Deep Crystal Polish: smear swirls

[The Eagle]

First of all; I'm a big Meguiar's fan and I have a lot of their products.

My car was in a super state when I decided to buy the Deep Crystal Polish. I wanted to replace the 3M hand glaze which I use a lot. I washed my car and spend a day polishing the car. I noticed that smearing the product on the car was not going as easy as the hand glaze.
I topped the car with NXT. The car was parked in my garage and looked sharp.
Sunday I went for a drive and parked the car in the sun and almost fell down from my chair; there were "smear swirls" all over the car. When I came home I washed the car and tried to remove the smear swirls with a ultimate wipe cloth, but nothings happend!!! The paint appears to have a greasy residu.
So I took out my Hand Glaze by 3M and did a part of my car. And guess what? No greasy residu, no nothing but a nice wet look. I redid the whole car and topped it with NXT. My car's looking sharp, again.
What a disappointed expierence I had with the Deep Crystal Polish

Now I was wondering, could it be the polish is over date? I bought it two weeks a go, but maybe it was in the shop for "years"?
I sure like to know why this polish is not as good as advertised. Or what am I doing wrong?
Greetz

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Deep Crystal Polish: smear swirls

Originally posted by The Eagle
First of all; I'm a big Meguiar's fan and I have a lot of their products.

My car was in a super state when I decided to buy the Deep Crystal Polish. I wanted to replace the 3M hand glaze which I use a lot. I washed my car and spend a day polishing the car. I noticed that smearing the product on the car was not going as easy as the hand glaze.

A couple of points...

We show and demonstrate this product at each detailing class every Saturday here at Meguiar's on all kinds of cars with all different paint types, and we never have any problems. For example, this weekend we applied the Deep Crystal Polish onto a black ZR1 Corvette after claying the car and also cleaning the paint with ScratchX. After that, we applied one hand application of NXT Tech Wax Paste and then backed the Corvette out into the sun for everyone to see the results, no smears, no streaks.











The correct method of applying a Meguiar's pure polish is to first, only apply to a new, like new, or previously cleaned paint finish. Meguiar's pure polishes are not formulated to clean paint and are not intended to be applied to paint in less than excellent condition. (It sounds like this isn't your problem, but I wanted to include that tidbit in this reply).

Next, a pure polish should only be applied as a thin coat, worked in well and then removed a section at a time. You don't need to let a pure polish dry and doing so will add nothing beneficial to the paint, or the process and will often time make removal more difficult. Also, thick coats don't give better results and only waste product and make removal difficult.

When the Deep Crystal Polish is applied to the correct surface, using a thin coating, worked in well, and then removed with clean soft wiping towel, such as a premium quality microfiber and/or a clean, soft 100% cotton towel, it wipe off easy and leaves a clear, rich looking finish.

I topped the car with NXT. The car was parked in my garage and looked sharp.
Sunday I went for a drive and parked the car in the sun and almost fell down from my chair; there were "smear swirls" all over the car. When I came home I washed the car and tried to remove the smear swirls with a ultimate wipe cloth, but nothings happened!!! The paint appears to have a greasy residue.
So I took out my Hand Glaze by 3M and did a part of my car. And guess what? No greasy residue, no nothing but a nice wet look. I redid the whole car and topped it with NXT. My car's looking sharp, again.

I'm not sure what to say about the above, but since you applied the NXT over the Deep Crystal Polish, it would make more sense that the problem would be with the NXT wax and not the polish as this is the last thing you applied and removed from the paint. In almost all cases, two thin coats of wax will always protect better and look better than one coat, I can't help but to wonder what would have happened if you had merely applied a second application of NXT Tech Wax and then removed and inspected?

b[]What a disappointed experience I had with the Deep Crystal Polish [/b]

I can assure you, problems with this product are the exception, not the rule. The Deep Crystal System, (paint cleaner, polish and wax), was introduced in the mid 1980's, so it's been around for over 20 years now and has always been a top seller in the Meguiar's Consumer Line because of the kind of stellar results it consistently produces .

Now I was wondering, could it be the polish is over date? I bought it two weeks a go, but maybe it was in the shop for "years"?

Meguiar's products have a shelf like of 3-5 years as long as they do not freeze, so unless this product has frozen, it's probably just fine.

I sure like to know why this polish is not as good as advertised.

Greetz

This product is as good as we advertise and we back our products with a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee.

As I mentioned above, getting good results with Meguiar's pure polishes can sometimes be greatly affected by technique...

• * Apply to cool clean surface in the shade - clean foam wax applicators work great.
  * Only apply a thin coating.
  * Work the product into the finish using overlapping hand motions.
  * Remove the product before it dries.
  * Usually apply and remove to a section or a panel at a time.
  * Use a quality microfiber or 100% cotton towel.

