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Car Polishing Pads

Heavy Cut Pads

Whether it’s fixing the paintwork and clearing scratches, or adding some shine, you need the proper tool for the polishing stage of exterior car detailing. Along with acquiring a polisher, you require the polishing pads to match it with.

Browse our comprehensive range of polishing pads, available in heavy cut and medium cut to soft finishing, and different sizes to suit a variety of backing plates. A super-soft foam finishing pad will refine paintwork to a professional standard. A finishing pad is also a great way to apply your favourite paint protection products like carnauba wax or sealant.

What type of pad is best for polishing?

Car machine polishing pads also come in a variety of materials, such as foam, wool and microfibre. Choosing can be a little daunting if you haven't used any before. To keep things simple, here’s what the materials are meant for:

Wool pads are very rough and ideal for removing deep scratches, fit for use with rotary polishers.
Microfibre pads come with high cutting power and fast operation, great for working on hard clear coats prior to adding that final polish.
Foam pads are available in different densities, so you have firm for the cutting, and soft for the final gloss.

So:

Wool & Microfibre = Extreme Cut
Wool, Microfibre & Foam= Heavy/Medium Cut
Foam = Final Finish

A few things to remember:

For soft paint, you will need a foam pad to finish regardless of what you start with.
For harder paint, it’s recommended to choose microfibre as it will save you a lot of time.
If you’re a beginner, stick with foam regardless of paint hardness.
As a beginner, don’t worry about the different brands, colours or shapes as personal preference depending on the paintwork you are working on will come into play once you hone in your skill.
If you’re a professional, pick wool polishing pad for the maximum cutting power, efficiency and skill required for the use.
Choose the correct size for your machine polishing backing plate (exact or ever so slightly over).
Test a panel with a lighter cutting pad first.
Thicker pads are move forgiving.
All will create a lot of dust if overloaded with compound.
2 or 3 pads from the same manufacturer with different cut levels will give you everything you need to remove 80% of car swirls and light scratches in an easy 2/3 step process.
Always use a finishing/refining pad to give your paintwork that final gloss finish.