Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner Contains a Light Amount of Diminishing Abrasives

[Mike Phillips]

***Update***

The Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner does in fact contain a light amount of diminishing abrasive along with chemical cleaners to enable it to remove swirls and other above and below surface paint defects.

We've been posting on this forum that it was a chemical cleaner only but I talked to Mike Pennington today about this and he said if fact that this product does contain some diminishing abrasives along with the chemical cleaners in this formula. We can't say for sure how we came to be under the impression that it this product was a chemical cleaner only because our habit is to seek out and absorbs information about car care products like a magnet is attracted to steel and it's not often we make a mistake like this, thus the reason for this announcement and update on our forum.


As far as aggressiveness goes, all things being equal, it is less aggressive than ScratchX when applied by hand. Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner is a very, very light, or non-aggressive paint cleaner, it's intended use is for light paint cleaning, that is this product is a light cleaner for removing light stains, oxidation and shallow swirls and scratches.

Meguiar's always teaches the philosophy of using the least aggressive product to get the job done, in following this philosophy in it's practical application, using Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner will be using the least aggressive paint cleaner in the Meguiar's line of compounds, paint cleaners and cleaner/polishes.

Remember, if Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner does not remove the defect effectively enough or fast enough for your expectations, then you'll need to substitute a more aggressive product and/or application method. By hand this could be ScratchX, by machine this could be one of our cleaner/polishes or paint cleaners by machine.

If you have any questions, please post them in this thread...

Thanks!

[miked2]

I think DC1 is absolutely amazing. My wife's convertible was professionally detailed a few months ago (the top failed, and the dealership felt so bad that they threw this in for free), and after the wax wore off, it was swirlies galore. I bought some DC1, having never used it before (none of our cars really required it before), and applied it with a DA. I was stunned. Nearly all of the swirlies were gone. There are a couple of deeper scratches here and there, which I could spend the time to remove with ScratchX, but the difference with just DC1 was night and day. It's definitely a go-to product for me . . . I hope Meg's never gets rid of the DC line!

[imacarnut]

mike, thanks for clarification!

[Murr1525]

Interesting... Is the Cleaner/Wax chemical only then, or do they all have some very light abrasives in at least?

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by Murr1525
Interesting... Is the Cleaner/Wax chemical only then, or do they all have some very light abrasives in at least?

All Meguiar's cleaner/waxes utilize diminishing abrasives.

[sneek]

hmm thats interesting, I have never had DC1 remove any swirls before so it is probably a very very small amount

[Question Boy]

DC1 vs ColorX

How would DC1 and ColorX compare on the abrasive scale?? Does ColorX have "protection" built in??

[Accumulator]

Mike- Thanks for posting this! My future postings (here and elsewhere) will reflect this info.

I was very surprised to hear that *all* Meguiar's cleaner-waxes also contain diminishing abrasives...I've used the consumer liquid (is its official designation "A12" ? ) on the Jag's single-stage (and other ss paints) with minimal pigment transfer to the application media and I just assumed the transfer was oxidized paint- sure wasn't aggressive enough to effect any correction even on very soft paints.

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by Accumulator

I've used the consumer liquid (is its official designation "A12" ? ) on the Jag's single-stage (and other ss paints) with minimal pigment transfer to the application media and I just assumed the transfer was oxidized paint- sure wasn't aggressive enough to effect any correction even on very soft paints.

Meguiar's Cleaner/Wax aka A12 is a light cleaner/wax, it's not formulated to be used for really neglected finish or to remove medium to severe swirls and scratches, just light duty stuff.

A12 has been around for 33 years, it's a great product with a strong following. It was the first Meguiar's product I ever used as a Sunny Young Buck at the age of 17. I've been using Meguiar's ever since and in fact, the initial purchase of this single can of Meguiar's Cleaner/Wax in a paste can is what I attribute to my eventual job working for Meguiar's starting in 1988 and again in 2002 here at the Corporate office.


Here's a can of A12 Cleaner/Wax from 1973 in Paste Wax form with the original box it came in.




Here's an original bottle of A12 Cleaner/Wax from 1973 in liquid form. Note the white cap and the very scripty art work for the font used for the label copy.




Just to note, Meguiar's started using diminishing abrasives as their approach to cleaning, or removing defects starting in 1901 with their first cleaning product, a Furniture Cleaner.




