# Mind Blowing - Rupes Blue Foam Cutting Pad and Zephir Gloss Coarse Gel Compound



## Mike Phillips

*Mind Blowing - Rupes Blue Foam Cutting Pad and Zephir Gloss Coarse Gel Compound *

Something that was absolutely mind blowing at SEMA was demonstrating the Rupes Duetto with the Rupes COARSE blue foam cutting pad on a BLACK demonstration panel.

The paint was flawless and looked like we just removed a show car wax.

Did this over and over and over and over again for 4 day in a row, thousands of eyeballs watching under incredibly bright lights.

Here's a picture or the Rupes Duetto with their coarse, blue foam cutting pad and our black demo panel.










Anyone watching we would first have them *FEEL* a clean, blue Rupes foam cutting pad.

They would always say,

WOW!

_Because it feels so aggressive and scratchy._ Then do the demo, wipe off the residue and *voilà* --> almost a show car finish.

*Can I get a witness?* We had plenty of forum members stop by the booth and watch the demo.

:thumb:


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## Mike Phillips

Here's a closer look at these pads....


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## Mike Phillips

*RUPES COMPLETE PAINT POLISHING SYSTEM*

RUPES offers a complete polishing system to go with their polishers including 4 different liquid with color matching caps to go with forum different foam buffing pads offering different levels of aggressiveness or non-aggressiveness.



















_From the most to the least aggressive..._

*Zephir Gloss - Coarse Compound - Blue Lid & Blue Foam Pad*
Zephir Gloss is engineered to be used with the aggressive blue foam cutting pad to remove deeper below surface paint defects while polishing out to a hologram-free finish. Zephir Gloss is aggressive enough to remove down to P1500 sanding marks.










*Quarz Gloss - Medium Cut Polish - Green Lid & Green Foam Pad*
Quarz Gloss is engineered to be used with the medium aggressive green foam polishing pad to remove medium depth below surface paint defects while polishing out to a clear, high gloss finish. Quarz Gloss is aggressive enough to remove down to P2500 sanding marks.










*Keramik Gloss - Fine Cut Polish - Yellow Lid & Yellow Foam Pad*
Keramik Gloss is engineered to be used with the soft yellow foam finishing pad to remove fine or shallow below surface paint defects while polishing out to an LSP-ready, flawless show room new finish.










*Diamond - Ultra Fine Cut Polish - White Lid & White Foam Pad*
Diamond is engineered to be used with the ultra soft foam finishing pad to remove maximize gloss, clarity, depth and shine. Diamond Ultra Fine Cut Polish is an optional step for anyone looking to create a true show car finish.










:thumb:


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## SystemClenz

Reminds me of these from way back....


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## andyrst

Would you recommend this RUPES kit for a bodyshop to use after wet sanding fresh paint to remove orange peel etc Mike?


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## Mike Phillips

andyrst said:


> Would you recommend this RUPES kit for a bodyshop to use after wet sanding fresh paint to remove orange peel etc Mike?


Rupes makes great polishers and a probably one of the best laid out "system" for anyone to follow when machine polishing paint but when it comes to working in a body shop day-in, day-out and sanding cars and then buffing out your sanding marks the rotary buffer works fastest to cut out the sanding marks.

A few factors that could and would affect your decsion such as,

How high of a grit sanding paper or sanding disc you finish out with?

Rupes sanding discs go to #3000 that I know of and this makes buffing out sanding marks faster and easier with any tool.

That said, if I wet sand a car, in order to remove 100% of the sanding marks as fast and as efficietnly as possible I'm going to cut with a wool pad on a rotary buffer with a top notch compound.

In fact, I have a pretty cool car coming up to wetsand, cut and buff...

1939 LaSalle Streetrod









I have an even cooler car that I'm using the Duetto on but I'm not sanding, just removing holograms.

1941 Chrysler Business Coupe - Flams by Mike Lavalle of KillerPaint.com









I look at cars from a detailer's point of view, that is I inspect the paint to check out what condition it's in...










These are not just swirls... they're holograms.... there's a difference....










In this shot, the "lines" you see in the lower left hand quadrant are the tale-tale sings of holograms inflicted by the misuse of a rotary buffer....














































Here again in these next two shots of the panel just above the top of the trunk lid you can see the lines that indicated holograms....



























































































Even with swirls and holograms it's still a really cool looking car...










:thumb:


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## Mike Phillips

andyrst said:


> Would you recommend this RUPES kit for a bodyshop to use after wet sanding fresh paint to remove orange peel etc Mike?


Here's the link to a 24" Shearwater we recently sanded down. Used the Rupes Duetto to machine damp sand with Rupes sanding discs then cut with rotary buffers.

*How to wetsand, cut and buff a gel-coat boat*










*Before*










After


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## President Swirl

Informative as ever, Mr Phillips. How do you rate the aforementioned pads and compounds against Menzerna and the like. Would they be compatible with my DAS PRO dual action, or better by rotary? Thanks in advance, Ross.


