Is This Normal Foam Pad Wear? Advice Please!

[Marc08EX]

I'm currently having some issues with my foam pads after cleaning them with a foam pad reconditioning brush... Here are some pictures of a W8006 Meguiar's Polishing Pad that I have a problem with...







Now to compare, here are some pictures of a brand new W8006 Meguiar's Polishing pad...






My questions is whether this is normal or not... Am I destroying my pads with a foam reconditioning brush? Should I toss my pads away and buy new ones?

Any input and advice would be appreciated! Thanks for your help!

[davey g-force]

Re: Is This Normal Foam Pad Wear? Advice Please!

Most of my pads start to look like that when they're towards the end of their life cycle as well.

I'd say it's normal - depending on how many times you've used / cleaned them.

Do you wash them or just clean with the reconditioning brush?

[Marc08EX]

Re: Is This Normal Foam Pad Wear? Advice Please!

Most of my pads start to look like that when they're towards the end of their life cycle as well.

I'd say it's normal - depending on how many times you've used / cleaned them.

Do you wash them or just clean with the reconditioning brush?

For my Meguiar's polishing pads, they start looking like that after 2-3 uses which is very quick if you consider them at the end of their life cycle.

I use the foam reconditioning brush to clean the pads on the fly. M105 creates so much dust and dried product on the pad and using the foam reconditioning brush is like a necessity. It cleans the pad out fairly well and removes dried or stuck on product in the pad. As a result of using the brush, the foam quality deteriorates.

How many times have you used the pads and/or washed/cleaned them before it starts looking like this?

Thanks!

[Poki]

Re: Is This Normal Foam Pad Wear? Advice Please!

In my opinion the brush is the problem especially if using it to clean on the fly. I use a thick terry towel to clean on the fly and get a lot of uses out of my pads....like 8-10 uses maybe. The only thing that makes my pads look like that sooner is running them over a protrusion of some sort.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Is This Normal Foam Pad Wear? Advice Please!

Marc, if you're seeing that after just 2-3 uses then it tells us you're either being very aggressive when buffing with the pads or you're being overly aggressive with the pad brush. The pad brush should only be used lightly enough to remove built up surface material, not to deep clean the pad. If you're getting excess product loading up the pad, you're better off squeezing the pad against a clean terry cloth towel to force that product out.

But very aggressive buffing with a pad will shorten its life too. We've been in situations where, with very limited resources on hand and very little time to accomplish a task, we've had to get very aggressive with a pad for longer than we normally would like. In extreme cases that can noticeably degrade a pad in a matter of hours.

[Marc08EX]

Re: Is This Normal Foam Pad Wear? Advice Please!

In my opinion the brush is the problem especially if using it to clean on the fly. I use a thick terry towel to clean on the fly and get a lot of uses out of my pads....like 8-10 uses maybe. The only thing that makes my pads look like that sooner is running them over a protrusion of some sort.

Thank you! I'll just try to use more pads from now on and just clean them with APC and my hands after polishing the entire car. I'll try to use a thick terry towel too and see how that works out. I know that using a MF towel to clean it on the fly doesn't work as well as using the brush.

Marc, if you're seeing that after just 2-3 uses then it tells us you're either being very aggressive when buffing with the pads or you're being overly aggressive with the pad brush. The pad brush should only be used lightly enough to remove built up surface material, not to deep clean the pad. If you're getting excess product loading up the pad, you're better off squeezing the pad against a clean terry cloth towel to force that product out.

But very aggressive buffing with a pad will shorten its life too. We've been in situations where, with very limited resources on hand and very little time to accomplish a task, we've had to get very aggressive with a pad for longer than we normally would like. In extreme cases that can noticeably degrade a pad in a matter of hours.

Thanks for the response Mike!!! I really appreciate it.

Yeah maybe I'm using the foam reconditioning brush too aggressively. After around 2 section passes, I already clean the pad with a foam reconditioning brush to remove dried compounds/polish. I actually put pressure on the brush enough to compress the pad while the D/A or 3401 is on. So when you said "lightly", how light should it be? Should it be almost no compression on the pad? I'll try to use the terry cloth towel method in the future. MF towels just don't remove the old polish.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Is This Normal Foam Pad Wear? Advice Please!

You don't really need or want a lot of pressure with the brush on the foam - just enough to get the dried or excess product off the surface and edges. Get the excess built up product down in the pad out of the pad by pressing a towel against it.

[Marc08EX]

Re: Is This Normal Foam Pad Wear? Advice Please!

You don't really need or want a lot of pressure with the brush on the foam - just enough to get the dried or excess product off the surface and edges. Get the excess built up product down in the pad out of the pad by pressing a towel against it.

Thanks Mike!!! I'll do that next time!

[davey g-force]

Re: Is This Normal Foam Pad Wear? Advice Please!

How many times have you used the pads and/or washed/cleaned them before it starts looking like this?

Thanks!

Like Barry, I get about 10 uses out of my pads before they start to look like that.

That's with cleaning on the fly using a brush and terry towel, as well as washing them after the detail.