Critique my setup before I order

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Deanw15

New member
Weekend warrior here fixin to place and order. Do some friends and family vehicles. Been lokking at the 3d products and seem easy to use and gonna go with them. So thinkin bout ordering
3 orange 5.5 LC pads
3 white
2 black
HD Speed, cut and polish along with proxy.
Will this cover most of the basics as far as being versatile and covering most of what I will see
 
That looks like a good plan.

The only thing I would suggest is getting more pads. I almost always use 4 of each depending on the steps and size of a vehicle. Cleaning pads on the fly is an option but not always handy.
 
Deanw15- Welcome to Autopia!

I'd look into different cutting pads, maybe ones from Buff & Shine. IME the combo of HD Cut and LC Orange is not sufficiently aggressive for significant correction (but then I usually work on pretty hard clear). And yeah...I'd get more pads too.
 
more pads like everyone else is saying, especially white and orange. i dont find myself using black pads very often. i switched from LC CCS to buff and shine flat pads. i feel theyre more durable and the yellow one surprisingly finished down very well on a hard clear last time for me.
 
Yep, more pads and go with one black or zero. I just use the black to spread lsp and if cost is a factor one will suffice.
 
Come to think of it, I can't remember the last time I used a black LC pad. I don't even like them for LSPing by machine, they're just too soft for my taste. Even on the rare occasions that I do some burnishing, I use different Finishing Pads. And for LSPing I think I'd try the LC Gold ones (currently use the red ones from Griot's).
 
There's one thing I'm suprised Accumulator didn't mention.
The only thing I would suggest is if your cars are daily drivers kept outside, get some FK1000P (paste wax) for winter protection.
 
I like microfiber to cut and foam to finish. That's just me. I agree the black pad will hardly if ever used. Maybe a small bottle of HD Adapt, I like it?
 
I too would suggest Buff & Shine 5.5" flat pads. Very durable, recessed Velcro for safety and even their yellow and orange cut pads finish very well. The red is great for applying LSPs--very dense pores so the product tends to stay on the surface of the pad better than others.

Remember with HD products "less is more"--5-6 pea sized drops to prime then 2-3 for each additional section.

As everyone stated -- more pads. Here's an article by Mike Phillips regarding the number of pads you need for each step: http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/ask-expert-featuring-mike-phillips/88109-how-many-pads-do-i-need-buff-out-my-car.


 
For a newbie/weekend warrior this would be my setup:

Meguairs Hyper Wash
Speedy Prep Towel
Buff N Shine Pads (5 Orange, 5 white)
Optimum Hyper Polish
(10) Eagle Edgeless Microfiber towels (The Rag Co)
Optimum Opti Seal
 
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