mith

Baby steps right? I've been trying to find a pad that fits my off-brand buffer. Although I like the orbital, it's not as effective as a regular buffer wheel, though they're much more dangerous to the paint if you don't know what you're doing (ask me how I know.... sigh, I already buffed off some of the paint on the plastic louvers...).

Anywho, I recently bought a couple of buffer pads that I thought would fit my off-brand buffer (not the orbital, but the regular buffer). I was not able to attach them using the buffer's securing mechanism. So my next mission was to figure out how to attach the pads. So I went to Home Depot and bought some Velcro. I thought I could put the Velcro on the buffing wheel, then put the other side of the Velcro on the pad, that might work to attach the pad to the buffer wheel.

So just a few minutes ago, I stuck some of the Velcro on the buffer wheel. That went smoothly, I cut it to shape and it conformed to the circular dimensions of the wheel pretty well. Then, I grabbed the pad to see if it fit on the buffer wheel. It did. Then I went to remove it and it was difficult to get off.... huh? I thought, that's strange. Then I realized that the pad I was attaching already had Velcro on it!!!! WOOT WOOT!

So now I think I'm ready to go. BUT... I do have a question. What is the best pad to use for removing the micro-scratches. Should I use the foam ones, or the ones that look like sheep skin.

I realize I've been given advice not to use water when buffing... I can see that. However, when I spent $3,000 on the paint job for my cycle, I watched them doing it and they were spraying "something" to keep it moist as they buffed the paint. I don't know what it was though... but they didn't just use a buffer pad. Needless to say, when they were done the paint was like glass. Maybe they were "wet sanding" the surface?

Anyway, I have two buffer pads. So I'll use the first to attempt to remove the swirls keeping it moist with Maguire's, "quick detailer" stuff. Then use the second pad to apply the wax.

Wish me luck. I'll of course, be VERY careful NOT to use to high of RPM's with the buffer or apply too much pressure so I don't strip off too much.

When I'm done, I'll get back to you people and let you know how it went.

Eunox

I recommended watching the 4 part series here. Very informative.

mith

awesome video!

Eunox

Yeah he has a ton more too for all sorts of different things. Love his videos.

mith

Hi Eunox, I'm watching the second video now. Up to this point, I have not seen him mention the "sheep skin" pads, only the foam (hexagon) pads. I'll continue the video and see if he mentions the "sheep skin" looking pads.

BTW... his T-shirt says, "Semper Fi".... I want to publically thank him for his service. God bless all of our military men and women!

Eunox

I think it's in video 3 or 4 where he finally uses a pad. Can't remember if he says anything about the sheepskin pads though.

I personally have never used a sheepskin pad to polish. I always use Adam's Polishes pads. http://www.adamspolishes.com/c-58-ma...lish-pads.aspx

Eunox

Was just wondering about a wool pad and found this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...mfn9mwYc#t=89s

mith

Okay, then I guess I'll throw that one (two of them) out. I'm a novice and don't need to use the, "big hammer" in my arsenal.

Good news/bad news for me today....

Good news, I bought the orange pad and the white pads. The orange pad did what it was supposed to (remove swirls). I couldn't find the Maguire's 105, so I bought the Maguire's 2.0. I had no problems applying the buffer pad to my buffer. I did exactly what the video said to do... (four pea sized dots of the stuff to the pad). It removed about 97.312% of the swirls.

Bad news.... (Mith welling up in tears).... I totally fk'd up my hood scoop (GDMFSOB).... the buffer only hit it briefly, but it was apparently long enough to do some SERIOUS damage! It cut through the stripe that goes along the top of the car on the hood scoop AND cut into the hood scoop and smeared the blue paint onto the remaining white stripe.

Do I have an orbital buffer? YES... should I have used it? Probably! But I'm going to continue using my regular buffer until I master it. Almost all the swirls are gone... it's going to take some practice, but I'm not going to give up just because I failed on my first attempt.

Will I fix the damage? Not now. I think in the future I'll practice on my Honda. It's filthy and has a LOT of paint damage. Maybe once I get the hang of it, I'll try using the buffer on the Mustang once again.

Anyway, I'm making progress. Right now, the swirls on my Mustang are about 97.1323% gone. Eventually they'll all be gone. Wish me luck... LOL

Eunox

So it slipped onto the stripe?

mith

Ya, I flew to high to the sun and the sun melted my wings... so to speak.

I think I can fix it however. I'll go to Ford and get some touch-up paint (heh, when I first typed, "touch-up", I typed "ouch-up" LOL... Freudian slip... Anyway, I got some good practice on my bath tub. I had a HUGE amount of hard water deposits. Then I remembered that the sheep skin looking pad was really aggressive when it comes to removing stuff. So I put it on and gave it a try. I used an old can of Turtle Wax buffing compound (the red can) and gave it a whirl.

I applied the compound and began buffing... lowest speed. I found that all I ended up doing was drying out the compound and no matter how slow or fast I had the buffer set at, I couldn't remove the compound... which brings me to a point I made in another thread... moistening the buffer with water. I did this and loosened up the compound beautifully and ended up fairly quickly removing the water deposits.

In the video of the, "Junk man" (I think that's what he called himself)... when he used the clay, he kept the surface VERY wet, with detailing liquid as I recall). So I've concluded (IMO) that when using any abrasive product, it needs to be kept moist. Waxes etc., seem to not dry out as fast when applying it.

So my Tub (part of it) is water spot-free. Though since it was a very abrasive compound, there are surely very deep scratches (can't see with the lighting in the bathroom). But it's certainly shiny enough for a bath tub.

I can't remember if I mentioned this, but I finally figured out how to attach the proper pads to my buffer. I simply went to Home Depot and got some Velcro and stuck it to the pad. Worked perfectly. So now I can go to the 3D store and keep stocked up on pads, though they're very expensive and will, in the future, buy them online from the recommended sites you people have posted (as well as where the Junk Man recommended).

So I am in fact, making some progress and with all learning processes, there will be mistakes. But I'm content with my progress for now.

Thanks again to all who have contributed to my threads as well as the other threads that I've read.