Porter Cable Question

[DarkHorseFarmer]

Hi all,

 

I'm a long time Adam's customer, but haven't been a user lately.  I moved to a gravel road about 5 years ago, and got a cheaper car.  With that said, my wife and I have nicer trucks now, and just scratched up her brand new Yukon during a gas station car wash malfunction!  Like when the sprayers don't turn on to blast the gravel dust off the car before the car gets washed (let's just say this was not a touch-less car wash either).... OUCH!

 

Anyways, I have a Porter cable with black, white, orange, and yellow pads.  I remember what each of them is for, and have product to match (assuming it doesn't expire.... It does seem good still).  With that said, I see Adam's is no longer promoting the PC, and has come out with new products, and pads.  Am I able to run these new pads on my older PC?  It's probably about 8 years old.

 

In addition, which polishes should I be buying at this point to match the 3-4 step process of the past?  I would love to spend hours reading through the forum, but have two kids under the age of two.  I barely have time to keep the cars clean anymore... 😭

 

Thank you!!

[mc2hill]

@DarkHorseFarmer First off, Welcome!

 

Many of us 'long timers' started off were you are with the Porter Cable random orbital, dual action polisher. 

There are much better polishers on the market now, but there nothing wrong with that machine  - I actually used mine last weekend (but not for polishing).

But I would suggest moving to the 5" backing plate and the 5.5" pads.  The smaller pads are much more efficient than the older, larger 6.5" pads, and the pad technology has improved too.  Speaking of improvements, you should also grab the new polishes, as they are leaps and bounds ahead of what
was available when I started in 2009.  The Adam's Complete 5.5" Pad & Polish Combo may be a place to start (sorry, I cannot get to the website from my work computer, so no link), but I would recommend 2 blue pads, 2 white pads, Compound, and Polish vs. what is in the kit.  Maybe give Adam's a call and they can fix you up with a better kit.

And if Adam's does not have the backing plate available, it can be sourced from Amazon.