dagle

Do you guys bother with the rest of the panel if its heavily rock chipped? I started detailing for friends and although I don't WANT to skip it, some of the deeper chips form sharp pits that eat at the pads. I had a rotary with a foam pad and after a job on my heavily chipped/pitted prelude front bumper I would see the pad's not uniformly flat anymore and some of the foam has been cut away.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this? I don't mind washing/claying/waxing it but I'm hesitant on polishing as to keep my pads in good condition.

diabolus2k

Do it anyways. Pads wear out eventually and need to be replaced. It's no big deal

alSpeed2k

How about you tell your friend to fill in the rock chips, following these instructions, as posted by thetz99. Then after a month you could polish the car without damaging your pads.

krshultz

This sounds a bit abnormal to me. I've polished plenty of vehicles with chipped up paint, and I've never had paint chips tear up my pads. I'm not saying I don't believe you - I'm saying it's never happened to me. Really strange.