question Re Meguiar's M2 Mirror Glaze Fine-Cut Cleaner

[tattooman]

Today I used Meguiar's M2 Mirror Glaze Fine-Cut Cleaner to clean the side of a Ranger truck. The paint was heavily oxidized so I used a hard foam pad with a flex 3401 on medium speed. I think the paint cleaned up pretty good, but I think I used too much product because getting the mess off was not easy. In any case here is my question: would it be acceptable to not bother wiping it off after polishing it down with my 3401, then just washing the car afterwards ? In that way I wouldn't have to bother with the sticky mess of getting it off, and would have a nice clean car after washing it again for putting on a final AIO Blackfire One Step. Idk if it made a difference but it was 50 deg farenheit, would have preferred an extra 10 degrees but I did it anyway.

Any advice about this idea of just leaving the M2 on followed by immediatley washing the car after finishing the whole truck with the M2 ?

Also if this product is designed to be used with a Rotary, did I do myself a disservice by using a 3401 ? I think the Megs lineup of products are too numerous and sort of confusing.

Any advice appreaciated.

[dlc95]

M02 was reformulated some years back for compatability with orbital tools.

Because of the cut of the BF one step, you could probably skip M02 all together.

Personally, I'd try and wipe off right after use.

[Mike Phillips]

The original - or pre 2000 version of M02 was a pretty cool product. Had a distinctive solvent scent to it. Note I used the word SCENT instead of the words foul odor. It wasn't a harsh solvent smell, it was actually nice. And back in the day before the Internet blew-up with so many new brands, the #2 followed by #9 process was the best cutting and polishing combo on the market. Once M02 was reformulated to be EPA compliant and more orbital-friendly, it just wasn't the same and in my experience, not as useful as the old original version - at least when working with a rotary buffer.


As to your questions....

Yeah if it's a pain to wipe off, go ahead and wash the car with some car wash and this should peel it off. That or try spraying any old glass cleaner on it and then wiping off.


I also agree with dlc95 - BLACKFIRE One Step has enough correction you could have probably skipped the #2 step. If anything, do a 2-step with the BF One Step, start with aggressive pad, follow up with softer pad, if nothing else, it's super easy to wipe off.

[tattooman]

Hi Mike. Wouldda never thoought of that, two passes of BF One Step with a cutting pad and a polishing pad. I did a little experiment today on the other side of the truck. I did a section with Megs #2 and BF One Step, and another section with One Step only. The section with the two products did a little better. But I will try your advice sometime, it sounds better because I could get two layers of protection vs one layer with good cleaning. I started using One Step after watching your video and everything you showed about it is true - that is truly really great stuff. I will probably keep using it until something comes along that is reviewed to be superior to it but that doesn't sound likely for some time given how good it is for an AIO.

I also did another experiment - I switched from Megs 02 Fine Cut to Megs 01 Med Cut cleaner using a Yellow Hex Pad (their hardest cutting pad) to compare the cleaning ability of the two on the oxidized clearcoat. I noticed significant hazing from the Med Cut so I immediately went back to the Megs 02 fine cut because it was cleaning just fine. Thinking about it I don't think I'll need the Med cut again anytime soon on my four vehicles, but I'm glad to have it if I need it. That was the first time I'd seen hazing resuting from a hard cleaning, it was good experience to see what it looked like.

I don't know if it makes any difference to my experience here but I was using my BEAST, the infamous Flex 3401. I'm still learning how to use (control) it, it's really powerful. Having that kind of power in reserve is nice to have, though I never went over 3-4 for any of the cleaning and polishing I did today. I notice that at higher speed it generates heat that I take is what accellerates the drying out of the tan bottle Megs cleaners (105, #2, #1). For those products I find myself spritzing the panel to get enough work out of the product before it dires. It seems to dry too fast in general.

Thanks Mike.