they read without giving credit to the person that wrote it.

While I try to post about things I have actually done, what's to say that I have done them correctly?
When I repeat something I have read, but not done, I also try to mention the fact that the information came from others. There again, was it good information?
I don't always give credit to the original writer because I either don't know or don't remember.

I also think that a lot of information is given that was correct for that person's experience, but might not be correct for someone else.
The threads where several people reply with both good and bad experiences with the same product would be a good example.

What it all comes down to is:
"Find something you like and use it often"
That's something I read somewhere that pretty well sums up the whole car care thing.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: How many pads per car?

What about cleaning a pad "on the fly" using a rotary and brush? I only have a PC, so I'm not sure how clean you could get your pad while using a more powerful tool. I know when I use a towel with my PC, it helps a little to remove some product, but there's still some in the pad. Would using a rotary remove most or all of the saturated product? Are there more steps to cleaning the pads this way without using water to wash them?

We're not a scientist so what we've posted is based upon what we've seen when working on a car, that said... it appears that it's primarily a difference between dry and wet, not dry and just a little wet, once the foam becomes wet, even if you clean the pad on the fly with a towel or spin it on a rotary buffer, while you can remove a majority of the liquid out of the foam, the foam you leave behind is still wet. It is the wet foam that has a tendency to dissipate the energy being provided by the dual action polisher.

Cleaning your pad on the fly is very important no matter how many pads you use because it does help and it's ALWAYS important to work clean.

[kty10]

Re: How many pads per car?

A little off topic: Would you be less concerned with saturated pads when applying a wax/sealant?

Also, since Meguiar's doesn't recommend washing their pads, what do they do to clean them properly. I've washed them with Dawn and hot water in the past, but am concerned of shortening the life of the velcro backing. Just curious what is done with all of the pads at the Meguiar's Garage.

Sorry for the hijack.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: How many pads per car?

A little off topic: Would you be less concerned with saturated pads when applying a wax/sealant?

Yes, we would be less concerned because when you're applying a wax you're not trying to remove paint, thus rotating isn't as important.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: How many pads per car?

Also, since Meguiar's doesn't recommend washing their pads, what do they do to clean them properly. I've washed them with Dawn and hot water in the past, but am concerned of shortening the life of the Velcro backing. Just curious what is done with all of the pads at the Meguiar's Garage.

Sorry for the hijack.

If you do a search there are many threads on how to clean pads and Meguiar's recommendations. Pretty much it's a problem because we don't recommend washing them but without washing them it's pretty much impossible to get them clean.

Most people disregard Meguiar's recommendations and wash their pads because there's really not other way to get spent product out of the 'inside' of the pads.

[AeroCleanse]

Re: How many pads per car?

Would the System 2000 Padwasher work with a DA? Or I suppose you can put the pad on a rotary and use it.