Jescar Correcting Compound and Micro Finishing Polish - Top Shelf Abrasive Technology

[Mike Phillips]

Jescar Correcting Compound and Micro Finishing Polish - Top Shelf Abrasive Technology





Anyone that reads this forum knows one of the topics I'm fairly passionate about is paint correction. I share a story in my three day classes on this topic that goes like this, it's an analogy that drives home the point that for must of us, the main thing about detailing cars is making the paint look great.


Out of the thousands of car show's I've went to or worked at, I've never seen anyone walk up to a car, open the door, lift out the floor mat and say,

Wow Jim! Your carpet looks great!


What I have seen is myself and others stand around the car on display and say one of the two things below,



Wow! What a cool car and the paint looks great!
or more common...


Wow! What a cool car... too bad the paint is all jacked up.


Can I get a witness?


So Danielle brings me these two new products from Jeff Silver at Jescar Finishing Products. My initial thoughts were, I like the simplicity. Two products and the labels tell me exactly what they are and what they do. Genius.

If I have severe paint defects I start with the compound and follow with the polish. If the defects are not too bad, then I can test the polish and see if that's all I need to get the job done. If the polish isn't aggressive enough then start with the compound first. I like it. I don't need 6-7 other in-between products, it's either one or the other or both.

Now the question is.... do the products actually work?

When I use the word work, I mean will these new products remove defects without leaving their own defects behind.

You say,

What?

I say,

That's right. Will they remove defects without leaving their own defects behind. That's the sign of great abrasive technology and not every product on the market can do this.


Let me explain...


Micro-marring - DA Haze - Tick Marks
These three terms, Micro-marring, DA Haze and Tick Marks are all words for the same thing and that is tiny scratches left in the paint by the abrasive technology. If a product doesn't use great abrasive technology, when used with an orbital polisher it will leave micro-marring behind. Micro-marring is tiny scratches or tick marks that make the paint look hazy. I test all products that come across my desk on black paint. I simply call it The Black Paint Test. If the products can make black paint look perfect they will make any color of paint look perfect. If the products don't make black paint look perfect well then fill-in-the-blank. It's just on lighter colors sometimes you eyes cannot see the micro-marring being left behind. Of the polishing oils mask the micro-marring.


Deep Hologram Scratches or Buffer Swirls
The word hologram is a word that defines a specific scratch pattern inflicted into paint when an abrasive product is used with a rotary buffer. (wool pads and coarse foam pads can also inflict holograms). Holograms are a normal by-product or result when buffing with rotary buffers, compounds and aggressive pads. It's common sense to follow an aggressive buffing step using these things with less aggressive pads and products to remover or reduce holograms. The good news is if you use products that use great abrasive technology with rotary buffers the holograms scratches left in the paint are SHALLOW and easily and quickly removed.

If you use a rotary buffer with inferior abrasive technology, the hologram scratches will generally be deeper due to the abrasives. To remove the deeper holograms scratches will require more work, more buffing time and more aggressive pads and products.


Point being...
No matter which type of tool or pad you use, if you use products that use inferior abrasive technology, besides not leaving the best looking finish possible you will also be removing more paint than necessary throughout the process. Because paint is already thin, especially factory paint, this is bad idea and in a worst-case scenario can lead to pre-mature paint failure.


Here's the good news!

Jescar Correcting Compound and Micro Finishing Polish use GREAT ABRASIVE TECHNOLOGY!


If you're looking for high quality product for your body shop, detail shop, dealership or personal use on your own cars, then you can trust these two new products from Jescar. They passed my black paint test and then I tested them on two real-world cars and I'm happy to say they performed flawlessly and 'yes' left the paint on both cars looking flawless.


Real-world Detailing - 2013 Camaro

Here's the first car, it's a 2013 Camaro that belongs to my wife's daughter.






