Pro Review - Mothers Professional Refinishing System - Pic Heavy

[Will@ProDetail]

Caution : Picture Heavy​

In this review, we are reviewing 3 or the 5 Refinishing Liquids:

- Mothers Rubbing Compound
- Mothers Machine Glaze
- Mothers Foam Pad Polish

*I didn't use the Heavy Duty Rubbing Compound because it looked to be too aggressive for what I was doing and the Hand Glaze because I was going another route with protection.

Backround:
I had a customer who purchased a 2005 Ford Five Hundred at a great price. Car only had 89,000 miles on it, the interior, under carrage and engine where all in solid shape, but the exterior was in some of the worst shape I've seen in a while and came to me to help get his paint and trim to match the condition of the rest of the car.
Upon examination of the paint, I noticed severe swirls, some moderate to deep scratches, several scuff and paint transfer spots, and some dulling in the paint and he opted for our scratch removal and 4 Step Compound and Polish which to me gave me a chance to test this system that I've been looking to review since March. So here it is.

Before & Prep

Nothing can hide on black paint, especially under 6500k lights :xyxthumbs:

This is how the ENTIRE trunk surface looked like.

Prep is absolutely key in my shop, when this amount of sanding and compounding was being called for, I took my time to ensure no trim, moldings, etc... would be damaged in the process of restoring the paint.

 

[Will@ProDetail]

Scratch Marking and Sanding

After prep I go through the whole car marking and documenting all the scratches and where they are located. (I do this because after sanding individual scratches for several hours, without writing down where the scratches are, you can miss some that can pop back up after compounding.)
I started each scratch with 2500 grit and worked my way down to 1500 grit until the scratch was removed and then proceeded my way back up to 2500 grit. If the scratch isn't removed with 1500 grit, I reduce it as best I can but anything further can take off more clear than I'm comfortable taking without a waiver.

Test Spot

: Before :

: During :

: After :

Test spot dialed in so I know the sanding marks can be removed with the Mothers Rubbing Compound. Which Mothers did without a problem.

Some more of the sanding (There was significantly more)

The 2 1/2' long sanding is a key scratch, took alot of finessing to get it 100%

Now that we have all this out of the way lets put Mothers Professional Refinishing System to the ultimate test under extra ordinary conditions and on a black car no less.

Mothers Rubbing Compound
- Lets test out the jacked up trunk:

The sides and middle had DEEP grooves so those are the areas that where given sanding attention.

Sanding marks where removed but like any compounding done by rotary, holograms were aplenty.

Which I removed with my Rupes 21 and a 5.5" LC Cyan Hybrid Pad

Mother's claims that there compound will not dust, especially like M105 which I found out to be absolutely true, I compounded twice and not a bit of dusting. On the rotary I kept it between 1000 and 1200 with low arm speed and with the Rupes at between 3 and 4 with the same arm movement.

Some More Compounding

No lift but it's still got to get done right.

Now that the scratches and holograms are done, time to remove the tape, paper, and do a full decon wash to remove all the sanding run off and compound splatter.

How about we test out the other 2 in this 3 part trial.

 

[Will@ProDetail]

After I washed the Five Hundred it was time remove the compound haze and finish out the paint to the maximum depth attainable.

Mothers Machine Glaze

The next step is Machine Glaze which is where we ran into our first problem with the the system. The problem I ran with the Machine Glaze was when I used it it re-instilled the holograms that I had removed with the second compound step with the Rupes which was a step backwards.
So then I started experimenting, I tried it with both the Flex 3401, Rupes 21, and Dewalt Rotary with the assortment of pads like 5.5 LC Orange Hydro Pads, and Buff n Shine Green Polish Pad, Megs Micro Fiber Cutting and Finishing pads, all to no avail. Needless to say I wasn't too happy with this one.

So I decided to move onto the Foam Polish hoping that it had enough bite to remove the haze from the compounding and the holograms from the glaze left on those doors... boy was I surprised!

Mothers Foam Pad Polish

Now this polish is black so the first thing I thought was, "great, all this is going to do is fill" but I had to test it out regardless what I thought. I decided to use my Flex 3401 first with the LC Orange Hydro Pad which eliminated the hazing and holograms but wasn't finishing the way I wanted it to, so I tried it on another panel with the Buff n Shine Green Polish Pad and it still eliminated the holograms and haze and finished out amazingly. Only qualm I have with the polish is the work required to remove it, I relate it to removeing Menzerna PF2500, the oily smears that took a bit of work to remove, probably wouldn't fair to well on softer paints like Subaru paint system if someone decided to "dig in" to remove it.
How I ended up removing the polish was with IPA and gently buffing it out, almost no pressure. Took a bit more work but worked like a charm.

