Bye Bye 3m Trizact! Hello Norton Dryice

**Barry Theal** · 10-09-2010, 10:00 AM

Well as many of you know I love to sand cars. For sometime now I have been using 3m trizact 1500, and 3000 for the most part. 3m`s trizact has been a game changer for a long time. I know many of you who use it as well know exactly what I mean. trizact 3000 has been a very good friend of mine. From seeing some posts on here and various other forums It has been a great friend to many of us. Now without having any bad issues at all with it, I would have never have thought about changing for something better. I also thought there is nothing better, Until Thursday of this week. I had my local rep supply me with a new product from Norton Abrasives. Norton is a long time supplier of Autobody shop supplies. I used to use some of there stuff back in the day. Thursday was a great day when I got my hands on there new setup. It has the exact same characteristics of 3m trizact. What I mean is 1500 sanded dry and 3000 sanding wet or damp persay. One of the major factors for me is price. We all know 3m makes great products, but are a tad on the expensive side. From my understanding these Norton sheets are gonna be at a fraction of the cost. From what I was told about 40% cheaper. Below is a write up of what can be done with them. These were the only two sheets attainable to me at the time.

Quick notes- After the little sanding on this car I tried out the film on more cars and I`m thinking It should take about 2-3 sheets to go around an entire sports car. Bob W. and John K from seeing threads and talking to one of you I know your admiration for 3000 grit. So Ill base my findings on a f430 size car. It should take 2 sheets to walk around the entire car as opposed to maybe 4 sheets of trizact 3000. From my findings anyway. So there cheaper and more durable. 1500 discs I didn`t fully play with as much, but Ill play with them more and update later.

Here is a photo shot of Trizact 3000,1500 and Norton Dryice 1500,3000

This shot is of the 1500 from both suppliers They appear to have the same looks. Although the dryice sheets has a velcro backing like what is one all foam pads. Its felt as oppossed to Just the paper. I found this very nice for the paper, sticking to the backing plate or interface pad. Dry ice wins this catatgory hands down.In the second picture I was trying to show the thickness.

Now onto the 3000 grits. The Norton is the yellowish orange one. From my findings the Norton again is thicker, it also come supplied with a very small interace on the back. Which is really nice for contouring. Although I would suggest using another interface in between them

I was working on a newer model Mazda 6 that had some severe damamge across the hood, and thought this would be a great chance to try the new Norton on as it needed both 1500, and 3000 to remove the defects. In the picture below look at the marks going across the hood from left to right. Its not the best image, but they were fairly deep and there was some paint transfer from the fence post that laid across the surface. Prior to photo I used laquer thinner to remove the paint and ended up with these deep scuffs.

Below is the sander, the 3/4 inch interface pad (Norton Pad) and the 1500 dryice from Norton all together.

The fun begins! :bounce:bounce I dry sanded half the scuffed area with Norton 1500

This is what it looks like drysanded with the dust

After dust removal

Close up!!!! No pigtails. wow was I shocked. I really loved this fact 1500 dry and no pigtails made it nice for 3000 on the follow up. I also noticed the 1500 had more bite then the 1500 in trizact. In other words it leveled faster.

Once I sanded the entire damaged area I moved onto Norton 3000 dryice.

The sanding begins with a little mist onto the paper and had some more fun. :p

wetsanded out,

In this photo this is after the 3000 of Norton Dryice. I noticed that removed the 1500 grit nicely and quick and left a finish ready to be polished out. A lot of clarity came back and it wasy EASIER to compound out then its competitor trizact 3000 which is what I thought was nice, condsidering how easy trizact 3000 comes up.

Here is a relection shoot of m105 after sanding and just m105 and wool. Notice the small defect that was to deep to be removed in the center of the bottle. Probally could have gotton it with 800 or 1000 grit, but thought its a newer car and I wasn`t risking future clearcoat failure.

Here she is all finished up.

In general the Norton paper blew its counter product trizact 3000 threw the roof. I will be switxhing over as soon as I`m finished with the trizact boxes I have in inventory. I would suggest to anyone trying these out. They are highly worth it!

Side notes - I am no way affiliated with Norton at all.

**David Fermani** · 10-09-2010, 10:41 AM

Nice review Barry, but the 3M 1500 disc you photo`d isn`t Trizact. Big difference IMHO. Do you think the thicker backing material on the Norton disc is the reason it refines the sand scratch more?

**JohnKleven** · 10-09-2010, 10:41 AM

NICE. I will be ordering these.

**Barry Theal** · 10-09-2010, 10:47 AM

Originally Posted by David Fermani

Nice review Barry, but the 3M 1500 disc you photo`d isn`t Trizact. Big difference IMHO. Do you think the thicker backing material on the Norton disc is the reason it refines the sand scratch more?

