Overlooked: Menzerna PO203S Power Finish

SuperBee364

SuperBee364

New member
All the excitement about M105/M205 and the rebirth of the DA as a serious detailing tool seems to have caused a very good product to be overlooked (for the most part). You just don't see many threads around about Power Finish.



I've only used it three times. Once on a Ferrari, once on a small section of my 'bees trunk, and a couple of panels on my Sequoia. It left holograms like crazy on the Ferrari, but on both of my cars it finished down to PO106FF levels. Pretty darn respectable for a polish that has the corrective power of IP. On the Sequoia (which does have more swirling than I'd care to admit), it has removed all the defects in one application.



It seems to be good stuff, but I wish the working time was a bit shorter. It takes quite a while to break the polish down and finish out.



Just thought I'd toss that out there...
 
superbee i been using the m105 and m205 combo and a few others, last night i had a coonversation with rydawg and after talking to im curious to try menzera now! he pretty much said there is nothing in the same league. i have found 105 to have some filling properties. anyway just came acroos the thread and thought i could throw in some input,
 
I have used 203 a lot this year, and have found it to be a wonderful polish. It finishes down extremely well, and has a bit of cut when needed. When I've run into a situation where I need more cut, I just put on a Micro Surface black wool pad with the 203, and I could follow it up with the same polish and a white or grey pad.



It's extremely versatile in my opinion, and it will undoubtedly get used a lot this year!
 
Power Finish / PO203S is great stuff. Worked very well on a silver 350Z after Power Gloss. I'm so used to Menzerna working times I gotta make sure I'm extra careful when I try out M105/M205.
 
bufferbarry said:
superbee i been using the m105 and m205 combo and a few others, last night i had a coonversation with rydawg and after talking to im curious to try menzera now! he pretty much said there is nothing in the same league. i have found 105 to have some filling properties. anyway just came acroos the thread and thought i could throw in some input,
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FYI, Menzerna is renowned for filling. You will find more filling, and more severe filling in the Menzerna lineup than the Meguiar's lineup.



Not saying that means they don't have good (or even great) products, but from the sound of your post it seemed like you were looking for an alternative due to the supposed problem of M105 filling.
 
bufferbarry said:
superbee i been using the m105 and m205 combo and a few others, last night i had a coonversation with rydawg and after talking to im curious to try menzera now! he pretty much said there is nothing in the same league. i have found 105 to have some filling properties. anyway just came acroos the thread and thought i could throw in some input,
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That's really cool to hear RyDawg is using it. He's pretty well known for only using really good and effective products. Not to mention getting amazing results with said products.



TSC17 said:
I have used 203 a lot this year, and have found it to be a wonderful polish. It finishes down extremely well, and has a bit of cut when needed. When I've run into a situation where I need more cut, I just put on a Micro Surface black wool pad with the 203, and I could follow it up with the same polish and a white or grey pad.



It's extremely versatile in my opinion, and it will undoubtedly get used a lot this year!
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How do you like the Micro Surface black compared to the PFW? I've been meaning to get a few after David Fermani recommended them but I still have a bunch of PFW's to go through.



MadOzodi said:
Power Finish / PO203S is great stuff. Worked very well on a silver 350Z after Power Gloss. I'm so used to Menzerna working times I gotta make sure I'm extra careful when I try out M105/M205.
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Yeah, for sure. I'm just about convinced that the problems I've been having with M205 are due to exactly that.



stiffdogg06 said:
I just got my quart in today. Can't wait to use it.
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Let us know how it goes, Andy. :)
 
im hoping rydawg sees this thread and throws in his input. im telling you last night i spoke with him for 45 minutes about products. he told me the how tos for a lot of stuff i haven't used yet. the man is an wikipedia when it comes to products and polishing. truley i been at it 11 years and i can transforn a car with the best of them but hands down his poilshing abilities are incredible! ill be ordering some menxera here soon once i kick the bucket of some older stuff. i have been messing around with a few new products that got me some amazing results as well. but it always seems when something is working great another pops. these damn distrubuters! lol
 
Supe...in my experience, the Micro Surface pads finish down better than the PFW. On charcoal Lexus paint I worked on recently, I used the MS with 203, and could have sworn that it finished down LSP ready. Granted I didn't have sunshine out for inspection, so I went ahead and hit it again with a grey pad (I believe it was). I know that rickrack and gmblack3 really like this combo as well.
 
IME power finish fills with the best of them. Using a black lambs wool from micromesh, it will cut so far with a rotary and fill the rest of the defects. It filled some deeper defects with ease. It took 3 wipedowns w/ straight IPA to reveal the filling, but its there.



