# Microfibre Pads - Moving DA Correction Up A Gear



## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

Dual Action polishers, such as the Kestral DAS-6 Pro, are popular machines with professional detailers and enthusiasts alike. Often regarded as the machine to use when you first start machine polishing as they are safer (not necessarily the case in practice tho!), they also don't fall into the traps that rotaries do when it comes to sticky paint. However, a popular issue with DA polishers is the level of correction achievable on harder paints with deeper marks and the length of time it takes for such cars.

In order to push DA correction up a gear, microfibre pads have been brought to the market which promise greater correction from polishes than equivalent foam pads. Too good not to try these out! So, a red VW Golf door (hard paint, assessed by removal rated) marred up with some 2000-grit paper and a little grit thrown in for deeper marks:



















The microfibre pads that I am using in this little test are Chemical Guys and they come in two levels of cut: Cutting (correction) and finishing. They are thin pads with white microfibre that remind me a little of the old style microfibre washmitt that Meguiars made.










Before using the pads, they were primed with four drops of polish massaged into the microfibre using my fingers and then this was topped up with a couple of blobs of polish for use. It is important that the pads are primed on their first use of the day rather than just applying the polish to foam pads as is the traditional technique with them.

For correction, I opted for one of the new Chemical Guys polishes - V36 Optical Grade, on the cutting pad.










Spreading at speed 2, I then worked the product on speed 4 to 4.5 on the DAS-6 Pro (slower than for foam pads) with several very slow, heavy pressure passes. The thinness of the pad meant you would be very hard pushed to stop the rotations of the machine, however the vibrations felt more pronounced and less comfortable than with a traditional foam pad. Working the product until the residue was clear, work time approaching five minutes, I shut the machine down and assessed the finish:



















Not bad for the first set - 2000 grit sanding marks removed on the whole from a middle-of-the-road polish (aimed around the Intensive Polish mark), but a lot of deeper marks remaining. At this stage, one issue that I found with the pads were that the microfibres were clogged and this required them to be "fluffed up" before using the pad again, either by gentle brushing or through blowing through with compressed air. I could see over the course of a detail that several more microfibre pads would be required than foam pads to overcome clogging issues.

A repeated hit of the cutting pad and V36 achieved the following:



















This was what perhaps impressed me the most out of this test, as on hard paint, even more severe marks were removed from the finish without the need to go to a cutting compound. And by a DA polisher, which have a reputation (more of a myth really) of being poor when it comes to correction! However, good though the correction was here, I was not so keen on the sharpness of the finish at this stage as although there was no obvious marring it did not appear the sun gun reflection was as sharp as if I had been using foam, or a rotary - perhaps the flip side to the greater cutting power offered (which seems to come from better use of the abrasives in the polish).

So, out with a finishing microfibre pad and the V38 finishing polish:










Again, pad primed as described above and product applied as described above - speed 2 to spread then speed 4 to work but with slightly less pressure this time round. Very slow passes of one inch per second absolute maximum, and work for a good four or five minutes until the residue was clear on the panel. This achieved the following results,



















Arguably, a sharper finish now, however I still wasn't convinced that this could not be improved upon by using a foam pad - this is a test for another day, along with trialing different methods to see if the microfibre pads themselves can achieve greater clarity. No signs of obvious marring, it was simply a case here of the finish just lacking a little something, that bulb reflection not being quite as sharp as I would like.

Using the strip light, the finish looks good and you can see the deeper marks are removed more clearly using the striplight than the Sun Gun which can mask the deeper marks with the glare of the light:










In summary, what has impressed me with these pads is the genuine improvement I saw to the correctional ability when using a DA polisher - for me, they have upped the bar of what is possible in terms of correction. I am now yet fully convinced the finish is as sharp as it could be with a foam pad yet, however further testing will take place to assess this further. However, you could use the microfibre pads for correction and refine with foam, which my gut feeling tells me is the most ideal combination. The clogging of the microfibres could be a potential issue, necessitating you have more of them for a given detail to ensure that if they do get clogged, you can switch to fresh pads.