I used this car for a number of other new product tests here at Autogeek and from these other tests I'll borrow some pictures. I also brought this car in to shoot a new TV Commercial for SCANGRIP. For the SCANGRIP TV commercial I needed,

A: A somewhat cool car - A Camaro fits this description.

B: A dark colored car so the camera can pick up the paint defects - this Camaro is a dark blue so this will work for the TV commercial.

C: A cool, dark colored car that also has swirls and scratches so we can showcase the SCANGRIP lights and how well they work. Check. This car will also work for the TV commercial as it's daily driver and neglected. AT least by Autogeek standards.

So the first thing I did was to wash the car to get it clean using the Jay Leno Garage Vehicle Wash. That write-up can be found here,

Jay Leno’s Garage Vehicle Wash - Review and How-to by Mike Phillips




Now that the car is clean, Yancy and I could use it for the TV commercial, that write-up is here

SCANGRIP TV COMMERCIAL - SCANGRIP Swirl Finder Lights - Review with pictures by Mike Phillips


The above write-up shows the swirls and scratches in the paint after washing. I also used this car to test out the new Jay Leno Garage Hand Wax and that review can be found here,

Jay Leno’s Garage Hand Wax - Review and How-To by Mike Phillips


BUT - before I could use the new Jay Leno Garage Hand Wax I would first have to remove the swirls, scratches, water spots and oxidation out of the paint on the Camaro and that brings us to the new Jescar compound and polish.

[Mike Phillips]

Continued....


After shooting the SCANGRIP TV commercial it was time to get busy and buff out the Camaro. I'm not a huge fan of mock-up. Instead, if I'm going to review a product and make recommendations then I want and need to know the products work as stated and when it comes to compounds, polishes and cleaner/waxes the only way to have a valid, real-world opinion is to spend some time with the products. There's a lot of opinions in the blogosphere but I don't see any real reviews or write-ups in the facebook world, just a few comments in a message box. Heck I don't ever see any substantial reviews by any other names in this industry... if they're out there, I never see them.






The entire car needs a complete compounding and polishing. Before starting I used a Nanoskin Autoscrub Towel and some clay lube to decontaminate the paint.






FLEX 3401 aka the BEAST!
I don't have a lot of time now days, like everyone... I'm busy. I where a lot of hats here at Autogeek so time is valuable. When I have detail jobs like this where the paint is on the hard side, the swirls and scratches are everywhere then I need some power. So I chose to use the FLEX 3401 because it's gear-driven and nothing is going to slow me down from the time I start to the time I make the final wipe to remove the polish. My quote for this tool goes like this,

"With a FLEX 3401 you can power through any detail job"

And you can.


In this picture I've applied a good amount of the compound to prime a fresh, clean Lake Country 6.5" Hybrid blue foam cutting pad.





After spreading the product around to cover the face of the pad I then add three nickel sized drops of the compound to the face of the pad. Now I'm ready to get buffing.




I did some testing on the hood using a tape-line for the TV commercial.





Here's the results of JUST the compound...




Here's the results lit up by the flash from my camera...





And here's the results of JUST the compound using the SCANGRIP Sunmatch swirl finder light...










I was impressed. The results looked so good I could have skipped the polishing step and went straight to wax. But I didn't because I wanted and needed a real-world opinion on both the compound and the polish. It's important if you want to be the real deal to then be the real deal.



I took this picture to show what appears to be a brownish, grayish color in the residue build-up on the face of the pad.





That residue color is called road film or road grime. Since I could see it on each pad as I worked my way around the car I took a picture to remind everyone that if the car they are working on is a daily driver then the paint gets dirty and the dirt shows up on your pad anytime you're compounding, polishing or using a cleaner/wax. See this article for more information and remember, this car is a daily driver and it rains a LOT in South Florida.

Road Film - If you drive your car in the rain your car has road film




Glass polishing
Besides compounding the entire car I took a few minutes to machine polish the glass with the last foam cutting pad I had on the FLEX 3401 and the compound. If the paint has a layer of road film on it the glass does too and it only takes a few minutes to restore a perfectly clean and clear surface.












Compounding results
After compounding the entire car and the glass and then wiping off all the residue, here's what the car looked like...




Looking pretty good huh?



Machine polishing
Next I buzzed around the car using the Jescar Micro Finishing Polish with Lake Country 6.5" white foam polishing pads. Because the compound finished down so nicely, I only made 6 section passes for each section of paint and because the FLEX 3401 is gear driven I tackled larger sections.

In the picture below, I stacked up all the pads I used to show people a good average of pads needed to work fast and work efficiently. I used 5 of the foam cutting pads and 4 of the white foam polishing pads.









This is the Jescar Micro Finishing Polish - it's almost translucent and wipes off effortlessly as does the compound.




Boom! There it is. Final results after compounding and polishing. The paint is as close to flawless and this guy chooses to get it considering it's a daily driver but it looks dang good.




This Camaro is now ready for wax and that is the next step I did to the paint sealing in the results created by the new Jescar Correcting Compound and Micro Finishing Polish.




My review...

I give this abrasive technology 2 thumbs up. I'd use it on any color car.


The Correcting Compound
The compound buffs as long as you want to buff with ZERO dusting and effortless wipe-off. The compound finishes down like a fine cut polish and for a lot of people on the caliber of car they are working on and for the caliber of work they are doing they could stop after the compounding step and go to wax.

The Micro Finishing Polish
I'd put this up against any of the established names in the top shelf compound and polish category. It's fairly fine in its cut and that makes it a perfect companion to the compound which does all the heavy lifting.



On Autogeek.com


Jescar Micro Finishing Polish - 8 ounce bottle

Jescar Micro Finishing Polish - 32 ounce bottle

Jescar Correction Compound - 8 ounce bottle

Jescar Correction Compound - 32 ounce bottle



Good stuff!

[Mike Phillips]

Continued....


And here are the final, final results after machine applying the Jay Leno Garage Hand Wax and dressing the tires with the Jay Leno Garage Tire & Trim Care










Ready to get back to the grind of a daily driver...

[Mike Phillips]

Continued....



On Autogeek.com


Jescar Micro Finishing Polish - 8 ounce bottle

Jescar Micro Finishing Polish - 32 ounce bottle

Jescar Correction Compound - 8 ounce bottle

Jescar Correction Compound - 32 ounce bottle



Good stuff!

Mike Phillips approved for black paint


Also used all of these new products from Jay Leno's Garage on this car...

[Mike Phillips]

On Monday...

Jescar Correcting Compound and Micro Finishing Polis with RUPES tools.

Jescar Correcting Compound and Micro Finishing Polis with Griots Finishing Papers

These two Twins from Jescar are the real deal.

[Mike Phillips]

If anyone has ever noticed, I usually show RUPES tools with RUPES pads and products.

After using the new Jescar compound and polish with the FLEX 3401 aka the BEAST, which will turn and churn any pad or product, I chose to use them with My RUPES prototype to compound and polish the 60 year old original single stage lacquer paint on the 1957 Olds Fiesta Stationwagon.

Full write-up and high res picures on Monday. Until then, here's two off my iPhone

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Beautiful review Mike!

You really can see the quality of the abrasives at work in the 50/50 pictures and how well the compound finishes out.

Will be adding the pair on my next order to give them a work out.

Thanks for putting the in depth review together and sharing.

[mbkite]

After reading thousands of your articals posts I am able to read between the lines and can tell you are really happy with these new compound so yes these will be ordered shortly thanks for a nother great review

[dlc95]

Wow, Mike!

Nice Review!

The Jescar Twins have piqued my interest previously. I hope to have them on an upcoming order.

For pads, what decides the blue hybrid foam over the orange?

[dlc95]

Also, I agree 100% on liking simplicity! Love that you touched on that.