HD Orbital Pad Review

About 4 months ago I got the opportunity to try out Lake Countrys new HD Orbital pads with a Rupes 21. What was very obvious right away was that the shape and size of the pad was similar to a Rupes pad the construction was nowhere close. These were not just copy cat pads using Lake Country foam.

Most of the testing done that day was just basic polishing and removing wet sanding scratches from a test hood we had but I could tell right away these were nice pads. At the end of the day David from Lake Country said they were still testing the durability on the pads asked if I would like to do some testing. After what I had already seen I couldnt wait to get my hands on some of these pads.

So about 2 months ago the pads showed up and the timing couldnt have been better I was off for a detail marathon of sorts about 300 miles away. I had 4 cars, 2 trucks and a motorcycle to do in one week by myself. I was going to find out real quick whether or not these pads could stand up to a large throw polisher and how well they finished off on quite a few different paint systems ranging from hard to soft. The lineup that I was going to using them on was a Red 2014 911, Black 2013 Corvette, Blue 2010 Infiniti, and a Dark Blue 2008 Lexus. For trucks I had a Tuxedo black 2014 F150 and a Charcoal 2013 Durango the bike was a dark red Harley which are known to have soft paint. The test bed couldnt have been better.

Now about the pads.

The pad description from Lake Countys website states that the pads are

designed for use on Long-Stroke machines. Pads are designed to disperse increased heat caused by these types of machines.

Construction of Pad

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Dual-Density  Multi-Density design maintains optimum surface contact eliminating a concaving effect which extends use on Long Stroke machines

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Engineered bevel - Engineered angle design prevents pad rolling, allowing pad to stay flat on the surface

Cooling Features

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Cool Running - Runs 10% COOLER on Long Stroke machines than comparable pads

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Cooling Chamber - Prevents center of pad from concaving

Performance

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Perfectly balanced pad for optimum control

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Increased stability from Dual Density design allows improved control on curved panels

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Less foam movement minimizes haze and micro marring

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Pad design allows for quick cleaning and drying

Now the question is are the claims made here true and what about the durability? Yes I have to say they are all true with the exception of one, and that is only because I have no way of knowing if the pad runs 10% cooler. I do know though that the pads never felt hot or even really very warm so Im going to give them that one also.

One of the many things about these pads you will notice right off when you start using them is the balance. I have not seen these pads manufactured but from looking at them I suspect they are spun when they are beveled much like metal or wood on a lathe so they are very true when spinning.

My first car was the black Corvette that had lots of marring and some pretty goods rids in it. The pad I normally use is an orange flat or CCS pad so I knew what kind of results I would have probably gotten had I used one of those so I started with the orange HD pad for comparison. The finish was what I would have expected from using an orange flat or CCS pad. As it turned out this along with one other orange pad is what I would end up using 90 % of the time, more on that later.

For the defects that the orange pad didnt remove I used the blue pad. It has very good cut, probably on par with a yellow pad but finishes off much nicer. What little haze it left was very easy to clean up. I was able to remove almost all of the rids from the hard Corvette paint which is saying something, they can be real challenge, especially black. These same two color combinations would turn out to be the ones I also used on the remaining vehicles. With the exception of the bike which I used 3 Megs MF pads or Rupes foam on a Rupes mini.

With having so many different paint systems I ended up using probably at least 10 different compound and polishes so I was also able to see how they would cut and finish using a lot of different products from different manufacturers. What I ended up finding out was the pads werent the determining factor it was the paint and finding the right combination for it. So as with any other pad, do your test spot and the pads will finish off just fine once you find the polish that is going to work.

I said there were many things youll notice about these pads. Some of the others are the interface and the foam. With the interface being of a neoprene type material the actual foam is only about an ½ inch thick and total pad thickness is about an inch. With the foam being this thin there are quite a few benefits to it that arent listed in Lake Countrys description but are worth mentioning. Such as minimal product absorbed into the foam, that in itself has a few benefits. Obviously less product wasted, keeps the pad lighter which in turn allows the pad to spin easier which is a real problem for Rupes 21s on concave surfaces. And makes for easier clean up and shorter drying time.

The interface is a pretty stiff neoprene type material that has very little flex to it. Being as stiff as it is, it makes getting the pad off much easier than with a solid foam pad. It gives you something to grip and once you get the pad partially off the rest pulls right off easily.

Now about the durability. These pads are bullet proof. I beat the living crap out of 2 orange pads on all those cars trying to get them to delaminate or start failing in some other manner and couldnt do it. I tried to get them hot to see if the center would collapse and couldnt. I used them wet, damp, dry you name it I tried it and theyre still going, in fact Im still using those same 2 pads. I know another very busy shop has gotten a few in the last week or so and is reporting the same thing on durability. About the only downside I see is Lake Country may end sellingl less pads because of how well these are built.

Now for what youve all been waiting for, some pictures.

Thickness of the pads.

6 pad and 5 Rupes BP.

7 pad and 6 Rupes BP

There was no need to bring all these pads I only needed the ones in the back row. The black pad back row center is a prototype finishing pad before they decided to go with red for finishing.

These are all the cars and trucks Ive done with the original 2 orange and one blue pads.

Here are the pads after cleaning. Im not sure exactly which of the two are the originals but as you can see they all still look the same.

Here is a video showing just how well these pads continue to spin. With a Rupes pad I would never be able to keep this amount of rotation with this much pressure on a concave surface.