DJ Lime Prime - Correction & Filling by Rotary

Dave KG · Jun 20, 2011

Dodo Juice (DJ) Lime Prime is a lightly abrasive paint cleanser that was developed for use by hand or machine to prepare paint finishes for the application of a wax. In my eyes, this product was designed for either enhancing a finish by hand where a machine polish is not possible or for use after machine correction to prepare the finish ready for the wax. That is to say, in my eyes, I don't see Lime Prime as a correctional polish per se, but rather a very light finishing product designed for either an enhancement to the finish or for removal of very light machine trails prior to waxing, or simply to cleanse a machined finish ready for waxing (though I would prefer the non abrasive Lime Prime Lite for this latter task as I would have no need for abrasives following a full machine polish with dedicated correction and finishing polishes).

However, this product is also finding uses to get more correction from it, and for single-stage enhancement which is a testament to the flexibility of the product - a single stage cleanser with light abrasives has a lot of potential uses! For this reason, I have tested this product out here for both correction and refinement purposes, and sought to see how much actual correction I was achieving and how much masking I was achieving with my pad choices, and my machine technique.

First of all, a gauntlet - and let's face it, a bit of an unfair gauntlet! Red VW Golf door, as it arrived to us - full of swirls and deeper marks!

Now, bearing in mind that Lime Prime is a lightly abrasive paint cleanser, it was going to have its work cut out here! So - to give it a helping hand, I upped the pad, using a heavy polishing pad. This way I would benefit from both the abrasives in Lime Prime and the bite of the pad under the lubrication from Lime Prime. I used a Zenith point method, working up to 1500rpm and working at this speed until the product nearly vanished before refining at 900 and then 600rpm. This is a high speed for a finishing paint cleanser, but I was finding I upped my correction at these speeds and working Lime Prime for a longer time has in the past helped ensure it gets the most out of what the product has to offer in terms of correction. The results...

For a product that is very light abrasive, I reckon that is a notable amount of correction! However, the next stage was to wipe the panel down using IPA (twice), and then re-assess the finish and the results after wipe down were:

You can still see that correction has been achieved, but revealed following a wipe down was hologramming in the finish which the oils of the Lime Prime had been masking. This effect is the same as Ultrafina SE with this pad, and I believe what you are seeing here is primarily pad marring which the oils in these products have masked. So, while I was able to up my correction, I have done so at the expense of leaving pad marring in the finish.

At this stage, it would then be possible to follow this with Lime Prime again on a finishing pad, thoroughly worked, which in many test I have carried out has given a hologram free finish - it is very important however to be aware of this potential effect, and take appropriate steps regarding pad choice to guard against it. (Note - filling, or masking, can also be beneficial on thin paint where full correction is not possible, so it should not be vilified - it is a case of being aware of what correction is being achieved by what means!).

However, to present a bit more of a challenge here - I corrected the panel using 3M Fast Cut Plus, deliberately going in hard and wiping down with IPA to reveal some nice severe FC+ hologramming:

(Note for the eagle eyes here - this test is actually a two parter, 3M Ultrafina SE is being tested alongside Lime Prime and will be written up in a different thread, however owing to my forgetting to photograph the holograms on Lime Prime's section, I am using the pictures of the holograms on the 3M section. Both areas were machined the same with FC+, hopefully people will trust that these pics are a true representation of what the finish looked like )

This time, using a finishing pad and working Lime Prime up to 1500rpm again, refining at 900 and 600, we see the following results...

Definitely an improvement, however you can still see faint evidence of the FC+ trails. Again, this is something that you would likely expect to see, FC+ is an aggressive compound and to go straight to Lime Prime on a finishing pad from it is in my eyes a totally wishful effort and not one for using in practice. However, I have tested this way to highlight a key point - again, a wipe down with IPA and we get the following results:

More of the hologramming appears to have returned... Now, I have no way of knowing whether this has been created by the Lime Prime step or not but I strongly suspect that it has not been as many tests with Lime Prime on "perfect" finishes show that it does not inflict marring of its own providing it is correctly worked by rotary! What I suspect has happened here is that some of the FC+ hologramming has been masked by the Lime Prime in addition to what has been corrected. Comparing the treated an untreated sections in a 50/50 (after IPA wipedown), and you can see there has definitely been a degree of correction:

However, the IPA wipe also suggests that under these testing conditions, Lime Prime also has shown itself capable of masking. A leap of faith here, and purely a thought, but I would suggest that hologramming is the most easily masked type of marring compared to larger swirls and there is always a risk that your finishing combinations are actually lightly masking this rather than fully correcting it!

Thoughts

Okay - so these tests have shown that Lime Prime is capable of both correcting and also masking paint finishes. It is strongly pad dependent, and you can get a notable degree of correction from it. However, I would ensure that unless you are aiming for filling (or simply not caring), an IPA wipe is essential (as it is with all polishes!), and if you are using more aggressive pads with Lime Prime, following with Lime Prime on a finishing pad would be highly recommended to ensure any light trails are fully removed. Additionally, if you have more severe holograms, it is very worthwhile to consider an intermediate step before going straight to a very light finishing polish. Lime Prime can certainly refine paintwork effectively, but in my opinion it should be remembered that it is a very lightly abrasive product and to treat it as such. Its oily nature makes it a real joy to polish with on the rotary polisher, allowing for long work times (or short if you wish) and smooth polishing - in fact, if you are learning machine control, it is a great product for this task as it is very user friendly. However, just be careful with expecting too much from it - it was designed as a lightly abrasive paint cleanser, and it can be a victim of it own success to be taken out as a correction polish as its flexibility allows it to be used outside its design remit.