Pros/Cons of 4/5 Inch Pads

D

Dsoto87

New member
I have only detailed a few cars up to date and have gotten decent results. I have all 5" LC pads from yellow to red. I have a bad habit of spending money, especially when I don't have it. Anyways I was wondering if it would be worth it to get 4" pads. Would that make my 5" pads useless? Are there anyupsides to 5" pads? Are there any downsides to 4" ones?



Thanks in advance
 
What machine are you using? On a DA 4" pads are going to get you more cut, with the downside of covering less surface area on each pass.
 
The downside for 4" pads - they don't make you feel manly.



Otherwise, if you're using a PC, 4" pads are a godsend, especially on hard VW / Audi paints. Also, doing thin pillars and such are more convenient with smaller pads.
 
Yea, note that the 5" will cover about 50% more area than the 4" at a time, that's why the 4" will be more aggressive, since the power is more concentrated, if you will.
 
I'd just get some 4" orange pads if you're itching to try something new. I don't see any point in switching from 5-4" finishing pads
 
KnuckleBuckett said:
Is there a 4" solution for the Flex yet?
Click to expand...



Yeah, the Edge adapter. Except it's unavailable right now, and my guess it won't be. I just don't see 3M selling something that is bought from Flex and modified to take the Edge part.
 
Noting that yours truly got an Edge adaptor for his 3401 while the getting was good...



I don't think the Flex 3401 really *needs* 4" pads. It can do correction just fine with the larger ones and you can almost always do small areas/tight spots with the edge/etc. of a larger pad (and it's not *nearly* as risky with the 3401 as such techniques are via rotary).



People got by for a long, long time with only large pads, and the big things about 4" pads are a) they allow for spot-correction via rotary with less chance of the job getting out of hand, and, much more significantly, b) they allow the PC to do much more aggressive work than it can do with larger pads.
 
Accumulator said:
Noting that yours truly got an Edge adaptor for his 3401 while the getting was good...
Click to expand...



:p I had the Edge online store page opened up in my browser on 11/30, and 12/1 I sat down to order it and the page wouldn't refresh :rolleyes: (the transfer from Dedication to Detail to 3M occurred 12/1, unbeknownst to me)
 
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