6cyl's_of_fury
10-03-2004, 06:56 AM
As an Australian on the Autopian boards, I felt that I should go ahead and do the righty and review this Australian detailing product. :)
First up, the webiste. I believe they have a US based distributor as well so that is good news for the majority here at Autopia that may want to give it a bash.
(GFP - Ultimate Finish (http://www.gfpultimatefinish.com/))
During the week I received my bottle of GFP, which I would class as a possible "one-step" product in the same vein as Poorboys PwC and VM, but realistically I wouldn`t want to use it as such. I`d feel more comfortable if it had a coat of sealant or wax over it. It comes in a 500ml ( almost 17 ounce ) spun aluminium container. The container is nice to look at, but not all that functional - it makes product dispensing quite difficult. The product itself is quite thick ( like a creme so also makes the dispensing a difficult chore ), light yellow in colour and the closet thing I can describe the smell to is a "slightly minty like fly spray" ( I hope that makes sense ) - its not a bad thing though and I mean you really have to stick your nose in it to get a whiff. The feel of the product didnt lead me to think it contained abrasives, but then again I cant feel them in some fine polishes either, as you will read further down, I believe it does contain abrasives.
Its difficult to give this product a real work-out on an oxidised paint or something of that ilk as I dont have anything like that at my disposal right now.
The directions on the label recommend you:
1. Use a soft clean cloth to apply evenly using a circular motion and to use generously especially on your first application!
2. Allow to dry
3. Wipe off using a seperate clean cloth, renewing the cloth as required.
4. Check out the finish
I cheated a little and used a polishing pad and PC basically because I couldn`t be bothered doing it by hand! Being a rather thick product, some may find it difficult to spread evenly. It hazed in around 5-10 minutes ( 25 degrees celcius or 77 degrees fahrenheit ). It was a fairly forgiving product that hazed and removed easily and completely, even when applied deliberately thick, with no apparent dusting. My car has some minor scratches particularly my bonnet, around the front bumper and my side skirts, but nothing too terrible. It quickly and effortlessly removed the scratches - I did a quick alcohol wash on the bonnet to verify this and found that the scratches were indeed gone. I found it to work as well as VM in this regard, and left a beautiful glossy finish. I haven`t tried it on any other surfaces as of yet, but I will see how it performs on exterior plastics, glass etc in future details.
In this afternoons detail, I topped it with EX-P which I found to be clear and reflective, but lacking a bit of depth ( even using VM under it and a fair bit better after a coat of S100 ). The finish it left was both deeper and wetter than VM IMO. Future test will involve the addition of a wax instead of sealant to see how that looks, and I have some reasonably high expectations in this regard.
Pricing was A$30 plus shipping, so I`d assume it will be around the US$17-20/container plus shipping ( approximately that magical $1/ounce mark! ). So maybe on par or a touch more expensive than VM or PwC.
Unfortunately its late here in Australia ( 9pm ), so sorry but no pics! But I will give it another coat of EX-P and a QuikShine QD tomorrow and get some pics in the sun ( yay long weekend! ). They probably wont show you much, but the car looked good under the lights in my garage so Im expecting it will look great under the sun :D
First up, the webiste. I believe they have a US based distributor as well so that is good news for the majority here at Autopia that may want to give it a bash.
(GFP - Ultimate Finish (http://www.gfpultimatefinish.com/))
During the week I received my bottle of GFP, which I would class as a possible "one-step" product in the same vein as Poorboys PwC and VM, but realistically I wouldn`t want to use it as such. I`d feel more comfortable if it had a coat of sealant or wax over it. It comes in a 500ml ( almost 17 ounce ) spun aluminium container. The container is nice to look at, but not all that functional - it makes product dispensing quite difficult. The product itself is quite thick ( like a creme so also makes the dispensing a difficult chore ), light yellow in colour and the closet thing I can describe the smell to is a "slightly minty like fly spray" ( I hope that makes sense ) - its not a bad thing though and I mean you really have to stick your nose in it to get a whiff. The feel of the product didnt lead me to think it contained abrasives, but then again I cant feel them in some fine polishes either, as you will read further down, I believe it does contain abrasives.
Its difficult to give this product a real work-out on an oxidised paint or something of that ilk as I dont have anything like that at my disposal right now.
The directions on the label recommend you:
1. Use a soft clean cloth to apply evenly using a circular motion and to use generously especially on your first application!
2. Allow to dry
3. Wipe off using a seperate clean cloth, renewing the cloth as required.
4. Check out the finish
I cheated a little and used a polishing pad and PC basically because I couldn`t be bothered doing it by hand! Being a rather thick product, some may find it difficult to spread evenly. It hazed in around 5-10 minutes ( 25 degrees celcius or 77 degrees fahrenheit ). It was a fairly forgiving product that hazed and removed easily and completely, even when applied deliberately thick, with no apparent dusting. My car has some minor scratches particularly my bonnet, around the front bumper and my side skirts, but nothing too terrible. It quickly and effortlessly removed the scratches - I did a quick alcohol wash on the bonnet to verify this and found that the scratches were indeed gone. I found it to work as well as VM in this regard, and left a beautiful glossy finish. I haven`t tried it on any other surfaces as of yet, but I will see how it performs on exterior plastics, glass etc in future details.
In this afternoons detail, I topped it with EX-P which I found to be clear and reflective, but lacking a bit of depth ( even using VM under it and a fair bit better after a coat of S100 ). The finish it left was both deeper and wetter than VM IMO. Future test will involve the addition of a wax instead of sealant to see how that looks, and I have some reasonably high expectations in this regard.
Pricing was A$30 plus shipping, so I`d assume it will be around the US$17-20/container plus shipping ( approximately that magical $1/ounce mark! ). So maybe on par or a touch more expensive than VM or PwC.
Unfortunately its late here in Australia ( 9pm ), so sorry but no pics! But I will give it another coat of EX-P and a QuikShine QD tomorrow and get some pics in the sun ( yay long weekend! ). They probably wont show you much, but the car looked good under the lights in my garage so Im expecting it will look great under the sun :D