The Best of Brands

In part one of this three part blog, I share with you my favourite product from a large number of brands as well as some products which I have not purchased yet but have on my product testing radar to buy in the near future. Click on the product image to be linked to a shopping site or company web page to find out more about it and buy it if you wish.

HAPPY DETAILING EVERYONE

REGENERATE MEDIUM COMPOUNDING POLISH

Their light to medium cut compound and swirl removal polish is my favourite of the range of compounds and polishes from the company. Whilst all the angelwax polishes are a little dustier than I would like, the regenerate is an excellent product and films on the surface the best of all of them for me and gave me great results. TIP: Add a hint of parrafin oil or nanolex optimiser to the pad to reduce any dusting and improve filming/spreading characteristics on drier, more porous paints or on real hot days.

ORANGE FOAM FINISHING PAD AND THEIR WINDOW COATING

The latest coating for car glass is super easy to apply and remove and does an excellent job. I have it on my fathers land rover discovery’s windows ready for the winter season ahead.

Their W1-3 Wool pads are very good but the true standout of their pad range is the orange foam. Once you’ve worked it for one section the feel of the pad and it’s very slight reduction in softness makes it a superb pad and far better than the other two foams that they have. It is in my top ten list of favourite foam pads of all time. The only thing the pad needs in order to be better is a superior edge profile - the semi cone design isn’t the best and I’d like it to be a little thicker but not too much more.

KORROSOL - IRON FALLOUT REMOVER

Of all the fallout removers that I’ve tested since I started detailing in 1993, Korrosol easily takes the win over all of them. However it is extremely pricey and even if a detailer in Australia ordered the twenty five litre version, the UKP to AUD exchange rate and the cheapest shipping option would still make it too expensive for us to use. But there is no doubt that i absolutely love Korrosol, it works so well.

BUFF AND SHINE MAROON EDGEGUARD FOAM PADS

This pad is just one of a few from the new edgeguard range and the previous generation foams called URO TEC that I like. The capabilities of this pad are excellent. As a one step pad on harder paints either light or dark colours, medium hardness bright colour paints and also as a very good second step pad after a twisted wool pad to remove any marks, haze or holograms left behind by the wool and finish quite decently and eliminate the need to use a microfiber pad and a DA polisher after the wool which some highly respected people in the industry do and suggest which I dislike as I will never use two fiber based pads on the same car, it’s too much paint removal IMHO and forces a third step. Whilst I’ve done alot of three steppers in my career, with today’s technology a three step even if twisted wool was used first is not always necessary.

This is a pad to definitely have in your paint correction arsenal. The other I really like is the URO CELL red pad, a very nice closed cell finishing foam

IMMOLUBE - NOW KNOWN AS CLAY LUBE

Some months ago I purchased a four litre container of this product and used it as suggested on the label for claying and sanding but I did some outside the box testing and discovered that if you happen to have run out of whiteboard cleaner and you’ve left writing on your board for some time, at 2:1 or 3:1, the Immolube easily removes the writing and whilst it may make the whiteboard feeling a tad grabby, it definitely removes any traces of the marker ink. I told Avi the owner of Carpro this and he was rather surprised.

Also if you do any machine or hand polishing of single stage paints or black exterior trim, spritz the pad that’s discoloured and give it a rub (with a glove on) or use a brush and then put it in the pad washer to clean or blast with compressed air with the gun on an angle and watch all that black trim residue or coloured paint disappear due to the light solvents and surfactants in it. If using it to prime your pads, the solvents may over time somewhat soften the foams density so use it sparingly.

NSP Z1

This is a product that I am super excited to test out as it is what I refer to as a “polish, primer and coating in one” product and is the beginning of the future of polishes which will be primer polishes or a product like this one where in one step you are all done, ignore the need for chemical wipe down products and applying a coating, it’s done as you polish which is great.

NSP Z1 is a one-step correcting primer and 1+ year nanocoating. Designed to merge paintwork correction, priming the paint and ceramic coating into a single step, it contains a unique nanostructure resin formulated with TiO2 (titanium dioxide), SiO2 and composite engineered abrasives to achieve results that otherwise require more time and effort.

