Product Review: HD Speed

[Ryoken0367]

Just got done doing my first detail with HD Speed, on a 2011 Toyota Rav4 (owned for 6 months by my parents); and am quite pleased with the results. In the short time the vehicle has been owned, it`s been washed semi-regularly (1-2 times a month, not using best practices), and waxed once or twice with Meg`s UQW. The paint wasn`t in bad shape, even with the lack of non-marring wash techniques, and lack of protection. Micro-marring was very minor, to non-existent; though it had been through a bad sandstorm shortly after being purchased, which left the front end with a lot of stone chip damage. I wasn`t expecting to fix the stone chips, as they had gone completely through the clearcoat and paint, but I was hoping to minimize the look of them as much as possible, as well as smooth them out some. HD Speed didn`t do much to them at all, however it cleaned up the marring/hazing from the compound I used on the chips very well. I want to note that I used the product by hand, with a white CCS foam hand applicator; results are based off this.



Positives:

- Smell- smelled a bit like grape soda/jelly. Not enough to make me want to eat it, but enough that it was pleasant to work with for a period of time.

- Ease of application- a small amount of product covered a decent amount of paint. I felt that it worked well, even by hand.

- Working Time- I don`t have a lot of experience with other products to compare, but the working time on this seemed quite long, I never had any of it dry up on me, no matter how long I left it before buffing off.

- Ease of buffing- Much easier than most other products I`ve used; polishes, compounds, paint cleaners or waxes/sealants. I buffed it off with a MF towel, using nothing to aid in the buffing (no QD, water, etc.). It never dried up on me, so I`m not sure how hard it would`ve been to buff off had it dried, but I doubt it would have been too much more difficult.

- Finished looks- I`m very happy with the finished result. The paint had good depth, shine, and the flake popped even more. It also left a moderate wet look to the paint.

- Trim- It seemed non-staining on trim. I didn`t let it sit for too long, but it wiped off easily with no residue/discoloration on any trim pieces.



Negatives:

- I only had 1 minor negative thing to say, and that is how thick the product is. It`s not a bad thing on it`s own, and it had a lot to do with how far it spread as well as it`s working time. The downside was getting it out of the bottle (so maybe this is actually a negative against the bottle and not the product? Not quite sure). Sometimes getting the product out of the bottle took a bit more effort than I think it should have (even after a few good shakes, it would occasionally fight me).



Jury is out:

- Cutting/Correction- I didn`t expect miracles here, since it is an AIO, and I was only using a white pad by hand. That said, it did well in removing some micro-marring and the occasional light scuff. This is the one aspect that using it via machine would likely have improved quite a bit. Until I get a chance to test it with a machine, I don`t want to give a definitive answer on this.

- Durability- This will take some time to really test. My parents are taking the vehicle for a week long vacation starting tomorrow (going through different types of climates, and landscapes, so it should be a semi-diverse test). I will be able to gauge durability, how well it releases dirt, etc. a little better when they get back.



Some before and after pictures (the befores are taken just after we finished washing it; for the afters I clayed and took HD Speed to all paint surfaces):



Full vehicle shots- Before







Full vehicle shots- After







Passenger Side door where there is a defect, though not sure from what: it has been improved a bit, and the flake pop around it really helps it disappear even more.

Before-







After-







Couple things on the Driver side rear quarter panel, and bumper. The one on the bumper looks to have polished out, the one on the RQP is a clean slice, clear through the paint (thus not removable), though it is a little less rough around the edges now.

Before-







After-

[David Fermani]

Great review. Glad to know that it works well by hand too. Keep us updated on durabilty.