Pad care

Following my recent headlight polish job, I was left with three used pads: the tangerine one was particularly dirty and looked saturated with polish (looks like I used more than needed). I needed to wash these fellows and started a new google search for this. Found some useful links

• Use a Pad Washer if you want to spend 140$ or more and have the need and space for it
• Make your own following DIY pad washer
•  Use a brush to clean the excess gunk off the pad (which works best if you have a rotary which I don't. The random orbital is apparently not useful with a pad brush)
• Press the pad into a terry towel and then turn the polisher on: This also has some negatives as some say it deposits lint from the towels onto the pad.

However, using cleaner solutions and the grit gaurds I already had lead me to the following process which worked out very well in cleaning everything out nicely

• Fill a bucket with some water and add some Chemical Guys Citrus wash (Any shampoo might work here. I used the citrus wash following the citrus components in the pad cleaner link above).
• Soak the pads and use a pad cleaner brush to brush stuff off: worked somewhat decently
• Now place the grit-guard at the bottom of the bucket. Hold it in place with one hand and with the other, drag the pads on the grit-guard along it's outer circular edge. This more or less replicates the expensive pad washer mechanism for the weekend warrior. In the future, I think I will skip the brushing step and directly drag the pads on the grit-guard.