HEAVY CUT + CUTTING COMPOUND

This is yet another product that is on my testing radar. I already have the Ewocar foam pads and whilst I think their more suited to harder european paints in most cases as the burgundy pad is still somewhat rough feeling compared to normal finishing pads, I’ve seen on you tube from AMD Details in Europe what the Ewocar compounds and a wool pad can do cutting and finishing wise with a random orbital, it is very impressive as is the detailer in the videos from AMD

PE 14-1-180 Rotary polisher

The reason that I chose this one over the PE 14-2-250 and the PE 14-3-125 is that the starting speed of the polisher is 250 rpm. This flex polisher is powerful, smooth and rugged and can take a beating just like any Flex product. This tool and my Fein WPO 14-15-XE rotary polisher are the lowest starting polishers on the market at 200 rpm and 250 rpm. With a maximum speed of 1380 rpm being all that you would realistically ever need to use, the Flex is ergonomic, light, reliable and probably the best built rotary on the market.

X SLIM BLACK FINISHING FOAM

This is one of only a few pads from Flexipads that I would buy today. Sadly the company has been lagging behind in terms of polish pad technology but now that they are owned by the France based company that I have been buying from since 2014 and the employment of a new product development manager, things may change soon.

The X slim black foam is 18 mm thick luxuriously soft finishing foam that I absolutely love to use. Available originally in their now defunct Viper Line with Polyethylene foam interfacing, the velvety soft feel of this black foam is a level above all other black foams on the market. The only closest competitors are Kamikaze Black foam and Lake Country with the HDO Black. Michael from Flexipads who I used to deal with stated that companies did not buy this foam as the price was too high for their liking but to me it’s worth it and it’s not even that expensive.

What’s really needed to make this foam a truly universal polisher use foam pad is the return of PE foam interfacing or even better, a combination of EVA foam and PE foam, two interface layers of the same thickness of a typical 10 mm EVA foam interface layer or no more than 12-15 mm and 15 mm thick working foam layer. These pads don’t dish (flatten under pressure) fully but they would work alot better and retain their shape better whilst transfer all of it’s power through any type of polisher better if it had that.

FINAL INSPECTION DEBURRED WOOL/LASER TREATED WOOL VERSION 2

Deburring was according to Damian at FI in Victoria, a new treatment by the Australian wool association to remove the barbs or burrs as their also known from the wool so when doing paint correction with wool, there is no trace of scouring, hazing, terrible 3D holograms or swirl marks on the surface after use.

Whilst there are many things that determine the cutting and finishing performance of wool such as micron count (the grade of the wool), it’s country of origin, type of wool, pile height or nap thickness, ply type, steamed or unsteamed, knitted, natural, natural and synthetic combined and what kind of synthetic is used and more, there is no doubt that the finish quality with a top quality deburred wool is pretty darn phenomenal at times. The best part for me about these wools is that unlike so many others, they don’t matte down and remain pretty much looking like they do when used as they did when purchased, the fibers mostly stay up and are densely packed together. Give them a go, their a quality pad and 100% natural wool.

BODY LUBE - SPRAY LUBRICANT FOR CLAY, PADS & MORE

Gliptone out of New York in the USA is a company that I have known of for so many years but besides their well known leather conditioner product, their products I have never really tested.

However whilst browsing the aisles of the painttech showroom here in Adelaide, I discovered the Body Lube product and at fourty six dollars I thought yeah that’s worth trying. As I was purchasing as many wetting agents (protection free Quick detailers, rinseless washes and pad lubricants) that I could find, this was added to my testing arsenal and it has certainly earned it’s place in my R & D Lab’s shelves.

The main use I have for it is actually not for claying although I will at times. Instead it is for removing polish residue with a damp towel but also as a cleaning agent when I clean my polishing pads on the go as I’m working on test panels or my own cars. It has enough cleaning power that with a couple sprays and a good rub by hand or with a brush then a compressed air blow gun blast, it removes the residue really well and leaves it virtually as clean as a fully hand washed pad. Plus it conditions the foam quite decently. Not as good as LE Pad Prime which is organic and that awesome orange fruity scent that I love.

Whilst not high on people’s lists, Gliptone do have a few standout products in their lineup so don’t discount them.

KOCH CHEMIE F6 FINE CUT POLISH

When the Australian distributor of Koch Chemie sent me 250ml bottles of their polishing line and the pads, I gave them a really serious test and there is no doubt that the F6 is a standout for me as is the red cutting pad on harder paints. The instantaneous cutting ability of these products and their ability to work so well on older acrylic single stage paints as well as clear coats really impressed me

However if you want a stellar result with Koch Chemie polishes, try this combination - H9 and F6 at 75/25 percent. That’s 75% H9 and 25% F6. Heck try 70/30 or 65/35 and give me your feedback.

KOCH is a top quality German brand and although it would be great if their polishes were true liquids or semi runny creams and not pastes, that is the only negative feedback that I have for the companies products really.

