Deep or severe imperfections can be hard to remove with standard foam pads and in these cases, a stronger option might be required. Many detailers would start the wet sanding process, but there are some great sanding pad options on the market. Duffy Cink, the Northeast and Mid Atlantic Area Sales Manager for Rupes worked with his team and put together the below information on the new X Cut Foam Abrasive Discs. Take a look to learn more about these discs, steps to take when in use, along with some great combinations with Rupes Polishes!

Rupes X-Cut Foam Backed Abrasive Discs quickly remove topcoat defects without the typical drawbacks associated with aggressive compounding or traditional sanding. X-Cut Foam Backed Abrasives create an easy-to-polish surface that reduces the time and aggressiveness needed for follow up polishing.

Aggressively polishing surfaces, often called compounding or cutting, can be destructive because of rapidly increasing temperatures. Not only is frictional heat bad for most top coats including automotive paint, but it can cause the surfaces to swell which can hide scratches! Rupes X-Cut Foam Backed Abrasive Discs have the potential to remove defects faster while keeping the surface significantly cooler.

Detailers and technicians have long known about the benefits and drawback backs of sanding the surface. Traditional sandpaper can remove the surface texture, often called orange peel, which means that areas of the surface would be smoother and shinier leading to a very uneven surface. Worse yet, these sandpapers would often create deep scratches that required aggressive polishing to remove, which negates on the benefits of sanding.

X-Cut is engineered with a specific foam-backed abrasive allowing these discs to ride along the micro texture of the surface. Defects are removed from the high points and low points of the surface without remove the texture. No more flat spots! Rupes X-Cut Foam Backed Abrasive Discs use the same technology to create a uniform scratch pattern on the surface making it easy to polish the surface to a high shine without aggressive methods.

X-Cut Abrasive discs are designed to be used damp with dual-action random orbital sanders. For the best performance use Rupes Skorpio Sanders or Rupes BigFoot Duetto and Mini Polisher/Sanders with Rupes Foam Interface Pads to quickly remove the most stubborn defects without removing orange peel or inflicting heat trauma to the surface.

Polishing Combinations:

P1500

• Generally used for deeper defects, harder to remove sanding marks
• DA Blue Pad
• DA Course Compound

P2000

• Universal defect removal
• DA Yellow Pad
• Can require DA Blue Pad on some paints
• DA Fine Compound
• Can require DA Course on some paints

P3000

• Light defect removal, easy to remove sanding marks
• DA Yellow Pad
• DA Fine Compound or UNO Protect – This will take a little longer but is a true one step

I use our Blue and Yellow Wool pads most often with Yellow and DA Fine being my go to for every first test spot. Generally that is enough but on some paints, I have to move up or down the scale to get the results necessary to meet customer expectations.

You can absolutely follow higher grits with a finer grit but detailers today have to be really careful with doing so. Auto manufacturers are putting less paint and clear on cars today. Fifteen years ago, the film build was 12-13 mils whereas today they are working with four mils total. You do not know what work has been done prior to them getting the vehicle, which I guess is saying that there is an importance of a paint thickness gauge! If there is room, then absolutely follow up, just ensure that you remove the previously controlled defect fully. Doing so will make removal that much easier.