In the world of detailing, few topics are as confusing as polishing pads for buffing paint. With so many different kinds of materials, designs, sizes and shapes, it’s hard to know what to use and when. In this condensed version of a recent livestreamed detailing class, I explain ALL the different kinds of pads from a variety of different brands: Rupes, Meguiar’s, Griot’s, 3M, SPTA and more!
Transcript
Today, we got kind of a fun topic. We’re gonna go over a lot of different buffing pads. I will try to do a brain dump and share as much information about the pads, when you’d use them, how you’d use them, but also in some cases, some of the history behind the pads.
So some of you may not know this, but Meguiar’s actually invented the foam buffing pad, and they introduced it in 1965. I happen to have one in my antique car wax collection. I donated it to the American Muscle Car Museum.
And actually, just let me back up. Meguiar’s didn’t invent it. A gentleman by the name of Walter Cotton—Walter Cotton—I think he lived in Indiana. He invented the first foam pad, and Meguiar’s bought the rights to the pad from him. And I actually had the good fortune of having lunch with Walter Cotton before he passed away. And this was back in 1989 in Newport Beach, California, where we went to what’s called a “Train the Trainers” class conducted by Meguiar’s.
At the time, I was an outside sales rep and trainer for Meguiar’s. I covered Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. It was a lot of fun. And I got a story about one of my adventures while I was calling on body shops. My job basically was to call on body shops, detailer shops, and dealerships. And of course, just introduce at that time the Meguiar’s line.
Demonstrating the Foam Buffing Pad to Shops
One of the things that was unique about my job is I called on a lot of shops. You know, I covered three states. A lot of times, I would show these folks a foam buffing pad. And starting, I worked at that time from 1987 to, I think, about 1990.
It’s hard to believe, but back in 1987, you could call in a body shop where they do paint work or a detail shop or a dealership. And a lot of these folks had never seen a foam buffing pad. So it was an easy sell for me because that means everything they were buffing—if I just walk over here and grab this—everybody was using wool pads on rotaries.
And so that means everything was being swirled out. So when you call in a shop, a dealership, or a body shop, and you show them a way to buff with something that has a uniform surface texture and, of course, quality abrasive technology and leaves a more flawless finish, of course, everybody wants to buy one.
The History and Design of Early Foam Pads
But anyway, so it was Meguiar’s that—they didn’t invent it; Walter Cotton invented it—but Meguiar’s introduced it. And, anyway, because I introduced this with the Meguiar’s original foam pad, and back then, those foam pads were really thick.
They made two basic pads—three basic pads. They made an 8-inch yellow foam polishing pad. And I think the foam was about an inch and a quarter thick. It may have been an inch and a half, but I think inch and a quarter is pretty close. And then they made two, what they called the W-500 and the W-5500. One of these had a 5/16 stud coming out of the back to put that on an air DA sander to turn your DA sander into a polisher. And the other one had a rotary 5/8 hole in the back of the thread so you could put the 5-inch or the 8-inch onto a rotary polisher.
And, of course, at that time, I think that was just about the time where both Griot’s Garage and Meguiar’s were introducing the Porter Cable as their own branded DA polisher. So a little bit of history there.
Evolution of Meguiar’s Foam Pads
So I’d like to do a shout-out to Michael Stoops. Michael Stoops there at Meguiar’s. I reached out to him. I asked him if he would send me some pads for this video, and he’s very accommodating.
Let me just kind of walk through and show you what they have here. Now, this is interesting because what I want you to try to see—and I’ll hold up a yellow pad—is look how thin these pads are. Okay, so remember, Meguiar’s first foam pads were very thick.
In fact, I used to have the complete collection of what was called the Meguiar’s—I hate to do the air quotes—but the Detailers line. They had a pink, a tan, and—I forget the other color—there’s three: yellow, pink, and tan. These were in their original launch. They didn’t have a Detailer line for years, but they launched it in the 2000s.
They had these three pads to go with the chemical line. It was the same basic pad as the original W-1000, W-5500, and W-500. So it’s the same thickness, just different colors for color matching to the chemicals they used back then.
Introduction of Thin Foam Buffing Discs
But at some point, they started making these—they call these foam buffing discs—and they’re very thin. I think they measure right in at seven-eighths of an inch thin. And there’s a reason behind that.
The thicker pads simply did not rotate as well on simple tools back then, again, like—pull this over here—like the Porter Cable. And here’s why. When you have a thick pad on a free-spinning random orbital polisher, one of the things is the foam has got so much mass, it tends to absorb the energy coming out of the tool and dissipate it.
And this shows up to our eyes as weak or slow or anemic pad rotation and pad oscillation. And the problem would get worse as the pad became wet with product. So every time you add a little compound on the pad above a panel, turn it over, add a little compound or polish to the pad and buff the lid, pretty soon that pad gets wet with product. And now the tool would really struggle because you’ve got this thick pad full of liquid, and it would really struggle to maintain pad rotation.
The cure back then was, of course, to switch to a dry pad, and you’d see rotation and oscillation come back up. But at some point—in fact, let’s see, I think I wrote down—Meguiar’s foam buffing discs were introduced in the year 2014 because Jason Rose sent me some to test out, and I wrote a review. I actually detailed a Camaro with them and then showed how great these pads were.
Meguiar’s Foam Buffing Discs and Color Coding
Anyway, so these pads come in the maroon cutting pad. They come in a yellow polishing pad, and then they come in a black finishing pad. So a very simple line, but a very capable line.
And since we’re on the topic of these colors, let me just kind of knock out this topic. A lot of people have always asked, why don’t all the people that make foam pads have a universal color code? The problem is that genie’s been let out of the bottle for decades, and it ain’t ever going back in. So everybody has their own color code.
And even, like, I remember Lake Country—I have a Lake Country orange open-cell pad down here that’s a polishing pad. And then Lake Country had a blue foam waxing pad, but in their Hydrotec line, that was a cutting pad. So even among brands—a single brand—they had the same colors for different types of pads. So it’s too complex; it’s never gonna be fixed.
And so what I tell people is, look, if you get to the point where you’re going to get into machine polishing, you’re buying a polisher, and now you’re ready to buy some pads, the best thing to do is to do your own research. You know, there’s a lot of great Facebook groups out there where you can ask questions and do your own research. And then that’ll help you to get the right pad for the thing that you want to do, whether it’s compounding, finishing, machine waxing, whatever it is.
Meguiar’s Pad Offerings and Proper Centering
Anyway, so those are the pads that Meguiar’s currently has in their pad offering. They come in 6-inch, which is technically 6.5-inch.
