Optimum Compound and Polish Comparison

[Josiah]

I have a small problem.... I have Mother's Wax, 3M SMR and 3M FI-2 on the way, along with Klasse AIO and SG. I am going to go over my car with the clay, then the SMR (probably not the FI, but perhaps). Then I'm going to apply a coat of AIO and then SG.



Here is my problem: The dust here is terrible. I washed my car last night, and had to dust it today before I QD'ed it this morning. in 4 hour a small coat of dust will have layered itself on the car. AND, on top of that, I have a small place where it is shadier the last half of the day.



My question is, what do I do? How am I going to be able to clean, clay and wax my car without getting dust particles inside the sealant and rubbing compounds? I cannot wash my car in the shady spot, because it is in our gravel driveway right next to the house...



Any ideas? Any tips are greatly appreciated. I've been trying to figure out what I'm going to do.....

 

[imported_doug]

You should be OK. The dust that settles doesn't seem to stick like bug/tree droppings or oily dirt deposited at speed from the road. Just wash, dry, and go to work. If you have a wait period, use a california car duster and/or mf wipe with detail spray to get rid of the dust.



If the dust is over wax residue you haven't buffed yet, there isn't much you can do (that I know of anyway) except a) try to avoid it (can you find a garage to borrow? There are even those temp shade structures you can erect over the car....)



When you buff out, just be sure to turn the wipe frequently - keep an eye on it for dark buildup, which will be dirt. I always wiggle the towel a little in my hand - just ungrab/regrab - between almost every swipe - so that a slightly different section is exposed to the car.

 

[YoSteve]

during my 7 days o detailing I wiped down my car with mf's. I sorta flung the dust off, but it wasn't as much as yours was. Maybe you can cover it, but there's a fine line of determining if you car is too dusty to QD and wipe. You just might have to wash your car.



Or you can adapt by changing and improvising your Klasse schedule. You can AIO twice and SG twice and then the following weekend you can SG two more times after washing it. HTH

 

[Lemonxxs]

I feel a dustless car is impossible! Never fails when you are done detailing dust settles somewhere and drives me bonkers.



It is either inside or outside somewhere. When I get that dust it I then see dust somewhere else. I feel like my dog chasing my tail but the tail is dust bunnies! ARGGGGGGGGGG.



Oh well off to dust the truck for the umteenth time this week!

 

[ISLANDSBEST]

It's the old saying: An ounce of preventation is worth a pound of cure.



I think a car cover is essential in car care, unless you have a garage at home and at work. Even then, I would cover the car when left parked outside (shopping for instance) for any longer period of time.

 

[Josiah]

Thanks for the tips guys... I'll let you know how it goes this weekend (hopefully).



I've heard that car covers can cause more damage than they prevent... especially when it is so dusty. What is preventing the dust from getting under the cover on a windy day?



I'd love to get one, I just don't think it would help my cause any, besides keeping most dust off the car.



Josiah

 

[YoSteve]

what's this Guess? complaining about your weather conditions it may be cold as all here, but it's pretty much dust free

 

[edgewise]

I've discovered since I carpeted my garage, the dust factor is way down (granted I vacuum it a couple times a month)

 

[imported_doug]

I don't think dust will get under the cover on a windy day. The risk is when you cover a dirty car - then you drag the dust around (and transfer it to the cover for next time). Worse, if it is windy, the cover will then happily sand your car for you. I <strong class='bbc'>always[/b] QD my car before covering. If it is too dirty to QD, then I simply don't cover it - it needs a wash anyway.

 

[Lemonxxs]

Complaining about dust yes the weather nooooooooo!



88 today pure sunshine!

 

[YoSteve]

I consider all atmospheric conditions weather. I saw on the weather channel florida's one forcast called for smoke (cause of a big fire). If the pollen count or the smog percentage is high it's weather to me

 

[Lemonxxs]

Ok the temperature & humidity are great but the dust count stinks!



Darn Steve a stickler for the details! LOL

 

[YoSteve]

yes guess, but you don't have to deal with a cinder truck pelting your perfect finish at 35 miles an hour on a snowy salted road



and yes, I pay attention to details look where you are, do a search on the word detail and see how many posts come up, haha j/k MB

 

[ISLANDSBEST]

carguy's got it. We don't cover dirty cars. QD first if the car has light dust. Wash if dirty. But, if the car is kept covered, it usually does not get dirty!

