HD Cut vs. Meguiars D300

[TDC EliteDetail]

Hey,
I was recently able to get my hands on some of HD Cut in exchange to do an unbiased review on it and had some Meguiars D300 left over from awhile ago so I decided to do a review/comparison of the two compounds.

The test subject for this comparison would be a hood which I received from a local body shop to test out products before I use them on customers car and my own. The car that this hood came off of was clearly not taken care of correctly and had swirl marks through out the entire thing, perfect for this test. Both products would be applied to a brand new Meguiars MF Cutting Pad on the Rupes 21. Now lets get onto this review.


Packaging:
HD Cut - Overall the bottle in which HD Cut comes in is great, the nozzle is very easy to open with one hand and apply to the pad while working on a car. The only complaint I have on this package is that I prefer having a clear bottle just so I know exactly how much product I`m working with, and just how much I use on each car.
Meguiars D300 - This bottle is a little skinnier than the HD Cut bottle, but still very easy to apply to the pad with one hand while working on a car. I actually prefer the nozzle on D300 a little more just because I feel like I have a little more control on the product that I put on the pad. Only complaint about the D300 is that the label isn`t as flashy as Cut is, but that doesn`t matter very much at all as long as the product does it`s job.




Now onto the test itself:

Before pics of the hood used for the test -



HD Cut Side -



Megiuars D300 Side -



When it came time to apply the two products to the panel both the pads were primed by putting an "X" through the pad and rubbing it in. After that after each section 4 pea size dots were applied to the pad. Now to how each product was for using them on the hood.

HD Cut -
This product was very simple to apply and took very little effort. HD Cut had no dusting issues at all which helps make cleaning up afterwards just that much easier. The only complaint that I had with HD Cut would be when it came time to wipe off the panel afterwards, it was a little harder to wipe off than I expected it to be. Just a quick spray with detailing spray and it came off very easy then. Overall the finish it left afterwards was great. After 1 pass I`d say about 95% of the swirl marks were completely gone.

Megiuars D300 -
This product was also very simple to apply and had no issues with dusting either. It was also much easier to wipe off afterwards and didn`t require any kind of spray to help get it off easier. The downside to this is that the overall finish wasn`t nearly up to par with HD Cut. After 1 pass with D300 only about 70% of the swirls were taken out of the hood.


HD Cut afterwards pic -




Meguiars D300 afterwards pic -




Pads after use:

HD Cut -



Meguiars D300 -




Pads after cleaning:

HD Cut -



Meguiars D300 -




Overall results:

HD Cut -
Overall HD Cut did a better job than Meguiars D300 did in removing the swirls from the hood. Cleaning up the pad after use was also very easy and took very little effort to get it all removed from the pad. The only downside that I could find with this product was the need to use a detail spray afterwards to help remove all of the product from the hood. I would for sure recommend this product for other people to use and will continue to test it out compared to other nicer compounds.

Meguiars D300 -
This product was very easy to work with and wiped off with absolute ease, but the overall performance was just lacking from this Meguiar product. I did however like the bottling better than I did with HD`s Cut. I do feel like Meguiars D105 would do a little bit better against HD`s Cut.

[XSSIVE]

I use D300 all the time, it`s the first product I grab to try and fix a scratch or swirl problem then move to FG400 if I need more cut. I find it to be a good light compound or heavy polish I guess you could say, a middle of the road. As for the pad after D300 use, hit it with some APC and let it sit for a minute or two then run it under the sink and rub it with your fingers it will turn 100% white again. I have a bunch of Meg`s and other brand microfiber pads that I`ve used with D300 a whole bunch and APC brings them back to white again no problem each time.

[colinpd137]

Great review & comparison, HD is really getting a word out on their products with the freebies. Might have to try that next!

[tropicsteve]

i take it that this is a promotional post?

[pwaug]

i take it that this is a promotional post?

If by promotional you mean biased then no. I believe the samples were given free under only one condition "Post a review on four websites." This was regardless if it was positive or negative.

[ZL1Mark]

D300 isn`t advertised being as aggressive as HD Cut, so I`m not sure this comparison is the best. M105 would have been a better test vs. HD Cut. Anyhow, thanks for taking the time to do this.

[TDC EliteDetail]

This was a test for there free product as long as you write a review, but the review is completely unbiased.

As for the pad cleaning I`ll have to put some APC on it and try that next time. For this review I tried to do everything even all the way through.

And I do agree that M105 would stand a better chance against HD Cut and mention it at the end of the review that it would. I`ve got a couple of other products such as sonax, scholl, and rupes that I will eventually test out all of them on the same panel but didn`t have enough time to do this in between customer cars. However I can see if the panel isn`t in nearly as bad as shape as this one was, that D300 would be good for light swirl removal. And with the ease of wiping it off is amazing on it. Only bad thing is then you would be putting it up against S3, Adapt, and other products of that sort which are hard to beat.

[Todd@RUPES]

If you are receiving products for free in exchange for reviews, please note that in your original post.