So one of the things, like this backing plate—this Velcro back here—is about 6 inches. It’s a little under 6 inches in diameter. And the reason for that is when you go to place a pad onto a backing plate, the Velcro either has to be exact or just a little bit undersized so you can visually see how to center it. If it’s undersized, then you can’t see where you’re at, and you’ll get your pad on crooked.
So when people give you the measurement for the pad, usually the pad diameter is just a little bit under what it actually claims to be. But anyway, so we got a 5-inch and a 6-inch. So that covers most orbital polishers. And then they also have these power polishing pads that can actually be attached to a drill or on a smaller backing plate and used on things like DAs and rotary buffers.
So that’s pretty cool. They got a nice set of pads. They work great. They hold up really well. And it’s a simple line; it’s not gonna be really hard to figure out which pad to use where.
Identifying Pad Types by Feel
So on that topic, before we leave, a lot of people—back to the color coding—they can’t figure out what the pad is because they don’t know what the colors mean.
So here’s a simple way to do it. When you have a pad, take your clean hand and a dry pad and just rub it across the face of the pad. And this is a maroon; it’s a very aggressive cutting pad, and I can feel a sharpness there. Okay, so it’s a cutting pad. And if I go to compress it between my hands, it’s very stiff. That’s another indicator of a foam cutting pad.
Now, if we move down the line—so if I come to this yellow polishing pad—I do the same thing. I run my hand across the face of it. I can still feel a little cut, but it’s nowhere near as sharp or aggressive as the maroon pad. And, of course, if I go to compress it, it compresses a lot easier. So this tells me this is a polishing pad.
And then when we come down here to their black foam finishing pad, this is so soft. And Nancy loves this. This is so soft that, in fact, this morning, I used it to put my makeup on. I’ve never heard that before. And then if I go to compress it, it compresses very easily. So this is a soft foam finishing pad.
So that’s kind of the gist about the Meguiar’s three different colored foam polishing pads.
Meguiar’s Microfiber Discs
Now over here, I’ve got their foam—or their microfiber—discs, and I have two of them. I have the cutting in 6-inch and 5-inch, and I got the finishing pads.
The interesting thing that a lot of people may not know—and I feel bad, I meant to reach out to a longtime friend of mine. His name is Claude Sauvignier. This gentleman is an expert detailer. He’s got to be one of the best that ever lived. And he’s actually the guy that invented these for Meguiar’s for use at the OEM level, or in other words, at the manufacturing plant where they build the cars.
And what they did is they needed a way—because manufacturing a car is very high-speed. And as the cars travel down the assembly line, if they saw a defect, there would be someone there that would mark it with, like, a grease pencil. Then, at some point, it’s pulled off to the side to what’s called a polishing deck.
And they were usually just like 3-inch pads, and someone had a little air polisher. And they’d just put a little product on there, fix it, wipe it off, it looks good, put it back on the assembly line, and let it run down.
But the reason they brought out this microfiber pad for the assembly line was because they needed something that would both cut and finish and do it fast. And so that’s kind of the roots behind the microfiber pad.
It was actually something invented by a gentleman out of Canada, Claude Sauvigny. Meguiar’s—he worked for Meguiar’s at the time, so I think they owned the rights to it. And they sat on that. It was at the OEM level for years, and they didn’t introduce the microfiber pad DA polishing system until, I think, somewhere around the year 2010 or 2011.
Why Microfiber? Meguiar’s Industry Shift
Then, just a little—let’s do a little deeper dive here. Why microfiber? Why did Meguiar’s introduce the microfiber pad to the detailing industry? Well, here’s why.
Because traditionally, a lot of your production work and work done at auction sites is done with a wool pad on a rotary. And, of course, we all know that leads to holograms and burning through edges, sometimes twisting paint, things like that.
So what Meguiar’s was trying to do—and their intentions are very noble—is what they wanted to do is they wanted to switch the industry off of rotary buffers and wool pads and switch them over to DA, or dual-action, polishers.
And originally, Meguiar’s sold, again, they sold the Porter Cable. I remember they used to put a little badge sticker that said “Meguiar’s.” Griot’s Garage did the same thing. And then, later on, Meguiar’s actually designed their own version of the Porter Cable. So it was their own branded tool. Same action: 8-millimeter, free-spinning, random orbital polisher.
But when they introduced this, the goal was to—the goal was, how can you take people that are used to using a powerful rotary with the big old wool pad and get the same kind of correction out of a much weaker tool? And the way they did that is they used fibers. Okay?
So you always gotta keep in mind, fibers, when it comes to buffing pads, are a form of abrasive. So you have your compound, your polish, they have abrasives. You have your AIOs, or your all-in-ones—or in the old days, they called it a cleaner wax. These typically have some kind of abrasive technology.
And by creating this fiber pad for a free-spinning random orbital polisher, an 8-millimeter short-stroke tool, you increase the cut of whatever compound or polisher you’re using because these also accentuate it or cut the paint.
The History of Microfiber Pads
But that’s kind of the history behind where the microfiber pads came from. Meguiar’s did this to help change the industry, to create more customer-pleasing results and get all these holograms out of the paint that was just so common back in. Oh, they’re so common today, but common back in that day.
They have two different ones. They’ve got the one—and you can see there’s a maroon foam interface between the fibers and the Velcro. And over here is a black one—a black foam between the two faces. And, of course, this one’s a little shorter foam. This is a little thicker foam. So this has a little more cushion. It decreases the aggressiveness of it. So this is cutting, and then this would be polishing.
So that’s kind of a little history about the Meguiar’s microfiber DA system and, of course, their foam pads.
Early Experiences Introducing Foam Pads
Now, kind of related to that. One year, when I was calling out a body shop in Springfield, Oregon—this would probably be like—I called in a shop, and again, just to kind of repeat this, a lot of shops I called on had never seen a foam buffing pad. All they knew was wool on rotary.
So it was really easy for me to kind of get in the door and show everything in the Meguiar’s line by opening with this foam pad and talking about how it would leave a more uniform, swirl-free finish than anything with a fiber like a wool pad.
So I call in the shop, and I pull this pad, and I show it to the guy, the owner of the shop, and he looks at me like I’m from Mars. And he goes, “Oh, we tried those; they don’t work.” So I asked him, “Well, what do you mean?” And he goes into a shop, and he pulls out—this is some camera case liner, okay? This is actually out of Yancy’s camera case. He pulls out a chunk of this, he cut a circle in it, and then he said he tried buffing with it with water, and it didn’t work.
So he completely convinced himself that foam would not work. But that’s ridiculous. First of all, if you’re going to cut your own out of foam—this egg crate, convoluted foam—at least use it with a polish, not water, to give it a fair test to see if it’ll work. But anyway, I really had a hard time convincing that guy that a foam pad was going to work.
