hello all, some questions about the pro products

[Zfactor]

i come from more of a body shop back round and used to own a car stereo shop where we also detailed. now starting my new company about 9 years ago im looking for some new products.

i have dealt with mainly 3m stuff since starting in body shop work many years ago so thats where i went to get detailing products. but im looking now for alternatives. i have already brought in the #26 wax and i love it. so this made me look at other meguire's products now.

we are looking for something in the meguire's line to replace these with. we use the 3m finesse it fine cut, the perfect it 3000, polish and 3m machine glaze often. there are so many varied products though in your line its a bit confusing when first looking at the whole line. personally i tend to prefer wool but i do also often use the foam depending on the application (finnesse it i like with wool, while 3000 i only use foam etc) so are there specific pads to use with certain products?

which comparable meg's products should i be looking at in these cases? maybe a lot to ask in a single post but i dont want to bring in a ton of stuff we may not use. ill probably start with quarts instead of gallons (if they come that way) just till i know we like them.

hope someone can give me some help.

thank you and looking forward to trying out meg's products more.

[Ghawk]

Re: hello all, some questions about the pro products

Welcome to the Meguiar's forum!

I see you are working with a rotary polisher, so I will try and match similar products from Meguair's to your 3M products. A very popular cutting compound here is M105 and a good finishing polish is M205. These are capable of being utilized with both a DA polisher and a Rotary with great success. I have not used 3M machine glaze, so I do not know what it does exactly, as glaze is a term thrown around a lot in the industry. For a pure glaze, Meguiar's most popular is M07, but I find this better on old single stage painted cars. Really amazing stuff when used correctly! The glaze I use on clear coats is 3M imperial hand glaze. As it has just a small amount of cleaner/abrasives in addition to fillers that cover small scratches quite nicely.
As far as pads go, Meguair's has their own line of pads, but I do not use a rotary so I will leave recommendations of rotary specific pads to someone else here. I use Meguiar's DA Microfiber Correction system pads and Lake Country Pads on my dual action polisher personally.

Hope I answered most of your questions!
You can browse all of Meg's products at their direct shop which you can find from their homepage.
I'd also suggest looking at some of the department store like Autogeek, Auto Detailing Solutions, Detailer's Domain, or any other that you can find.

Again welcome to the forum!
Griffith Hawk

[Michael Stoops]

Re: hello all, some questions about the pro products

Welcome to MOL!

The most common products you'll use in our line up to replace the 3M products you've used are M105 Ultra Cut Compound, M100 Pro Speed Compound and M205 Ultra Finishing Polish. M105 and M100 are both fast cutting general purpose compounds, suitable for use with a rotary buffer and either wool or foam pads. M205 is generally used as a finishing polish with a foam pad at slower speeds to remove any light holograms you may have created with the compounding step but we're seeing more and more people using it with the latest crop of high powered DA polishers and microfiber pads for even fairly heavy cut with a very nice finish in a single step. For a glaze, one of our most popular for hand application is M07 Show Car Glaze, but M03 Machine Glaze may also be a great choice for you, if you intend to apply via rotary buffer at slow speeds.

[Zfactor]

Re: hello all, some questions about the pro products

okay so ordered up some 105, 205 and a new gallon of #26. some questions on the rest, first off i see the #20 and #21 sealants what is the difference between them? is on just a full synth and one a hybrid of sorts? then is the m07 just oils or will it act as a sealant as well? and would the m07 i assume be used after the sealant?

then if i wanted to go to a synth wax like the ultimate would i apply m07, ultimate, then top with #26 if i decided to (probably mainly on darker colors would i do the 2 step wax not sure how much it would benefit say a white car).

would the #20 or #21 be similar to using the ultimate wax because it seems they are also synthetic thus not really needing the ultimate wax? is there a product in the pro line similar to the ultimate wax?

again just so many variants in the line i want to be sure before i order anything else.

thank you for all the help so far will be using the 105/205 this weekend and report back how i like it.

[Zfactor]

Re: hello all, some questions about the pro products

bump this question up hopefully to be seen

[Murr1525]

Re: hello all, some questions about the pro products

some questions on the rest, first off i see the #20 and #21 sealants what is the difference between them?

#20 is a mild carnuba/synthetic blend cleaner/wax.

#21 is a synthetic wax.

then is the m07 just oils or will it act as a sealant as well? and would the m07 i assume be used after the sealant?

#7 is only oils, and would be used after cleaning, and before sealing or waxing.

then if i wanted to go to a synth wax like the ultimate would i apply m07, ultimate, then top with #26 if i decided to (probably mainly on darker colors would i do the 2 step wax not sure how much it would benefit say a white car).

