In depth: Mother's Professional Heavy Duty Rubbing Compound

In depth Product Review: Mothers Professional Heavy Duty Compound

Mother`s line of Professional products was introduced nearly two years ago. After speaking with the man who formulated the line and learning of it`s unique features I was intrigued to give the entire line a try.

From most aggressive: left-to-right: Heavy Duty Compound, Compound, Machine Glaze, and Foam Pad Polish. Also included in a hand compound and detail spray.

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The test panel is the hood off of a pick-up truck. In order to create a sutible panel I DA sanded the panel using a no-name brand of 2000 grit paper and rather bad technique (high speed and uneven pressure). I purposely wanted to create pig tails and deep scratches.

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Two views of the hood after removing the residue with alcohol and water.

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The Rotary Polisher

The first step would be to test Mothers Professional Heavy Duty Compound using a rotary polisher and a wool pad. This is usually the first tools that professionals and talented enthusiasts reach for when removing rough texture from paint.

I armed a Flex PE14-2-150 Rotary Polisher with a Meguiar`s W66 Backing Plate and a Lake Country Wool Pad.

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Mother`s Professional Heavy Duty Compound is slightly runny in consistancy. I usually start with a 6 inch line of product; because it ran so quick I ended up with a similar sized blob.

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I spread the compound on speed 1 (600 rpms) then turned up the speed to approximately 1200 rpm and polished with light pressure. My work time was approximately 30 seconds on my initial go.

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Mother`s Professional Heavy Duty Compound was very easy to remove from the paint in this manner but the finish had an excessive amount of buffer swirl. (Note: This is common when using a 4-ply twisted wool buffing pad).

Also the defect removal was not as great as I had anticipated with DA sanding scratches highly visible.

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I added more product to the paint and made a second application, this time tweaking my technique. I increased the speed to 1500 rpm, added slight downward pressure, and increased my work time from 25-30 seconds to approximately 45 seconds. The Mother`s Heavy Duty Compound came alive, removing the rough 2000 grit sanding scratches with ease while refining the finish to a much higher quality.

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Under a Brinkman Swirl Finder the finish still had buffer swirl, but it was extremely fine and appeared to be quite shallow. All things considered, this is a quality finish considering the pad choice and RPM.

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Curious to see if I could achieve even a higher quality finish with Mother`s Professional Heavy Duty Compound I cleaned the pad with a pad brush to remove any residual paint.

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Tech Tip: When compounding you are removing a large amount (relative to other polishing processes) of material. This material (abraded paint residue) can act like glue and cause the abrasives to stick together. This will reduce the quality of the finish as the abrasives become more aggressive (instead of less aggressive).

After cleaning the pad I polished this the top section using the remaining compound residue on the paint. The effects of cleaning the pad where immediately evident as the finish quality increased dramatically. The front of the hood (right-side in the picture) had a much higher quality finish.

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Nick from Autogeek.net stopped by to inspect the results.

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The finish left by abraded paint residue.

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The increased surface quality after cleaning the pad and making an additional 3 passes.

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While I was impressed with the cutting ability of Mother`s Professional Heavy Duty Compound (powering through rough 2000 grit scratches when used with a long-enough work time and slight pressure) I was equally impressed with the quality of finish this product produced.

I decided to see how it would react on a polishing pad. In this case a Lake Country Orange H20 Kompressor.

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The panel was polished at 1200 RPM`s using light pressure and moderate arm speed until the compound had broken down.

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20 seconds after beginning.

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40 second`s after beginning.

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The resulting finish after wiping away the residue (under a Brinkman Light). A very fine swirl was visible, incredible for a compound which powers out 2000 grit scratches with ease.

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Leery of the filling potenital of any compound or polish, I stripped the panel with multiple wipe-downs using CarPro`s Eraser.

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No filling was noted.

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At this point it had become quite Mother`s Professional Heavy Duty Compound uses a fine abrasive and has the ability to finish quite well. I wondered how it would fair when used on a finishing pad. I armed the Flex rotary with a Lake Country Black Kompressor pad and drew a 6 inch line of product on the paint. As expected the soft finishing foam required about 90 second of work time to refine the paint to the highest level and fully breakdown the polish.

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In some areas the Heavy Duty Compound had become affixed to the paint and did not wipe off as easily as it had in previous applications. This is likely because of the higher speed (1800 rpm) and increased work time needed to break the polish down. Considering this is a compound I was not alarmed but it did limit my ability to test for filling in this application as I had to use CarPro Eraser to remove all of the residue.

The resulting finish was extremely good, with only the slightest hints of holograms visible and almost zero swirl.