So - not with out potential issues which will be investigated further. However, the increase in correctional ability was impressive and as such I would say the microfibre design of machine pads have got great potential in a DA polishing tool kit.


----------



## Auto Detox (Dec 22, 2007)

Interesting Dave, would also be keen to know how they perform on soft paint too

Baz


----------



## Will-S (Jun 5, 2007)

Very interesting Dave. As soon as I saw the word microfibre I thought "clogging". Sounds like they have their uses though.


Good to see you back on DW doing reviews.:wave:


----------



## kempe (Jan 9, 2011)

Looking good :thumb: Just a couple of things if thats ok 

Where did you get the pads from as I had a look but couldnt find them?
How much were they?
Was the paint single stage?


----------



## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

kempe said:


> Looking good :thumb: Just a couple of things if thats ok
> 
> Where did you get the pads from as I had a look but couldnt find them?
> How much were they?
> Was the paint single stage?


The pads were handed to me by Gordon :lol: Not sure if they are for sale in the UK yet, but they will be becoming available - Gordon (caledonia) will have more information on this, I'll prod him on to this thread :thumb:

How much? As above 

The paint was not single stage, it had a clearcoat


----------



## kempe (Jan 9, 2011)

Dave KG said:


> The pads were handed to me by Gordon :lol: Not sure if they are for sale in the UK yet, but they will be becoming available - Gordon (caledonia) will have more information on this, I'll prod him on to this thread :thumb:
> 
> How much? As above
> 
> The paint was not single stage, it had a clearcoat


I like the look of it, I have a old skool 1995 bmw 316 to do and I thought this would be perfect :thumb: Any updates would be great


----------



## Mirror Finish Details (Aug 21, 2008)

I have tried them and they are great, almost as fast a correction with a DA as a rotary.


----------



## [SV] (Jun 13, 2008)

I have been using them since September 2010 when they were introduced by Chemical Guys on the Smart Detailing University training.
I like them a lot and now i don't need the rotary as much as i did before.


----------



## R0B (Aug 27, 2010)

Dave i was lucky enough to aquire a set of these from meguiars in march whilst working at shinearama and found when coupled with there d300 compond or other cutting polishes that a decent level of correction was achievable with this via a da machine and whilst it had its flaws in certain areas i think this will be the future of da work long term,i tested many polishes on many paint types with the pads and as stated not without issue in some cases but for sure a good pad and not dissimilar to the surbuf offering

just my 2 peneth


----------



## Mr Face (Jan 22, 2009)

Gordon ?? :thumb:


----------



## david g (Dec 14, 2005)

We have them available and it was through ourselves David and Gordon were able to have a play about ,they are live on the site now

http://www.chemicalguysuk.com/Chemical_Guys_Dual_Action_Polisher_Kit_p/dua.htm

http://www.chemicalguysuk.com/Chemical_Guys_Rotary_Polishing_Kit_p/rot.htm


----------



## CraigQQ (Jan 20, 2011)

haha thanks dave.. you post this the day after i sell my DA :lol:


----------



## david g (Dec 14, 2005)

Check out the rotary kit :thumb:


----------



## CraigQQ (Jan 20, 2011)

already got the pads.. but might need to have a go with those polishes sometime


----------



## R0B (Aug 27, 2010)

Very interesting Dave, i have been using the Meguiars range for a little while now and would be interested to try this in comparison,i will give you a call and discuss but pleased you are onto this and not holding back for no good reason like another manufacturer aforementioned


----------



## fishbonezken (Apr 17, 2010)

Thanks for the write-up Dave, how do you go about cleaning the pads since Meguiar's doesn't recommend to wet wash them?


----------



## Porta (Jan 3, 2007)

Have anybody used the microfiber pads with a rotary? I have used a microfiber pad similar to the Chemical guys and Meguiars and it worked ace :thumb:


----------

