Cleaning Your Pad On The Fly

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Cleaning Your Pad On The Fly

What speed should you use to clean? I imagine since your holding the DA with one hand it's pretty low?

Actually, you leave it on the speed you're using the polisher.

Cleaning your pad on the fly is about cleaning your pad quickly and getting back to work, not turning the speed down, cleaning your pad, turning your speed back up and getting back to work. I've never done experiments to see if one speed works better over another as when I'm detailing a car time is of the essence.

It takes long enough to detail a car from start to finish in one day, the idea behind cleaning your pad on the fly as the title states is to clean your pad on the fly.... and get back to work.

It helps to have strong hands, sorry I can't help you with that...

It also helps to have 2-3 clean, small terry cloth towels on hand for this procedure.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Cleaning Your Pad On The Fly

I clean it at whatever speed I am working at - so it's truly "cleaning on the fly". It gets cumbersome to constantly change the speed to clean the pad

Exactamundo

(As Fonzi would say)

[xantonin]

Re: Cleaning Your Pad On The Fly

I must be doing this wrong.

How do you stop the terry towel from swirling when the G110 grabs it as it spins?

[02zx9r]

Re: Cleaning Your Pad On The Fly

What I do is apply a lot of pressure with my hand holding the towel, or I will have the towel on the bench and apply a lot of pressure to keep it from spinning around

[dragonballz]

Re: Cleaning Your Pad On The Fly

I noticed that the g110 stops spinning. Am i applying to much pressure to the terry towel?

[ceyko]

Re: Cleaning Your Pad On The Fly

I noticed that the g110 stops spinning. Am i applying to much pressure to the terry towel?

I'm in the same boat as this guy.

[xantonin]

Re: Cleaning Your Pad On The Fly

Same thing, but it's the only way to stop the towel from spinning off.

[the_invisible]

Re: Cleaning Your Pad On The Fly

Hey I am new and I am glas I found this thread.

Typically I just toss out my pads and soak them in water to wash them after they have become saturated. I never knew I should be cleaning them of saturation or water.

Anyway, I see that Cisco is wearing a pair of specialized glasses. Do they help him assess the pad-cleaning process? Or are they simply for eye protection?

[goldenturtle]

Re: Cleaning Your Pad On The Fly

I am also a newb.. so here is my stupid question for the day... why not have a few pads and toss them in the washing machine when you are done??

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Cleaning Your Pad On The Fly

I noticed that the g110 stops spinning. Am i applying to much pressure to the terry towel?

No, you're doing exactly right. Remember, the G110 and other popular D/A buffers have that safety mechanism that stops the rotation when excessive pressure is applied. You need to apply a lot of pressure onto your terry towel to force the product out, and if the pad continued to spin you'd have a problem doing this! Keep in mind we are recommending this procedure ONLY for D/A buffers and not rotary buffers.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Cleaning Your Pad On The Fly

I am also a newb.. so here is my stupid question for the day... why not have a few pads and toss them in the washing machine when you are done??

Stupid? Not even close - you're being logical. While it is good practice to clean your pad on the fly, it's also good practice to switch to a clean pad a few times while completely machine buffing a vehicle. If you have a lot of pads then this is simple.

But if you either can't afford to keep several pads on hand, or are working on a vehicle that requires more buffing time, has single stage paint that is loading up your pads, or some other situation arises that is taxing your pads, you may not have an alternative - you just need to clean your pads on the fly.

[Nappers]

Re: Cleaning Your Pad On The Fly

Echoing what M.S. said, when I was pad poor (and I'm not pad rich, I have a few more than I did though), I would dial my process in with the pads I had as you don't want to cross contaminate products.....

I wash the pads I used in the dial up, spin them on my rotary (get a shower) then dry them in the sun and start the car with the pad I did have. I found on a smaller car such as our Neon, 2 pads or maybe 3. Cleaning on the fly every other application at the least, I try to clean on the fly after each application but sometimes I dont.....

The pads do get saturated and you need to get a new one. I clean the pad as mentioned (using paint correction products, a good rinse is pretty much all that is needed). I would then keep going and always have a clean pad to fall back on. It's a pain in the hind end if you only have a few pads.....

When I used my rotary on a Dodge Quad cab, the pads filled up every 1/4 panel and I think I ended up using 5-6 pads (with the hood and tailgate) and was cleaning pads inbetween like crazy. that was with cleaning on the fly after every application and going through terry cloths like crazy.

Anyways.....my personal experience

I have like 10-12 pads now to use and don't have that cumbersome problem when I had 4 pads......

[JuddGA]

Re: Cleaning Your Pad On The Fly

how about wool pads? do they get loaded up too? I am using some 3" wool pads to clean my windows.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Cleaning Your Pad On The Fly

Yes, wool pads load up too, and they also tend to get sort of matted down. When used on a rotary buffer we utilize a pad spur to get the dried material out, separate the fibers and "fluff up" the pad.



Lacking a spur we've seen guys use a large screwdriver for the same purpose, although compressed air also does an excellent job. And then there's KC, who just uses his fingernails and gets a manicure in the process.

[speed3blackmica]

Re: Cleaning Your Pad On The Fly

the only thing that bothers me about cleaning on the fly is that the DA tends to tear up the fibers in the terry cloth and you find little strands of cotton on your pad..is this normal ?

by the way, i find that using a soft bristle tooth brush and turning the machine on helps a lot to clean off any dried product and doesnt rip apart the foam