6" vs. 8" Edge wool pads

Denzil said:
Hehe, yeah I can't wait for them to arrive at my door! Also thanks for the tips Accumulator. I'll probably stick with sandpaper between 2000-3000 grit then. I'm glad you answered my question (before I could ask it) about what particular brand to stick with as I had no idea what to look for.



Anyone else care to share their experiences with wet sandpapers? :)



Also, ETGs are a whole new ballpark for me... educationally and financially, LoL. What ETG do you use by the way Accumulator, or anyone else for that matter?
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Great thread on them here...http://autopia.org/forum/detailing-product-discussion/79517-paint-meter-thickness-gauges.html



One other thing to think about with wetsanding... Some of this is taken from the thread above, but anyway... Remember that most knowledgeable people say you can only remove .03 to .05 mils of clear over the lifetime of the clear coat. If you have some RIDS that need to be wetsanded in order to get rid of them, you might be pressing those numbers by wetsanding, then compounding, then polishing. Then if you ever need to compound/polish that area again.. yeesh. I have a brand new car that has six long straight scratches that run the entire length of the hood, and several on the roof and trunk, too. I could remove them easily with a wetsanding, but i'm not going to do it; it gets me too close to the max clear removal and the car is still brand new. I've polished it well enough so that you have to catch a good light source to see them, but they won't be removed by me, ever.



Edit: As TH0001 (Todd :) ) has recently shown, wetsanding is probably the most clear coat-saving way of removing deep scratches as compared to just compounding the heck out of it, but you are still removing a substantial layer of clear. Just something to think about.
 
Denzil- It might be on that linked thread...I have a PhaseII with the probe on a cable, but I haven't done much with it yet. This is a case of closing the barn door after the horse already left as I over-thinned the clear on my M3 trying to rotary away 75K miles of somebody else's daily use.



Yeah, they're a bit pricey, but less than a little paintwork ;)



SuperBee364- Those scratches must be kinda irritating, but :xyxthumbs for not getting all aggressive with 'em.



Just last weekend I had to settle for ~90% removal of a 9" scratch on the Denali XL...somebody brushed against its L quarter *hard*. After all the correction it's already had, I simply can't/won't risk complete removal.



Oh, and I can't help but think of one very important specific about TH0001's experience...*HIS SKILL LEVEL* If somebody has to [mess] around a bit more, say, refining the finish from the rotary work, the results could turn out very different IMO.
 
Accumulator said:
Yeah, they're a bit pricey, but less than a little paintwork ;)
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Heh, for some reason I never thought of it that way!



Oh and apparently the Phase II now goes for $495! Aww man, now I have 2 large future purchases to save up for: an extractor AND an ETG.



The purchasing spree truly never ends here... :dance
 
I just ordered the edge adapter, and two 6" black, yellow and green pads last week, I have to go pick em up at the post office tomorrow! Really good deal for em though, I got two of each one because one was $17.99, and the additional one only cost $3 more!
 
Denzil said:
I think I'm going to go with the LC 6.5" purple foamed wool for now using M105 and Ultrafina.



I'm currently having trouble with an '89 BMW 525i that seems to have ridiculously hard paint (I think it's SS paint). I even tried it with a yellow Propel (ver. 1) and PB's SSR3 (which I'm not really too fond of SSR's since I still haven't gotten the technique on these polishes).



I guess my lack of rotary experience factors into my results as well but I haven't had this large of an issue on other cars.
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I worked on my '89 525i as well. The paint is unbelievably hard, but it seems to be just right when it is in a warm garage all night, but I blame my Menzerna for not woring well in the cold. I used a 4-stage Menzerna procedure with a simple old Megs wool pad for POS34A Powergloss, and various CCS pads for everything else.



Megs wool, POS34a PG - single pass to really break down the dusty powergloss over the previously heavily oxidized surface.



Orange CCS, PO91E IP - two strong passes to rid the paint of the holograms, worked well with the notoriously firm orange pad.



White CCS, PO85U FPI - Two or three soft passes with a good soft wipedown afterwards.



White CCS w/PC7424, PO87MC FPII - Two or three really intensive passes, but with the RO.



Turned out great, and one hell of a job!





AP2TUDE said:
I would say to stick with the smaller pads, especially with the Metabo. The larger pads induce a lot more stress on the motor, and the Metabo is already known for overheating. The smaller pads should reduce that strain, and hopefully keep your operating temps a lot lower. Not to mention that I feel they are a lot easier to use anyway.
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I also love smaller pads on my Metabo. Yet, because the cutting action of the pad is closer to the center, there is a little less cut achieved unless speed is upped just a hair in order to compensate for the lost 'leverage.' The Metabo is picky, but it has grown on me.





