help me decide on polishes

P

pipspeak

New member
What are the pros and cons of the following two combos for a noob needing to deal with both crusty old (scratches galore) and smoother newer (light swirl) cars?



Menzerna IP and FPII

Optimum compound and polish



I'm also wondering if I could get away with just the OP alone and a more aggressive pad for those areas that need more work. The FPII sounds like it lacks the oomph to be an all-purpose polish.



Edit: they'll be used with a PC and LC pads
 
i have Menz IP and Micro Polish as well as Optimum Compund(oc), Polish(op), and Poli Seal(ops).



Menz line is very dependent on the weather. somedays it works great other days it is hell to work with.



Optimum line is not bothered by the weather. OP is very versitle. has a long work time and do not need to use much. spreads very nicely and finishes lsp ready depending on pad used.



what kind of polisher you using? both lines work best with a rotary polisher. on light color cars OC will finish down lsp ready. darker cars you will need to use OP to get lsp ready.

when comparing price and performance my opinion would be go with the Optimum line.



where you from? i may be able to send you samples if i can find containers to ship them in. mail me your address and i will see what i can do
 
Thanks for the tips. I'm in California... SF to be precise... so it's usually relatively cool and slightly humid. I'm leaning towards just trying some OP first with an orange or white pad on the PC. One car I'll be doing is silver and the other dark gray and ideally I'm looking for one all-purpose polish to use as a single step between clay and K-AIO on both vehicles.



I read that OP can introduce some micromarring. Have you experienced this at all?
 
all polishes can induce marring when useing to much and not worked in completely. i just recently got my Optimum order so have not had many chances to use it. i did use it on a yellow explorer that was covered in soot from a house fire. i tried claying first but did not touch it. so i got out my green(light cut) wool Edge 2k pad my Dewalt and my OP and it finished lasp ready and no marring. i work at a body shop so it was checked over veryt carefully.
 
pipspeak said:
Thanks for the tips. I'm in California... SF to be precise... so it's usually relatively cool and slightly humid. I'm leaning towards just trying some OP first with an orange or white pad on the PC. One car I'll be doing is silver and the other dark gray and ideally I'm looking for one all-purpose polish to use as a single step between clay and K-AIO on both vehicles.



I read that OP can introduce some micromarring. Have you experienced this at all?
Click to expand...



I usually use OP on a LC white pad but have used it an orange LC pad. Ever since i've used it, i have never encountered micromarring with either pad selection. I usually can go to LSP. But I always follow up with Menz. 106ff.



Honestly, the only time i have problems with Menzerna is in HIGH humidity or really cold weather. Usually you can put your bottle in front of a heater and it'll function right.
 
i've used OC with an orange pad and it finished lsp ready (didn't need OP with the white pad, but it differs on what car you're working on as well). the optimum polish and compound are great (very easy to use)! :2thumbs:
 
Any comments on whether OP is as effective with a PC rather than a rotary? I was just reading a "most overrated products" thread that had a fair bit of OP bashing.
 
alot of that Optimum bashing is due to the fact they dont like the long work time(longer with pc) and the fact they use to much product which will cause you to not get the results you expect



DSCF0008.jpg




i used Otimum Compund and black wool. that area i used about 3 pea size drops and after taking pic was able to finish that half of hood with only 2 more pea size drops. most of the people bashing Optimum line would have used about 3 lines 6" in length to do the same area. that much product will cause marring and induce more swirls. and they probaly dont work it in all the way



and this line was made for the rotary so you will get better result from rotary versus pc. but i have heard of plenty of people getting great results from pc
 
keep_it_clean said:
alot of that Optimum bashing is due to the fact they dont like the long work time(longer with pc) and the fact they use to much product which will cause you to not get the results you expect



DSCF0008.jpg




i used Otimum Compund and black wool. that area i used about 3 pea size drops and after taking pic was able to finish that half of hood with only 2 more pea size drops. most of the people bashing Optimum line would have used about 3 lines 6" in length to do the same area. that much product will cause marring and induce more swirls. and they probaly dont work it in all the way



and this line was made for the rotary so you will get better result from rotary versus pc. but i have heard of plenty of people getting great results from pc
Click to expand...



Just curious when you apply the OC do you put it on the hood or pad?
 
This is a couple pictures from last year using the Cyclo, Propel 2 green pads, and the latest version of Optimum polish. The finish was probably 95% which is great for a daily driver. You could get the same results with a PC and 4" pads. Yesterday I worked on the same vehicle and tried orange cyclo pads and Blackfire's version of 106ff. It didn't work at all. Went back to the green Propels and OP with results similar to these two pictures. OP is not as aggressive as Poorboys SSR 2.5. OC might be close.



IMG_0251.jpg




IMG_0249.jpg




Hope this helps.
 
cheapshot said:
that video make it seem as if optimum polish is less aggressive then #83 or SSR2.5.



is this true?
Click to expand...



I would say OP is much less aggressive than #83 or SSR2.5 ..... it's very pad dependant but I'd say it's between SSR2 and SSR1.
 
Pipsqueak, as I'm sure you've found out, there's so many potential polish choices out there, it's a bit overwhelming. So I'll throw my $.02 in FWIW...



There's no doubt that the products mentioned in this thread are all good, however, if you want to get the most correction ability you can with your PC, and the most versatility, I would *highly* recommend Menzerna Super Intensive Polish (also known as PO83Q or PO85RD3.02) and also some Menzerna Nano Polish (also known as PO106FF).



The Super Intensive Polish (SIP) has *the best* medium correction abilities of any of the medium weight polishes out there. This is exactly what you need, because the PC simply doesn't have as much correction ability as a rotary. Using SIP with it helps to give the PC bite it wouldn't otherwise have. Optimum's line is very good for the rotary, but it just can't touch SIP's ability when used with a PC. Accumulator would recommend the Einszett line because it's very easy to use, but once again, I feel that correction ability and versatility are more important. Besides, SIP really isn't that hard to use with a PC.



The Nano Polish will do very very fine defect correction and is simply the finest finishing polish you'll find. Once again, the PC is a very mild machine. You need the extra aggressiveness of the Nano Polish to really bring your paint to a fine gloss.



The last thing you can do to really get the most bite possible out of your PC is to use 4" pads. I'd use 4" orange LC pads for doing correcting work, and 4" green or white for final polishing.



The Menzerna polishes are very expensive, and they are worth every penny. You won't use very much, though, so purchasing one bottle of each will last you for many years.
 
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