Also, shake the bottle well before using it. If you applied a thick coat, allowed the product to dry, or any other thing listed above, perhaps give the product another chance on one panel of your car.

Apply and remove and the apply you choice of wax.

[The Eagle]

I'm not sure what to say about the above, but since you applied the NXT over the Deep Crystal Polish, it would make more sense that the problem would be with the NXT wax and not the polish as this is the last thing you applied and removed from the paint. In almost all cases, two thin coats of wax will always protect better and look better than one coat, I can't help but to wonder what would have happened if you had merely applied a second application of NXT Tech Wax and then removed and inspected?

Hi Mike, thanks for your quick answer.
I did the following; when I discovered the smear I redid a part with the Deep Crystal Polish and wiped it off with a ultimate wipe. But the smear swirls were not gone.
So I used the Hand Glaze and the smear swirls were gone immediately. When I topped it with NXT the result was even better. So at that point I knew the polish was giving the smear swirls.
Now I'm thinking maybe I should clay the car again and try the polish again. Maybe it's the "reaction" of Deep Crystal Polish with the hand glaze which was still on the car (but topped with NXT).
I use Hand Glaze on top of the old coat of NXT without any problem. Maybe I shouldn't?

Greetz

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by The Eagle
Maybe it's the "reaction" of Deep Crystal Polish with the hand glaze which was still on the car (but topped with NXT).
I use Hand Glaze on top of the old coat of NXT without any problem. Maybe I shouldn't?

Greetz

You can always try a Test Spot.

Try it in one small area, about a foot squared and see if you can apply the polish, remove the polish, then apply the wax and then remove the wax to this one small area and make this one small area look good.

If you can successfully make a small area look good, you can duplicate this success over the entire finish. If you cannot make a small area look good, then you will not be able to make the entire car look good.

Deep Crystal Polish is a pretty easy product to use and it doesn't have a history of causing problems, so sometimes if their is a problem, it can be paint specific or technique related, the only way to find out is to do some testing. Perhaps using a paint cleaner first to get down to a clean, fresh base would work best?

Besides that, if you're unhappy with the product, do take advantage of our guarantee, we want our customers to be our friends and we want our friends to be happy with their results!

[The Eagle]

Ok Mike, I'll try it out.
I'll write a follow up.

Greetz
The Eagle

[Mike Phillips]

Sounds good...

* Apply a thin coat
* Work in well
* Wipe off with a soft polishing cloth
* Apply wax - remove according to How to tell when a Meguiar's wax is ready to remove - The Swipe Test
* If you have time, apply a second coat, (even in the test spot area)


Then inspect results.


Remember, it takes a window of time, (0 to 24 hours), for a wax to fully set-up, (our wax or anyone's quality wax), after removing the wax, stop excess wiping, (wiping just removes more wax), and let the wax set-up. Later, make any final wipes to remove any smears, or even out the appearance. Also, sometimes slowing down your wiping motion can sometimes dramatically affect how well the last little bit of polish or wax is removed from the surface.

Best wishes...

[Bigbucks1959]

Mike,
I have been using your products on my cars for years..Great Products.

Question: Time required between coats of wax?

Always confused me..

:>))

Thx
Phil K.

[The Eagle]

Follow up:

I clayed one door of my car, I applied Deep Crystal Polish and topped it with NXT wax.
This time there were no smear swirls. The door looked beautiful !

So probably the smear swirls were caused by the interconnection between the 3M Hand Glaze and the Deep Crystal Polish.
I'll be using Deep Crystal Polish further on.

So end good, all good.

Greetz

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by The Eagle
Follow up:

I clayed one door of my car, I applied Deep Crystal Polish and topped it with NXT wax. This time there were no smear swirls. The door looked beautiful!

So probably the smear swirls were caused by the interconnection between the 3M Hand Glaze and the Deep Crystal Polish.
I'll be using Deep Crystal Polish further on.

So end good, all good.

Greetz

Good to hear the problem has been resolved and success has been achieved!

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by Bigbucks1959
Mike,
I have been using your products on my cars for years..Great Products.

Question: Time required between coats of wax?

Always confused me..

:>))

Thx
Phil K.

Hi Phil,

as this is your first post, Welcome to Meguiar's Online!

There is no hard rule to how much time must pass before applying a second coat of wax in one detailing session. Often times I apply my second coat after about 20 minutes of removing the first coat. That's because it's a time issue wherein I don't have the time to wait to apply the second coat and the car is either being returned to use, (my car), or to the owner who will be putting it back into service.

There's a thread that discusses this topic fully in the Information Station forum called, NXT Cure Time, which all of the information discussed pretty much would apply to any Meguiar's wax, not just our NXT Tech Wax. Give it a read and see what you think.