Foam Pads: Early Industry Skepticism
The more interesting thing about that visit was the 3M rep showed up. So, I’m the Meguiar’s rep, and I’ve got a 3M rep. We’re both trying to convince this shop owner that our products are the best.
And as I’m holding this Meguiar’s foam pad, the 3M rep looks at me and says, “Those things will never work.” Okay, because, at the time, 3M did not have a foam pad out.
About a year or two later, they introduced their waffle, or convoluted, foam pad. So, that’s kind of the history of where this pad came from. But I just thought it was funny. I was just in the right place at the right time, and I can remember all this stuff to this day.
The Debate Over Pad Designs
I was talking to Chris Racana, who used to be our Director of Success. He’s since moved on to Lake Country Buffing Pads—a good fit for them. And we were talking about pad designs.
So, Meguiar’s—most of their pads historically have always had a flat surface to them, a flat face. And when 3M introduced this convoluted, or waffle, or egg-crate style foam, I looked at this, and I go, “Why would you bring that out?”
Because as you push on it, it’s going to flatten out and become a flat pad anyway. And then, now how do you clean it? Like, if you want to clean your pad on the fly with a flat foam pad, you could take a nylon brush, a toothbrush, or a pad-cleaning brush, and just go scrape, scrape, scrape, scrape, scrape, and get back to work quickly.
With something like this, you’d have to dig your brush into each one of these little valleys among all these hills. It would be very time-consuming, and you’d be very ineffective at trying to clean a pad like this.
Advocacy for the Flat Pad Society
So, for that reason, you can count me as a member of the Flat Pad Society. I’ve always been a big fan of just K-I-S-S: Keep It Simple, Simon. A flat pad surface just makes the most sense to me.
That’s my personal thought. There’s a lot of great designs on the market. I will tell you, I was still at Meguiar’s when they introduced the Solo line. A lot of people remember the Solo line. It was one chemical and four pads.
The four pads were two wool pads—a yellow one and a maroon one. One was for polishing, one was for cutting. And then two foam pads—a black one and a yellow one—using the same basic foam formulas as these. Only, the marketing department decided to put these diamond, or X-cut, grooves into the face of the pad.
Critique of the X-Cut Pad Design
As a member of the Flat Pad Society, I’m in this marketing meeting, and I look to the marketing guy—I can’t remember his name—and I say, “What’s the whole idea behind these diamond cuts in the face of the pad?”
And I thought he was going to give me an answer that would just totally make sense—that I just didn’t know about. But instead, he completely let me down. He says, “Well, we’re just changing things up. We’ve always had a flat pad. Now we’re just changing things up.”
And so my question is: Where are those pads today? They didn’t work. You know, it was—it looked cool, but it’s just not a functional design. Especially since the grooves were fairly deep.
Functional Simplicity of Flat Pads
Anyway, Yancy, you can have your camera case foam back. Okay, so a little bit about the Meguiar’s pads.
The 3M pads—since I have these here—let me just talk about these real quick. The nice thing about the 3M pads is they are actually color-coded to their Finesse-It line.
So, the white is for the compound. The black is for the polish—the number two polish. And then the light blue is much softer. That’s for their finishing polish. So, it kind of makes it easy. There’s a little banner on the bottles. You can actually look at it and go, “Oh, this is for that. This one’s for that bottle, and this one’s for that bottle.”
Griot’s Garage and Pad Innovations
Later on in life, Griot’s kind of borrowed that idea for their BOSS system. I do not think they make these in smaller sizes like 5 and 6 inches. These are 8-inch pads. I do think they make them in 3 inches, and they sell those like as headlight correction pads.
I could be wrong. I don’t stay up on the 3-inch stuff too often. Okay, over here, we’ve got the Rupes. The thing I like about Rupes is they make some of the best tools on the market. Everybody knows they’re famous for their long-stroke, free-spinning, random orbital polishers.
Rupes Pads and Tools
They also make some of the best sanders, the Scorpio line. And who doesn’t love the Rupes Nano long neck? For me, the short neck gets the same kind of job done. So, some amazing tools. That’s usually what people think of when they hear the word Rupes—tools.
But they also make their own pads. They make their own backing plates, and they make their own chemicals. It’s a very all-encompassing line. Hats off to them.
Rupes Contour Profile Pads
The thing I really like about Rupes is, a few years ago, they introduced a new pad, and it was called the Contour Profile. I meant to look up when I wrote my first review for these, but I probably have five or six reviews. I absolutely love these pads.
What “Contour Profile” means is you’ve got the face of the pad, and then it’s kind of cut out back here on the sides. The purpose of this is so if you’re ever up on edge or pushing on it, the foam actually spreads outward and backward, or does what we call “mushrooms back.”
The benefit to that is if you have—I’ll just go ahead and use this one—if you just had a pad that’s completely cylindrical, so you have the face, you have the side, it’s the complete difference. When you push on the edge or go up on edge, the foam tends to twist in, not go flush backward.
Benefits of Contour Profile Pads
Not a super big deal, but I’ve been in situations where I’ve gone up on edge with gear-driven orbitals and rotaries, and without that contour profile, like you see here, you actually decrease the size of the pad. Sometimes, you could risk running the backing plate or the edge of the foam pad into the paint and scar it.
I really love the design of this. Of course, these foam pads come in a coarse blue. This is their new pad. I love this teal color—I think everybody does. This is their intermediate color, and it can be used for both cutting and polishing, depending on the hardness of the paint.
Rupes Pad Color Coding
Then they’ve got their fine-cut pad, which is yellow, and then their ultra-fine pad, which is white. They come in American sizes—that’s 6 inches, 5 inches, and 3 inches. I think it’s 180mm, 170mm, and 140mm, but I could be wrong on that.
They also offer these in 3-inch, 2-inch, and 1-inch sizes for the micro tools. So, a very encompassing line of foam pads to tackle anything you’re working on.
Rupes Microfiber Pads
Like Meguiar’s, they also introduced their own microfiber pads. They’ve got the DA Fine, which you can tell because it has a yellow foam interface between the Velcro and the face of the pad, where the microfiber is.
Then they’ve got the Ultra Fine, which has the white foam. So, it’s pretty easy to look at these and tell right away which pad it is. One thing I like about Rupes—and I don’t have any inside secrets about how they make things—but one thing I do know is everything they make is very, very high quality. That includes the fibers themselves.
Rupes Wool Pads
Rupes also introduced these, and these are some amazing pads. I’m a huge fan of both of these. I’ve probably used the Coarse DA pad the most. This is a wool pad—very thin and works great on orbital polishers.
It’s just a super pad to give you that extra cut if you’re working on hard paint or any paint that just has deeper swirls, scratches, water spots, or oxidation. These also come in the same sizes as the foam pads.