Took this one at 2 am on day 2 of the project I believe hour 29 , needless to say the shops a mess and I was tired.

I finished with a full IPA wipe down so that way I knew for a fact that the polish didn't just fill and indeed correct the paint. I ended having to repolish 2 panels but the rest was fully corrected and finished with the Polish.

So all in all, Mother's has a system here that is a direct competitor to Megs 105 and 205 for versatility, seriously reconsider the Machine Glaze, in my opinion it's a waste of a step. If you get the compound you will find it easy to work with and not nearly as messy as M105 and the polish has alot more bite than it's given credit for.

Here is everything I used this project:

Used the ONRWW as my clay lube and I also used it a little stronger for my wet sand, gives it alot more lube than dawn and other soaps, definitely helped.
CG E-Zyme wax... well that's a review all in it's own.
Black Wow is a future write-up currently being tested.

Hope you enjoyed the read.

 

[groebuck]

wow! how much does a restore job like that cost? and are you in cleveland??!! lol

 

[Mr. Gloss]

Awesome rescue!

Mother's is still working and producing great results.

I'm near Cleveland, but I don't do rescues.

 

[Todd@RUPES]

Nice review. I really like the Mother's compounds and thought they both do an excellent job. Top notch compounds in my experience.

 

[Will@ProDetail]

wow! how much does a restore job like that cost? and are you in cleveland??!! lol

Sorry but I don't discuss pricing of a job like this, too me it's unprofessional. I'll just say it's not cheap, but it's cheaper than having your car repainted.

Awesome rescue!

Mother's is still working and producing great results.

Thank you, I grew up on Mothers and Meguiars in my fathers body shop, they have been known for quality for a long time, even amongst all the new products that pop up every other day.

Nice review. I really like the Mother's compounds and thought they both do an excellent job. Top notch compounds in my experience.

Thank you Todd, I agree.

 

[Orinda Auto Detail]

WOW Will!!! Awesome review and GREAT JOB!!! You killed that!!! :yourrock:yourrock:bow:bow

 

[mrclean81]

Will this is some amazing work. I would never have guessed that Mothers was capable of doing this. I may have to pick up some of their compound thanks to this review. Great job

 

[Will@ProDetail]

Going through my subscriptions, and this is hands down still my favorite corrections.

 

[jtford95]

Awesome job!! Looks like a repaint. How long did it take you?

 

[Will@ProDetail]

Start to finish took 19 hours. When you take out all the interruptions of running a business it's closer to 14.

 

[Zelfiris]

Great work!

I don't have much experience with sanding but would someone worry with how much thinner the paint is after the clear was sanded between 1500 - 2500 grit?

I imagine if your finger nails catches the deep scratch its already too deep to sand out.

I have purchased a number of sand papers in different grits but have yet to tried a project like yours. Please share your thoughts

 

[Don]

Sweet! :rockon That car looks like it was repainted. Make sure you educate the customer on how to keep it that way

 

[RTexasF]

The results are astounding. :bow

 

[Will@ProDetail]

Great work!

I don't have much experience with sanding but would someone worry with how much thinner the paint is after the clear was sanded between 1500 - 2500 grit?

I imagine if your finger nails catches the deep scratch its already too deep to sand out.

I have purchased a number of sand papers in different grits but have yet to tried a project like yours. Please share your thoughts

It all boils down to experience Zelfiris, you have to know when to take the chance and when not to. If I couldn't fix it the owner would have had it repainted, just wanted to see how far I could take it. That in addition to the waiver gave me the ok to take it were I could. That's a good rule to go by, definitely the safest way... but I've known of plenty of guys who've punched through with 2500 on brand new cars with alot less sanding than I did. I've also seen deeper longer scratches taken out or reduced by sanding with no ill effect. Knowing what your doing is the biggest factor.

Sweet! :rockon That car looks like it was repainted. Make sure you educate the customer on how to keep it that way

I honestly couldn't believe it either, it was a job that I knew I could make better, but even I was surprised.

The results are astounding. :bow

Thanks RTexasF

 

[4u2nvinmtl]

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