How to Buy right Buff Polishing Pad | Polishing Pads Guide

With the right polishing pads restoring the gloss and luster of any painted surface is possible. 

 If you use the right polishing pad to apply any sealants, wax and coatings on any scratched surface.

There are a great variety of polishing pads making you confused about which one to go for best results. 

Polishing Pads are made up of wool, cotton, wool, sponge and muslin too. 

Here’s a complete guide on how to select the best polishing pad for polishing.

How to select the Best Polishing Pads Depending on your Polishing Goal? 

There are different sizes of pad and vacuum plate depending upon the different size or area of your vehicle you are working on.

• Heavy Cutting Pad

Heavy cutting pad is for heavy defects like deep scratches, swirls and oxidation.

• Medium Cutting Pad

Medium Cutting pad is more like medium to heavier imperfections on your surface. This cutting pad is also used for one-step pad with products like VSS or V36 cutting polish.

• Heavy Polishing Pad

Heavy Polishing Pad has both rough and soft at same time to serve with one step cutting as it refines your painted surface with medium scratches,and swirls.

• Soft White polishing Pad  

After heavy cutting, you are recommended to refine the paint further with a soft white polishing pad to remove micro-imperfections or swirls. Finer polish products like V36 or V38 for a nice cherry finish are used with white polishing pad.

• Finishing Pads 

Different finishing pads are used for the application of sealants, glazes, and waxes after cutting after cutting and polishing. 

Finishing pads are ultra soft and ultra plush suitable for finishing. Glazing pads are used to apply glaze, then the next finishing pad  layer comes for sealant, and lastly Ultra fine finishing pad to apply a layer of butter wax. 

From glazing, sealant to waxing new pad is used to apply to make sure no product mixes with another one. 

Different Sizes And Backings For Precise Polishing And Finishing

• 4’’ Inch Pad | For greater precision on small areas

For tighter areas like the back bumper, the pillars, the front bumper. We never use a bigger pad here to avoid product spreading onto surrounding trims and seals. 

• 5’’ Inch Pad | For most applications

The 5 Inch pad is the most versatile pad as this size pad can cover the door panel, the hood and the fenders without the need to change your backing plate or pad.

• 6’’ Inch Pad | For Big vehicles & large surfaces

For RVs, Trucks, Boat, or plane, this 6 Inch pad is perfect to cover broader surfaces.

How to Clean Polishing Pads? | Assessing & cleaning Pads before using 

Cleaning your Polishing pads is critical after and before using them. Keeping your pads cleaner makes sure the smooth surface quality is maintained. 

Otherwise polishing without cleaning your pads, you should know dirty pads are really hard, very stiff, surely going to get heated up, start flaking off, the polishing also dries earlier and the pad falls apart.

Assessing Dirty Polishing Pads | What your Pads should not look like

If your polishing pads’ surface looks all baked up or gunked up with residue, then it means they definitely need some cleaning. It is not an effective approach to use dirty pads for polishing as it will spoil the quality of polishing leaving trails behind. Making it more hectic for you to remove it with finer polish. 

Your pads needs deep cleaning if they look like:

• Caked with products
• Baked pad surface
• Gunked with product residue 

Product for Polishing Pad Cleaning 

You will need a citrus-based cleaner with some conditioning properties in it, not too harsh and suited for polishing pad’s foam.

1. Spray the Citrus-based cleaner on the pad’s surface. 
2. Use a brush to gently allow it to react with the surface. 
3. Dip in the tub of water and squeeze the softened residue out.
4. Repeat step three frequently till completely cleaned. 

Why not wash polishing pads with dish washing soaps, or detergents?

Now if you wash pads with dish washing soap, you surel

How to Avoid getting Dirty Baked Pads

The most usual reason leading to baked dirty polishing pad could be:

1. You might have used way too much compound or polish and baked in its surface while polishing on the surface.
2. You didn’t use a pad conditioner. Pad Conditioner helps to keep it soft, moist, and avoids heating leading buring the product.
3. You might be putting too much pressure on the Pad while polishing. Too much pressure creates a lot of heat causing the product to eventually dry and backed up on your pads.

Frequently Asked Questions 

• How many polishing pads do I need to work with?

One  pad works for regular cars but for RV and boats. You might need more polishing pads to avoid the hectic of going back and forth to polish each section you remove the pad, clean it, then reuse it. 

• Can I use a 5 Inch backing plate for 6 Inch polishing pads?

When you apply a 6 Inch polishing pad on a 5 Inch backing plate, then while pressing against the edgy surfaces the pad will bend and not give you a consistent cut. 

• Which pad is better with hole or no hole? And why?

Polishing pad with hole works better in reducing the heating up of the rotary polisher. Comparatively using a regular pad will build up heat and cause the product to dry up and bake on the pad.