Scratch X vs. Speed Glaze/Pure Polish

[OUMike]

The other day my dad and I were watching the RM auctions on ESPN. They worked on a vintage Ferrari that had some swirlling on it. To remove it they simply used Scratch X (with a G100) and then the NXT coat.

I'm working with a 94' Silverado with pretty moderate swirl and an 01' Z28 with light swirlling. Am I wasting time by using the Speed Glaze/Pure Polish/NXT, or is Scratch X for lighter swirls? I actually do not own a PC or a Meguiars machine (only a Ryobi), but I'm looking into picking up the G110 when it comes out. I kinda feel like I'd be wasting my time trying to remove imperfections with a 10 inch Ryobi since I can't really apply that much pressure before you stop it from spinning. It is however awesome for applying wax.

Thanks alot everyone!

[Jimmy The Detailer]

Re: Scratch X vs. Speed Glaze/Pure Polish

I saw it as well, and yes ScratchX with a PC does a paint good, and I've used it successfully post #83. Now, Meguiar's always recommends starting off with the least aggressive product which is ScratchX, then if you still feel more swirl removal is needed then #80 Speed Glaze would be the way to go, but at least you can also use ScratchX by hand until you get the G110.

[OUMike]

Re: Scratch X vs. Speed Glaze/Pure Polish

I saw it as well, and yes ScratchX with a PC does a paint good, and I've used it successfully post #83. Now, Meguiar's always recommends starting off with the least aggressive product which is ScratchX, then if you still feel more swirl removal is needed then #80 Speed Glaze would be the way to go, but at least you can also use ScratchX by hand until you get the G110.

Thanks a lot Jimmy. Thats kinda what I was thinking too. I actually tried the Scratch X by hand on a few spots and saw almost no results, but then again they were pretty rough looking to start with. I think I'll try it on the ol' man's Z28 though.

[Jimmy The Detailer]

Re: Scratch X vs. Speed Glaze/Pure Polish

Your welcome Mike and yeah, ScratchX by hand needs alot of elbow grease and multiple applications. But with the PC and the 8006 pad you can get some nice results and faster.

[Murr1525]

Re: Scratch X vs. Speed Glaze/Pure Polish

Yeah.. lots of elbow grease and a few applications are needed with ScratchX.

There has been some good reports about using the new product by hand, M105 is it?

[Ticman]

Re: Scratch X vs. Speed Glaze/Pure Polish

And one other thing. Shrink your work area. It's easier to do correction on small areas at a time. It really makes a difference when working by hand or machine.

Tic

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Scratch X vs. Speed Glaze/Pure Polish

ScratchX by machine will work if the paint isn't too hard and the defects are not too deep.

Besides that, without being there to see the results in person it could be that while they were technically "cleaning" the paint by machine with ScratchX, that doesn't mean they were removing 100% of the defects.

You can clean the surface and prepare it for application of wax but still have lots of swirls and scratches. What the television cameras show and what you and I would look for under bright light is two different things.

2 years ago we were able to get on the stage at the Barrett-Jackson auction and with our camera take photos of all the swirls out cars going across the stage. On the stage under the bright lights all the swirls and scratches were easy to see, but sitting on your couch watching the event on TV, the paint on all the cars looks so glossy and swirl free but that wasn't reality. In fact after 3 days of photographing swirls we would say 90% of the cars that went over the block were swirled out messes and only about 10% of the cars had a 'good' finish and out of the 10% maybe only a handful had a really nice, swirl free finish.

TV cameras tend to make all the the cars look good.

ScratchX is about as aggressive as M82 Swirl Free Polish and this product is very gentle as far as swirl removers go. If you read this forum for very long at all you'll notice that most people are using more aggressive products to actually remove the swirls not just clean the surface. It all comes back to what we post here all the time and that is to use the least aggressive product to get the job done and if that doesn't work or meet your expectations you can always substitute a more aggressive product.

So it could be the people doing the correction work followed this sage advice and found that ScratchX was getting the job done therefore thee was no reason to get more aggressive.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Scratch X vs. Speed Glaze/Pure Polish

They worked on a vintage Ferrari that had some swirling on it. To remove it they simply used Scratch X (with a G100) and then the NXT coat.

If this vintage Ferrari has the original paint it would be a single stage paint. It could be that if it has been restored/repainted they used a similar single stage paint.

Now follow me on this...

"Generally speaking, modern clear coat finishes are harder or less polishable than traditional single stage paints"

So if it was in fact a single stage paint that means it will likely be very easy to polish the defects out.

We're going on 3 generations of people that have only owned cars with clear coats and have never polished out a car with a single stage paint, so these 3 generations of people don't understand how much easier single stage paints are to work with as compared to modern clear coat paints because they've never had the pleasure.

Often times when our members get the chance to polish out a classic car with a single stage paint job you'll see us post this question to their thread,

"Now that you've polished out a single stage paint... which do you refer to work on, single stage paints or clear coats"

And the answer is always 'single stage paints.

The negative aspect is that the pigment that comes off when you're working on the paint will tend to stain your pads and towels the color of the car. This won't hurt anything but some people don't like this aspect about single stage paints.

[Phostenix]

Re: Scratch X vs. Speed Glaze/Pure Polish

"Now that you've polished out a single stage paint... which do you refer to work on, single stage paints or clear coats"

I grew up with single stage paints. All I remember is that they only looked good that one time a year in the summer when we waxed them.


{Runs and hides}

[Jimmy The Detailer]

Re: Scratch X vs. Speed Glaze/Pure Polish

ScratchX by machine will work if the paint isn't too hard and the defects are not too deep.

Besides that, without being there to see the results in person it could be that while they were technically "cleaning" the paint by machine with ScratchX, that doesn't mean they were removing 100% of the defects.

You can clean the surface and prepare it for application of wax but still have lots of swirls and scratches. What the television cameras show and what you and I would look for under bright light is two different things.

2 years ago we were able to get on the stage at the Barrett-Jackson auction and with our camera take photos of all the swirls out cars going across the stage. On the stage under the bright lights all the swirls and scratches were easy to see, but sitting on your couch watching the event on TV, the paint on all the cars looks so glossy and swirl free but that wasn't reality. In fact after 3 days of photographing swirls we would say 90% of the cars that went over the block were swirled out messes and only about 10% of the cars had a 'good' finish and out of the 10% maybe only a handful had a really nice, swirl free finish.

TV cameras tend to make all the the cars look good.

ScratchX is about as aggressive as M82 Swirl Free Polish and this product is very gentle as far as swirl removers go. If you read this forum for very long at all you'll notice that most people are using more aggressive products to actually remove the swirls not just clean the surface. It all comes back to what we post here all the time and that is to use the least aggressive product to get the job done and if that doesn't work or meet your expectations you can always substitute a more aggressive product.

So it could be the people doing the correction work followed this sage advice and found that ScratchX was getting the job done therefore thee was no reason to get more aggressive.

Mike, and without doubt Mike Pennington's process was great to watch and I'm sure a boost in sales should take place for Scratch X & NXT especially where Mike examines and points outs the defects, X's the g100's pad with Scratch X, works it in, wipes it off then shows how all the swirls are gone. It was awesome to see Megs in action, although generally #80 is the initial go to starter or like in my car's case #83 was used, and a final post-83 polish with G100 & Scratch X yielded good results. At any rate, Megs came out looking like gold when, after being detailed, the Ferrari went on being shiny and fetching a cool $1.4 mil!!