Review: SONAX CC36 Ceramic Coating - LC HDO Foam Pads - Makita PO5000C - Supercharged Dodge Yellow Jacket

[Mike Phillips]

Great write up Mike. The car looks fantastic. I was wondering when your write up was coming on the CC36 coating.

Was waiting for just the right cool car.

Excellent review Mike!

Thanks Frank...

Very cool car and awesome review and documentation.

I was kind of rushed... normally I would have taken and included more action shots... but thank you.

Just remembered, we used the same two part coating system from Sonax on this 69 Camaro. This custom built Camaro went on to win the Detailer's Cup Award this year at Detail Fest.

Here's a shot of our team. From left to right: David Patterson (Lake Country Mfg), Jim Goguen, Me, Scott Voelz (Lake Country Mfg), Hector Romero and Jeff Bellantoni.

ALSO

--> ROTARY BUFFER ONLY <--

The paint on the Camaro was compounded and polished using ONLY the FLEX PE14 and SONAX products.

No holograms. Cut with SONAX CutMax and polished with SONAX Perfect Finish.

Pretty cool...

Mike, thanks for the great review and honest opinions, epecially on the HDO pads.

Would you say the blue HDO foam composition is pretty much identical to the Green buff&shine low-pro? Not sure if you have used the low-pro's but am interested in trying the HDO pads and am trying figure out what to expect.

Have to be honest again.... I have not tried the Buff & Sine Low-Pro pads for large stroke orbital polishers. I do like the B&S Uro-Tech 6" pads and they work well on the Makita PO500C polisher but have not spent any quality time with the Buff & Shine Low-Pro pads.

My observation is gear-driven tools don't like hard thin pads as much as they like thick soft pads.

For those reading this into the future that are NEW to machine polishing, it's easy to get an information OVERLOAD. Real simple though... thin pads for free spinning tools, thicker pads for gear driven tools. That won't help a lot but then that's what this forum is for...

That's a lot of typing mike don't know how you do it.

I think fast and I type fast. Plus I have arm-holder-uppers to help my arms and hands glide around while typing and prevent me from getting carpal tunnel.

[Mike@ShineStruck]

Excellent review Mike!

it was used on the trunk of the 67 chevelle too...which didn't marr anymore from wipes/swipes!

btw Mike, did the clay disc work well with the makita in free spin mode? asI doubt it was used in forced mode?

[Mike@ShineStruck]

Mike, thanks for the great review and honest opinions, especially on the HDO pads. Would you say the blue HDO foam composition is pretty much identical to the Green buff&shine low-pro? Not sure if you have used the low-pro's but am interested in trying the HDO pads and am trying figure out what to expect.

I haven't used full lineup of HDO yet..and only used them on long throw..haven't had chance to use them on the makita yet..
normally use the low pros on my G21(works well)

So far ve used Thin pros and Low pros on the Makita..both correct well.
I personally like thicker pads on long stroke and forced rotation machines like the makita

my experience with the makita and thin pros was it was less likely to walk due to the pads conforming well to the panel changes..
My experience with the Low pros on the makita is its more likely to try and walk due to the pads being stiff, but due to the small stroke, its nothing..

now onto the HDO...I like them because they're just as thick and take the same abuse as the Lowpros...the difference between the two is the HDO conforms to body panels..so its a win win for the makita in my head..

[Edi25]

Mike I'm just wondering since the car only had 8,000 miles on it was the paint really that bad condition that you had to compound it ?
Not just polish it ?
Or in order to receive perfect finish you would have to compound the car ?

I'm still new to the game trying learn as much as I can.


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[RippyD]

Why glass cleaner for the clay disc lube? Is is a "why not" since it's a soap? Is it the recommended lube with that pad? Also curios if you used the Makita in both modes or just free spinning.

[Mike Phillips]

Mike I'm just wondering since the car only had 8,000 miles on it was the paint really that bad condition that you had to compound it ?

Not just polish it ?

Miles don't mean paint condition. I normally capture before pictures just to document the condition of the paint. I think if anyone takes a casual perusal of all my write-ups you'll see I document with pictures more of my projects than anyone else in the industry. In this case I was pressed for time and that's why there's so few pictures overall as compared to most of my write-ups.

Besides the fact that a polishing pad and SONAX EX 04-06 didn't remove all the deeper swirls and scratches as the paint seemed to be on the hard side from my experience, I also wanted to test and showcase the blue Lake Country HDO foam cutting pad.

I kill as many birds with one stone as humanly possible as a way maximizing my time and effectiveness for the company.

Or in order to receive perfect finish you would have to compound the car ?

I'm still new to the game trying learn as much as I can.

Great questions and I'm glad you asked them...

I divide cars into 2 categories

1: Special Interest Vehicles or SIVs

2: Daily Drivers

When it comes to SIVs this means in most cases I do show car detailing, that is a multiple step approach because the cars are COOL.

When it comes to daily dirivers, I use a one-step cleaner/wax because the cars are merely transportation or grocery getters. Sure some are cool but they are not SIVs.

So due to the rarity of this car plus the cool factor, (it's a Yellow Jacket), of course I treat it accordingly.


Again, great questions...

[Mike Phillips]

Why glass cleaner for the clay disc lube?

Is is a "why not" since it's a soap?

Is it the recommended lube with that pad?

SONAX recommends their glass cleaner as the lube for their clay disc. We covered this a few times on our TV show, like when we used these discs to decontaminate Adam Corolla's two Lamborghinis.

I was caught off guard the first time I learned this from SONAX but after using it and thinking about it not only are you removing all the above surface bonded contaminants but you're also chemically cleaning the surface of the paint to some level because most glass cleaners contain some level of alcohol which is a type of solvent.

Also curios if you used the Makita in both modes or just free spinning.

I only used it in the gear-driven mode. About all the free-spinning mode is good for is for machine applying a non-cleaning wax or non-cleaning sealant, as in show car work.

[Desertnate]

Thanks for the review, Mike.

This coating along with the one from Dr. Beasley seem to be the dark horses on AG that don't get much discussion. I'm intrigued by the Sonax CC36 as I really like the ease of use spray-on coatings provide.

It's a shame the vehicle is getting prepped for a sale, I'd love to read how the coating holds up over time. I think I read elsewhere here at AG that CC36 needs to be "boosted" by PNS roughly every six months to hit max durability, but I'd love to see how it would stand up on its own.

[Mike Phillips]

Thanks for the review, Mike.

This coating along with the one from Dr. Beasley seem to be the dark horses on AG that don't get much discussion.

For me... showcasing any tool, pad or product is just a time issue. I do have some Dr. Beasley products in the works.

I'm intrigued by the Sonax CC36 as I really like the ease of use spray-on coatings provide.

Me too.... I love spray-on products... I use Pinnacle Black Label Surface Coating on our SL 500 and one of my favorite things about this coating is the ease-of-use.

It's a shame the vehicle is getting prepped for a sale, I'd love to read how the coating holds up over time.

The thing about "testing" a coating over time besides having access to the car, (can't do that with the Yellow Jacket), is the person doing the testing has to have CONTROLS in place.

Otherwise everything is simply so subjective including water beading as there's no controls over what's in the water for all the zillions of places we all live and use water. And what's in the water can affect beading just like how water LANDS on paint can affect water beading. And good or bad, most people only have water beading as the easily available visual indicator to measure how a product is working or not working.


But I hear ya...

[Klasse Act]

I was going to go with this paint coating but it wasn't available around Christmas when I took advantage of the sales, so I went elsewhere. I really like Sonax products based on other experiences so I knew the paint coating would be a good one.

Oh well, maybe next time

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