Review - Blackfire Pro Detailers Choice Compound, Polish, Advanced Pad Conditioner

[The Guz]

Thank you Meghan for sending these out to me.

Products:

Blackfire Pro Detailers Choice Advanced Pad Conditioner

Blackfire Pro Detailers Choice Compound

Blackfire Pro Detailers Choice Polish

I took the opportunity to test these out on my brothers car. His car had not been polished in a few years and was in need of one. He has put the car up for sale. Some would say why not use an AIO rather than compounding and or polishing. The answer is simple. I am testing these out for my fellow AGO forum members.

The line up included the following products from the new Blackfire line. It is my understanding that the compound and polish are completely new formulations compared to the Blackfire SRC compound and polish which I have never used.



First up is the pad conditioner. This may be a carryover product from the current Blackfire line. Meghan will have to answer that.



This is essentially used to condition the pad to prevent dry buffing. Apply a spritz or two depending on the pad size.



Directions on the rear of the bottle are pretty straight forward. Used this prior to using either the compound or polish. I did use it between polish applications and it worked fine this way as well.



Up next is the compound. I divided up the hood into a few test sections to preform a test spot.



Description and directions on the rear of the bottle. As shown it can be used by hand and by machine. I do everything by machine.



I did two test spots on the paint. I used the Scangrip sunmatch to light up the surface.

First test spot was with the Lake Country Blue HDO cutting pad. I was testing this pad out as well. Applied the pad conditioner to the pad followed by a little product onto the pad. Worked the area until the compound began to turn clear.

These are the results.

I should point out that this is an aftermarket hood with aftermarket paint. The paint is on the medium to hard side. The paint also had a ceramic coating applied a few years ago so we were also removing that.

The blue HDO cutting pad and the compound did a good job. A few deeper defects left behind as seem in the photos.

Before



After



I decided to try the compound with a Lake Country HDO microfiber pad. Again same process as with the foam cutting pad.

This removed more of the deeper defects but left a little micro marring. Hard to capture with my iphone but more noticeable in person. Still very good results.

Before



After



I moved to the polish to perform a test spot with that.



Description and direction for the polish. Again can be used by hand or by machine. I used a machine as well.



The following test spot was with a Lake Country Orange HDO Polishing pad. These are the results after a few passes to work in the polish. This worked well. I am not sure if the photos were able to show the defects left behind. There was more defects still left behind compared to the cutting pads on the other test sections. The results were still good.

Before



After



So with that in mind I decided to do one more test spot. That was to go with the polish and another fresh Lake Country Blue HDO cutting pad. These were the results.

Before



After



One more on the fender.

Before



After using the blue HDO cutting pad and the polish



This removed enough of the defects that were satisfactory for my brother. The polish with a cutting pad worked very well as a one step polish. I have already compounded this car once so I did not want to remove more paint than needed. Again he is going to sell the car. So we used this as a testing opportunity.

We went with this option around the entire car with various pads. The more visual areas (hood, trunk, spolier, fenders and roof) received the polish with a cutting pad (Blue HDO, Meguiar’s Burgundy foam discs). The sides and rear quarter panels responded very well with a Rupes yellow pad and Blackfire polish.

The polish also worked well with the Rupes nano and the Rupes yellow polishing pad on the pillars. The results after a few passes.



We ended up sealing the paint with a non Autogeek paint sealant and took some photos of the final results.






Pretty good for a one step with the polish and blue HDO cutting pad.



Same on the roof.







Final thoughts:

I have to give a thumbs up to all of these products. They all performed very well. The pad conditioner worked well to prime the pad prior to use. Also had no issues using it between polish applications onto the pad being used.

The compound worked well. I did not get to use it on the entire vehicle but on those two test spots it worked well. If the option was to remove all the defects then we would have have done so but with the car going up for sale it was not an option. There was no dusting on those two areas. It also has a nice nice working time.

I received a 32 oz bottle and Meghan had mentioned in another thread that this will be available in an 8oz bottle. The compound is a not too thick so it does come out a little more than expected. A smaller bottle would be a better option to control the amount of product dispensed. One reason why I like the Sonax polishes with the 8oz bottles. But this is intended for the professional in mind so the 32 oz bottle makes sense.

I will need to find another vehicle that needs a good compounding. It still gets a thumbs up from me.

The polish worked very well. I had more time to work with this. It not only corrected well as a one step but it finished out really well. This also came in a 32 oz bottle and I have the same minor con with a smaller bottle being easier to manipulate and dispense product. But for a professional the 32 oz bottle makes sense.

It has a long working time and virtually no dusting. It left a real nice finish. This gets a thumbs up from me as well.

Both the compound and polish have no fillers. Used CarPro Eraser to remove any polishing oils to examine the paint and prior to sealing the paint.

Both wiped off effortlessly.

The labels are a nice touch with the black bottles.

For those considering a new compound and polish these would be an option to consider. I would recommend others to give these a try.

Note: These were used with a Rupes LHR15 MKII on speed 4, Rupes Mini, Rupes Duetto, Rupes Nano.

[Hammer77]

Thanks for the review Guz, nicely put together! I must say you and your brother both have some fine looking Grand Prix's.

[The Guz]

Thanks for the review Guz, nicely put together! I must say you and your brother both have some fine looking Grand Prix's.

Thanks.

[atgonzales]

Nicely done, Guz

[fightnews]

Nice finish especially since you used a cutting pad. Miguiars says on their forum not to even use the burgundy cutting disks because the create to much heat. I know they changed it and started recommending using them with the d166. Before that I was told on their site only to use it as a backing for a bonnet

[The Guz]

Nicely done, Guz

Thanks.

[mwoywod]

Nice Work Guz! Thanks for the thorough review! Did you ever try Jescar correction compound?

IME Blackfire SRC Compound formula was basically a more user friendly version of FG400. Although SRC Compound did not have as much cut, it utilized more oils and lubricants which increased the ease of use and the buffing cycle compared to FG400. I also think it was a better 1-step compound than FG400.

From what I understand the new Blackfire compound doesn't smell of solvents like FG400 and Blackfire SRC Compound which leads me to believe it's a similar formula to the newish Jescar Compound. It would also make sense to have Jescar make the new blackfire abrasives since they are located in America. Just a thought!

Thanks again!!

[The Guz]

Nice Work Guz! Thanks for the thorough review! Did you ever try Jescar correction compound?

IME Blackfire SRC Compound formula was basically a more user friendly version of FG400. Although SRC Compound did not have as much cut, it utilized more oils and lubricants which increased the ease of use and the buffing cycle compared to FG400. I also think it was a better 1-step compound than FG400.

From what I understand the new Blackfire compound doesn't smell of solvents like FG400 and Blackfire SRC Compound which leads me to believe it's a similar formula to the newish Jescar Compound. It would also make sense to have Jescar make the new blackfire abrasives since they are located in America. Just a thought!

Thanks again!!

Thanks. A local member sent me a sample of some jescar compound but I have not used it yet. I took a look at the compounds side by side. Jescar is thicker and has a slight scent. Blackfire Compound has no scent and is much thinner. It is slightly thinner than Sonax Cut Max.

[Marc08EX]

Great review once again Mike!

Both the compound and polish seemed to worked very well. Looks like a real winner!

[The Guz]

Great review once again Mike!

Both the compound and polish seemed to worked very well. Looks like a real winner!

Thanks Marc. They did work well. I hope to get more time with the compound to further evaluate it. But the polish worked really nice.