In American sizes, that would be 6 inches, 5 inches, 3 inches, 2 inches, and 1 inch. So, something for everybody.
The Rupes BigFoot System
Years ago, in 2015, I wrote this book for Rupes. It was all about their tools, pads, and chemicals. They had a complete line at that point.
One thing I like to point out is, if I go to page 34, I talked about how I met the engineer for Rupes, Marco De Inca. With my background knowledge on the really thick pads that were on the market at the time, I asked Marco, who came to one of my detailing classes, “How come your pads are so thick?”
The Design Philosophy Behind Rupes Pads
I thought he was going to say it was for extra cushion or longevity, but his answer was a lot more intelligent than that. His answer was, “Well, here at Rupes, we design everything to be ergonomically correct and safe for people to use for hours as they’re buffing out a car.”
That meant tuning the pad to the backing plate and to the tool to make it run smoothly with low vibration. On page 39, I actually introduced this topic called the “air test.”
Demonstrating the Rupes Air Test
What the air test is, if you took one of their tools and turned it on—let me put this on low speed—and turned it on, you just kind of hold it like that. Right now, I can feel this thing vibrating a little bit.
Of course, you should never run a tool in the air; you’re supposed to put the pad against the paint and buff out a car. But as soon as I slap the correct size pad to the backing plate, center it as good as I can, and now I turn it on, lock it—and now that’s smooth. Zero vibration.
Rupes: A Complete System
So, it vindicated what Marco De Inca told me—that they designed their pads not just as pads, but as part of a system. The pads are tuned and designed to work with the backing plates, which have a certain amount of weight and girth to them, and to the tool itself for smooth operation.
That makes it nice for us, and that’s one of the reasons so many people like the Rupes line. The tools are just so well-balanced, with low vibration. They’re just a pleasure to use.
In fact, just to note, when I started doing research on the Rupes line to write this book, I picked the title very specifically. It says “The Rupes Bigfoot Paint Polishing System.”
Understanding the System Concept
It’s not a line of tools, not a line of pads, not a line of products—it’s a system. A very well-thought-out system, too.
Okay, down here, we’ve got the Buff and Shine line of pads—a very extensive line of pads. Before I go talk about these, let me just interject this. If anybody wants to see any of these tools in action, I pretty much have every polisher you could think of.
Buff and Shine Pads Overview
I’ve got this really cool, fully restored car. It’s a show-winning car. The problem is, the paint’s completely swirled out and filled with scratches. It’s here to get prepped for a car show that actually takes place on December 4.
So, I can show any of these things on that car using any tool you can probably name.
Let’s take a look at the Buff and Shine pads. This is something that caught my eye as soon as they launched these. These are called the EdgeGuard pads. Let me grab a little bit larger one.
The Design and Benefits of Rupes Pads
And what this does is it’s kind of like the design of the Rupes pad. So you’ve got the face of the pad, but they’ve carved out the foam in the back. So again, it can flex backward or mushroom backward versus twisting in, depending on how you’re using the tool.
The back of this has this rigid plastic beveled edge here that helps you to center that pad exactly into their backing plates, but also a lot of other backing plates on the market. One of the key things about polishing, especially with machine polishing, is you want to get that pad as centered, as perfect as you can. Not only will the pad in the process be more effective—removing defects—but it will also make the tool smoother as you’re using it.
So for that, they’ve got this coarse blue, they’ve got the maroon foam cutting, and they’ve got the blueberry, which is just an amazing pad. This is called a heavy polishing pad and is kind of like the intermediate pad over here. You can use this to cut and finish on some paints. Usually, if you’re finishing with a pad that has a little sharpness to it, it’s for harder paints, not softer paints. But when you do run into softer paints, they have a remedy for that.
Variety of Foam Pads and Transition to Edge Guard Pads
They’ve also got the yellow, they’ve got the white, and then the very soft black foam finishing pads. At this point in time, because I’m always open to improvements, I’ve changed our classes over when it comes to foam pads, orbitals, and rotaries. We have switched over to the Rupes or the Buff and Shine Edge Guard pads.
By the way, just so you know, because I’m kind of a word guy: Edge Guard is one word. So if you go searching for that, don’t put a space in there. It’s Edge Guard pads. These are great pads. Like a lot of these pads on the table, you get a lot of life out of them.
Importance of Cleaning Pads and Avoiding Overuse
It’s important, of course, to clean your pads. And don’t torture your pads. Years and years ago, I wrote this article called How Many Pads Does It Take to Buff Out a Car? The reason I wrote it was because the company I worked for at the time sold a lot of polisher kits. If you bought a polisher, you’d have the pads to use with it, but you didn’t get all the pads you’d need. You just got enough to kind of get you going.
The thing is, a lot of people would get that kit and go, “OK, this came with a foam cutting pad, a foam polishing pad, and a foam finishing pad. Obviously, that’s all I need to buff out a car.” So they’d slap on a pad, put their product on, and put it on the hood of the car, turning the polisher on.
Keep in mind, for that brief moment when you put the product—like three pea-sized drops—on the pad and place it against the paint before turning the pad on, all of that product is going into the pad. If you keep doing that, pretty soon you’ve got what’s called a saturated pad. It’s wet, it’s full of product, and it won’t rotate very well on a free-spinning tool because of the extra weight from the liquid.
The Design and Features of Rupes Pads
And what this does is it’s kind of like the design of the Rupes pad. So you’ve got the face of the pad, but they’ve carved out the foam in the back. So again, it can flex backward or mushroom backward versus twisting in, depending on how you’re using the tool.
And then the back of this has this rigid plastic beveled edge here that helps you to center that pad exactly into their backing plates, but also a lot of other backing plates on the market. So one of the key things about polishing, especially with machine polishing, is you want to get that pad as centered, as perfect as you can. Not only will the pad in the process be more effective, you know, removing defects, but also make the tool be smoother as you’re using it.
So for that, they got this coarse blue, they got the maroon foam cutting. They’ve got the blueberry, which is just an amazing pad. This is called a heavy polishing and kind of like the intermediate pad over here. You can use this to cut and finish on some paints. And usually, if you’re finishing with the pad that has a little sharpness to it, it’s usually a harder paint, not a softer paint. But when you do run into softer paints, they have a remedy for that.
Variety of Foam Pads and Transition to Edge Guard Pads
So they’ve also got the yellow, they’ve got the white, and then the very soft black foam finishing pads. And I have, for the most part, at least at this point in time, because I’m always open to improvements, at this time, I’ve changed our classes over when it comes to foam pads and orbitals and rotaries. We have switched over to the Rupes or the Buff and Shine Edge Guard pads.
