The Ultimate Comparison Chart

[imported_pdsterns]

I’m a new guy around here and although I am fairly new to “detailing� per se, I have always kept my favorite cars spotless and have shown my Porsche a few times, and yes I am an engineer. On to the point of this post, has anyone put together the ultimate excel spreadsheet(s) showing “who makes what�. I would imagine this sheet(s) would be set up as follows. There would several sheets, one for paint, rubber, vinyl, glass, leather and fabric (etc). On the paint sheet there would be a list of manufactures down the left side ie. Meguair’s, Zaino, Poorboys etc and across the top would be washes, chemical cleaners, cleaners, polishes, waxes, enhancers, detailers and sealants just to name a few. In the matrix in the intersection of the of each column and row would be the item that the manufacture markets. Products could even be rated with stars in the cell or comments added (right click on cell, select “add comment�.



I know on many forums the standard reply is read, read, read and search, and I have but have not run across something like this. It seems most guys have a mental list of there favorites and that’s fine but this would cut more to the chase, ie, is scratchx the same as 3m medium cut polish? As the chart matures it could be come a sticky post under “Detailing�, new products could be added and evaluated. Obviously something a mod would have to control, get my jist?

 

[ZaneO]

That's a very good theory, but I don't see it being feasible. There are so many products, it would be hard to keep up with them all. That would also require some sort of standardization of abrasives, chemicals, etc. of different lines of products, which doesn't exist to my knowledge and wouldn't be very accurate.



You could complete it to a point by looking on manufacturer and retailer websites, but you could never include everything.

 

[JasonD]

Yes, I agree. And on that note, I know for a fact that there are quite a few products that some of use feel are more or less aggressive than what others feel.



I can see where you are going with this, and it would be nice to have some kind of guide to refer to but I also see it causing more controversy than it's worth.

 

[Eliot Ness]

The closest thing I’ve seen is the unofficial Autopia list of compounds, polishes and glazes sorted by cutting ability. I find it comes in quite handy, here is a link: Link to Polishes and Compounds.

 

[stiege]

I would love to see it, and I'm sure as a newbie, other beginners would love to see it too. It probably will cause some "controversy", but that's ok. I've got a variety of 3M and Menzerna and Meguairs stuff, and I'd love to have a handy guide to them.



Jason

 

[imported_Aurora40]

The review area has a pretty good list of products, and it is organized by product type. http://www.autopia.org/review

 

[topnotchtouch]

That's a very good theory, but I don't see it being feasible. There are so many products, it would be hard to keep up with them all. That would also require some sort of standardization of abrasives, chemicals, etc. of different lines of products, which doesn't exist to my knowledge and wouldn't be very accurate.



You could complete it to a point by looking on manufacturer and retailer websites, but you could never include everything.

Another issue you have is that different abrassives work differently. Some break down quicker than others so a lighter abrassive that takes a long time to break down might actually be just as effective as a product with a higher abrassive that breaks down quickly. There just isn't an accurate way to directly compare all the abrassives out there as there are just far too many variables. This is a primary reason why most of the comparisons you see here are based on observation and personal experience rather than a label on a bottle or a chart from the manufacturer.