Accumulator said:
The clear on my '87 e36 is *HARD*
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There was no BMW "E36" in 87.
 
charlesaferg, great to hear your experience! I have yet another comparison to reference when I'm ready to attack the nasty Bimmer! I greatly appreciate your input.
 
Denzil said:
charlesaferg, great to hear your experience! I have yet another comparison to reference when I'm ready to attack the nasty Bimmer! I greatly appreciate your input.
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No problem! It has hard, hard paint - I don't know what it is. I do know that I had some serious oxidation going on in the center of the hood and the roof, and the rest of those areas around the oxidation were really hard - after I cut it it softened up a bit, but not much. Like I said, it really helps to be a tad bit warmer than usual when working with it.



For reference, I have "lachsilber metallic".

Picture is from before I redid the entire suspension(sachs sport kit, meyle control arms, links, bushings, etc... that big kit that's on ebay), as well as before I put in the Hella smoked tails...

l_082776feae73959ec8789473bddc270d.jpg




...Yes, that's my detail-mobile. It all, astonishingly, fits in there.



Accumulator said:
Doh!! Brain-pause...it's a '97 :o Can't remember if that was just a typo or a real, true moment of stupidity :think: :nixweiss
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Naw, I figured that was the case, I probably should have said something. :P
 
AP2TUDE said:
I would say to stick with the smaller pads, especially with the Metabo. The larger pads induce a lot more stress on the motor, and the Metabo is already known for overheating. The smaller pads should reduce that strain, and hopefully keep your operating temps a lot lower. Not to mention that I feel they are a lot easier to use anyway.
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I think I have polished 40-50 cars in the last year with my metabo and 8" edge wool. The metabo will handle that fine, its some foam pads and softer clears that will put the metabo into thermal shutdown.
 
Hey, while I'm remembering what car I have :o I have a Q:



There are plenty of areas on my e36 where an 8" pad simply seems too big. I'm betting that if I angle the 8" wool pads (which I now have, thanks to JuneBug ) I'll have holograms galore...so I need the smaller pads huh?



This is the car I'm simply rotarying to death trying to correct...my painter's gonna redo it when the mechanical stuff is done, but I'm still gonna play around with it some more. Gotta get it at least a *little* better before I take it to the shop; it *is* one of *my* vehicles after all, can't let it look too bad!
 
Accumulator said:
Hey, while I'm remembering what car I have :o I have a Q:



There are plenty of areas on my e36 where an 8" pad simply seems too big. I'm betting that if I angle the 8" wool pads (which I now have, thanks to JuneBug ) I'll have holograms galore...so I need the smaller pads huh?



This is the car I'm simply rotarying to death trying to correct...my painter's gonna redo it when the mechanical stuff is done, but I'm still gonna play around with it some more. Gotta get it at least a *little* better before I take it to the shop; it *is* one of *my* vehicles after all, can't let it look too bad!
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That was what I was under the assumption with the smaller pads Accumulator. Hence that's why I opted for the 6" Edge pads instead. Plus, I'm less likely to burn my paint, hehe.
 
Denzil said:
That was what I was under the assumption with the smaller pads Accumulator. Hence that's why I opted for the 6" Edge pads instead. Plus, I'm less likely to burn my paint, hehe.
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Yeah, I use 4" foam pads so often with the rotaries that I wish they made little *wool* ones in that size! I oughta just buy the 6" ones....
 
Accumulator said:
Yeah, I use 4" foam pads so often with the rotaries that I wish they made little *wool* ones in that size! I oughta just buy the 6" ones....
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The LC purple foamed wool is available in really small sizes. At least, LC does make them that small. The hard part is finding someplace that stocks them in the smaller size. Seems like I did see them somewhere recently...
 
Aww man, I forgot to order the LC purple foamed wool. Eh, I'll just stick with my most recent order for now but eventually I think my curiosity of the LC purple foamed wool will get to me...
 
Denzil, I hate to play Devil's advocate... (OK, that's not true. I love to play Devil's advocate)... but you should go ahead and order the purple foamed wool. Even if you have to pay more shipping to do it. It's really that good of a pad.
 
LoL, damn myself for being so easily convinced, haha. Well, I'll have a look where I can purchase it the cheapest and purchase it tonight unless you want to hint to me where to purchase it, hehe.
 
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