OT: (Paint Care) From the Horse's Mouth - good info on Meguiars' products

[greg]

Every once in a while you see a post loaded with truly useful information. This is one - a response from a meguiar's rep to a question on the Autopia board about the Meguiars' "glazes", "polishes", and "claener polishes." I thought it was worth including here.

Originally posted by Mike Phillips
(Pulling on his hip waders, Mike ventures into muddy waters to try and clear things up)

Hi all,

According to Meguiar?s terminology,

M-0316 Machine Glaze i.e., #3
M-0516 New Car Glaze i.e. #5
M-0716 Show Car Glaze i.e. #7
M-1008 Plastic Polish i.e. #10
M-4516 Boat/RV Polish i.e. #45
M-8132 Hand Polish i.e. #81
A-2116 Deep Crystal Polish

are all "Non-abrasive", "Pure Polishes".

Meguiar's manufactures two kinds of polishes,

Pure Polishes and Cleaner/Polishes

Meguiar's Cleaner/Polishes do contain diminishing abrasives, while the Pure Polishes do not.

Meguiar's Pure Polishes contain no ingredients with the intended purpose of removing or abrading paint. The purpose of a Meguiar's pure polish is to create beauty, i.e. they are for making the paint look good.

Sometimes, I have to remind myself? that's what I like about detailing cars? making the paint look it?s best.

Meguiar's Pure Polishes are for creating brilliant, high gloss, depth of color and a good looking finish overall.

They were never intended to offer long lasting protection the way a natural or synthetic wax type product does.

They do offer a "type" of protection, in that they replace the original oils automotive paints are made with as they are lost over time and exposure to inclement weather, repeated washings and normal wear and tear. It is these oils ?in? the paint that keep the paint from oxidizing while at the same time enabling the paint to offer depth and darkness.

Have you ever seen your reflection in an extremely oxidized finish? It's the oils in the paint, together with the pigment, that replicates a "Mirror Action". Take away the oils and all your left with is the pigment and the resinous cell-wall structure. It is the oils that, together with the pigment enable you to "see your reflection".

I'm not sure when #7 was introduced, but I know the formula has been unchanged since the 1940's. Back then it was called, "Automobile Sealer & Reseal Glaze?". It was sold as a Glaze to keep new finishes looking new, (with consistent use), and restore the depth of color, gloss and shine to neglected finishes after first using H-4, which was a paint cleaner for use by hand. Today you know H-4 as M-0416, Heavy-Cut Cleaner which is now only for use by machine.

#7 can be used with "100% cotton Turkish Toweling" to remove fine scratches and swirls on traditional paints, like lacquer, varnish and enamel finishes, but the abrading ability comes from the nap, i.e. the little cotton loops, acting as a very mild type of abrasive, while the rich, oil content of the #7 acts to lubricate the surface.

These two products alone cannot remove scratches.

Alone, the #7 just glides along the surface. Try this with some #7 and your clean finger.
Alone, a dry towel could potentially scratch the surface.

Working together, they form a "synergy" that allows a person to remove light scratches and other minor defects while smoothing out the surface of traditional finishes to create a "Hand Rubbed", show car shine.

Undoubtedly, many of you have heard of "Hand Rubbed" lacquer paint jobs?

How do you think the old timers did it? And more importantly? What do you think they used to rub these lacquer finishes out with?


What's the difference between #3, #5 and #7?

#3 is formulated to be a very "wet" polish for use with a rotary buffer.
This allows a users to "work" it longer without the #3 drying or gumming-up under time, heat and pressure.

Can it still be used by "Hand?" Why yes of course it can be. I have met many people who prefer to use #3 by hand, over #7. It's called, "Personal Preference. "You'll never know what works best for you until you try it yourself. This product doesn't actually dry, it will "skin", but not dry white like a wax or like the #5 New Car Glaze.

#5 is formulated to be a very dry polish. (compared to both #3 and #7)
#5 is formulated to actually "dry", and this is preferred by some users, especially in high humidity, or wet climates. The name, "New Car Glaze", is admittedly somewhat confusing, considering this product came out in the early 1950's for use on "New Cars" back then. New cars back then were getting painted with Acrylic Lacquers and later Acrylic Enamels.

#7 is the richest, heaviest oil content pure polish Meguiar's makes.
#7 is one of Meguiar's most famous products among serious car enthusiast around the world. And while it may be more difficult to remove from today's modern finishes, it's pretty hard to beat the results it can achieve when properly applied and removed from a properly prepared finish. It has no cleaning ability in and among itself. On a properly prepared finish, it can make the paint look "Wet". That is because of its high oil content. A characteristic people who "Show" cars look for in a product.

I often see posts about washing with Dawn to get the oils off, another way of positioning this would be, "Wash with Dawn to make the paint look duller". If you want to create a beautiful finish, then oil-based products will help you to do this. Detergents and harsh solvents will dull your finish. YMMV


To clear up a few misconceptions I have seen in other posts, as mentioned above, #3, #5 and #7 fall into the "Pure Polish" category. When these products were created, they were specifically formulated to work on non-catalyzed thermoplastic finishes. These paints are very porous.

Today's modern catalyzed low VOC finishes are far different in their molecular structure than traditional finishes, they have a very tight pore structure and this is one of the reasons they are so much harder than traditional paints.

With this in mind, it is easy to see how people group #3, #5 and #7 as products that "fill". In fact, they will fill swirls on modern finishes because these finishes tend to be very hard and Meguiar?s #3, #5 and #7 pure polishes were never designed to work on, (i.e. abrade) catalyzed finishes.

When you use #3, #5 and #7 to try to remove scratches and swirls from catalyzed finishes, your asking these products to do something they were never designed to do. Harder paints require a different approach to remove swirls.

This led to the introduction Meguiar's #9 Swirl Remover, a "Cleaner/Polish".

This new product was basically, a pure polish with a "little" cleaning ability, emphasis on "little". That is to say, Meguiar's cleaner/polishes are more "polish" than they are "cleaner".

Meguiar's cleaner/polishes are "in-between" products. They are intended for use when a dedicated paint cleaner, (or compound) is too aggressive, i.e. it offers too much abrading power, while a dedicated, or "Pure" polish is too gentle and it doesn't offer enough cleaning and/or abrading ability to move small particles of paint and thus remove the defect and level the surface.

#81 Hand Polish is a Pure Polish, formulated to work better on modern paints than Meguiar?s traditional, pure polishes, #3, #5, and #7. Meguiar's realizes there is both a need and a want for a "Pure" polish, (i.e. non-abrasive) for use in the refinishing industry where beauty, high gloss and depth are desired without the wax/polymer ingredients that offer "long lasting characteristics", or interfere with surface adhesion issues in body shop environments.



I hope this helps?

Mike

[rvacha]

Thanks Greg, that was great! I wonder though... do modern water-borne paints such as the type BMW has been using for several years actually have any oil in them? If so, do polymer waxes help to preserve the oil and/or reduce oxidation? Conversely, do polymer waxes make it essentially impossible to restore lost oil?

[greg]

RVACHA - I pretty skeptical about that part of his essay. The oils in polishes and glazes do act as "fillers" to reduce the appearance of swirls, but I don't think there is any "oil" in paint, certainly not that can be replenished or fed. My understanding is that what really harms paint (other than abrasion) is prolonged exposure to oxygen and ultraviolet light. Most modern waxes, whether natural or polymer, provide some protection againt both.

But I do appreciate the info concerning the differences between old and new paints, and most importantly the differences and intent of the different products described.