By the way, just so you know, because I’m kind of a word guy, Edge Guard is one word. So if you go to search for that, don’t put a space in there. It’s Edge Guard pads. So that’s their pads. Great pads. Like a lot of these pads on the table, you get a lot of life out of them.
The Importance of Cleaning Pads and Avoiding Overuse
It’s important, of course, to clean your pads. And don’t torture your pads. Years and years and years ago, I wrote this article called How Many Pads Does It Take to Buff Out a Car? And the reason I wrote it was because the company I worked for at the time, they sold a lot of polisher kits, okay? So that way, if you bought a polisher, you’d have the pads to use with it. But you didn’t get all the pads you need. You just got enough to kind of get you going.
The thing is, is a lot of people get that kit, and they go, “OK, this came with a foam cutting pad, a foam polishing pad, and a foam finishing pad. Obviously, that’s all I need to buff out a car.” So they would slap on a pad. Of course, they put their product on, put it on the hood of the car, turn the polisher on. And keep in mind, for that brief moment, when you put the product—like three pea-sized drops here—and you put that against the paint before you turn the pad on, for a brief moment, that product’s all going into the pad.
Problems with Saturated Pads and Pad Maintenance
You keep doing that, pretty soon you got what’s called a saturated pad. It’s wet, it’s full of product, and it ain’t going to rotate very well on a free-spinning tool because of the extra weight from the liquids. Also, liquid inside a foam pad, it retains—it holds in—the heat generated by the backing plate and the downward pressure and that violent oscillating action.
If someone bought the kit, had three pads, and they go to, say, a Honda, a four-door Honda Accord, and they want to take and use a compound and do the first paint correction step with one pad, by the time you’re done doing the hood and the fender, that pad is saturated. Now you’re pressing that to all the rest of the body panels. It’s wet, it’s holding in heat, it’s got this violent oscillating action, and the pad blows up, or you lose the adhesive that holds the Velcro onto the back of the pad because you’re punishing the pad.
Recommendations for Pad Use During Heavy Correction
So, you know, in my opinion, and I know some guys don’t agree with me, when you’re buffing out cars using foam pads, you really need, for heavy corrections—say you’re going to compound every panel on a two-door car. A two-door car has nine panels. You would want nine pads or at least six pads. You want to be able to switch pads often to maintain good pad rotation, good pad oscillation, and to not punish your pads so your pad investment lasts longer over time.
As a pad becomes wet with product, it loses its cut. So when you fill a pad—so here’s their maroon medium cut pad—it has a sharpness to it, but when things get wet, they become softer. Think about you: if you sit in a hot tub, your skin doesn’t get harder, it gets softer. So as things get wet, they become softer, so you lose cut.
Challenges of Using Limited Pads for Entire Car Buffing
So these people that bought the kit, and they got three pads—one cutting, one polishing, one finishing—and they’re trying to do the entire process with one pad, not only are they punishing and torturing the pad and it’s not going to last very long, but it’s going to take them longer because once that pad becomes soft, it’s not going to cut as well.
So they’re going to notice, “Oh, look, the swirls and scratches aren’t coming out very easily.” Well, it’s because you’re using the same pad, dude. That’s why I’ve never been a big—well, I love pad washers. I’ve got the Grit Guard. I’ve got the Lake Country back there.
Use of Pad Washers and Their Limitations
But for me, a pad washer is something that you use at the end of the day to clean your pads, to get them ready for the next day. If you take it to a pad washer and you clean it, you’re getting it wet. You just made a cutting pad soft. You turned a cutting pad into a polishing pad.
So, you know, everybody has their own opinion on that. But for me, a pad washer is something you use at the end of the project, not to clean the pad and then take and put that pad back on the tool and go back to work. Your cutting pad is now a finishing pad.
Exploring Microfiber and Wool Pads
Okay, so now they have an extensive line of microfiber and micro wool pads. I got to be honest, I have never been much of a microfiber pad guy. If I need to cut, I put a wool pad on a rotary and follow with the orbital foam pad to remove holograms.
But just like in the Rupes line, I mean everything Buff and Shine does is just top-notch. It’s VIP, it’s the best of the best. So the fibers are good, the foam’s good, the adhesive’s good, the Velcro attachment’s really strong, so you get a lot of life out of them.
Microfiber Pads and Their Versatility
I know down here these are real popular because a lot of paints you can cut and finish. They call these the Oreo pads because they’re black and white like an Oreo. And then they all come in just a great variety of sizes everywhere from the larger wool pads up to 8 inches, maybe even larger, all the way down to 1-inch pads.
So a great selection of pads from Buff and Shine. I do have some of their wool pads here, and I thought I would just share something with you.
Teaching Rotary Polisher Techniques in Detailing Classes
In my detailing classes, the first tool I teach you how to use is a rotary polisher. Now I know some of my friends in the industry don’t think that’s a good idea, but I like to share this: there’s an old saying that goes like this—”Use the right tool for the job,” OK?
And sometimes the right tool is a rotary polisher. This thing’s so swirled out, I’m probably going to start with a wool pad on a rotary just because I can get those swirls and scratches out really fast. Instead of making multiple multi-section passes, I can just buff till I see them gone and move on to a new area.
Preferences for Wool Cutting Pads and Fiber Length
But when it comes to using a rotary buffer, there’s different types of pads on the market. And I’m going to tell you what I like. This pad here has a 1 1/4-inch long fiber length. I think they call it the pile length.
Down here is another pad. This has about a 3/4-inch pile length. And the difference is the shorter the pile length, the harder the pad, the harder it feels as you’re buffing, and the harder it is to clean, no matter if you’re using compressed air or a spur. Longer fiber pads buff smoother, and they clean smoother. So for me, my minimum pad fiber length is I like 1 1/4 inches, maybe 1 1/2 inches. An inch and a quarter is kind of that sweet spot for wool cutting pads when doing rotary work.
Evaluating Generic Amazon Foam Pads
OK, over here, just to be very thorough in this presentation, these are some generic foam pads ordered off Amazon. The back, it just says “Amazon Hero Buffing” or “Buffing Hero,” and I don’t remember if I saw a color code on the website page for these.
But I can do what I just shared up there: I can take my hand and rub it across the face of this green pad. That’s very sharp. If I compress it, it’s very dense. That is a foam cutting pad. Let me check out these two. OK, so the yellow is polishing. There’s still a little sharpness here, compresses a little bit easier. And this black pad—it’s soft, and Yancy could put his makeup on in the morning with it. It’s that soft.
Testing Pads for Open or Closed Cell Foam
Question. I haven’t heard you say it. I remember we used to do the blow test into the thing. Is there much? I will cover that. Thanks for bringing that. I actually had that written down up here.