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The Dual Action Random Orbital Polisher.

With the increased popularity of Random Orbital Polishers being used for everything from waxing to compounding it only normal to test Mother`s Professional Heavy Duty Compound in this manner.

I used a Porter Cable 7424 XP with a 5 inch Lake Country backing plate and a 5.5 inch Cyan Low Profile H20 Cutting Pad.

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I started by priming the pad, via the recommendations of polishing expert Kevin Brown. First apply an ample amount of product to coat the face of the pad.

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Massage the product across the pad with your thumbs.

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Some bare spots may remain.

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Add additional product to the pad and work into any bare spots.

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Allow to sit for approximately 5-10 minutes.

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After sitting use a brush to remove excessive product by spinning the machine on speed 4.

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For all remaining polishing use three small drops, applied around the outer third of the pad.

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How effective would Mother`s Professional Heavy Duty Compound be at removing the rough 2000 grit scratches from the black paint? I spread the product over a working section at speed 4 then increased to speed 6 and used moderate pressure (enough to slow the pad`s rotation to approximately 1 time per second) and slow arm speed.

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After 30 seconds of work time.

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It took approximately 2 minutes for the Compound to begin to clear. Wiping the surface was easy.

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While most of the sanding marks where remove there was some visible texture left by the DA sander. It took a total of three applications to remove 100% of the sanding marks and 95% of the sanding texture.

The surface had moderate micro hazing.


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Using the similar technique to the rotary I cleaned the pad of any spent residue and polished the front section using speed 4. (left side of the hood in the photograph).

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The result was a much finer haze.

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Now it was time to test the finishing ability of Mother`s Heavy Duty Compound by switching to a Crimson Low-Profile H20 Finishing Pad. I used speed 5 with moderate pressure and slow arm speed until the polish appeared broken down.

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Once again the compound would not wipe away 100% clean and required CarPro Eraser to wipe-off completely.

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Mothers Heavy Duty Compound Review:

Mothers Heavy Duty Compound is an excellent cutting liquid that is very capable of producing a high quality finish depending on the pad and application. When used with a foam pad it is leaves a surface that likely only needs one additional polishing step (on most paint systems). When used with a rotary and a wool pad it will leave surface scouring that likely will require an intermidate step prior to final polishing. Because Mothers Heavy Duty Compound leaves a high quality finish (for a compound) it can also be used when an aggressive medium polish is needed.

For best results via rotary: For maximum cut use higher speeds (1400-1800 rpm) and add slight pressure to the machine. The longer you work Mothers Heavy Duty Compound the better the finish (until the pad becomes loaded with abraded paint residue or the lubricant dries). Keep your compounding or polishing pad clean.

For best results via random orbital dual-action polisher: For maximum results use with a foam cutting pad. Prime the pad initially then add 3 small drops as needed. Mothers Heavy Duty Compound will produce more cut and a better finish with a longer work time. Use speed 5-6 with firm pressure until the compound begins to `clear`. To increase the quality of the finish clean the pad with a brush and continue polishing at a slower speed while maintaining pressure.

Mothers Heavy Duty Compound Score Card:
Category: Compound
Scores are based from 1 to 10 with 10 being the best.
Scores are in bold. Average scores from similar compounds are in red.


Cutting Ability: 10 9
-Is capable of removing rough 2000 grit sanding marks from cured paint and 1200 grit from fresh paint.

Rate of Cut: 7 8
-Requires a longer working time for maximal cutting compared to some fast cut compounds.

Quality of Finish: 6 4
-Leaves a very nice finish for the level of cut which rivals most intermediate polishes.

Working Time: 8 5
-Has a long working time, although it does tend to gum up towards the end of the cycle.

Dusting: 7 4
-LOW dusting. It will dust if overworked with an extremely long work cycle. Dusting will not scratch during
wipeoff.

Ease of Removal: 7 5
-Most compounds can be difficult to remove if worked long or with soft pads. Mothers is not exception,
although it is easier to remove compared to most products in its category.

nice review, i have seen it at a local paint store, but havent tried it yet. I may have to give it a go.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jjpcali4life

nice review, i have seen it at a local paint store, but havent tried it yet. I may have to give it a go.

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The heavy duty compound is a really really underrated product. It cuts fairly well (just be sure to work it in) and leaves a very nice finish (depending on the pad used). It now has a place in my arsenal.

wow the pad did make a difference..nice work tho

Quote:

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Originally Posted by polisher

wow the pad did make a difference..nice work tho

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Thanks Polisher. Overall I was really impressed with the cutting potential and finishing potential of this compound.