Well I purchased some of the CarPro Fixer Compound a few weeks ago and had chance to rty it out on a metallic black Ford Edge this weekend. The paint was quite swirled from going through the car wash. Nothing too deep, just widespread on all the panels. So I decided to try the Fixer compound and used a 5.5" orange Uber pad on PC to how well it corrects. It did a good job of removing swirls but it did leave a pretty good haze on the paint. It did not have as much cut as I expected and I thought the nano size of the abrasive particles would translate into little to no haze. I then decided to compare it with something that I have used many times before. I was going to use M105 but the car didn't need something that aggressive so I choose Megs Ultimate Compound. The Fixer did not seem anywhere near as aggressive as M105 so the UC seem like a closer match. The Megs UC totally kicked the Fixer's arse. It did way more and faster correction and the finish had noticeably less haze. The gloss left after using UC was nearly LSP ready. The Fixer not even close. I did the rest of the car with UC. I find myself using UC more and more when M105 would be overkill. I think that UC may have some paint cleansers in it also. So my question is, has anyone found a good pad combo to use with the Fixer that gives good results so that it could actually be used as a 1-stepper? I want to find a use for this polish.
I would see how Fixer works with the Green Uber pad, you might be using a pad that might be too aggressive. Also, did you do an IPA wipedown after each? I am not sure if the Fixer or UC have any fillers in them but you might be able to get a better guage how they compare in the event UC has some filling properties and might be hiding some micro-marring.
I have used it on a few jobs with good success. Paint hardness, pad choice and technique will all come into play. I agree that it doesn't have the cut of 105. Nothing does. I find that Fixer will remove most wash induced damage and finishes down as well as Power Finish. 85RD or 106FA will leave a glossier finish. I have used it with my yellow B&S pads and left little to no hazing at all. If you are getting hazing, try slowing the speed down after cutting and "jewel" it a bit before turning the machine off. On softer paints, this will make a huge difference in how it looks. Fixer is not gods gift to polishes, but rather is a very good choice for the guy who wants to be able to tidy up his daily driver in one step and doesn't want to spend a lot on polish.
Thanks for the responses. I was planning on going over the car again with a green Uber pad with the fixer, but I was too disappointed with it after using the orange pad. I was using speed 6 on the PC too remove the swirls and then dropping down to about 4.5 with lighter pressure to try to coax some more gloss out of it but it wasn't really happening. Especially on curvy panels. I also found it difficult to remove the polish. I was using about 3-4 m&m sized drops at a time for the usual 2x2 area. I did the 2 front fenders and 3/4 of the hood before switching over to UC. The Fixer is probably not a good choice for black then. I am going to try it with purple wool or the black TufBuf wool pads and see how it works out. Maybe rotary is better than PC with this stuff.
I used Fixer again yesterday on a slightly scratches up Audi. It was a medium grey metallic. The panels finished out very nice but I did have to follow up with a finishing polish on the black plastic pillars. I was using my PC with B&S Yellow cutting pad. I'll get some pics up later.
