3M Polish - Ultrafine (60168): Review

The much talked about "big three" of the 3M polishes in detailing most recently provide excellent solution to paintwork correction and finishing: Fast Cut Plus, Extra Fine Compound and Ultrafina.

The 3M Ultra Fine Polish is a less well known light cutting and finishing polish, which to me is aiming itself around the PO106FF Final Finish and Meguiars #80 region of the market, an area not covered by the above 3M products. In terms of cut, I would rate it as falling between the Ultrafina and the Extra Fine Compound... but just how good is it, and what is is capable of?

Well, for today's trial of it, it was going to face medium swirling on Mercedes paint, which has shown itself to be quite hard! The swirls to be tackled:





I set up the Makita with a black waffle polishing pad (3M)...



applied a couple of beads of polish to the primed pad...





And proceeded to work the polish. I found the liked to work at slower speeds, or higher speeds but there seemed little benefit in going much above 1500rpm other than reducing the work time by a small amount... So my preferred method for use was the Zenith Point technique, roughly as follows:

• Spread at 600rpm, 1 pass
• Begin working at 1200rpm, 2 - 4 passes
• Work at 1500rpm, 10 passes until residue clear
• Refine at 1200rpm, 2 - 3 passes

The product worked very similarly to Menzerna Final Finish, felt much better lubed and worked a lot nicer than the Extra Fine Compound (3M's current weak link) in my eyes, and was more like Ultrafina from 3M. The residue went oily fairly quickly after the speed was upped to 1500rpm, and it did seem to break down faster than 106FF Final Finish, but worked with the same well lubed ease allowing the rotary to glide nicely. Work time a little shorter than 106FF, and notably shorter than #80.

The results:





Correction wise, we see a good 70% correction on this paint, indicating a cut roughly equivalent to 106FF and #80 on this car. Finish wise it was very impressive, the nice oily nature of the polish allowed the polish to be worked well and allowed the finish to be burnished to a good hologram free gloss.

Before passing judgement though, a wipedown with IPA was performed and we can see the correction is genuine, so no fillers apparent in this product:







Now, to try it as a dedicated finishing polish rather than a correction polish, so the marks were corrected using Fast Cut Plus and a light hologramming was left:







Now, the 3M Polish Ultra Fine was applied as above but with an extra 2 passes at 900rpm to further burnish the finish to leave:





So, the polish is also good at refining a finish and leaving a clear hologram free LSP ready finish! And on this hard paint, this finish competes with #80 and 106FF very well... following it with 85RD Final Finish, the king of finishing polishes, shows little tenable change to the gloss:





With this is mind, this product seems to be to 3M what 106FF is to Menzerna - an excellent all round light cutting polish that can be used for either correction of light to medium swirls, or for finishing to LSP ready with a crystal clear finish and high gloss. Only 85RD or Ultrafina SE could really add a little to the clarity of the finish which is to be expected as they are dedicated finishing polishes, and they lack the ability to correct which is possessed by this Ultrafine Polish. So, while it may not be the ultimate in finishing, it is definitely the better all rounder and shows itself to be a very worthy addition to any range of polishes for those machine polishing.

Indeed, in much the same way as I would recommend 106FF or 85RD from Menzerna if you could only have one of them, I would recommend this polish over the Ultrafina owing to being a better all-rounder. So if you are trying to minimise the amount of different polishes you purchase, this is an excellent choice also by being a light cutting and also finishing polish.

All in all, a very good polish which competes well with the Menzerna 106FF Final Finish

 

Thank you for the write-up Dave, i was wondering about the Ultra Fine polish for awhile now. Great information you provide.:thumb:

 

Hey Dave, how was the dusting compared to Menzerna?

 

On thing I must add is that a lot of people have experienced defect return up to several months after polishing when using 106ff as anything more then to correct holograms.

 

Every time I finally pull the trigger on an item or a supply after weeks of reading everyone's good opinions on it and how great it is, someone who's opinion I highly respect on these forums posts of a better choice than the one I just recently made!
Yep, just bought Ultrafina after weeks of reading about it.
Thanks Dave!

 

Dave, great review... I'm curious what your work area is, because I can't imagine doing 15 or so passes with any of the polishes in my current collection, which do include #80, 82 and 106ff

 

Great information Dave. Its these sorts of carefully crafted posts that make trawling through threads worthwhile.

 

Hi Dave. Did you use the black pad with the fast-cut as well ?

 

Terrific review Dave, thanks for sharing