Wool vs. foam - who wins???

Jakerooni said:
the only thing you should ever use a foam pad for is your very final polishing on dark colored cars. Other than that you should never have a foam pad on your machine. If your actually trying to cut and remove with a foam pad you're wasting just an unimaginable amount of time and effort. Use the right tools the first time and the job goes much much quicker with much better results.
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That's not an accurate statement! There are several vehicles like the pre-ceramic Mercedes' that I'd never in a million years use a wool pad on. :nervous2: A cutting foam pad (EDGE yellow) works perfectly. Trust me on this. I love and prefer using wool and it has it's place in buffing but so does foam. Wool does cut quicker, but on *certain* vehicles, it will create more work than should be done and it just not necessary.
 
SuperBee364 said:
The finishing wool pads I use put an incredibly fine gloss on paint. Better than I've gotten with foam. Blue or white Edge wool pads with a high quality finishing polish produce amazing finishes in much less time than their foam counterparts.
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1st off, I've never seen a finishing wool pad. I've seen people finish with one, but I've never seen a vehicle that couldn’t look better foamed padded after wooling. If you're referring to a foamed wool pad, it's not made for finishing(see chart below), it's made for light cutting/polishing(huge difference). If you like the way your cars look final finished with wool, that's great, but 99.9% of the people that use wool correctly don't finish with it to achieve optimum results. I'd be willing to bet that there's not one successful show car out there that get's finished with wool.







2006ApplicationGuide.jpg
 
You should check out edge/presta a little closer then. I know your a user of edge pads and im suprised you have never seen their finishing wool pad. They have an entire line of wool



black=heavy cut

yellow=medium cut

green=light cut

blue=polishing

white=finishing
 
David, check out Dedication to Detail - The Edge Buffing Pads



That link shows their entire line of wool pads. Wool isn't just for cutting anymore:



White = ultrafine polishing

Blue = finishing

Green = light cut

Yellow = medium cut

Black = heavy cut.



The chart you posted is correct for LC produced pads only... not at all relevant to Edge's wool.



To RyanDe680: I finish with wool now because it does it's work faster and easier than foam. Less heat is just a bonus. You just haven't lived until you've seen how fast a blue edge wool pad with 106ff will bring out the gloss. As I said in a previous post, you can actually see a big difference in gloss between the paint behind your buffer and the paint ahead. Very cool to watch.



Edit: Doh! didn't see Coupe had already posted the pad color key...
 
I've tried several of their *finishing* wool pads throughout the years, but I would'nt finish with them. Try it with on a black car and see what happens. :cry: Their white finishing wool is like a bunch of cotton balls glued to a backing plate. :grinno: I'd finish with their yellow foam cutting pad before their white wool finishing pad. Maybe it's just me? Have you had success with them?
 
Yes, I've used the blue and white to finish on four cars now, but no black ones yet. My nephew's old Jeep is black, and the paint is very thrashed... a six year old SS cheap repaint. I'm going to try and restore what I can on it. It'll be fun to see how well I can get this old, soft, crummy paint to look. Just don't know if I want to potentially sacrifice a pad on his beater.



The neighbor has a black (yup, the pita black) bmw... maybe i'll make him a deal. :)
 
It's not fair to try on a single stage! You'll have your work *cut* (HAHA - Pun) out for you on the BMW. Have you had a chance to inspect any of the 4 cars you did after they got washed a few times? The reason I ask is I know a guy that wool pads and waxes every car he details for dealerships. His cars look great when he takes them back, but after a good rain or wash - swirl city.
 
Two of the four I have, cause they're mine. :) The other two I haven't seen since I polished them.



Yeah, that BMW black does scare me a bit...
 
SuperBee364 said:
David, check out Dedication to Detail - The Edge Buffing Pads



That link shows their entire line of wool pads. Wool isn't just for cutting anymore:



White = ultrafine polishing

Blue = finishing

Green = light cut

Yellow = medium cut

Black = heavy cut.



The chart you posted is correct for LC produced pads only... not at all relevant to Edge's wool.



To RyanDe680: I finish with wool now because it does it's work faster and easier than foam. Less heat is just a bonus. You just haven't lived until you've seen how fast a blue edge wool pad with 106ff will bring out the gloss. As I said in a previous post, you can actually see a big difference in gloss between the paint behind your buffer and the paint ahead. Very cool to watch.



Edit: Doh! didn't see Coupe had already posted the pad color key...
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Thanks.



Do you vary your rotary speeds with the wool, since heat isn't as much of an issue as it is with foam?
 
David Fermani said:
I e-mailed Aaron to see what he thinks.
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Honestly, all in all it totally depends on the paint you are buffing. Some paints are very soft and finishing with wool is quite hard to do but it can be done with the right chemical, pads and technique but harder paints finish easier with wool. I do personally prefer foam to finish because it tends to be the most gentle on paints and brings up a very high gloss without the wool mess and they rinse out easier than wool. We do make a lambswool very soft pad that does finish very well but the pile does not last as long as the foam because the hairs get matted down after just a few uses and require alot of spurring and cleaning where the foam just stays soft and rinses clean.



my two cents.
 
RyanDe680 said:
Thanks.



Do you vary your rotary speeds with the wool, since heat isn't as much of an issue as it is with foam?
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I still slow way down on plastic parts. Other than that, the speed depends on the amount of correction to be done, the hardness of the paint, what polish you're using, etc.
 
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