PC 7424 with Adam's pads and polishes...what can I expect?

[13lstuner]

Originally Posted by NicksVSix

How is the PC "useless" with 7" pads?
I can understand maybe the outer 1" of the pad not doing much, but the innner 5-6" still has to be doing some correction.

Why would Adam's support them if that were the case?

That's the whole point. Why buy a 7" pad when the inner 5-6" is doing the work. That takes all of the benifits of the bigger pad away. Buy some 5.5" microfiber pads and love yourself for it.

[Adam's Polishes]

"Useless" is a pretty strong term in this instance, I'd say.

[CamaroDreams07]

Originally Posted by Nick@Adams

"Useless" is a pretty strong term in this instance, I'd say.

Useless is an overstatement, although I'd hope you'd at least concede that that is a woefully large pad for a PC.

I'm sure you guys must have your reasons, but come on... You can tell us the truth now that you don't have to support the PC anymore

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

[13lstuner]

Originally Posted by Nick@Adams

"Useless" is a pretty strong term in this instance, I'd say.

I agree, I wouldn't use that term if I didn't believe it was correct. My friend recently had a wreck, and the front portion of his hood had gotten scraped so before he went in to get it repainted I performed my own little "study", if you will.

I used 5.5" meguires red microfiber cutting pads, 5.5" Buff&shine microfiber cutting pads,5.5" lake country orange cutting pad, and 7" Adams orange foam cutting pad. Every single pad was brand new. And all passes were made with menzerna FG400.

All tests were performed on speed 6 and each pad got two passes(on different lines of the hood of course). One with moderate pressure and one with heavy pressure. Now of course you must take into consideration scientific error in this instance. Variable pressure differences, me not going in a perfectly straight line, variable amount of "clog" after one pass, uncontrollable factors like heat on that area, differences in depth of scratches microscopically etc. I do believe I received good data from this test though.

Masking tape was placed on either side of the pad to the pad size plus .5" on each side to adjust for the throw of the machine.

Here were my findings.

Meguires red microfiber cutting pad 5.5"- had a nearly indestinguishable amount of cut with moderate to heavy pressure, it's optimal zone of paint correction was 3.97" wide, the slightly less than optimal zone extended to 4.73", and dropped off linearly to the edge of the pad. I would call that the moderately optimal zone. So with that pad it would be optimal to overlap in 4" patterns through my findings.

Buff and shine microfiber cutting pad 5.5"- in my findings again had nearly indistiguishable differences in the "optimal zone" of paint correction with the difference in pressure, but with the moderate pressure it corrected less than the heavier pressure on the outer edges of the pad. The optimal zone on this pad was 3.57",slightly less than optimal out to 4.11", and dropping off linearly to the egde of the pad. Though again, more pressure increased the amount of paint correction on the edges with this pad very slightly to my eye.

Lake country orange foam cutting pad 5.5"- more pressure definitely helped out this pad, so I am giving my findings from the "heavy pressure" pass. The optimal zone on this pad was very tiny. My findings showed 2.78". Less than optimal extended to about 3.63", and dropped linerally to the edge of the pad. Where I found that the outside .10" did no noticeable correction at all. This surprised me so much that I did another test with this pad on the roof of his truck. I had the same results +-~.05".

And finally the Adams orange foam cutting pad 7". Now this was done with a 5" backing plate, I am sure a 6" backing plate would slightly help out the cutting power, but when you take into consideration that the 5.5" LC pad had little to no paint correction on the outside .10" with a five inch backing plate. I couldn't imagine it would make the world of difference with this pad. Also I would imagine these two pads(lake country and Adams orange) are very similar in cutting power so I think those variables would remain consistent as well.

Here were my findings with your pad. Again heavy pressure helped this foam pad out so these are the findings I'm giving. Optimal zone was 2.85", less than optimal extend 3.56", and dropped off to almost no correction at 5.6" and definitely little to no correction at all beyond 5.75".

Now I didn't test your microfiber cutting pad. If my study held true that would make that pad slightly more useful. But I still don't think you would be getting anywhere close to over 5" of optimal cutting area which would make it not worth while to go to a bigger pad.

This is all subjected to my bias of what I would consider "optimal". These were all measures with very accurate calipers I use to load my precision rifle rounds.

I did but your 7" black sealant application pad which I absolutely love!


Edit: I am sorry I don't have pictures, I never intended on sharing this information. This was all for my own conclusions, but I thought it was relevant to the topic at hand.

[Adam's Polishes]

Originally Posted by CamaroDreams07

Useless is an overstatement, although I'd hope you'd at least concede that that is a woefully large pad for a PC.

I'm sure you guys must have your reasons, but come on... You can tell us the truth now that you don't have to support the PC anymore

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

I started with a PC years ago, and corrected about 20 cars with it before I moved up to a Flex. During all of those corrections, I used 5.5-7" pads interchangeably, with no noticeable difference in the amount of time it took me to correct a car.

Not once did I say to myself "damn, these big pads take SOOOO much longer to get the job done."

I really feel like we're splitting hairs here though over ~1" of effective polishing area. If total efficiency is the goal, the PC is not the tool I'd use to achieve it.

[13lstuner]

Originally Posted by Nick@Adams

I started with a PC years ago, and corrected about 20 cars with it before I moved up to a Flex. During all of those corrections, I used 5.5-7" pads interchangeably, with no noticeable difference in the amount of time it took me to correct a car.

Not once did I say to myself "damn, these big pads take SOOOO much longer to get the job done."

I really feel like we're splitting hairs here though over ~1" of effective polishing area. If total efficiency is the goal, the PC is not the tool I'd use to achieve it.

That is a completely correct statement. If you want optimal power the PC isn't for you. I'm not saying the 7" pads take longer to correct with, if you got that inclination I am sorry. I am saying they don't correct any faster negating any advantage they have over 5.5" pads. Plus they are almost double the price of 5.5" pads.

[NicksVSix]

Perhaps I should have started with the statement that i'm not looking for perfection in my finish. I just want to be able to minimize minor scratches and swirls and have great looking car without having to hand polish.
If I can get that, I will be a happy guy.

Will the PC and 7" pads get me that?

[13lstuner]

Originally Posted by NicksVSix

Perhaps I should have started with the statement that i'm not looking for perfection in my finish. I just want to be able to minimize minor scratches and swirls and have great looking car without having to hand polish.
If I can get that, I will be a happy guy.

Will the PC and 7" pads get me that?

If you want to pay double for your pads and more for a 6" backing plate then go for it. Just be sure to post up pics of your work! I'm interested in how their new polishes perform.