 

[Langley Interior Car Kare]

a covered car is like a bullseye.....people already noptice all our cars(autopians) anyway....if i get a cover...and put it on...while my car is parked on the street(as it always is)...its like saying...come look under here...play with me...throwthings at me... ....plus i live about 1 block from a school(thats how i lost the past 2 sets of chrome valves )....so...i just pray they keep walking right on by...this is the one time i DON'T want people to notice my car

 

[ISLANDSBEST]

FLONI -- that's terrible. Sorry to hear about it.

 

[Langley Interior Car Kare]

i used to use a car cover when i parked in the local municipal parking lot...but then they raised the fee to something insane.....but considering the car is on the street all the time...im happy with the way it is....people have it worse....and of course im so jealous of all the garages i see on here....even the driveways.....i hate u all...

 

[Don2000g]

Using a car cover can be a life saver. It's perfectly safe to use a car cover on a well maintained car. If your car has a very light layer of dust on it then just quick detail before you place the cover on. As for dirt or wind going underneath the car cover, that's really not a very realistic scenario. The car cover goes all the way down to bottom of the car and covers most of the tires as well. Laters.

 

[seech]

After my initial detail with ONR and the Optimum Polish II here:
http://truthindetailing.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=3277

I decided to do another comparison between Optimum Compound II, Optimum Polish II, Optimum Polish and Poli-Seal. Only this time I tried it out on a black car with the softest paint which I have yet to come across, a Honda Accord. (For whatever reason, the Honda paint over here is very soft.)

Started off with an Optimum No-Rinse (ONR) wash.

50/50 after ONR.

Taped up for the comparison:

Condition of the paint before:

Plenty of swirls all over and fairly consistent over all of the test panels.

First up, Optimum Compound II (OCII) with a Meguiar's Soft Buff 2.0 Cutting Pad.

The OCII had a long work time for a compound and very little dusting. The compound and cutting pad left a fine consistent haze from the cutting.

Next up was the Optimum Polish II (OPII) with a Meguiar's Soft Buff 2.0 Polishing Pad.

I used the OPII on the previous detail and found it to have a very long work time with very minimal dust.

The OPII was also used to remove the haze from the OCII.

The OPII finished off quite well on white paint. How will it do on the soft black paint?

The cutting marks from the OCII and the swirls were completely removed and the finish looked good enough. But..... on the soft Honda paint, some very mild hologramming was visible on both panels.

Time for Optimum Finish (OF). As the cutting and finishing ability of a product is also dependent on the pads used, I decided to try out OF with a Meguiar's Soft Buff 2.0 Polishing Pad and a Finishing Pad.

OF is supposed to have very minimal cut and is meant as a final finishing product so it would be interesting to see what sort of correction could be achieved with OF and a polishing pad.

Most of the finer swirls/scratches were removed with the OF/polishing pad combo but some of the deeper swirls which were easily removed with OPII were still present. This combo could be used to correct paint with minor defects and it left a very nice finish.

The OF/finishing pad combo not surprisingly had the lowest cutting power and did not achieve much correction with plenty of swirls still left on the paint.

OF was also used on the first two panels with a finishing pad to remove the mild hollowgramming from the OPII.

Finally, Poli-Seal (PS). Optimum's All-In-One (AIO) product which is supposed to polish, finish and protect the paint in one step. I have read a lot about PS on the international detailing forums and was very keen to try it out.

PS was supposed to be easy to work with and a long work time but I found that in this application with the polishing pad it tended to dry up and cake on the pad. Applying more product did not seem to help and it left an uneven finish behind.

Some more testing will be required to see which pad combo will be required for the PS.

Before and after:

The entire hood was treated to one more pass of OPII followed by OF/Finishing Pad.

After OPII & OF.

After the trials on the hood, the entire car was waxed with Optimum Car Wax (OCW) which gave the black paint a deep glossy glow. Very impressive for a spray on wipe off product.

How about some full sun shots you say?

The front fenders were not corrected and the swirls are still very visible.

My favorite shot. Capturing the full sun and some awesome reflections off the paint.

Thanks for looking. Comments and feedback are most welcome.

 

[imported_POPPAJ]

Thanks for posting, remarkable work! Lately I've been adding a little OPII to my PS and getting better results.