Never see anyone discussing this line of polishes

[Mike Phillips]

See the part I made bold below

When my paint guy wetsanded my car he finished with 3M Perfect it and it didn't finish down as nice as he would have liked.

And to your point, see the part I made bold

That can be said about any given compound/polish on any given paint.

situation dependent

My experience with body shop technicians is all too often when they "finish down" it's with a rotary buffer. It's simply how too many body shops do their paint polishing.



Foam versus Fiber

If they finish down with a rotary and a soft foam finishing pad then it can look pretty good, but down the road holograms will still show up.

If they finish down with any type of fiber pad - then the paint is going to look like crap - no matter how fine the polish.



I started out in this industry calling on body shops. This was in 1987. And even though the FOAM pad was invented and introduced in 1965 - I would most of the shops I called on in Oregon, Washington and Idaho were still cutting AND finishing with wool pads. Many of the shops had NEVER seen a foam pad.


And food for thought...

If if a person does have and use a foam pad to finish with when using a rotary buffer - if that pad is not virgin clean, as in un-contaminated, it's still going to be tough to finish down nice.

[2black1s]

... I started out in this industry calling on body shops. This was in 1987. And even though the FOAM pad was invented and introduced in 1965 - I would most of the shops I called on in Oregon, Washington and Idaho were still cutting AND finishing with wool pads. Many of the shops had NEVER seen a foam pad...

I can attest to that. I worked full-time in the autobody/painting industry throughout the 1970s and continued as a second profession specializing in custom and restoration work through the 1980s, 1990s, and into the early 2000s.

The first time I used a foam pad was in about 2015.

Prior to that, much of my "hologram-free" final finishing was accomplished by following all buffing cycles by a hand finishing.

Another method I used to produce hologram-free finishes was a final buff using Meguiar's #3 Machine Glaze followed by a hand application of an AIO.

Although my memory may be skewed a little, as its been a long time, the #3 with a wool finishing pad did a really good job of removing the compounding holograms. Not hiding them, but actually removing them. Then a few applications of an AIO by hand completed the process.

[Mike Phillips]

I can attest to that. I worked full-time in the autobody/painting industry throughout the 1970s and continued as a second profession specializing in custom and restoration work through the 1980s and 1990s.

The first time I used a foam pad was in about 2015.

Thanks for sharing the above.

Even today, when I think back about the 3 years I called on shops, large and small all over the Pacific Northwest I'm still amazed at how many fine folks in the body shop industry had NEVER seen a foam pad.

Back in the 1980s, the only pad I knew of was the Meguiar's foam pads, W1000, W5500 (rotary pads) and the W6000, (the first DA foam pad)
Here's my story about the first DA Foam Pads


The history behind polishing paint with a DA Polisher




Car Wax History

I'm pretty sure I'm the only guy alive that knows this history, has this stuff and also TYPES and shares PICTURES like you see in the full article I linked to above.

Barry Meguiar would know this history but he doesn't write articles or share stories like this on the Internet. I'm sure there are others that have been around long enough to know this stuff but same old story, none of the type and none of them know how to make picture magically show up on the Internet.

Prior to that, much of my "hologram-free" final finishing was accomplished by following all buffing cycles by a hand finishing.

The above would actually work. You no doubt possess the skills to "hand polish". I rarely meet anyone that actually know how to hand polish.




Another method I used to produce hologram-free finishes was a final buff using Meguiar's #3 Machine Glaze followed by a hand application of an AIO.

[/quote]


Here's an old bottle of M3 or Meguiar's Machine Glaze. The #3 was simply a wetter, and still non-abrasive version of #7 Show Car Glaze.


M03 Machine Glaze in the Cylinder Bottle, probably from the 1960's or 1970's.

I was told that cylinder bottles were chosen because the could be easily slipped into a apron pocket in the professional side of the industry...




More pics like the above here,

Some Vintage Meguiar's Products from my Collection (Lots of pictures)

Although my memory may be skewed a little, as its been a long time, the #3 with a wool finishing pad did a really good job of removing the compounding holograms. Not hiding them, but actually removing them. Then a few applications of an AIO by hand completed the process.

#3 like #7 was VERY oily and like Liquid Ebony, (mineral oil), and even like #7, all it really does is fill light swirls and scratches in and mask them temporarily. Neither #3, #5 or #7 were abrasive or had any abrading ability.


Here's #5 New Car Glaze - this was a dryer version of #7






Any abrading ability would have come from the application material and process. Rubbing by hand maybe could have removed holograms. Pressing a fiber pad against paint - the fibers would continue to instill holograms. They might remove pre-existing holograms but they would simply replace them with new, perhaps finer holograms. That's the deal with rotary polishers.


Always like to hear your comments...

[DUBL0WS6]

Mike, my guy does rotary work and he's pretty good. He has about 40 years experience. The 3M Perfect it didn't finish down as nice with the 3m Purple foam pad as his regular swirl remover that he uses which is normally Presta, which advertises as being filler free. I touched up a few spots with my PC.

[Mike Phillips]

Mike, my guy does rotary work and he's pretty good. He has about 40 years experience. The 3M Perfect it didn't finish down as nice with the 3m Purple foam pad as his regular swirl remover that he uses which is normally Presta, which advertises as being filler free. I touched up a few spots with my PC.

Good to hear.

Paint systems are different and always changing. Some products simply work better than others on different paint systems.

And the Porter Cable aka the PC is a CHAMPION in the car detailing world.

[luckydawg]

Got these from a friend the other day- the one on the right and the middle one were the only ones used and I would bet not even an ounce was used.




The one on the left (#1) was not even used at all.

I dont use a rotary so I will probably never use these. If someone wants them- they can have them for actual shipping costs. These are the large 32OZ. bottles.