Used Flex first time, 3 questions

[Derek173]

Forgive my Newbness,



I just used my flex for the first time. Just practicing right now as I have never machine polished. I started with Optimum Finish and white ccs pad and saw a slight difference then I switched to Opt Finish + orange pad and saw a big difference:woot: but still felt it needed more as this car was beat up. As I grabbed my bottle of Opt Polish II, I had these questions I wish someone could have answered for me.



1. If I am moving to the Polish should I go back to the white pad (LC ccs) or stay with the orange? I stayed with orange.



2. Can I use the same orange pad with the polish as before or should it be a fresh one?



3. When do you decide if it just needs another pass of the polish or I need to switch to a compound?



Thanks:buffing:

 

[wascallyrabbit]

your on the right track by practicing and experimenting with the different pads and polish see how they work together, hopefully your using a practice panel and not your car. for what you listed op II and orange pad will be the most aggressive combo you have. of with white pad the least aggressive. with the op II you will have to try the orange and white to see which gives you the results you want ( multiple passes may be required). you should clean any pad your using often (every panel or every other panel), you could always just change to a fresh pad instead of cleaning the pad. always clean your pads when the job is finished to prevent the compounds from drying in/on your pads. each step should look better than the previous. always start with the least aggressive combo you can that gives the results you desire.

 

[Setec Astronomy]

:har: what he said. If you are short of pads, you can certainly use the same pad if you are going from a finer to a coarser polish, and since you are in the same polish family, if you have broken down the OP well, and wipe the pad off with a towel, I wouldn't be afraid of going back to OF. It's always best not to mix brands/grades of polish on your pads, but it's certainly not the end of the world in your case, with the products you are using.

 

[Derek173]

I can get more aggressive I also have Opt Compound and Yellow cutting pad + Wool pad. Last night was just a practice session. Should I try the Compound with orange pad before moving onto Yellow or wool?

your on the right track by practicing and experimenting with the different pads and polish see how they work together, hopefully your using a practice panel and not your car. for what you listed op II and orange pad will be the most aggressive combo you have. of with white pad the least aggressive. with the op II you will have to try the orange and white to see which gives you the results you want ( multiple passes may be required). you should clean any pad your using often (every panel or every other panel), you could always just change to a fresh pad instead of cleaning the pad. always clean your pads when the job is finished to prevent the compounds from drying in/on your pads. each step should look better than the previous. always start with the least aggressive combo you can that gives the results you desire.

 

[imported_Ivan Rajic]

Forgive my Newbness,



I just used my flex for the first time. Just practicing right now as I have never machine polished. I started with Optimum Finish and white ccs pad and saw a slight difference then I switched to Opt Finish + orange pad and saw a big difference:woot: but still felt it needed more as this car was beat up. As I grabbed my bottle of Opt Polish II, I had these questions I wish someone could have answered for me.



1. If I am moving to the Polish should I go back to the white pad (LC ccs) or stay with the orange? I stayed with orange.

- you should try Polish II with white, then with orange

2. Can I use the same orange pad with the polish as before or should it be a fresh one?

-you should always keep

3. When do you decide if it just needs another pass of the polish or I need to switch to a compound?

-you don't just decide, you do both and see which is better... if 2x polish works good enough then only try compound before polish if you feel like experimenting

Thanks:buffing:

:har: what he said. If you are short of pads, you can certainly use the same pad if you are going from a finer to a coarser polish, and since you are in the same polish family, if you have broken down the OP well, and wipe the pad off with a towel, I wouldn't be afraid of going back to OF. It's always best not to mix brands/grades of polish on your pads, but it's certainly not the end of the world in your case, with the products you are using.

I agree about going from less aggressive to more aggressive... just dry/wipe the pad well and you'll be fine... you will probably be fine going the other way around, but this is more for seasoned pros on a job where it must be done, because you won't know 100% what you're getting if you still have some left over compound in the pad.

I can get more aggressive I also have Opt Compound and Yellow cutting pad + Wool pad. Last night was just a practice session. Should I try the Compound with orange pad before moving onto Yellow or wool?

Keep trying stuff until something works... you need to decide if you want to do a 2 or 3 (or more) steps... if 2, then just keep in mind you need 2 sets of a pad/polish combo... try OF/white 2 times, then try of/orange before of/white, then OP/white before OF/white, and so on... basically take 'baby steps' when getting more and more aggressive and you'll eventually learn what you can expect from each... if you decide to do 3 steps, do the same thing but keep in mind you'll have the medium step to fall back on if you make the 1st step pretty aggressive, which makes it easier to get a nicer finish...



Hope this makes sense

 

[Lumadar]

Throw the yellow pad away. They will just confuse you and wreck your paint.



Some paints will work very well with orange and you will be able to do the first 2 steps with orange and then go to white for a final polish- others you can only compound and then need to go to a middle polish on white. Just play around.

 

[Derek173]

Throw the yellow pad away. They will just confuse you and wreck your paint.



Some paints will work very well with orange and you will be able to do the first 2 steps with orange and then go to white for a final polish- others you can only compound and then need to go to a middle polish on white. Just play around.

I hear mixed reviews on the yellow pad. Is it not less agressive then the wool pad? What kind of damage can it do?



The pads I have are:



White polishing

Red finishing

Green polish/finish

Yellow

Purple kompressor pad

orange

purple wool

 

[Lumadar]

I hear mixed reviews on the yellow pad. Is it not less agressive then the wool pad? What kind of damage can it do?



The pads I have are:



White polishing

Red finishing

Green polish/finish

Yellow

Purple kompressor pad

orange

purple wool

It's not as aggressive as wool, but it marrs and messes up the finish something awful. It's also very dense and is prone to skipping across the surface at high speeds when it isn't broken in yet.



If you need something as aggressive as yellow, just grab some wool instead. Purple Foamed Wool quickly replaced aggressive cutting pads when it became popular. I used to use PFW and M105 on my FLEX religiously. It's a great combo. Just make sure you have a spur and clean the pad constantly.