On these cars we used pads from Harbor Freight, mostly their white polishing pad. The Alpina was the only car that needed to have some paint correction due to heavy swirls and scratches, so we used their yellow minor cutting pad with 3m #1 then went to the white polishing pad with 3m's steps 2 & 3. My friend couldn't remember the last time it was polished, the car sits at his lake house which only gets used for a total of about 2 months year. I have used pads from Lake County, 3m and Chemical Guys in the past, they last longer than the Harbour Freight pads but they are considerably more expensive and cannot get locally. Harbor Freight pads cost under $10, Lake County & Chemical Guys about $13 to $18, 3m $20 to $28 each.
Haven't done a heavy paint correction that required wet sanding or an aggressive pad compound combination in years, so I kind gave up on the expensive pads. Also found that once the cars finish is at the stage where there are hardly any swirls you don't need to use an aggressive pad or compound. Liquid Glass polish can be layered on time and time again, can leave it on for hours, do it in the sun and it just buffs off. I probably have 15 coats on my wagon, so the swirls are actually in the polish not the paint.
This wagon was my 3rd Ford/Mercury wagon, 1st being an 82 County Squire,
2nd 88 Colony park - what was great back then is the front grill headlight style matched most State Highway patrol cars, so when you were speeding up on people they would immediately move over, thinking that you were the cops, ha just a station wagon - makes me laugh even today. HAHA
