Buffing pad recommendations

F

farmerfred

Member
Hi all, looking for some advice. I will soon be painting my 57 Chevy and will need to buy some new compounding and polishing pads. I use a Dewalt variable speed 7/9-inch buffer. I have used 3M double sided and hook and loop in the past but most need replaced. Recommendations on what most of you have had the best luck with. Foam or wool or a combination of both? I haven't bought any pads for over ten years.
 
Check out Lake Country. They have a dizzying number of options.
I wish I could love the 3m double sided wool but it wobbles too much. The foams run pretty true.
 
x2 on the Lake Country Pads.

I use the same DeWalt buffer and a 7" flexible backing pad.
Lake Country Twisted Wool pad with Meguiars M-100 for scratch removal.
Lake Country Black Foam pad and Menzerna Super Finish 3800 polishing.

Everyone seems to have their own preferences on compounds and techniques. I usually stop at 2000 grit when cutting and the above works just fine.
 
Hey, thanks guys. I will investigate Lake country pads. I already have some Meguiars M-100 compound. I will order some Menzerna
super finish 3800. Today I worked on sanding and buffing the dash. I started with 1000g using semi firm block then switched to 1500 on a soft block. I then used some 3000 and 5000 Trizact then buffed with a wool 3M pad. I switched to my Porter Cable orbital polisher with foam pads. It looks pretty good, but I still need to work out some sanding scratches. Seems like the 3M wool pads leave some fine scratches that are hard to polish out. I should have used the Mequiars M-100 but I wanted to use up some of my old 3M Perfect it compound.
 
FYI: 3M compound is notorious for having fillers that hide scratches. If the clear is fairly cured, you can use isopropyl alcohol to check progress. If it's kinda fresh, us the 710.
 
Jumping from 1500 to 3000 grit is a bit much. I normally stay with 500 grit increments. 1000, 1500, 2000.
This idea is to make sure the next finer grit has removed all the previous grit scratches before moving on. Hence the concern for compounds with fillers in them, they fill the scratches and make them harder to see.
 
I had forgotten that I had bought some super buflex-K2000 discs when I sanded it. I am going to go over it with the K2000 today where the scratches are showing and then progress through3000-5000G before buffing. I doubt that they would show if the windshield were installed but I know they are there and they need to go. This time I will use the Mequiars M-100 to buff it. I ordered some Lake Country pads also to use on the main body after it is painted.
 
Today I resanded the dash with the Buflex k2000 and then proceed to 3000 and 5000g Trizact and buffed it with a wool pad on the rotary and then switched to a foam pad using the Porter Cable RO polisher. I final polished with a black foam pad I have I think It came out really good.




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