M105 by hand review.

[Jason M]

When I get home in a week or so I will try to get some pics. But for now words will have to do.

I have an area on my car that neither my Makita or my PC can fit under. It's the rear hatch under a wing. I generally use ScratchX on it when I buff the car. The car has some pretty deep scratches and while the rest of the car is now swirl and scratch free the hatch area is still pretty rough. ScratchX was slowly making it look better but not really up to my standards.

So I decided to give #105 a shot. WOW pretty much sums it up. I applied #105 with a microfiber towel using A LOT of pressure, hand speed and more product than ScratchX. Figure 3 pea sized drops for an 8" X 8" area. I spread the product and then go to town with the towel. I kept the towel bunched up in my palm and avoided using finger or palm pressure to keep it even. I worked the product until it started to go clear. This was a workout! The remaining product was removed easily with a clean microfiber. I looked at the area under Halogen lights when I was done. Very impressive. ALL the swirls where gone but as expected some of the deeper scratches remained but where greatly reduced. I then sprayed the area with glass cleaner twice to remove any oils left on the paint and took another look with the Halogen light. Much to my surprise ALL the minor swirls where removed, not just filled in. The deeper scratches where still reduced but did show up a little more after the polishing oils where removed. NO marring showed up under the light either, which surprised me as well given the amount of cut #105 had by hand. This is very different from my experience with ScratchX which IMO doesn't have nearly the defect removing ability (although it does have some) and does much more filling/hiding. I decided to use #105 by hand on my A-pillars and a couple other hard to buff areas with similar results. All areas where then finished with #80 and finally #7 by hand to match the process on the rest of the car.

To summarize:
M105 is simply the BEST product I have ever used to REMOVE defects by hand. #9 is the best filling/hiding product I have used by hand and ScratchX is somewhere in between.

[Accumulator]

Jason M- Thanks for that review! Interesting that it seems so safe; the most aggressive stuff I use by hand (1Z Pasta Intensiv) can leave some nasty scratches if you do things wrong.

[Jason M]

Yeah, I was really surprised myself. I've even had #83 leave some marring by hand on softer paints before. It even left a nice gloss to the paint. Following it with #80 brought the shine up to the rest of the car. I'd like to do a side by side with ScratchX and post some pics when I get home.

[P1et]

Great review. My wife's Explorer has some spots as well, underneath the rear hatch. I'll give it a try tomorrow!

[Jason M]

Make sure you really go to town with the stuff. I also noticed that using more product and working it harder for longer did a better job than using less and not working it as long. Since the abrasives don't break down, the longer you can work the product the more it cuts I guess.

[Jason M]

Here is a pic of an area I did with #105 by hand. I can't fit either my rotary or the DA under the rear wing so I rubbed it by hand! I followed that with #80, #7, and finally two coats or #21. Just like the rest of the car:



I would have liked to take some direct sun shots but any defects just wash out in direct light given the white paint. All minor swirls where removed and deeper scratches where greatly reduced. I'm planning on doing a little write-up with a darker colored car and #105 by hand soon though!