M101 Foam-Cut Compound - Thank you Gregory!

[C. Charles Hahn]

Looks like there's plenty to go around Mike!!

I've read where Meguiar's D300 is very similar to Meguiar's M101...I'd like to hear your thoughts on this if you have time....

There are a number of differences between D300 and M101, Bobby. I wouldn't even begin to equate the two with one another quite honestly.

• D300 fills, M101 doesn't.
• M101 cuts significantly more/faster than D300
• M101 does dust a little bit in some situations, but it doesn't dust anywhere near as much as M105.

And yes, M101 can be used (and works quite well) with MF pads on the DA, despite it not being what Meguiar's intended (of course, they also never intended people in the US to get their hands on it).

I think M101 is pretty good stuff; not that you'd ever be able to tell....

[BobbyG]

Hey Charles thanks for answering my questions!!

E-Gads!! No wonder I can't find any!!!

[rwright]

D300 fills? Interesting, considering Meguiar's said it doesn't contain fillers. In fact it was a question asked at Detail Fest last year. There is a chance the question was asked about D301 but I thought it was D300.

Did you get another shipment Charlie? I haven't tried any of my quart.

[C. Charles Hahn]

Hey Charles thanks for answering my questions!!

No worries; actually if you really want some good background on how to effectively make use of M101, you should talk to Kevin Brown.

E-Gads!! No wonder I can't find any!!!

Definitely takes some effort to obtain, that's for sure.

[C. Charles Hahn]

D300 fills? Interesting, considering Meguiar's said it doesn't contain fillers. In fact it was a question asked at Detail Fest last year. There is a chance the question was asked about D301 but I thought it was D300.

D300 has silicones in it (not body shop safe), and I've been able to uncover defects with IPA/Eraser after using it. Purely by nature that would seem to indicate it fills somewhat.

Did you get another shipment Charlie? I haven't tried any of my quart.

Sure did. I'm surprised you haven't used yours yet!

[sparkie]

I got this from another site...

This is the first product that Meguiar's actually developed outside the US. It was still created by our chemists here in Irvine, CA, but we actually shipped our lead man for the project to Europe, along with a mini lab set up, so that he could quickly respond to testing and inputs and tweak the formula as needed. Pretty cool stuff, actually.
What is M101 designed for? Rotary buffing with a dedicated foam pad on European aftermarket (ie, body shop) paint.
Why "European" aftermarket paint? Because, unlike factory paint which is the same whether the car is sold in Europe, North America or Asia, aftermarket paints vary in different parts of the world. It's a high solids versus low solids situation with these different paints, and that can require different compound formulations to achieve maximum results. Oh, and for the record, factory paint is vastly different from a chemistry standpoint than the paint used in a body shop. If a body shop, whether in Europe or North America, were to shoot factory paint it would virtually never cure due to a body shops inability to bake it at sufficient heat and for sufficient time. It's just not economically feasible for a body shop to have that sort of equipment.
Why "dedicated foam pad"? While use of a wool pad is commonplace here in the US for sanding mark and swirl removal, in European body shops they almost never use wool. And rarely do they compound the entire vehicle - it's mostly spot repair following a repaint, and it's almost always with a foam pad. They also tend to run the rotary at fairly low rpm. So we've developed a dedicated foam pad to use with this compound, taking into account the cultural toward low speed rotary and anti wool bias.
Why did we send a chemist and mini lab to Europe? Lead time, really. Imagine if we sent product over there, had it tested, then had to tweak and send a new batch across the pond, repeat, repeat, repeat? It would have taken months. And we couldn't do the testing here because the aftermarket paint used in Europe is very different from that used here, due to environmental regulations.
So basically what we have here is a product developed for a very specific type of paint system and a pretty specific work flow. That a handful of guys have imported this back to the US (it is made domestically, just like all the rest of our products) and are finding success with it using either wool or microfiber pads is interesting, to say the least. At the moment we have no solid plans to introduce this product to the US market.
Michael Stoops
Internet Technical Specialist | Meguiar's Inc.
(800) 854-8073 xt 3875
mstoops@meguiars.com

[rwright]

D300 has silicones in it (not body shop safe), and I've been able to uncover defects with IPA/Eraser after using it. Purely by nature that would seem to indicate it fills somewhat.

Interesting. I use eraser every time and haven't noticed anything yet but I bet you I pay closer attention next time! Thanks for the info.

Sure did. I'm surprised you haven't used yours yet!

I'm waiting actually, I have a 2009 MB SL63 AMG coming up that I plan to use it on. Was going to use it on a black SRT-4 but looks like the Benz will be first.