LOL Your right David I showed the hook it one. My mistake and yes there is a big difference. But I do have the 1500 trizact as well and yes Norton one is better then the trizact one. lol Are you talking about the 3000 or the 1500 David?

Originally Posted by JohnKleven

NICE. I will be ordering these.

John I knew you would be!!!!! lol you will be happy.

**David Fermani** · 10-09-2010, 11:08 AM

Either one Barry. Do you think the padding built into the foam is what`s making this product better and/or the actual abrasives used?

**Accumulator** · 10-09-2010, 11:20 AM

Barry Theal- Interesting thread, especially as you were always a big fan of the 3M.

**Barry Theal** · 10-09-2010, 11:31 AM

Originally Posted by David Fermani

Either one Barry. Do you think the padding built into the foam is what`s making this product better and/or the actual abrasives used?

I will speak of the 3000 David, because that is more of what I played with. The abraisve by far is better. While the 3m is more of a foam, the Norton is more like a film based. Not really sure how to describe it. In a weird way, it has a window screen film to it, but more smooth. The padding will make a huge difference if your to cheap to by a 2 dollar interface pad.:nervous: lol

**Barry Theal** · 10-09-2010, 11:32 AM

I know accumulator. I was a very big fan of 3m trizact 3000 mainly. When something is more cost effective and performs better for me its a no brainer!!!!

**Accumulator** · 10-09-2010, 11:49 AM

Barry Theal- Yeah, I hear you :xyxthumbs

Ever tried Mirka? I`m wondering how it would compare, especially the 4K.

Gotta say you have me intrigued about the DryIce. But I oughta just do my next projects with the M105/SurBuf (followed by M105/finishing pad, right?

) ....too many interesting things to try out!

**Innovative Detailing** · 10-09-2010, 12:02 PM

Great write up Barry!!:xyxthumbs

I also was using the 3" 1000, 3000 3M Trizact discs but recently I switched over to the Mirka Abralon 1000, 3000, 4000. First of all the whole "Hookit 2 was a pain" so now my system is all standard Hookit. The main problem was that the foam and paper separated or crumbled as I started using the Trizact for unknown reasons.... So I met with a Mirka rep and he showed me their foam backed Abralon (which is also thicker), which in my opinion is more cost effective since I also get more use out of them. I will give the Norton a try....are they also available in 3" ?

I did contact 3M regarding this failure on the 3" discs....so at the moment I have an open case file. One thing for sure is 3M one "Stand up" company!!! their customer service reps are on it and they will do what it takes to correct the problem. One thing they did say is that they have discontinued the whole "Hookit2" system........

**Barry Theal** · 10-09-2010, 12:12 PM

David (eliminator)

I never had them issues with 3m. WOW things happened. I have used mirka once before, but not enough to commant entirely. I do wat to give them a run though. I think if I remember correctly Kevin Brown uses them and loves them. This Norton stuff is the Real Deal. I would suggest them. Yes they do come in 3 inches from what the websites says. I would love to have them as I just recently opened a second company here locally doing just headlight repair. 3 inch discs are the only way to go about it. Attached is a link to the dryice portion of the site. I had found last night while looking into it more. I have the local norton rep coming here on thursday next week to supply me with a bunch of stuff. Ill keep you updated!

http://www.nortonautomotive.com/uplo...00-LI-8252.pdf

**JohnKleven** · 10-09-2010, 12:20 PM

3M hookit pads are really uneven in my opinion, and leave a LOT of pigtails compared to other papers I have used.

John

**Innovative Detailing** · 10-09-2010, 01:08 PM

Originally Posted by Barry Theal

David (eliminator)

I never had them issues with 3m. WOW things happened. I have used mirka once before, but not enough to commant entirely. I do wat to give them a run though. I think if I remember correctly Kevin Brown uses them and loves them. This Norton stuff is the Real Deal. I would suggest them. Yes they do come in 3 inches from what the websites says. I would love to have them as I just recently opened a second company here locally doing just headlight repair. 3 inch discs are the only way to go about it. Attached is a link to the dryice portion of the site. I had found last night while looking into it more. I have the local norton rep coming here on thursday next week to supply me with a bunch of stuff. Ill keep you updated!

http://www.nortonautomotive.com/uplo...00-LI-8252.pdf

Thanks for your feed back Barry, much appreciated!

I would definitely recommend the "Mirka" for the Headlight lens restoral. I also started a second business as you know almost 2.5 years ago dedicated only to this rapidly growing problem...

Headlight Lens Restoral and I agree smaller is better in this game....that with a good pneumatic set up (Snap on, Blue Point) as I see you are using, my choice as well!

Like I mentioned above, since the Abralon are a mesh/foam construction, they are longer lasting, generally I can get 4-6 lenses restored per disc...box of 20 ussually cost less that $30.00