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## Mike Phillips

President Swirl said:


> Informative as ever, Mr Phillips.
> 
> How do you rate the aforementioned pads and compounds against Menzerna and the like.


I'd say both Menzerna and Rupes make top notch compounds and polishes.

I really like how Rupes color matched their caps to their pads and even more how they use

Coarse
Medium
Fine
Ultra Fine

on the labels to describe their products. It's as though they read my how-to book pages 92 and 93 before they named them and I wish all compounds and polishes had one of the 4 basic category names on the front of their label to make it easy for everyone to know what it is they are using.



President Swirl said:


> Would they be compatible with my DAS PRO dual action, or better by rotary?
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> Ross.


My guess is the Rupes pads and products will work fine with your DAS Pro DA. I'm not a big fan of thick pads for DA polishers like the Porter Cable and all the knock-offs of the Porter Cable like the DAS Pro.

I have a saying that goes like this as it relates to pads for PC type tools....

*Thin is in...*

And just about every day I'm vindicated.


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## G4V JW

Edit , replied in the wrong place !


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## ocdetailer

I can vouch for how well the blue pad with zephyr finishes down, particularly on hard paint. No marring or haziness visible (but following with white combo always brings out the gloss so there must be some type of imperfection left behind)


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## Flakey

Mike Phillips said:


> *Thin is in...*
> And just about every day I'm vindicated.


Mike - why exactly is that? For example, Lake Country Hydro Tech makes two kinds of pads - Low profile (Thin) and high Profile (Thick). Most people at least on this forum argue that the lower profile ones are good for the rotary while the thicker pads are good for the DA. I am guessing that there is some wisdom to using thinner pads on the DA as mentioned by you?


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## Mike Phillips

Flakey said:


> Mike - why exactly is that?


Years ago I figured out thinner pads were better than thicker pads when it comes to polishers that are non-direct drive, like the Porter Cable. Even wrote an article about it and shared this in my how-to book.

The first DA polishing pads were very thick... I still have the below pad in my antique wax collection.

*The history behind polishing paint with a DA Polisher*












Flakey said:


> For example, Lake Country Hydro Tech makes two kinds of pads - Low profile (Thin) and high Profile (Thick).
> 
> Most people at least on this forum argue that the lower profile ones are good for the rotary while the thicker pads are good for the DA.


I'd say the above is exactly opposite.

Thick pads absorb and dissipate the energy coming out of non-direct drive polishers.
Rotary
y buffers don't care what you put on them and neither does the Flex 3401 as these are both direct drive polishers.

*Thin is in...*

Just look how thin the Meguiar's Xtra Cut Microfiber Pad is and it's thin like this bydesignn. The point is to maximize the power available from the Meguiar'sG110v22 (or any similar dual action polisher), so the detailing industry can avoid using rotary buffers and thus avoid holograms and strike-throughs.



Flakey said:


> I am guessing that there is some wisdom to using thinner pads on the DA as mentioned by you?


Yes.

A thinner foam pad or any type of buffing pad will rotate better on a Porter Cable type dual action polisher.

Smallerdiameterr pads will also rotate better as there's less surface area to overcome friction between the face of the pad and the paint.

It's a real easy test to prove to yourself. Simply get a 6.5" thick foam buffing pad and a 5.5" thin foam buffing pad and start buffing out a car and see which pad stops rotating as it gets wet with product.

That's another issue... pad saturation...

Good questions...

:thumb:


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## Flakey

That's very helpful Mike, Thank You.
I will now try thicker LCHT pads on my Rotary and see how that goes.

BTW, the Rupes pads are all open or closed cell? I understand that a DA can benefit from open cell structure so it can cut faster and better.


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## Mike Phillips

Flakey said:


> That's very helpful Mike, Thank You.
> I will now try thicker LCHT pads on my Rotary and see how that goes.


And do please test the thinner pads on your DA polisher and see how that goes... be sure to mark your backing plate to make it easier to monitor pad rotation.

Here's a quick video that show how and why to mark your backing plate to see and monitor pad rotation while doing any correction or polishing steps.

*Video: Mark your backing plate to make it easy to see pad rotation *

















Flakey said:


> BTW, the Rupes pads are all open or closed cell?
> 
> I understand that a DA can benefit from open cell structure so it can cut faster and better.


I'm pretty sure all the Rupes foam pads are open cell, the blue is for sure. I'll test and check today when I'm in the garage working on a Mach ! today.

As far as the open cell design being the primary reason this type of pad will cut faster and better on a tool that rotates and oscillates a pad I'm not sure that's correct. I think open cell foam offers a lot of benefits to the user, especially the flat face design but I'm not sure that foam pads that use open cell forum formulas also equates to performance simply due to the mechanical action of the tool.


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## Flakey

I agree, I find the whole open vs closed cell discussion very confusing. I mean 3M Blue Finishing pad is Open cell and LC HT Finishing pad is closed cell but detailers claim that both finish as good as any on a rotary or a DA.


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## lixiongtai168

Thanks.


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