Dan is new to machine polishing, and asks the DI Ask A Pro Team advice on which is the most common pad to use with Meguiars M105 Ultra-Cut Compound.
Hi
I’m fairly new to detailing and to date I have only really detailed my family’s and friend’s cars. I have learned quite a bit from the blog here and especially look forward to full detail write ups.
The thing I need the most help with at the moment is a recommendation in terms of a “go to” pad for Meguiar’s M105. I use a PC and would prefer to stick with a 5.5″ pad based on the size of the backing plate I have. If I were to use only one pad for Meg’s M105, which one do you think would be the most effective for that product?? I’m guessing it would be narrowed down to the LC yellow or LC orange but I’m not really sure on what basis to make a decision between those two.
I would be following Meg’s M105 polishing with a final step using Meg’s M205.
Hi Dan, and thanks for submitting such a good question.
The first recommendation that I would like to make is for you to read through my tutorial on using Meguiar’s M105 and M205. There is a lot of information in that article including pad recommendations based on paint types, proper pad priming with M105 and M205, and pressure required.
As it states in the article, your pad choice can (and will) vary greatly depending on the type of paint, and the severity of defects. Hard paint like Audi, (most) BMW, and newer Ferraris require more aggressive methods and combinations, while softer paint like Honda, Acura, Toyota, Lexus, Porsche are easier to correct, and therefore require less aggressive methods.
On harder paints with moderate to severe defects that would require the use of an aggressive compound like Meg’s M105, I typically use a Lake Country Cyan Hydro-Tech pad (cuts almost as much as yellow, but finishes better than orange). When following that up with a finishing polish, I’ll then use Meg’s M205 with a Lake Country Tangerine Hydro-Tech pad (cuts more than white, but finishes almost as good as a black).
Unless you’re working on ultra-hard clear coats however, I would recommend using a Lake Country Orange pad as your “go-to” pad for most applications. Megs M105/Orange combo works tremendous on pretty much all applications, and if you wanted to keep a limited amount of pads in your arsenal, then I would suggest that you keep Orange. Keep in mind that for each job, you’ll probably go through 3 or 4 orange pads because they work best when they’re relatively fresh. If you use just one pad for the entire car (even with cleaning with a brush or compressed air after each panel), it will lose some of its effectiveness.
For the Megs M205 Finishing Polish, I would recommend using a Lake Country Black pad for most applications as well.
When using the Porter Cable 7424XP combined with Megs M105 and M205, you have a very powerful combination that is capable of heavy defect removal, and finishing very fine.
I certainly hope this helps to clarify your pad selection questions a bit, but should you or anybody else have additional comments or questions, please feel free to submit your reply in the comment box below.