I have gotten a good bit of my wetsanding complete on the boat. I have not used the 3M pads (the white and black ones) yet. I have used the regular old wool and terry bonnets. I used the wool with the buffing compound and the terry with the polish and it worked pretty well on the small area I worked on. My question is, what makes the 3M pads better? Would it work out a lot better for me and the boat if I bought the 3M pads?
I would like to know also
You can use the wool/Terry pads if you have them.
The foam 3m pads will make the job a little easier as they do not clog up like the wool pad will, and the foam polishing pads are less agressive and will leave less swirl marks on the surface.
Do you need to clean the 3M pad before/after you use it? If so, how do you clean it?
I've use my pads a couple of times and it has a good bit of build-up on it that I don't know how to get off.
1999 Champion 203
2000 Yamaha OX66 225
Foam pads can be cleaned.....if you are getting a lot of build up on the pad you may be putting too much material on the pad. Don't use too much product. Common mistake. We all use way too much product and it is just more to clean off the pad when done.
Use dedicated pads for each product.
To clean after use, place the pad face down on a microfiber towel. Roll up the towel really tight, kind of like your wringing out a chamois. The compression will squeeze out excess product and the microfiber towel will soak it out.
Place the foam pad in a clean dry cabinet or box face down. Air tight is not necessary, but free from airborne particulate is important. Need to allow any chemicals to out-gas off the pad.
If the pad is really caked up Soaking in a bucket of warm water and cleaning with a brush is easiest way. Then roll in the micro fiber towel to dry.
i find foam pads to be far more user friendly than wool. If you have a auto body paint supply house close by they will have different brands that might run a little cheaper price than 3m brand. I used a yellow pad with mequiars med cut cleaner on my boat with great results then followed with a green pad and machine glaze then a wax. I run a millwaukee variable speed buffer with a velcro arbor.
If you havent done much of this before you can get some old body panels from a junkyard to practice with.
Thanks for the advice. Great information on this board. I can see how the foam would be a little easier to work with.
It's really preference, I still use the wool pads for buffing, and the foam pads for polishing. You can clean both of them buy rinsing with warm water, then just ring them out best you can, and then put back on the buffer and slowly pull the trigger till all the water is gone. The only bad thing about the wool pads are when they are new, the wool comes and looks like you just shaved a sheep.
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