OK, so I covered that in my second how-to book. And let’s see, it’s on page 59, and this was published in, I think, 2010, and yeah, 2011. And Yancy did all the graphical layout. I took the majority of the pictures. There’s a lot of pictures from Yancy, but I did write all the copy.
But one of the things I explained in here was the difference between open cell or closed cell—or, in their technical terms, reticulated or non-reticulated.
Reticulated vs. Non-Reticulated Pads
The difference is, a reticulated pad—when you reticulate the foam, that means you did something to it. And in this case, what it means is, I don’t know how this works, but they blow the foam out. Foam has a cell structure and a membrane.
So it has a cell structure, and then it has a membrane. And when they reticulate it, what they’re doing is they’re blowing out all the membranes. So think of a house with windows and busting out the windows. Now you’ve got an open cell or a reticulated pad.
Characteristics of Non-Reticulated Foam Pads
If you don’t do anything, that’s non-reticulated. Now you’ve got a closed cell foam pad. And I actually don’t have any up here. Do they even make them anymore? I don’t hear much about them anymore.
I know some companies do make them. But the way you could tell real easy, as Yancy alluded to, is you just take and blow on them. You put your lips right on there, see if you can easily blow air into it. That’s open cell—I can blow air into it.
Now, if it was non-reticulated—so you didn’t blow out the membranes—it would be very hard to blow air into it.
Theoretical Benefits of Closed Cell Pads
Now, the cell side of this was, the theory being, because if you had a closed cell—this isn’t closed cell, but if you had one—what this means is if you put your compound, polish, or wax on here, it’d be a lot harder for that product to get into the foam because the membranes are intact.
The idea is it traps it between the paint and the face of the pad, and you don’t saturate your pad. You get more use out of the product. Those are all great things. They sound good on paper.
Practical Challenges of Closed Cell Pads
The problem is, when you put your product on the face of the pad, and you’ve got that—in the case of an orbital polisher—you have what I call a violent action. I mean, you take any of the orbital polishers on the market, turn them up to six, and press them a little bit. That is a violent rotating and oscillating action for hours.
OK, and you get heat. But what happens is, no matter how closed cell it is, that product works its way into the pad.
Cleaning and Strength Considerations for Closed Cell Pads
Now here’s the flip side of that coin. Because it’s got the membrane intact, it’s going to be a heck of a lot cleaner to get that stuff out. So I’ve never been a big fan of non-reticulated foam pads or closed cell foam pads.
And the other thing is, when they’re non-reticulated, they have less tensile strength. So tensile strength means I can pull on this and it’ll stretch, OK? So it has a high tensile strength. Low tensile strength means when I pull on this, it would just rip. So that’s the problem with the closed cell pad—they rip up real easy.
SPTA Pads and Micro Pads for Small Areas
Over here, I’ve got some SPTA pads. Now, I do not have a lot of experience with anything from SPTA, except for recently, I did an article on all the different polishing balls that you can attach to a drill and polish out things like aluminum wheels.
I ordered an SPT foam wheel buffing pad, and it seemed to work pretty good. And you can find the video and you can find the article for that on the Dr. Beasley’s YouTube channel and the Dr. Beasley’s blog.
What’s nice about this is you can order these off Amazon. You can get them in 3-inch, 2-inch, and 1-inch. You can get them in different grades of foam, and, of course, different grades of microfiber fairly inexpensively.
Using SPTA Pads for Tight Spaces
I have some out here. Here’s a 2-inch. And here’s a microfiber version. Here’s a foam version. And the reason this is important is because of the Rupes Nano and things like this—the Flex Pixie, the PXE-80.
And so now I use this stuff so often I can take and get this into something really tiny. Tiny as working around emblems, doing thin panels. So one thing is to get the tool. The other thing is you need a great selection of both foam and fiber pads, depending on what you’re trying to accomplish.
Lake Country Pads and Manufacturing Insights
Over here are pads from Lake Country. Now, Lake Country Pad Manufacturing up in Wisconsin, kind of like Buff and Shine and Rupes, they make a lot of pads. They make a pad for everything.
I’ve been to the manufacturing plant a few times. I’ve taught some roadshow classes up there. I think I’ve taught three or four classes up there. Great people, great team of people up there, great manufacturing facilities they got there. And I got to see how the pads are made—both the wool pads and the foam pads. Very interesting, complex operation.
Lake Country Force Pads and Their Features
In their pad line, let me just kind of run through and share some of their pads. This is one of the more popular pads for tools like the Flex Beast. This is called the Force pad. OK, so it’s the Force pad. And they have a very slight taper to them.
The good news is they come in, I think, five different flavors. You got a gray, really heavy cutting. You got an orange cutting. You got yellow polishing or white polishing. No, white cutting. So you got the gray, which is the most aggressive. I have one right here. Here’s one in a 5-inch. So they got the gray. Then you got the yellow, the orange, the white, the black, and the red, which is a very soft.
Benefits of Thicker Pads for Gear-Driven Orbitals
Back when we used car waxes, you’d use this to apply a wax, machine-apply a wax to your car. But the Force pads are very popular. And if you notice, these are very thick. And that’s not a negative thing when you’re using a gear-driven orbital.
Gear-driven orbital is gonna tear it up, man. It doesn’t matter if you got a thin pad or a small pad because it’s gear-driven—it’s gonna rotate and oscillate no matter what. So as I like to say, it’ll turn and turn any pad. But by having a thicker pad, you have a pad that’ll conform to curves, and you got a lot more wear. You’ll get a lot more use out of it because it’s got so much mass there.
Lake Country HDO Pads and Long-Stroke Polishers
Now over here, I’ve got what they call the HDO pads. So the HDO—the H stands for Heavy or HDO, Heavy Duty Orbital. And this is really some ingenious stuff they came up with.
These were introduced after Rupes had introduced the whole concept and the tools called long-stroke orbital polishers. And, of course, then a lot of people jumped on that wagon and copied them and brought out their own versions of this.
But the thing is, when you’ve got a tool spinning a pad in a circle, and now it’s making this huge orbit, and you bring that up to high speed, that’s a very violent action.
Structural Innovations in HDO Pads
And a foam without this, with this gray component right here, the foam can kind of move in a lateral direction. So what they did is they added this stiffer gray foam right after the Velcro backing and before they put the actual working surface on there.
It stiffened up the pad and it keeps that pad tight and intact and not moving all over the place when you’re at high speed with orbital. So that’s called the HDO, Heavy Duty Orbital. Make sure I got them right.
Lake Country SDO Pads and Their Applications
Now, they also have the SDO. Now, if you look at these two, and I’ll hold two up together, the difference here is you can see the gray foam interface between the working side and the Velcro side, but over here it’s missing.