Yeah, basically. 2 wax coats would generally be recommended for anything, up to you if you want to do one of each, or two of the same.

The #7 would likely be the more optional on the light color, depending what cleaner product you used. Like probably no need after #205.

would the #20 or #21 be similar to using the ultimate wax because it seems they are also synthetic thus not really needing the ultimate wax? is there a product in the pro line similar to the ultimate wax?

As noted, #20 is a cleaner/wax, so not quite the same.

Nxt 2.0 and #21 2.0 are the same. Ult. Wax is the upgrade to those, and there isnt a pro line product yet.

[Zfactor]

Re: hello all, some questions about the pro products

AWESOME. exact answers i needed. thank you. picked up a bunch of ultimate wax today both paste and liquid (got a GREAT deal on it so i emptied them out lol 40% off was cheaper than i can buy from my distributors by a good amount)

will try out the full process this weekend since its raining here today, i did test a bit on a small section of a car that was inside and just the quick results were pretty nice without even cleaning it up or anything (other than the quick wash we did before the rain, the client asked us to keep the car overnight till the rain is over). thank you for all the help. ill post some pics when done i have a metallic darker grey 2010 nissan armada le here to test everything out on. i told him i was trying out a whole full line and if i could use his car i would give him a discount, he was all for that)

on a side note will the ultimate be available in the pro line soon? only so i dont have to keep buying the smaller bottles and tins.

[Murr1525]

Re: hello all, some questions about the pro products

I havent heard of any bulk size yet.

[Zfactor]

Re: hello all, some questions about the pro products

is the ultimate paste supposed to come all cracked inside? i opened one of the ones i bought and its all cracked like spider webbed in large chunks. im wondering if this has been exposed to air or something for to long? the box was sealed when i opened it with those clear stickers. they dont have any more so i would have to just return it which i would rather not do. then i went and opened a second one and that one is nice one solid piece no cracking like the first one.

if this stuff is okay im fine with that but i thought it unusual to be all cracked since i thought it was supposed to be more like a softer or oily texture?

[Murr1525]

Re: hello all, some questions about the pro products

I havent used one, so have to get someone who has, but I suspect it is ok.

Pretty hard to damage paste wax. is it just cracked, or feels hard?

[Dellinger]

Re: hello all, some questions about the pro products

is the ultimate paste supposed to come all cracked inside? i opened one of the ones i bought and its all cracked like spider webbed in large chunks. im wondering if this has been exposed to air or something for to long? the box was sealed when i opened it with those clear stickers. they dont have any more so i would have to just return it which i would rather not do. then i went and opened a second one and that one is nice one solid piece no cracking like the first one.

if this stuff is okay im fine with that but i thought it unusual to be all cracked since i thought it was supposed to be more like a softer or oily texture?

Z,

With any paste wax, or in the instance of Ultimate Wax (really a fully synthetic, polymer sealant,) cracking can be typical but WILL NOT affect performance. Usually, the warmth of your hand will be enough heat to apply the LSP to any painted surface. If you desire, you can usually set the tin of wax into hot water for a 10 minutes or so and this process can dislove the flakes or cracking. I'm not sure if the carrier solvents will evaporate or separate from the other ingredients in UW but I have done this with another car care manufacturer's paste wax prior to applying... and everything performed as expected.

I usually use UW in liquid form as it faster to apply via D/A and red pad. UW, liquid, also plays very well with trim and can even double as a trim dressing (believe it or not.)

-Dellinger

[Scott's 62]

Re: hello all, some questions about the pro products

When I bought my can of UP wax it was all cracked up inside too, I ended up doing what Dellinger said and melted the wax to "reform" it. looks like a new can of wax again.

[Zfactor]

Re: hello all, some questions about the pro products

i know it can crack but was not sure if that was typical of the ultimate. i normally see that more with the harder carnauba wax's and not so much with the synthetic types. thanks for the info

[The Guz]

Re: hello all, some questions about the pro products

As sated by others the wax is fine even if it is cracked. Since UW is not available in a bulk size don't give up on M21. It is still a very good sealant and the bulk size is very cost effective.

[Zfactor]

Re: hello all, some questions about the pro products

i did order some m21 to try out. i agree its a much more cost effective product it seems many like the ultimate better then the m21 though from reading around?
i figured it would be okay i was more concerned with it having maybe been dried out or something like that since i have never used this stuff before. i bought a tub of another brand a while back that was like that it was a dried mess when i opened it and i exchanged it and the next tub was fine. even the company told me to bring it back after sending in some pictures. thats the only reason i asked.

how would m21 overall compare to the ultimate paste / liquid?