This was on a new jetblack M3 that was hammered. I'd wipe the area down 3x, polish the area 2-3x more times at 1700 with the black lamswool, then wow it would look great. 3x wipedowns and back to the same starting point before the initial wipedown.



So on that JB M3, I'd say it cut 40% of the defects out and it was like the 0203 hit a brick wall.



Todd Helme talked me into using the KBM for the first time over the phone on this car back in Dec. The areas where 0203 would not cut it (the worst defects) I did the KBM (M105 w/ orange pad) with the flex, 5 straight IPA wipedowns later and nothing would come back.
 
Bryan,



After I made my post, I thought that I should have added the footnote of filling capabilities and the need for IPA wipedowns for full inspection. You beat me to it! :)
 
I use 203 all the time since it first went on sale last year and love it. I've been using it almost a year now and have had superb results.



It's almost the same as SIP, but with a little less cut, but more working time which gives more correcting abilty if you know how to work it perfectly. I am sure eventually this will replace SIP.



Will it finish 100%? Not at all! I personally use it as a cutting creme and the let the abrasives in the lubricants do their job until it is corrected. I then wipe all the surface with straight 90% IPA to remove all the lubricating oils and you will have 100% true results that will now need to be finished off with a finishing process.



I know the marketing material for 203 describes this polish as a one step, but I have a few first place tropies from customers cars that will prove the marketing material description wrong. :grinno::grinno:





Will it fill? Like every polish in the world, yes it will, IF you do not remove the lubricating oils with pure IPA, then you are by-passing true inspection and the lubes left behind will fill if the defects are not fully removed completly.



Does it correct fast ? Not at all. It needs to be worked for a good amount of time to get true accurate results.



I have done $500-$4000 polishing jobs with 203 in my polishing regimen with proper procedures and I can gaurantee 10000000000% that 203 does not fill. I guarantee my work 100% that no swirls will come back ever, because they are permantly removed.



I have also done a lot of messed up black cars last year that were just trashed and I have seen a few of them this year and they still look amazing and not one swirl, tracer, haze, etc.... Just the normal marring from snow and salt being dragged off. Other than that the REAL gloss that is on the cars from a year later is very impressive.



I have done a dozen members/detailers cars here and used 203 in my combo and they will tell you that nothing returned at all.
 
The 203 works excellent with the M-S black wool pad. I think I was the first person to use that combo and I was amazed at the results.



I want to thank David Fermani for recommending me that pad last year.
 
gmblack3a said:
IME power finish fills with the best of them. Using a black lambs wool from micromesh, it will cut so far with a rotary and fill the rest of the defects. It filled some deeper defects with ease. It took 3 wipedowns w/ straight IPA to reveal the filling, but its there.



This was on a new jetblack M3 that was hammered. I'd wipe the area down 3x, polish the area 2-3x more times at 1700 with the black lamswool, then wow it would look great. 3x wipedowns and back to the same starting point before the initial wipedown.



So on that JB M3, I'd say it cut 40% of the defects out and it was like the 0203 hit a brick wall.



Todd Helme talked me into using the KBM for the first time over the phone on this car back in Dec. The areas where 0203 would not cut it (the worst defects) I did the KBM (M105 w/ orange pad) with the flex, 5 straight IPA wipedowns later and nothing would come back.
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Ah yes... The one car that gave me a complete nightmare also was a jarezz black (bark blue) new M3. 203 had the hardest time with that paint. The brand new BMW's have the rock hardest paint I have ever seen. Someone told me they are powdercoated...
 
Check, straight 90% IPA wipedowns. I thought that Prep-All from Wally World would be ok to use but if 90% IPA works better, I'm all for it. So I can get away with using PFW instead of the M-S Tufbufs, but may need more passes and/or my followup step may require a little more work?
 
Hmm, guess it's time to try out the 203 with the MS TB wool pads, hehe. However, I'm still interested to find out if it's worth purchasing Prep-All versus IPA.



I have to agree that the MS TB wool pads are definitely amazing and I think I may be strictly sticking to those wool pads from now on.
 
MDRX8 said:
Where are you getting the MS wool pads?????????? Thanks
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Micro-Surface - Item Detail



That's where I plan on buying all mine...





Rydawg - Were you able to remove all the polishing oils/fillers with one pass with straight IPA or did you have to wipe down multiple times?



I think I will use only wool pads for compounding instead of grabbing for LC Orange Pads.
 
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