Today was the first major run out of the Meguiars Solo system for me - a "one-liquid" polish system, where you use a single polish/compound with non-diminshing abrasives (Meguiars call them Unigrit abrasives) with varying aggressions of pad: from heavy cutting aggressive wool for major defect removal to light polishing for finishing purposes. An example of this I have personally used before (and rate very highly) is MarkV Mystique which is a very effective one-liquid system, that is also very easy to use. So this was the benchmark Meguiars was playing to for me today... I mentioned heavy wool for severe marring removal... So lets get some severe defects in a Peugeot 307 door (medium to hard paint through testing): The weapons of choice for this test: Makita rotary, with Makita backing plate. Meguiars Solo Burgandy wool pad (aggressive), and the Meguiars Solo liquid: With wool, I tend to prefer applying the polish directly to the paint: Now, from playing around with the Solo liquid I find it a bit dryer than Mystique with a shorter time the polish stays happily active, so my technique for use is to suit that... My best results came from the following: Spread the polish at 600rpm, 1 pass to pick up into wool, 1 pass to spread Further spread and begin to work at 1200rpm, 2 passes Begin working at 1500rpm, 2 or 3 passes Work until defects removed at 2000rpm, the above took 8 further passes No attempt was made to finish down here, and I wouldn't recommend this with wool. In order to get a finish with good clarity and depth, a dedicated finishing polish (or at least moving to a finishing pad in the case of one-liquid systems) is required, so any passes above and beyond what is required to remove the defects is simply wasting paint. And wool removes paint quickly, so this should be paid close attention too! Results of this stage... Excellent removal, a few deeper RDS left, a second hit for fewer fast passes sorted these: Note that the finish achieved here is not of the quality that you would call LSP ready, but then this is not to be expected when using an aggressive wool pad. So now its time for the second stage of the system, using the "Diamond" Yellow polishing pad with the Solo liquid. The foam here feel very similar to that used in the flat W8006 polishing pads, but is claimed to reduce polishing chatter from the rotary - more on that later Worked as follows, the Solo delivered an LSP ready finish: Spread at 600rpm, 1 pass Begin to work at 1200rpm, 2 or 3 passes Work at 1800rpm, 8 - 10 passes Refine at 1200rpm, 2 passes Now these unigrit polishes are not meant to respond best to the Zenith point method, but its the technique that gets the best for me so I'm sticking to it Results... Sorted. :thumb: Approximate paint removal here was 20um! Easy test over Now for something to challenge the finishing abilities of this poroduct, and something to give the light cutting wool pad a run out... Honda Civic Type R door, Knighthawk black, paint known from testing to be butter soft. Some nice defects... Checking the thickness of the paint revealed all sub-100um with many in the 80s, and I know through testing on this panel that strike through occurs at 70um approx. Not a lot of paint to play with alas, so great care would have to be taken as wool cuts hard and fast on harder finishes! Weapons of choice this time, Meguiars Solo liquid on a Yellow Light Cutting Wool pad, applied as follows: Spread at 600rpm, 1 pass to pick up polish into the wool, 1 pass to spread Continue to spread at 1200rpm, 2 passes Work at 1500 - 1800rpm: 2 or 3 passes at a time, checking thickness after each little set Stop after 8 passes, thickness down to 80um average (15um drop) so as not to risk CC failure Alas, not all defects were removed but this highlights the need to take into account what you are removing paint wise and the necessity to stop when it is safe, which isn't always after all the defects have been removed! I would never recommend the use of wool with no PTG! One issue with this wool pad was the amount of shedding was high compared to other wool pads, which didn't inspire confidence with use straight out of the box - will keep a check on this to see if it abates, or if the pad is just going to moult away!! Results: Again, finish looks not to bad from wool alone, mild hologramming: Now, the challenge - finishing! Switch to the polishing pad, and this is where the Solo began to struggle... With a shortish work time and quite a dry nature, it seemed to struggle on this softer paint. Applying normally gave limited number of higher speed passes before the polish was drying and the pad chattered and squealed. Yes, the diamond foam design squealed, but whether or not it would have been better or worse with a flat pad is yet to be seen! After the polish had gone too dry to work further, it was clear the finish was still hologrammed - better than it was, but not perfect. So, the following adapted technique was used, which seemed to work, in order to get over the fast drying issue: Spread at 600rpm, 1 pass Begin to work at 1200rpm, 2 passes Work at 1500rpm until polish dries and pad begins to sing, 6 - 8 passes Spritz pad and paint with Last Touch Begin to work again at 1200rpm, 2 passes Work at 1500rpm again until pad starts to sign, 4 - 6 passes Spritz with Last Touch again Begin to work at 1200rpm again, 2 passes Work at 1500rpm till polish dries, 4 - 6 passes Fairly convoluted, but it got there in the end: Still, I was not quite convinced with this finish, so out with the 3M Ultrafina on a Meguiars W9006 tan finishing pad, and this sharpened up the finish nicely: So although it could finish LSP ready with effort on this softer paint, it did not deliver the best results and the finishing polish delivered more... as one would expect really, as the abrasives do not diminish and on wool are capable of aggressive cutting. ----------------------------------------------- Summary: So how does the Solo stack up? Bench mark was Mystique. And ultimately, I ended today's testing preferring the Mystique for its oilier nature and longer work times, and easier finishing on softer paints... it should be noted though that the Solo can cut a little harder. PROS: Aggressive cutting action, even on harder paints, for fast and effective correction of severe marring Two wools allows easy adaptation of cut level for hard or soft paints Good finishing, especially on harder paints, with polishing pad Ease of use on wool, on foam less so Good quality foam pad feels like it will stand up to the test of time CONS: Shedding of light cutting wool pad Polish struggled on softer paint with limited work time, requiring adaptation to work to its best Finish, while acceptable, could still be improved on Shorter work time compared to Mystique Overall the Solo system has a lot going for it, and esepcially for defect removal and cutting it is very effective. What lets it down (shedding aside!) is the system's harder to use nature than Mystique, especially on softer paints where the Solo seems dryer than the oily Mystique. Its sill effective, but for me doesn't live up to its main competitor here... And at the end of the day, I found myself not only preferring Mystique, but also preferring to use #84 on wool (much oilier), and follow with #80 on foam. The wool pads though are very nice, as are the foam ones even if they dont eliminate the rotary chatter. 7/10 from me.
Great write up Dave !! Have you tried the Menzerna wool pads? They are my preferred. Using them with M105, IP PO203, IP RD3.02 give amazing results.
Great review Dave KG. I really enjoyed reading it...Thank you very much for sharing...:thumb::thumb::thumb:
