The results were very encouraging but to really evaluate the products, another test would be required on black paint. Not just black paint but soft black paint.
So.... what was the softest black paint which I have yet encountered? For whatever reason, the Honda's in Malaysia have pretty soft paint and the black Honda Accord which I detailed a number of times was the hardest to finish:
Even putting too much pressure on a microfiber towel while wiping off polish would scratch the paint.... perfect for this comparison!
I contacted the owner and 'borrowed' the car for this comparison.
Started off with an Optimum No-Rinse (ONR) wash. (I will be doing a more detailed write up on ONR in a separate post.)
50/50 after ONR.
50/50 after ONR.
Taped up for the comparison test:
One section of the test.
Finishing off the test with Optimum Polish II & Optimum Finish.
After:
For a more in-depth review of the individual compound and polishes, click below:
Lets get started...
The contestants from Left to Right:
Optimum Compound II, Optimum Polish II, Optimum Finish and Optimum Poli-Seal.
Condition of the paint before:
Plenty of swirls all over and fairly consistent over all of the test panels.
First up, Optimum Compound II (OCII) with a Meguiar's Soft Buff 2.0 Cutting Pad.
The OCII had a long work time for a compound and very little dusting. The compound and cutting pad left a fine consistent haze from the cutting.
Next up was the Optimum Polish II (OPII) with a Meguiar's Soft Buff 2.0 Polishing Pad.
I used the OPII on the previous detail and found it to have a very long work time with very minimal dust.
The OPII was also used to remove the haze from the OCII.
The OPII finished off quite well on white paint. How will it do on the soft black paint?
The cutting marks from the OCII and the swirls were completely removed and the finish looked good enough. But..... on the soft Honda paint, some very mild hologramming was visible on both panels.
Time for Optimum Finish (OF). As the cutting and finishing ability of a product is also dependent on the pads used, I decided to try out OF with a Meguiar's Soft Buff 2.0 Polishing Pad and a Finishing Pad.
OF is supposed to have very minimal cut and is meant as a final finishing product so it would be interesting to see what sort of correction could be achieved with OF and a polishing pad.
Most of the finer swirls/scratches were removed with the OF/polishing pad combo but some of the deeper swirls which were easily removed with OPII were still present. This combo could be used to correct paint with minor defects and it left a very nice finish.
The OF/finishing pad combo not surprisingly had the lowest cutting power and did not achieve much correction with plenty of swirls still left on the paint.
OF was also used on the first two panels with a finishing pad to remove the mild hollowgramming from the OPII.
Finally, Poli-Seal (PS). Optimum's All-In-One (AIO) product which is supposed to polish, finish and protect the paint in one step. I have read a lot about PS on the international detailing forums and was very keen to try it out.
The product had the same consistency as the other OPT products.
PS was supposed to be easy to work with and a long work time but I found that in this application with the polishing pad it tended to dry up and cake on the pad. Applying more product did not seem to help and it left an uneven finish behind.
Some more testing will be required to see which pad combo will be required for the PS.
Conclusions:
The condition of the original paint. Plenty of visible swirls.
OCII>OPII>OF
OPII>OF
OF/Polishing Pad. Some swirls still visible.
OF/Finishing Pad. Plenty of swirls visible.
Lastly, PS. Although most of the swirls have been removed, there was plenty of dried out residue left behind.
The entire hood was treated to one more pass of OPII followed by OF/Finishing Pad.
After OPII>OF.
After the trials on the hood, the entire car was waxed with Optimum Car Wax (OCW) which gave the black paint a deep glossy glow. Very impressive for a spray on wipe off product.
How about some full sun shots you say?
The front fenders were not corrected and the swirls are still very visible.
My favorite shot. Capturing the full sun and some awesome reflections off the paint.
No comments:
Post a Comment