Good HAND polishes

03DubU R EX

New member
I'm thinking about picking up some Optimum Polish and/or Vanilla Moose, but I'm not sure if these are better suited for a PC then by hand. Right now I have SSR2.5, but I can see what appears to be hazing after using it. Are OP and VM ok, or are there other alternatives?



Thanks
 
One of my favourite products for use by hand is 1Z Metalic polish,by far the best polish for hand use.The paint polish is also very good,a little stronger than Metalic,and the Extra is much stronger than both,but i have never found the need to use the Extra,as i think it's better suited to badly neglected paints.
 
For removing swirls by hand, I really like Menzerna Intensive Polish using a German applicator pad (red, yellow and black ones from Sonus), but you have to wrk on very small areas at a time and perservere with the product to ensure you break it down sufficiently to get decent results.



On option I will use on thin paints that cannot take machine polishing is to fill and mask the swirls by hand, and one of the most effective polishes I have found for this is Autoglym Super Resin Polish. And the other, very close in filling ability, is 1Z WaxPolish Soft. So these would be options for thin paints, or if you want to fill swirls for some other reason.



SSR2.5 I dont find to be particularly effective by hand, seems to leave scouring marks and hzing as I dont think it effectively breaks down. SSR2 is as aggressive as I would go from PB by hand. The Menz IP seems to be easier to break down by hand and gets superior results in my experience.
 
For hand use, my absolute favorite is 1Z Paint Polish. It 's easy to work in by hand, it stays wet for a long time and doesn't dust up, is easy to wipe off trim without staining, and even leaves a short term carnauba wax finish. Great product.
 
I agree with the 1ZPP recommendation, although I've also had good luck with ZPC and Scratch-X by hand. PO106FF is nice by hand, too.
 
Wow thanks for the suggestions, looks like 1Z, Menzerna, and Autoglym are winners. I've never heard of 1Z though, where can I find this?



Also should I follow 1Z, Menzerna or Autoglym with anything before moving on to wax?



Thanks again
 
I order 1Z from openroadmotoring.com



they have several products I can't do without. The 1Z vinly and rubber care is the only thing that I use to treat and protect my red vinyl dash and black plastics. I used to use it on the tires but its too expensive for that, I now use Michelin Tire Dressing with nearly as good a result for about half the cost and its available at Strauss. 1Z cockpit premium is a great citrus scented cleaner for more regular use. 1Z leather cleaner is the best hands down for my red leather, you wouldn't beleive what it lifts up. Too bad there are so few 1Z distributors.
 
03DubU R EX said:
Also should I follow 1Z, Menzerna or Autoglym with anything before moving on to wax?



Yes indeed, 1Z polishes are great by hand. You can do some pretty serious correction with the Ultra/Extra, but follow it up with a milder product like the PP.



1z polishes leave wax behind, so no, you just go straight to wax after using them.



Menzerna polishes don't leave anything behind and are thus great for use before sealants.



I put wax right on top of Autoglym SRP and it works great too.



But if you have marring to correct, I'd go with the 1Z. It's what I use to remove fingernail scratches from behind Audi door handles, and that's some tough clear to work by hand.
 
Meguiars deep crystal paint cleaner is OTC and pretty good it has chemical cleaners and small amount of abrasives plus it has Kaolin clay in it that remove bonded contaminents.

P21S paintwork cleansing lotion is another one.
 
Accumulator said:
Yes indeed, 1Z polishes are great by hand. You can do some pretty serious correction with the Ultra/Extra, but follow it up with a milder product like the PP.



[...]



But if you have marring to correct, I'd go with the 1Z. It's what I use to remove fingernail scratches from behind Audi door handles, and that's some tough clear to work by hand.



Would you use foam, microfiber or terry applicators when using 1Z polishes by hand?
 
Depends; behind door handles, use a terry app, because it has more bite. For correction, use an appropriate foam, and for finishing use an MF.
 
newwaxer said:
Would you use foam, microfiber or terry applicators when using 1Z polishes by hand?





As Bence says, the terry will give a bit more bite, so sometimes I use that for the initial work. But I do about 99% of my hand polishing with plush MF, just a personal preference.



IMO you need to watch for micromarring with terry, though somebody once tested terr/MF/foam and had no problems with any of those. But for the first passes that shouldn't matter and remember that all terry isn't created equal either.
 
Accumulator said:
As Bence says, the terry will give a bit more bite, so sometimes I use that for the initial work. But I do about 99% of my hand polishing with plush MF, just a personal preference.



IMO you need to watch for micromarring with terry, though somebody once tested terr/MF/foam and had no problems with any of those. But for the first passes that shouldn't matter and remember that all terry isn't created equal either.



Thanks. So the general order of abrasiveness is Foam < Microfiber < Terry?



Is 1ZPP easier to work with than Meg's Scratch-X (will require less applications)? If I stick to foam (or microfiber) will I have to go over it again with somelike less agressive, or probably not?
 
Nope. Terry is the most abrasive and a plush MF is the least abrasive. The quality/softness of various foam applicators can vary, and when you use for example a polishing pal, you can apply your products with foams of different cell density/aggressiveness.



I never used ScratchX, sorry.
 
The true polishes are like McG. #3, #5, #7, and my favorite #81. They are true polish with no abrasives in them. But I understand your talking about polish with cleaning abilities.
 
newwaxer- I haven't used Scratch-x either, but I'd be *very* surprised if it's more user-friendly than 1Z. Plenty of people do entire vehicles by hand with 1Z and say how great it worked; people generally don't recommend trying that with Scratch-X.



Whether the 1Z PP will leave a ready-to-wax finish will depend on a) your paint, b) your polishing media, and c) how well you work/break down the abrasives. Generally people say they can wax after PP, but I often like to follow up with something extra-mild like 1Z's MetallicPolishWax. You won't know if you need/want to until you've tried the PP though, and it's not like it'll leave an awful finish (unless your paint is *very* soft or you do something weird).



MDRX8- Terms like "polish" and "cleaners" get used in *so* many different ways...the way you used them sounds like recent vintage Meguiar's-speak; for the last twenty-some years the've been saying "cleaners" to mean "abrasives" (and also some nonabrasive cleaning agents too) and "pure polish" to mean nonabrasive products that others might call "glazes" (Meguiar's used to call them "glazes" too). Nothing wrong with that, don't get me wrong, *I* just find it confusing so I don't use the terms that way . 1z polishes all contain abrasives and Newwaxer and I seemed to be communicating clearly, so I didn't want to muddy the waters if I could help it.
 
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