These product continue to be made today still utilizing diminishing abrasives for their cleaning ability. It was sometime in the mid-1920's that Meguiar's transitioned to manufacturing products for the growing automotive industry. These early automotive products were for use by professionals in the automotive refinishing industry, either on the assembly lines or body shops.




Most people would agree, or give credit to Henry Ford as the primary force to enable the average working person to be able to both afford a new car and maintain it themselves. Most people would also list the Model T as the car that that transitioned people from riding horses or riding in horse drawn buggies to driving a car.

The Model T began production in 1908 and was last built in 1927, in 1928 product of the Model T had stopped and Ford introduced the Model A.

Well if you think about it, if cars, (The Model T as well as other cars like Dodge Bros, Chevrolet, etc.), didn't start selling until the early 1900's, then it would take a few years before enough of them got out into the hands of the public, and then a few more years before people would figure out how to keep them running and on the road, (back then you had to be a do-it-yourselfer), and then after folks figured out how to keep the things running, then... they started to think about how to keep them looking good.

You'll find most early bottles and cans of car polish products date back to the 1920's.


Now back to your regularly scheduled thread on cleaners in Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner.

And for your viewing pleasure...

[the other pc]

Originally posted by Accumulator
...sure wasn't aggressive enough to effect any correction even on very soft paints.

Try it with a rotary and a wool pad some time.


OK, I didn't really try that on paint, but I did try it on PVC lawn furniture that was badly oxidized. It still wasn't particularly aggressive.


PC.

[Accumulator]

Mike- OK, thanks for the clarification Re A12. Learn something new all the time...I thought #66 was the only abrasive cleaner-wax.

Thanks also for the pics from memory lane That white-cap bottle of A12 reminds *me* of the '70s too. Funny, but I never noticed it being abrasive on black ss back then...must be very fine abrasives indeed.

The Other PC- Heh heh, used with an aggressive enough application method/media, even #7 can do some abrading But it's not really the *product* doing the work.

The cleaner-wax sounds sorta like #9, which doesn't really cut at all except with a rotary.

[gollums_friend]

Re: DC1 vs ColorX

Originally posted by Question Boy
How would DC1 and ColorX compare on the abrasive scale?? Does ColorX have "protection" built in??

I'd like to hear more comparisons between DC#1 and ColorX, too. I'm having a time of it trying to figure out which one would be better for me to use before I do my next detail this weekend (and use polish for the first time). My paint is in terrific condition, but I am getting some very fine, tiny scratches on the hood and trunk areas. I do all work by hand only. Thanks for any info comparing these two products!

[Mike Phillips]

Re: DC1 vs ColorX

Originally posted by Question Boy
How would DC1 and ColorX compare on the abrasive scale?? Does ColorX have "protection" built in??

ColorX offers more cleaning power than Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner. Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner is a dedicated paint cleaner and contains no wax or other ingredients intended to protect paint. ColorX is a cleaner/wax and by definition does contain ingredients that will protect that paint.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Re: DC1 vs ColorX

Originally posted by gollums_friend
I'd like to hear more comparisons between DC#1 and ColorX, too. I'm having a time of it trying to figure out which one would be better for me to use before I do my next detail this weekend (and use polish for the first time). My paint is in terrific condition, but I am getting some very fine, tiny scratches on the hood and trunk areas. I do all work by hand only. Thanks for any info comparing these two products!

DC1 is a very, very light cleaner.
ColorX offers a lot more cleaning ability to actually remove defects, as in remove paint.

Sometimes the best thing to do is to test them yourselves and see exactly how they work on your paint system.

[Monk]

Re: Re: Re: DC1 vs ColorX

Originally posted by Mike Phillips
DC1 is a very, very light cleaner.
ColorX offers a lot more cleaning ability to actually remove defects, as in remove paint.

Sometimes the best thing to do is to test them yourselves and see exactly how they work on your paint system.

Mike--Then does Meg's have a cleaner only, and by that I mean something that just removes old wax and sealant and (???) but has nothing intended to remove any degree of paint defects--something along the lines of what IP does but without the drying properties of IP? If something I said belies a fundamental misunderstanding on my part, please correct me. I am looking for something that just takes me down to the paint, so I can come back up again with sealant/wax, assuming my paint is otherwise clean and swirl-free.