Orange Lake country pad lasted one and a half cars

[sparkee]

This is not a normal life span I hope or is it?
It lasted with ult compound for a honda crv and I managed to get half the roof, hood and one door done on my van before it started creeping off the backing plate.
Looking on the back it appears there is missing velcro in a 2 inch by 1.5 inch area off center.The velcro appears to have been twisted? I had to use the white pad to finish with the ult compound.

Is it technique or a defective pad? Worked fine and then all of a sudden it failed.

[Mark58]

Re: Orange Lake country pad lasted one and a half cars

Both! was it centered properly? Sounds like heath buildup. What backing plate are you using. All Velcro backing plates are not the same. What equipment did you use and what speed?

[sparkee]

Re: Orange Lake country pad lasted one and a half cars

Lake Country 6" hook & loop contour backing pad with the 6.5 inch orange buffing pad at about 5.5 setting on the PC 7424xp

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Orange Lake country pad lasted one and a half cars

So you did an entire car with a single pad, then moved onto a second, larger, vehicle and got part way around that when the pad failed, right? Was this one car right after the other, or was the pad fully cleaned between vehicles? Was the pad cleaned at all "on the fly"? We're thinking that the pad might have become saturated with product which is what caused the hook & loop material to separate from the foam. Your indication that the failure is near the center would seem to reinforce this theory. If you were working it aggressively then heat is bound to build up at the pad/backing plate interface, and over time this - along with pad saturation - is just not a good thing.

Use of a single pad for an entire vehicle, especially if it's not being cleaned regularly and even more so if you're even slightly over using product, is not the most effective way to buff out a vehicle. As the pad loads with product the weight increases and the tool's effectiveness is compromised. Further, all that spent product and spent paint (remember, you are removing at least some paint in this process) will further degrade the overall performance of any pad.

To be candid, barring any strange one off failure issue with this pad, we're inclined to think this is more down to user error than anything else.

[sparkee]

Re: Orange Lake country pad lasted one and a half cars

I washed the pad right after the first vehicle and started the second vehicle a week later. I also cleaned the pad after doing part of the roof on the second/van as the paint was badly oxidized. It was probably a little damp when I started again. Could a damp pad also make it fail? So I may have used too much product? I was worried about not using enough.

[sparkee]

Re: Orange Lake country pad lasted one and a half cars

Thanks everyone.
Forgot to say , I was adding about 3 pea sized drops to the pad on every aprox: 2 x 2 foot area I was doing.

I got ahold of Lake Country and sent them pictures of the pad. I think they are sending a replacement as they asked what my shipping address is.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Orange Lake country pad lasted one and a half cars

Well, with your further description of your processes it doesn't sound at all like you over used product, nor did you fail to keep things clean. You'd be amazed how many people do both of these though!!

It looks as though LC is going to take care, which is no surprise at all since they're a great group of people who take pride in their products. Good for them, and for you!