KAMOI KABUKI MASKING TAPE VIA KAMIKAZE COLLECTION

For most of my career the masking tapes that were available for covering certain areas on cars including panel gaps have been frustrating to use. Either they had way more tack than desired and when hit with a polisher, the pad or surface would get gunked up with glue residue. Other issues including the inability for the tape to flex/bend properly around fuel filler doors and corners etc.

However that all changed the day I received a parcel from Todd Cooperider’s Esoteric detail in Ohio, Todd and I go back a fair while and I think I sent him a denim and a velvet pad to test out way back in 2011 and remember talking about those pads with the Parker brothers in Arizona on the phone one night in the early 2010’s. Anyway Todd’s business had stocked Kamikaze products and this was the masking tape he had and as soon as I had used up the first roll, despite the smaller length that the tape comes in, this was truly a serious evolution or step up in masking tapes and I’ve never used anything else since although I’m always open to try new things. Maybe there is something better out now but the Carpro red tape failed to impress me. Despite it’s short length per roll it’s actually quite affordable today really.

SUPER BUFLEX DRY SANDING SYSTEM

For many years this super efficient and high quality Japanese dry sanding system of the blue, green and black discs up to 3000 grit have been one of my go to sanding brands and the ability these discs have to leave the most shallow and super easy to remove sanding marks is phenomenal.

The dry film discs have a special lubricant to help them finish better and the black is the most used discs of all three colours that I’ve had. Available in 75 mm, 125 mm and 150 mm, you get way more discs per box in the 75 mm than you do with 3M Trizact. For maximum results you should use these with a sander hooked to a dust extractor but it can still get the job done well if you don’t have one and apparently they can be used wet. You will not regret getting these. Top Abrasives and Oz Gel are the main stockists

SIDERO AND LUBRIFICA

Since 2006 many Iron removers aka fallout removers have hit the market. Iron X was the first to come out if I remember correctly and I spoke with Avi the owner about it on the phone that year. Such a drastic improvement over the oxalic acid fallout removers of the past which etched uncoated metals due to the lack of PH buffering agents in the formula which is a must with acids, it could etch or pit glass and if you didn’t wear gloves it would sting your hands like a bitch.

Today Labocosmetica out of Italy have taken the Fallout remover and evolved it with the addition of an anti limescale mineral deposit remover. The product turns purple when fallout is present but will go green if any water spot minerals are in the surface. Now that is seriously cool.

I will be purchasing every single Labocosmetica product including Lubrifica, their equivalent to Carpro Immolube in 4.5 litre size once they arrive in Australia soon. Other must have products are Primus, Ductile, Purifica acid shampoo, Veritas, Revitax and so many more.

HYBRID BLUE NANO FOAMED WOOL

Way back in the early to mid 2000’s, the purple foamed wool was a serious game changer when it came to wool pads for performing paint correction on rotaries as well as on forced rotation polishers

As much as the purple was a really good pad, when the blue foamed wool was introduced, I never went back to the purple pad despite the slightly less cut of the blue, the finish is exceptional. When I was doing a three day training session with Rasheed from Melbourne last year, the almost 100% hologram free finish that we both achieved with this pad and Feynlab A50 on a dewalt rotary polisher and a typical medium hardness dark blue panel was mega impressive. The clarity and colour richness was brilliant

Whilst deburred wool have the same or more cut and can finish better in some cases, there is still a place in my pad cabinets for this lovely blue hybrid pad. One thing I am going to try soon is using the ZviZZer interface pad range with this pad and many others and see how each one effects the results I get in cut and finish

PRO IRIDIUM 1250 - ONE AND DONE COMPOUND

Since september 2023 this product has been getting tested by yours truly for myself as well as for Mirka HQ with my indepth feedback report going all the way to head office in Finland.

This is a massive improvement in cutting and finishing performance as well as user friendliness compared to their polarshine range of compounds and polishes which are I believe still solvent based not water based or they contain some solvents in them that I’d rather not have to breath in and the dusting with one of the polarshine’s is not appealing. The product has the capacity to remove sanding marks even up to 1000-1200 grit and perhaps even more aggressive with the right pad, machine and technique but the quality of the finish in just one step is exactly what I’m looking for with modern paints.

It’s only flaw is that if you do use it at high speed on any polisher and accidentally overwork it, the product on the surface will cement itself to the panel and needs to be sprayed with a wetting agent like a rinseless wash, QD spray or a very damp towel to remove the residue stuck on the paint.

Compared to the polarshine compounds, there is no solvent smell, dusting and powdering is minimal and it works killer on sanding marks. I will have it in stock shortly so if your keen to try it, I will have a box of it here soon.