Mystery polishing pad

S

Slofut

Promoted Users
I bought a used Flex 3401 and it had this pad on it. Black and furry, maybe wool or a synthetic wool but no name on it. Can anyone identify it? Also can regular local jobber pads work on this polisher? I do like the idea of this black wool for heavy cutting as I'm used to a pneumatic buffer and wool pads.
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To answer a question in first post with a little extra info, on sanders & polishers you have stick on pads & then hook & loop, most pads being hook & loop. Some machines have choices of soft, medium , or firm backing pads, which may be available from that tool manufacturer or an aftermarket source. As far as I know, any hook & loop pad should be fine with any hook & loop backing pad
 
I looked at the reviews on the Chemical Guys black and orange pad. There were a lot of complaints about them coming apart. The reviews might be worth looking at.

John
 
i've worn out one micro pad and on my second . no problem so far .

all foam pads die from age after a while. even soft backing pads come apart .
 
Thanks JLcustoms, this Flex machine has a smaller backing pad than I'm used to (as do most da polishers it seems) at 5 1/2in so I wasn't sure if you could use larger 7 1/2 or 9 1/2in pads or not. It would seem a larger pad like a 9 1/2 wool on such a small backing pad is prob not a good idea and prob not intended to be anyway.

Thanks guys, it looks like this is indeed a microfiber pad and I'm thinking I'll prob be more comfortable with it than sponge pads (no more than I've used them I never got comfortable with them, prob from a lack of patience). I'm gonna grab a couple from Chemical Guys. Shine do you use them for both cutting and polishing?
 
Slofut, check specs for pad size. The Flex might max out at that size.
Most of us here prefer rotary though, da takes forever.
 
Eddie I agree and am having a tough time going to DA. But I've never used anything but pneumatic or electric rotary and figured I was just old school and needed to diversify and give DA a shot. Found this Flex at the pawn shop for 125 bucks and couldnt turn it down so I'll give it a go. I'm thinking it may give a better final show car polish than rotary? ...like I have a show car :rolleyes:
I will go check specs, thanks.
 
Slofut said:
Eddie I agree and am having a tough time going to DA. But I've never used anything but pneumatic or electric rotary and figured I was just old school and needed to diversify and give DA a shot. Found this Flex at the pawn shop for 125 bucks and couldnt turn it down so I'll give it a go. I'm thinking it may give a better final show car polish than rotary? ...like I have a show car :rolleyes:
I will go check specs, thanks.
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Just a different way to get to the end result, I bet many detailers start cutting with wool>foam on rotary and then switch to DA to finish swirl free. For $125 is a hell of a deal and worth learning how to use it to its limits.
 
I have a festool 6" multipurpose tool that is both random orbital & random rotary for more aggression. With sandpaper you can really see the difference between rougher cutting speed & slower finer motions. Same effect when I use it for polishing. Starting with one of your rotaries & finishing with a nice light high quality da is the way to go for speed & best final results.
 
i use a new orange pad and black pad on each full paint job. just dont like old foam pads . once they start breaking down the do very little. but then i only do one car a year . just like the 3m mask. cheap enough to toss and get a new one .
 
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