These are called SDO, or Standard Duty Orbital. And I’m just going to take a guess that these would be more in tune for short-stroke polishers. For example, the Porter Cable, Griot’s Garage G9, any of the tools out there that are a shorter orbit stroke length. So that’s the SDO. I have those there.
Lake Country CCS Pads and Their Patented Design
And then they’ve also got the CCS. Now, this is actually a patented design. CCS, if you look, you see these little divots or dimples here. What that stands for is Collapsed Cell Structure—CCS, Collapsed Cell Structure.
And I’m not sure, but I think what they do is they’ve got a machine that comes down and heats this and it kind of presses it in. It causes a little bit of a skin in there. And the benefit to this is it reduces the total working surface area for smoother operation.
Functionality of CCS Pads
And it kind of holds some product in there. And as you’re buffing, it kind of lets it come out at a very paced time. So you always have a nice amount of product on the surface that you’re working. You never get to that dry buff, which can cause micro-marring. So that is the CCS pad.
Now, down here in front, you can see I’ve got some fiber pads. And the same kind of thing—just like the Rupes, the Meguiar’s, and the Buff and Shine—they’ve got the micro wools. And you can see this has a blue foam. So this tells me this is probably a cutting pad, a stiffer foam, a more aggressive, very tight-knit pad here for using it on orbital polishers.
Introduction to Purple Foamed Wool Pads
You can probably use this on a rotary also for doing major paint correction. These are really popular. These are what they call the Purple Foamed Wool Pads, or PFWs. And the way this was explained to me was you have the wool fibers here, which are very fine, and then they’re encapsulated or surrounded by foam particles, which makes these very soft and plush.
But it also does this because, remember I said this earlier, fibers are a form of abrasive. So now you’ve got something that’s going to help to cut with your compound or polish. But because of the foam, it kind of reduces that cut. It makes it more gentle. So sometimes you can cut and finish with a pad just like this.
Variations of Wool and Microfiber Pads
They also have a darker, more aggressive version. I, for the life of me, can’t remember the name, but maybe it’s just the Blue Foam Wool Pads—the BFWs. Over here, we’ve got their version of the microfiber pads. Over the years, I’ve seen them come out with a lot of different styles.
I was at AutoGeek when they introduced their first one. They had really thin foams, really thick foam backings on them, thin foam backings, thick foam backings. And now they’ve just got kind of the same thickness of foam, but you can see one’s blue and one’s orange. This would be the cutting, this would be the finishing.
Microfiber Pads for Medium and Hard Paints
And this also means the microfiber itself—one’s more aggressive, maybe a shorter fiber length. The finishing one has maybe a little bit longer fiber length, less aggressive for that final finish if you’re using microfiber on medium to hard paints.
The problem I always find with working with any brand or any type of fiber pad on soft paints is, again, the fibers, because they’re a form of abrasive. Each one of the fibers on the surface will tend to be cutting, so it’s leading to silk cutting, and that’ll show up as micro-marring. So fiber pads on orbital polishers just tend to be better suited for medium to hard paints, not always soft paints. But you always want to do a test spot to find out.
Marine Line of Wool Pads from Lake Country
Now, when we come over here, these are a brand-new marine line of wool pads they’ve introduced. And I’m fortunate that they sent me some to test. I’ve used these in my classes. This is their more aggressive—I’m trying to think of the name they call it—the Master Marine. And that’s one word also: the Master Marine Wool Cutting Pad.
And then they got the Master Marine Wool Finishing Pad. You have two different options depending on what you’re trying to do on a gel coat boat. They also introduced a brand-new line of foam pads for the marine line.
Features of Marine Foam Pads
And they included this teal-colored foam interface, kind of like the HDOs have. Where’d my HDO go? Here, an issue—the same kind of idea. So it gives it a little more stoutness or stiffness. And this white, again, like a lot of times, a white pad is thought of as a foam polishing pad. So not aggressive, not really soft.
But you feel this—this has some cut to it. I can hear that from here. This is a very sharp pad. And that kind of brings me to something I just wanted to share.
Importance of Test Spots in Boat Detailing
When you’re going to detail a boat, you always want to start out just like with a car—you want to do a test spot. So in one spot on the hull, you want to test out everything you’re going to do in one place and make sure you’re getting the results you hope and dream about before you buff out the entire boat.
And that’s called a marine or boat or gel coat test spot. And, of course, we teach that in all our boat detailing classes, and I cover that in that book, which is no longer in print.
Insights on Griot’s Garage Pads and Tools
OK, over here, Griot’s Garage. Now, the cool thing about Griot’s is a whole bunch of the guys that work there at Griot’s worked together with me at Meguiar’s. And so they didn’t hire people that didn’t know what they were doing—they hired guys that knew what they were doing. They know a lot, like Rod Kraft and Jeff Brown.
A few years ago, when Jeff Brown from Meguiar’s joined the Griot’s team, he told me a story. He told Richard Griot, the owner, the founder of Griot’s Garage, that he’d be happy to come work for them, but he wanted to have an honest relationship with them. If you’ve got great products, I’m going to tell you. If you’ve got some products that aren’t very good, I’m going to tell you that, too.
Evolution of Griot’s Boss Creams and Pads
Jeff worked with a new chemist that they brought on the team, and they came out with what they call the Boss Creams. And there are four different Boss Creams. And those use a synthetic abrasive technology that’s just freaking amazing.
When they created the Boss Creams, they put a banner—a colored banner. They’re in red bottles, and then they have just the same color, a banner—or, I forget what they call that. What would you call that in marketing?
A bar?
Yeah, like a bar that was color-coded to the pad. So if you had their Fast Correction Cream, it had a little white bar on there, and you’d know, “Hey, I use that with the white pad.” And, of course, you can mix and match, but it was a good way to get started if you were new to polishing.
Evolution of Thin Pads in the Market
You can color match the pad to the product of the process. The thing I really like about the Griot’s pads is when they introduced these, look how thin they are. Thin in in. I wrote this article called Thin as in, and that came out in 2010. And back then, all the pads in the market were really thick.
In fact, there was a pad that came out of Germany. Oh, I remember that. It was orange. It was called the Swirl Buster. And it was probably like 3 inches thick, a 5-inch orange pad, about 3 inches thick. I saw one when we were at Auto Mechanica.
Yeah, Auto Mechanica. And we went to this buffing pad. I said, finally, I found where this thing came from. The thing is, is that it wouldn’t work for the reasons I shared way up there at the beginning of the tables. That thick, super thick foam pad—it absorbed all the energy coming out of the tool and dissipated it.
Transition to Thinner Pads and Their Benefits
And that means that you just didn’t have any pad rotation or pad oscillation. And, of course, as it becomes full of liquid, that thick foam, it got even worse than that. So we went from this extreme super thick pad to these thinner pads.
