"must have" polishes.

Scottwax said:
The new Optimum Hyper Compound (the spray version) has as much cut as #105 and a lot more sun friendly.
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Now only if I knew that before I ordered a gallon of #105, ah well I guess that's what happens when your not keeping on the autopia site (first time back on here in a month and a half) .. oh well I guess I'll just have to go buy some Optimum Hyper Compound...My collection begins!



Cheers
 
sacdetailing said:
I have m105, m205, 85rd, menzerna super intensive polish. What kind of polishes should i buy more? Super finish, power gloss, give me some ideas. thanks for support!
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I'll venture to say that you're fine with what you have and don't need to order anything for a while.



Keep practicing and perfecting your skills and knowledge with the products you have. If you have some cash burning a hole in your wallet down the road, pick up a polish that you think may not only replace a current one but improve it, whether it be the cut, finish, lower dusting, etc.



I've gone through tons of polishes and still have tons on my shelves (Poorboy's, 3M, Einszett, Optimum, etc.), but have been using only Meguiar's and Menzerna (M105, M205, SIP, FPII and rarely, on some very soft paints, 85rd) for the past 1.5 or so years. Most of my work is a 1 or 2 step polishing so it's usually M105/M205 and they've been doing nothing but great work. When I do get a client who wants perfection, or as close as possible, regardless of the cost/work involved, I'll do a couple cutting steps with rotary, and do a black/85rd finishing/jeweling step after a medium step. However, for me, that is every 1 of 7-8 clients, which is why m205 with an appropriate pad is what I mainly use for finishing. The finish is still comparable to anything more finely polished, and many times there's little to no difference.



To summarize my point, I think in a business sense, you have to perfect your technique with as few products as possible and still perform great work. In other words, learn how to get the most out of a polish (or a pad/polish combo) and you can only do that through experience. I believe a person can't can rate one product over another based on only a couple hours of working with it. I think I'm finally there, the perfecting of my technique/products, after about 4 years doing this, and my tools/supplies are makita rotary, flex 3401xc, M105, M205, SIP, FPII, 85rd, various sizes of Lake Country PFW, orange, green, white, black, blue pads, as well as some 6.5" Meg's 8006 and 9006 pads.



That sounds like a lot, but compared to what's out there and what I have used over the years, I've probably cut it down to half.



On the other hand, I believe that if you want to become better, and you should, you must keep an eye out on all new products, tools, etc. and spend time trying some out when you have some extra time and extra cash. I don't see any product replacing one in my lineup any time soon, but I'm always on the lookout for something better and always look to try stuff out when I have time.



I know I know, way too long of a reply for a simple question, but I wanted to share what I've learned over the past 4+ years of detailing and going through $1000s worth of detailing products.



Cliff notes: To improve your business and detailing technique/knowledge, you're fine with the products you have and you should perfect working with those products. To improve your knowledge as a detailer you should always look to try out new products that might improve your arsenal, but don't be too quick to jump on any bandwagons.



Accumulator said:
Oh sheesh....and here I have all this M105 on hand. No no no I'm not gonna jump ship (he says again...) :o
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I'll gladly take that M105 off your hands bud! :waxing:
 
Lustr- That was a good post :xyxthumbs



And heh heh, nah...you can't have my M105 :D Especially not my two bottles of the v1.0 stuff, which I simply love for use on hard clear!



Ya know, the more I read about people's experiences with the Optimum Spray Compound, the more I think I'll be just fine with what I already have. I do so little correction that it'd be silly to have more bottles of more products sitting unused on the shelf. I bet I can tweak my technique a bit and end up liking the M105 even more than I already do.
 
Accumulator said:
Lustr- That was a good post :xyxthumbs



And heh heh, nah...you can't have my M105 :D Especially not my two bottles of the v1.0 stuff, which I simply love for use on hard clear!



Ya know, the more I read about people's experiences with the Optimum Spray Compound, the more I think I'll be just fine with what I already have. I do so little correction that it'd be silly to have more bottles of more products sitting unused on the shelf. I bet I can tweak my technique a bit and end up liking the M105 even more than I already do.
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I bet you're hanging on to that v1.0 for dear life haha.



And yes, I think M105 is highly capable of more correction than people give it credit for. With the Flex, I'm usually doing M105/orange for the 1st step of a 2 step correction, but I've been wanting to try it out with a yellow LC 5.5" pad to see how it corrects and finishes with the Flex.
 
LUSTR said:
..I've been wanting to try [M105] out with a yellow LC 5.5" pad to see how it corrects and finishes with the Flex.
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I've thought about using the LC yellow/M105/Flex (or Cyclo) combo too, but that pad can leave things kinda scoured up even with milder products.



Thought about trying the little 4" Edge/CycloToolmakers pads with it on the Cyclo too, but I'm concerned it'd flash too fast and I'd have to add something to increase the work time.
 
Accumulator said:
I've thought about using the LC yellow/M105/Flex (or Cyclo) combo too, but that pad can leave things kinda scoured up even with milder products.



Thought about trying the little 4" Edge/CycloToolmakers pads with it on the Cyclo too, but I'm concerned it'd flash too fast and I'd have to add something to increase the work time.
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Yea I know exactly what you mean about the yellow pads, but I think it might do great work correcting on some harder paints (Audi for example) and still clean up well with something like M205/white or green... obviously this isn't ideal when it comes to "Autopian" correction but if you're limited by a 2-step and the paint is completely beat up, it might just work great. Won't know until I try it.
 
LUSTR said:
Yea I know exactly what you mean about the yellow pads, but I think it might do great work correcting on some harder paints (Audi for example) and still clean up well with something like M205/white or green... obviously this isn't ideal when it comes to "Autopian" correction but if you're limited by a 2-step and the paint is completely beat up, it might just work great. Won't know until I try it.
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See how it goes, and post back about it if you get the chance.



I don't even like going from M105/orange to M205 all the time, often adding in another step with M105/milder-than-orange.



And I do OK with just M105/orange on our Audis, but then I might be singing a different tune if I were doing other people's cars! For jobs when I need something more potent, I'm leaning towards M105/SurBuf; conversations with Barry Theal and David Fermani have convinced me that the SurBufs are probably the way to get really aggressive with M105 via RO/DA machines, if only because they'll "load up" (with dead product and cut-off paint) differently than foam pads will.
 
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