PC question

[Sin MINI]

How often due the pads need replacing? Toying with the idea of buying one (my son's car has serious paint fade, hoping to salvage) but would like to borrow one first to try it out. Curious if the pads are an item that wear out quickly (i.e. should I offer to buy the pads?)

Thinking of the pads that DP sells primarily but answers for other brands would also be helpful.

Thanks in advance from a formerly non-OC car washer gone to the dark side of detailing

[MLPearson79]

I've had my current set of pads for a little over six months. As long as you clean them well after use and take good care of them they can last through several uses.

[MiniMaybee]

Sin - I've used my black pad more than a dozen times so far with minimal wear. White pads about the same with even less wear. My orange pad is just about trashed on the edges but that was from some heavy use on a friends truck. I buy my pads from DP.

[Sin MINI]

Thanks!

[mcdbrendan]

I have used my pads about 10 times and can see no wear at all. Take good care of them, keep em off rough edges, and get the Epic out of your black pad, and your good to go!

[kenchan]

ive been using the same pads since last year myself.

[Prima Car Care]

Ditto on what everyone else said... take care of them and the Lake Country pads (which are the ones we and many others sell) will last a very long time.

Of course, like most things it really depends on how often you use them, how hard you use them (ie, a heavy abrasive like Cut for several hours on the orange pad will wear it down more quickly than Swirl would on the orange pad), etc.

We have some pads that we've been using for years now which have been used in our training classes either once a month or up to once a week (depending on the time of year) that are still going strong. A couple are 5 years old. Others die sooner, but again it depends.

Hope that helps quantify it a bit!

-Heather

[OctaneGuy]

Pads are wear items. Consider them like brake pads. You gotta have them, but eventually they will wear out. But unlike brake pads, their effectiveness diminishes with use.

Choose the pads based on the system you choose. I worked on a 2003 Mercedes E320 yesterday that could have been done with my usual process of M80 and the rotary then with the PC, but I chose to do it all with Swirl and the Orange Pad, followed by Swirl with the White pad, then Epic. I also utilized a small 4inch buffer (Metabo) and Swirl with a Griots orange polishing pad for tight areas.

Everything was a success except for when I decided to wetsand some touchup without first testing how thick the paint is. Needless to say, my shop is now respraying the hood tonight. Lesson learned--don't wetsand without knowing the history of the paint--apparently someone tried to do a correction already and because the hood is aluminum, my ETG which measures paint only on steel was useless.

What does this have to do with pads??? Nothing much, just passing on a little lesson about wetsanding. There is no warning when you are about to make a mistake. When you compromise it, it's too late.

On another part of the car, there was another scratch and I found it to be 3Mil at the lowest point---most of the paint was at 5Mil. So obviously that's a huge sign of not polishing this paint very aggressively. I think my choice of polishing with Swirl and the PC was a smart one, as I might have uncovered other issues had I just gone at it with the rotary buffer.

Richard