The first one was introduced by Lake Country. It was called the Hydrotec pad in 2010. Meguiar’s introduced their foam buffing discs in 2014. And I stick it in my nose. And then Lake Country introduced a pad they called the Thin Pro in 2017, which was even thinner.
And so when Jeff went to work and he redesigned all their pads, a lot of their pads were a little bit thicker like this. You can tell this is quite a bit different in pad thickness.
Enhancements in the BOSS System
Part of the BOSS system is using the BOSS tools, which are all free-spinning, random-orbital, long-stroke polishers. And to help maintain excellent pad rotation, they reduced the mass of the pad and created these very thin pads. And they also work very good.
Just like all these pads on here, these are a quality pad. You get a lot of life out of them. But the thing to remember is don’t punish your pads. If you’re going to be doing heavy correction, have more than one pad.
Advantages of Investing in More Pads
You know, let your budget be your guide. But the thing about buying more pads to buff out a car like this is that you may spend more money upfront initially because you bought, say, six to maybe a dozen pads, but they’ll last you longer over the lifetime of the pads.
And you’ll get done with your car faster. And you’ll get done with the car faster because wet pads do not cut well.
Introduction to Microfiber Pads
OK, they also introduced some microfiber pads. I’ve only got two of them here, but the same kind of idea. Fibers are a form of abrasive. These are super high quality on medium to hard paints. You can cut and finish on softer paints, but you might want to stick with foam.
Generic Pads and Local Availability
And these other two pads are just kind of more of a generic pad just for use with any kind of orbital polisher. You can actually pick these up at AutoZone. This orange is like a heavy polishing, light cutting.
And then this is like a waxing pad. And I think there’s also a black pad in that line, too. They didn’t have it when I stopped by AutoZone, so I didn’t get it.
Shoutout to a Brazilian Friend at SEMA
Over here, I just wanted to do a shoutout to my friend Louis in Brazil. OK, so I was at SEMA a few weeks ago. Yancy, you were out there.
I was. Great show.
I was showing the Dr. Beasley’s products and also all the 24-volt Flex cordless polishers. By the way, up on the Dr. Beasley’s blog, you’ll see my full review for each tool—three different articles, three different tools, and three different videos where I do a box opening, show you them, and then put them in action.
Testing Battery Life on a 1965 Pontiac
And I buffed out a 1965 Pontiac SJ Special Edition Grand Prix, totally swirled out. And I used that car to do what I call torture testing on the batteries. So when it comes to cordless batteries, the first question everybody has is, “How long does the battery last?”
Well, if you turn it on and buff, and then you stop and wipe off, and then you turn it on and buff, that’s not really a true test of how long the battery lasts. So what I did in these videos and for this article was I turned it on and never turned it off.
I just ran it like I would really use the tool. I really buffed out the car. And then I had a clock, that clock up there, kind of taped onto the windshield. And I would take a picture of it when I started at high noon, and then I would just time how long it went.
Real-World Observations on Battery Life
I just gave an honest answer. Some people were kind of let down on how long they lasted. Some people were impressed. But you just got to remember, in the real world, nobody buffs like that.
You buff a section, you wipe off, you fiddle with your phone, you get a drink of water, you use the bathroom, you talk to your girlfriend, then you go back to buffing. So all of a sudden, you’re getting an hour out of a battery. And that’s how most people buff out. So take it for what it’s worth.
Meeting a Friend and Testing New Pads
To that point, while I was there in the Flex booth, a gentleman named Lewis came by. He has his own line called Detailer. And he gave me one of these pads to test out.
And I haven’t tested it out yet, Lewis, because I’m saving it for another project. But I’m also hoping this year to go down to the 10th anniversary of Detailer Fest and work with the owner of that show, Romulo, and all the people that can be there.
Plans for Detailer Fest in Brazil
This is a huge trade show—it’s kind of like the SEMA for the detailing world in Brazil. And that takes place, I think, the third weekend of June this year.
So anyway, I just wanted to do a shoutout to my friend Lewis and say thank you. I know that when you’re traveling so far to bring stuff to give away to people, you know, it just fills your suitcase up. And that’s a little bit of a burden. So I appreciate what you did for me. You also gave me a really cool cap. So thank you, Lewis.
Accessibility and Rebranding of Harbor Freight Pads
OK, so over here, I wanted to include these two because, you know, it’s so easy to run down to Harbor Freight and get a jigsaw, power saw, tarp—whatever you might need. But they also have their own tools out now and a line of buffing pads.
And the interesting thing about these buffing pads is these, in my opinion, what they appear to be is a German pre-polymer foam, which is an exact copy—excuse me, exact copy—of the original Rupes pads. Same size, same diameter, same thickness, same color scheme, everything.
Harbor Freight Pads and Rebranding
So while Rupes went away from that design, somebody else has kind of picked it up. And now this is Velocity from SM Arnold. And if you go down to Harbor Freight, it used to be the Harbor Freight brand.
But I was down there yesterday morning just to pick up some fresh pads for this video. They were completely out. I asked them, “Hey, where’s your pads?” And they said, “Well, we’re rebranding them under the Grant detailing line.” So there’s a lot of Grant. There’s Grant stools, Grant this, Grant towels. Now it’s going to be the Grant pads.
Versatility of Grant Pads for Polishing
But hey, you know what? The thing is, is they work. This is the very aggressive blue coarse foam pad for cutting. The green is also fairly coarse. It’s also kind of a cutting, not really a polishing pad. Yellow would be their polishing, and this white pad would be their finishing.
And there’ve been times where I’ve been in a bind, and I needed pads now. I didn’t have time to order them. I didn’t have what I needed. Run down to Harbor Freight, grabbed them, got the car detailed. That’s what’s important. At the end of the day, we’ve got to find a way to get to shiny.
Insights on Wool Pads from SM Arnold
Over here, I just wanted to share, I got a couple other wool pads here. This is actually a wool pad made by SM Arnold for Harbor Freight. They call this the Tougher Buffer Pad.
And then this is one by SM Arnold called Advantage. And both of them seem to be fairly good quality pads. This has what I would call a very short fiber length. It’s about 3/4 of an inch. So that’s going to make this pad harder to buff with and harder to clean.
Preferences for Fiber Length in Wool Pads
Not that those are big deals to a lot of people. I just prefer 1 1/4-inch or 1 1/2-inch fiber length. It’s smoother on me, easier to clean with the spur as you’re working around a car.
This one here appears to be about an inch long fiber length. So you always want to take and pay attention to the fiber length of your wool pads and try to pick something that’s in the 1 1/4 to 1 1/2-inch range.