Losiho

I have in my collection a Meguiars W7000 Foam "Cutting" Pad, as well as several W8000 foam polishing pads and W9000 finishing pads. I attach them to my Hitachi random orbital sander.

I have a few mild swirl marks and scratches on my car that don't seem to come out with polish and the W8000 pad. Can I try the W7000 foam cutting pad with some Meg's Swirl Remover ? Will foam cutting pads cause surface damage ? I've always assumed that it is wool cutting pads that are more aggressive and can cause damage, not foam.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Guitarman

The wool will always cause more marring than foam, that's a given.
There's no blanket way for me to say "This pad will work" because every paint is of a different hardness and the swirls are of a differing extent, so bascially, you need to experiment with different pads and polishes to see what will work for you.

I CAN tell you that whatever you decide to try, FINISH with a finishing pad and EXTREMELY slow RPMs on your machine, so it's barely spinning, and work the polish till it's ALMOST dry, but NOT dry. It's a fine line, but you'll get the hang of it quick enough. The "holograpic" type swirls that have a 3D effect in sunlight will be drastically reduced if you finish your polishing off that way. You can even do it by hand with straight back & forth motions with light pressure.


For the bulk of the spider webbing and swirls, try the cutting pad if you can't get them under control with a polishing pad first. You need to use a polishing then finishing pad after though, because the cutting pad will *usually* induce some swirls and holograms itself, and the less aggressive pads will cure those if you're persistent.

You just have to find the "recipe" of pads & polish that works for your paint, and it never hurts to go "out of the box" and try different things if you have to. You'll know pretty quick if it's effective or not. Good luck.

Losiho

Thanks G Man.

To be honest, I've never used any pad to buff out the polish....only to apply it. I've always used a towel to remove polish. I just find it a little awkward to buff out polish with a machine, because of the numerous surfaces and crevaces that polish hides in.

And I do know about the low RPMs required for the finishing pad - it's so light and thin compared to the other pads, it spins like crazy at high RPM.

Guitarman

I don't personally recommend anyone ever REMOVE the polish haze with a machine, so If I missed that part forgive me ( I went and re-read your original post and still thought you were talking about application only).

Removal via a microfiber or terry towel by hand , in straight lines with light pressure is best IMO. Machines will grab dried polish residues and spin it around and cause swirls, because it's difficult to control pressure. By hand, you have more control over those things.I usually also Q/D ( Meguiar'sFinal Inspection) my residue just to add some forgiveness to the dried abrasives, so they don't micro -mar furthur. The extra lubricity seems to help me that way..

The problem with the "slow rpm" thing is, the machine has to be vari-speed for it to work. If it has preset speeds, not much you can do. Hand method for last step / finishing is all I can recommend then. Cheers.

bunmango

In my experience, foam "cutting" pads (I use the yellow Lake Country pads w/ my PC) and DACP tend to produce a hazy/cloudy surface (especially on black) and needs another step to polish out the cloudiness before finishing with a sealant. I usually clean up this haze with another yellow LC pad and SFP, white LC pad and SFP, or white LC pad and Meguiar's #80 Speed Glaze, and follow with a pure polish/glaze such as Vanilla Moose.

At the Meguiar's/Autopia meet a few months back, Mike Phillips explained that detailing should be a "forward" process, meaning that he does not follow the process I have just mentioned above. He went on to demonstrate exactly what I did above (using DACP and a cutting pad with a PC on a black car) and compared it to using a polishing pad on a rotary buffer. The polishing pad w/ rotary buffer left a mirror finish similar to what would be left after the second step that I mentioned (SFP + yellow pad), while the DACP + cutting pad on the PC left a cloudy surface.

I hope this didn't confuse you too much