ZviZZer Thermo Allrounder Pad "Medium" Thermo Foam Pad (Orange) 1 piece

A pad that runs on both DA and rotary

What is the ZviZZer Thermo Allrounder Pad Medium? An orange open-cell thermo foam pad with velcro and a rubber backing layer that sits at the middle hardness of the five-step colour system and is tuned for one-step polishing. Not built for heavy correction of deep scratches, and not for the last few percent of a show-car finish.

The ZviZZer Thermo Allrounder Pad Medium is a thermo foam pad from ZviZZer at medium hardness, marked orange in the colour system. Its open-cell thermo foam soaks up the polish and pulls friction heat away instead of trapping it in the paint, so the cut stays controlled. Between the velcro and the foam sits a rubber backing layer that stabilises the pad and lets it run just as happily on a DA as on a rotary.

• The most versatile hardness in the system. Orange is the middle of 5 steps, which makes it the best go-to when you don't want to swap pads for every defect. Paired with the colour-matched one-step polish, you knock out light-to-medium swirls and build gloss in a single pass.
• Rubber backing layer for an even cut. The layer-rubber sheet between the velcro and the foam keeps the contact face flat and damps the pad, so it runs just as smoothly on a 5 mm DA throw as it does under the pressure of a rotary. That's what sets the Allrounder apart from a plain trapezoid foam pad with no backing layer.
• Five sizes, from the edge to the panel. With Ø 50 and 70 mm you work mirror caps, bumper edges and tight radii, and with Ø 140 and 165 mm you run the bonnet and doors down quickly. Every pad is 20 mm thick, which spreads the pressure evenly.

Day-to-day from Detailing1: The most common mistake is carrying on with a clogged pad. Once the foam loads up with polish residue it just smears and stops building gloss, and with nothing left to soak it up, heat builds and puts the paint at risk. Tap the pad out on the running machine every two or three sections. What we see day-to-day: two pads swapped back and forth get you through a whole side of the car, while a single clogged one starts smearing before you're even off the first half of the bonnet.

Spread the polish on the pad at low speed

Set the Thermo Allrounder Pad Medium on the velcro backing plate, drop a pea-sized blob of polish on it and spread it at low speed before you work it in with medium pressure.

You need clean, washed and decontaminated paint first. Work in sections of about 40 by 40 centimetres and keep the pad as flat on the panel as you can, so the pressure sits evenly. The orange pad is colour-matched to the MC 3000 Medium Cut, which it's meant to pair with as a one-step combo.

Prime a new pad once: work a thin coat of polish in so the foam takes it up evenly. Keep the pad clean and tap the residue out regularly. Below 15 degrees paint temperature the foam gets stubborn — go a touch higher on speed rather than adding more polish, or material backs up in the pad.

Medium defects yes, heavy correction no

The Medium pad handles light-to-medium swirls, holograms and dull paint reliably — but on deep scratches you can clearly catch with a fingernail, the foam pad hasn't got the aggressive first cut for it.

Its home turf is the one-step reconditioning of wear on a well-kept daily driver. The rubber backing layer keeps the cut even, so you can cover ground with no hologram risk as long as the defect stays in the medium range. On a weathered plastic bumper the effect stays small — there's no hard clear coat to work on.

The limits are clear. If it's deep scratches and heavy weathering, then a harder red or blue pad with a cutting polish first. If a flawless show-car mirror is the goal, you follow up with the softer Soft pad in yellow with a finishing polish on top. The Medium is the middle, not the extreme.

For the one-step detailer, not the specialist

The Thermo Allrounder Pad Medium is the right call when you want a visibly better result in a sensible amount of time and aren't laying out a separate pad for every state of paint.

It's less at home at two extremes: heavy correction of neglected paint, where you need a hard pad and a cutting polish, and no-compromise concours prep, where a soft finishing pad runs at the end. If you constantly need both ends, you're better off with the graduated ZviZZer system from blue to green than with a single hardness. For a standard that covers 90 percent of jobs, go orange; for an extreme, reach for the matching special pad.

In the workflow, the Medium pad is the starting point of almost every job. The one thing most people miss: they buy five sizes in one hardness but only one in each of the others. It's exactly the other way round — you want the full size range of the orange Allrounder, because it runs on mirrors, edges and the bonnet alike, while the extreme hardnesses only come into play for special cases.

Using the ZviZZer Thermo Allrounder Pad Medium

From attachment to a clear polishing film

Center the pad on the hook-and-loop backing plate of your machine so that it runs smoothly and does not vibrate. The paint must be clean, washed, and decontaminated beforehand, otherwise you will drag dirt particles across the clear coat.

Apply a pea-sized amount of MC 3000 Polish to the pad and spread it over the surface at a low speed before working it in with medium pressure. Work in sections of approximately 40 by 40 centimeters and keep the pad as flat as possible so that the pressure is applied evenly.

Prime a new pad once by working in a thin layer of polish so that the foam absorbs it evenly. Tap out any polishing dust after two or three sections while the machine is running, or switch to a fresh pad. Below 15 degrees Celsius paint temperature, the foam is more stubborn; in that case, it is better to use a slightly higher speed rather than more polish.

Notes: The Medium pad is intended for light to medium correction, not for heavy correction of deep scratches; a harder pad with a cutting polish is necessary for that. A clogged, saturated pad will only smear and will no longer produce a shine; clean or replace it in that case. Rinse the pad with lukewarm water after use, let it dry laying flat, and store it flat so that the hook-and-loop backing and foam maintain their shape.