More aggressive polish or pad?

I polished my car with a PC (speed setting 4) using a lake country white pad and dod juice lime prime polish. I started with something that wasn't very aggressive.

The shine and feel was great. However, it wasn't aggressive enough to remove all of the light swirls and I need step up with something a little more aggressive.

So my question is at this point do I go with a more aggressive pad or a more aggressive polish? or both?

How does one step up the aggressiveness?

Any suggestions for pad and or polishes?

I've never used any Dodo Juice products except for their Supernatural carnauba wax so I can't help much with the your polish.

The LC white is a very mild pad so I'd try the polish with a more agressive LC pad, something like the orange.
I could hunt up a pad chart and post it if you think it'll help.
-John C.

If you've got a PC, you might as well get some pads and some more polish for your arsenal.

I like the Lake Country Hydro tech pads in 5.5. I use the Optimum polishes, as well as Meguiar's M105/M205. All of these come in 8oz bottles so an enthusiast doesn't have to purchase a $40 32oz bottle of polish.

Pad Dependency

Any abrasive polish and pad combination is only as fine as its coarsest component. All abrasive polishes are ‘foam pad and applied pressure dependant’ as far as their paint correction abilities are concerned. Any abrasive / pad combination is reliant upon its most abrasive component.

If we consider the Lake County (LC) White foam (50 PPI) polishing pad as the baseline; any polish used will derive help from the abrasive abilities of the foam. Then consider the LC Blue (70 PPI) finishing pad has no abrasive ability and will contribute nothing to the cutting capability of a polish.

What is derived from this is that a polishes abrasive ability can be ‘fine tuned’ by using different combinations (abrasiveness) of polish and foam (the same thing is true of wool pads) and of course differing the amount of downward pressure (10-15 Lbs is the usual range) applied will also have an effect on the abrasives capability
Different pad / product combinations (least abrasive pad / polish first)

a) Base pad / product (least abrasive pad / product) if this combination does not provide the desired results, increase the aggressiveness of the technique or product selection.
b) Step-up 1 - using the same pad with a more abrasive product
c) Step-up II – use a less abrasive pad and the same product as used in step-up I
d) Step-up III- using the same pad with a more abrasive product

As can been ascertained from the above the total abrasive ability of a polish / foam pad combination is subject to many variables, the polishes abrasive ability is just the starting point

Factors that increase abrasion ability
• Increased speed (Velocity)
• Increased pressure (Compression)
• Use smaller pad(Reduced surface Area)
• Using a slower panel transition speed (Increased surface contact time)
• Reduce the working area

The key to the polishing process is to know how the paint will react with each pad / polish combination you consider using. You must know your product and what its capabilities are before using it. This is why a ‘test’ spot is so important.

The factors that affect the outcome -speed, friction (kinetic energy) applied pressure, foam pad actual surface contact area, pad grit number (abrasive ability) amount of surface lubrication available, the surface area and heat conductivity of material

Thanks for all of the helpful info. Wow togwt that's a very helpful rundown.

Originally Posted by aray

If you've got a PC, you might as well get some pads and some more polish for your arsenal.

I like the Lake Country Hydro tech pads in 5.5. I use the Optimum polishes, as well as Meguiar's M105/M205. All of these come in 8oz bottles so an enthusiast doesn't have to purchase a $40 32oz bottle of polish.

Great suggestion.