Why don't Optimum polishes have any cut "feel" to them?

[Justin B]

I know this might sound weird, but imo from touching/feeling the polish, compound, and even hyper compound, none of them have any "grit" to them. And I do use the polish and compound on a regular basis, but am I wrong in thinking they have less initial "cut" than some of the grittier compounds/polishes? Also note that I only have a PC, so I don't use them with a rotary. Is it true that they were designed to be used with the rotary? Hence the longer work time and less initial cut? I'll always use the car wash, poli seal, prot plus, tires shine, etc, I just want honest answers as to what products cut a bit quicker with the PC? I have luck getting a nice finish with the polish, I just can't get much cut out of even a 4" edge yellow pad and OC. It must be me haha.

[ehall]

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I know this might sound weird, but imo from touching/feeling the polish, compound, and even hyper compound, none of them have any "grit" to them. And I do use the polish and compound on a regular basis, but am I wrong in thinking they have less initial "cut" than some of the grittier compounds/polishes? Also note that I only have a PC, so I don't use them with a rotary. Is it true that they were designed to be used with the rotary? Hence the longer work time and less initial cut? I'll always use the car wash, poli seal, prot plus, tires shine, etc, I just want honest answers as to what products cut a bit quicker with the PC? I have luck getting a nice finish with the polish, I just can't get much cut out of even a 4" edge yellow pad and OC. It must be me haha.

Answer to first question...No.

Second question...No.

Third No...use a heavier pad.

Fourth question... all you'll get here are honest answers.

Why are you trying to do so much "cutting"? You should always start with the least "abrasive" product and pad then work your way to a more abrasive pad, then to a more cutting product.

A rotary develops considerably more heat, thus it will take less time for greater effect, BUT it will also cause a hell of a lot more damage much faster. PC's aren't very heavy, nor do they have the rotational velocity of a rotary so you need to move much more slowly over a given surface. Check the work and repeat if necessary.

I use a Cyclo. I don't have any of the problems that you mention here. It is heavier than the PC. That certainly helps. I have no problem whatsoever getting the cutting effects from the Hyper Compound, Polish or even the Poly-Seal.

You might want to slow down your process. Let the PC dwell on a problem area for longer.

All that said, if the damage to the existing paint is bad enough, you'll either need a rotary or even a good wet sanding. If in doubt, post some good pictures and we'll give you good advice based on the pics.

Hope this helps a bit.

E

[Justin B]

--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Justin B @ May 24 2007, 01:00 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I know this might sound weird, but imo from touching/feeling the polish, compound, and even hyper compound, none of them have any "grit" to them. And I do use the polish and compound on a regular basis, but am I wrong in thinking they have less initial "cut" than some of the grittier compounds/polishes? Also note that I only have a PC, so I don't use them with a rotary. Is it true that they were designed to be used with the rotary? Hence the longer work time and less initial cut? I'll always use the car wash, poli seal, prot plus, tires shine, etc, I just want honest answers as to what products cut a bit quicker with the PC? I have luck getting a nice finish with the polish, I just can't get much cut out of even a 4" edge yellow pad and OC. It must be me haha.

Answer to first question...No.

Second question...No.

Third No...use a heavier pad.

Fourth question... all you'll get here are honest answers.

Why are you trying to do so much "cutting"? You should always start with the least "abrasive" product and pad then work your way to a more abrasive pad, then to a more cutting product.

A rotary develops considerably more heat, thus it will take less time for greater effect, BUT it will also cause a hell of a lot more damage much faster. PC's aren't very heavy, nor do they have the rotational velocity of a rotary so you need to move much more slowly over a given surface. Check the work and repeat if necessary.

I use a Cyclo. I don't have any of the problems that you mention here. It is heavier than the PC. That certainly helps. I have no problem whatsoever getting the cutting effects from the Hyper Compound, Polish or even the Poly-Seal.

You might want to slow down your process. Let the PC dwell on a problem area for longer.

All that said, if the damage to the existing paint is bad enough, you'll either need a rotary or even a good wet sanding. If in doubt, post some good pictures and we'll give you good advice based on the pics.

Hope this helps a bit.

E

 

I can get all of them to cut, even the poli seal, I just think I might need a more aggressive route for some of my customer's cars. For example, I did a terrible condition 99 black mustang gt a few weeks back and went over the whole car with OC and a yellow edge 2k pad and it removed maybe 60% of the deepest scratches and all of the fading, minor scratches, dullness, etc. The car looked great, just not as much scratch removal as I would've expected from a compound. I'm not a huge fan of ripping out a harsh orange pad and micro marring the surface, seems counterproductive to me and my time. And to the question about slower, work time, etc. I go as slow as humanly possible with the PC, on speed 6, no more than 1/2" per second, not a ton of pressure because I don't like the PC bogging down. I go up and down with 50% overlapping passes, then side to side with the same, then another up and down at same speed 6 just with the pressure of the weight of the PC, no added pressure. Then one other burnishing pass side to side, for a total of 4 trips in the same 2x2 area. Any recommendation? I do have success with the whole optimum product polish line, I'm just more curios I guess.

 

Also, you didn't answer why/how they can cut at all with no abrasives that I can even feel in the hyper compound. Is it all chemically done? And if that's the case, wouldn't *some* abrasives quicken the process of defect removal? I'm just picking your brain about the make up of the optimum polishes.

[Anthony Orosco]

First Ehall is correct in that your range of correction will be limited when using a PC so you may need to bump up the power of your machine.

 

Also you shouldn't get that much marring with an orange pad, even if using Hyper. Now Hyper and a wool pad will leave behind a fair amount of swirls which is why I never use that combo on Porsche 911 paint. Most of my Porsche correction can be done with a few pads and just OP. Orange pads on my Cyclo with Hyper leaves very little marring behind and on most light colors it's ready for a sealer.

 

Without giving away too much formula wise the reason why you do not feel much grit in the Optimum line of polishes is because of the lubricating oils that surround the abrasives. The abrasives are there but not as noticeable as with other polishes and compounds. This is also why Optimum runs cooler than many other polishes when used via rotary.

 

I used some Menzerna cermaclear polish yesterday and Ron noticed that while it works nicely it runs hotter also than Optimum.

 

Hope this helps,

Anthony

[porta]

Since we are talking about abrasives and lubrication. What kind of abrasives are Optimum using in their polishes?

 

I can second what Anthony is saying about Menzerna is running hotter then Optimum. But IMO cuts much faster and finishes a level above Optimum.

 

And now I am waiting for some new polishes that should be on par or even better then Menzerna SRC compounds/polishes.

 

Also need to get that damn order from Optimum, dying to test the OS