Do you need to use pads to polish a car?
Quick answer: Yes, for real correction you need pads on a machine polisher. Hand polishing has its place but won’t reliably remove scratches. Use a multi-stage pad system (wool/microfibre/foam from cutting to finishing). The right pad + polish combo controls cut, heat and movement; the wrong combo risks holograms and buffer trails.
Hand polishing has its place, but is largely ineffective for removing scratches. So yes, if you want to polish a car, so it's like new with all the scratches removed, you really need to use a multi-stage system which involves compounds and polishes applied with sponge pads on a machine polisher.
In theory you could rub polish on by hand, or use cloths, but what machine polishing lets you do is control the polish, heat, pressure and movement in a way your hand can’t and it's a while lot faster. Without pads, you risk uneven finish, missed spots, or even micro-scratches.
Pads come in different materials: foam, microfibre, wool, even more specialised types. Each material behaves differently: wool and microfibre pads are more aggressive, better for cutting through oxidation, scratches or heavier defects. Foam pads range from firm to very soft, so you can work through cutting, refining then finishing stages.
Using the right pad means you can polish a panel without damaging it. For example, a heavy cutting pad + compound might fix deep marks, but leave the surface quite “rough.” Then you’d follow with a softer pad and fine polish to smooth things and bring out shine. If someone tries to skip pad steps — using a hard pad with fine polish, or a soft pad for deep defects, the results will suffer, and you'll be left with holograms and buffer trails.
Written by Danny Argent. Last updated 23/09/2025 16:37
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