# Meguiars Solo System Review



## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

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.

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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.


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## PJS (Aug 18, 2007)

When you tested Mystique (forgive me for being lazy and not looking for that thread) did you use the same wool pads, or particular foam ones?
For the purpose of this post, if I assume you used foam ones, why didn't you do the same with the Solo?

I know it's deemed a "system", but then so too is System One X, and I have neither a rotary nor the specific pad, but yet manage to get superb results in one hit on the Accord's paintwork with the Cyclo and its yellow pads (medium firmness).
It took a few hits on an XK-R's paint, and the chap whom I was assisting thought it had better bite than PowerGloss when using it with his rotary.

Had a play with Mystique today, and agree on the oily nature. Unfortunately I had left the yellow pads behind, and ended up using the firmer orange ones instead - the softer green ones weren't really cutting it!
Again, one hit fixed the swirls and some scratches - the RiDS weren't tackled too vigorously since I'd no PDG to monitor removal amount.
Finishes off nicely IMO, and definitely should be looked at as a viable alternative to multiple Menz/3M's.


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## spitfire (Feb 10, 2007)

Interesting read Dave, as usual :thumb:


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

PJS said:


> When you tested Mystique (forgive me for being lazy and not looking for that thread) did you use the same wool pads, or particular foam ones?
> For the purpose of this post, if I assume you used foam ones, why didn't you do the same with the Solo?


Mystique was tested, like the Solo, with both foam and wool pads albeit in different threads - there's a Mystique review, and also a "Day of Wool" review for the Mystique as well.

For cutting, Solo was tested on its own wool pads (heavy and light cutting), Mystique on the Makita wool pad which is as near as damn it equivalent to the heavy cutting Solo wool... And it has since been used by me on LakeCounty light cutting wool.

For finishing, both were tested using Meguiars yellow foams - Mystique I use regularly on Meguiars W8006 by rotary during details, and also in test, Solo was tested on its own system's Diamond foam which is again very similar to the W8006 foam. So a strong basis for comparison of the relative finishing abilities of the two products.

I agree that the Solo product certainly could be used on other wools and foams, playing around yesterday revealed it to be equally well performing on LakeCountry White Light Cutting wool, but for the purposes of this review I wanted to review the Solo system - so its polish/compound, wool and foams.


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## Bigpikle (May 21, 2007)

nice one Dave, been waiting to hear more about this polish and these pads from you, as I picked up these today 










I have read on Autopia many good reviews of the Solo wool pads, although most seem to use alternative polishes with them. IIRC the Solo polish itself is aimed at fresh paint?

I am also interested to find out about the relative cut of the pads. I know you have said wool pads cut fast and hard, yet again i have read from many users that they can also be quite mild and compare easily to a foam polishing pad? Indeed the blue Edge pad is sold as a finishing pad, and while we probably all have different viewsabout the quality that we should call 'finished', it does make me wonder if they can be used for much lighter work as well?

As with all these things I guess it is trial and error and each person may get different results, so am hoping for dry weather tomorrow to try these in anger myself with Mystique in particular, and see how they do with defect removal on the Audi scrap bonnet 

EDIT

I just received this advice on Autopia from a very experienced wool pad user, and it makes me wonder if there is a entirely different technique to using these pads to achieve different results. I know this is only 1 persons viewpoint, but might be worth looking at...

_
1.2k is about the sweet spot for speed. I never go higher than this unless the polish directions say to, or unless the clear coat is really hard.

Remember to use about twice the amount of polish with wool as you do with foam.

Also, your working time will be cut in half with wool. It really does do all the work of foam in half the time.

I don't use any more pressure than slightly more than the weight of the machine. Using too much pressure with wool will cause major hologram problems.
_


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

There is a big difference in the relative cut of the two Solo pads, and again of the Light Cutting LakeCountry wool, but I have not tried any finishing wool pads and the light cutting Solo Megs pad was still happily capable of shifting a good 10um quickly from soft Honda paints... not really a big achievement but worthy of note and not ideal for finishing...

Re: the advice on Autopia, I tended to find higher speeds suited me better in terms of correction, but fully agree on the weight issue... pushing down I have seen dramatically increase the cut and the tendacy to hologram - you may think tghis is a good thing, but I tested this side by side on the Honda panel you see there for a little bit this evening just for fun as its near dead now with little clear left... Applying pressure saw it through the clear and damaging the paint much quicker than keeping the pressure off, so this is a key safety point in my eyes to using wool pads.

You'll also have seen from my pics that I am using more polish than for foam, good lines of polish sitting on the paint and applied to the paint rather than the wool itself, as I prefer to pick the polish up into the wool from the machine on. 

And yes, work time for equivalent defect removal is much shorter... the test you see above is on artificially poor paint - you wont really see that in the real world and for that reason, far fewer passes would ultimately be necessary so you can see just how fast working the wool would end up being... You really cannot work it for too long as you will be through the paint much quicker than you may think, especially on softer paints and once its gone, its gone. Key is light to no pressure, work only for a few passes at a time and check thickness and correction levels regularly.


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## drive 'n' shine (Apr 22, 2006)

Great review (as always) Dave, I'm really liking my Solo kit, and have had a few occassions lately where i have found it to be a godsend.


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## farcrygamer (Sep 6, 2007)

Amazing review Dave:thumb:

I really think you should publish an encyclopedia of detailing:lol:

What do you people who tried this system think of Meguiar's statement that solo system is only for fresh paint jobs and not for restoration of an old deteriorated paint?

It could be just a marketing trick to attract more body shops in the states to give them a bit of attention and buy some stuff from them as 3m is a king of bodyshops over there.


Or is there anything else behind that statement? 

As an inorganic materials chemist I can't really think why this solo stuff shouldn't be used on a cured oem paint.

I am considering doing a small Transmission Electron Microscope and x-ray diffraction research to reveal the true shape, size and composition of abrasive particles in those new all in one systems. 

It will be a hard night job in the lab but i think it could be interesting for all of us:thumb:

Looking forward to reading your opinions of that ,,fresh paint job" statement

Cheers
Igor:wave:


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## PJS (Aug 18, 2007)

From what I know, it's the manufacturing plants that are looking to reduce costs where they can, and time spent polishing on the line, is one area.
So, the single polish dual pad scenario is an attractive avenue for various reasons.


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## farcrygamer (Sep 6, 2007)

PJS said:


> From what I know, it's the manufacturing plants that are looking to reduce costs where they can, and time spent polishing on the line, is one area.
> So, the single polish dual pad scenario is an attractive avenue for various reasons.


_ totaly agree with you about that.

The only thing that makes me suspicios is meg's statement about fresh paint job application only._


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## PJS (Aug 18, 2007)

I can only presume they are using less aggressive abrasives, and some older fully cured paints might need something 'more' in order to get the same benefit from the system.
There's supposed to be some *******/loose tie between System One X, and Mark V Mystique, so if you were interested, but for older paint, then either of those (water vs oil based) would be a better proposition.
I've test both with the Cyclo, using foam only, and can honestly say they work very well indeed.
On soft paint like Honda's (5 yo Accord) I can get away with a medium pad, and get nearly (sometimes fully) 100% correction in one hit.


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## farcrygamer (Sep 6, 2007)

Thanks very much for that,

I used mistique with very good success on my neighbors 5years old ford mondeo.

Tons of swirls removed with sonus white polishing 6" pad and the finish was LSP ready. Unfortunately don't have a camera:wall:.

If solo works like that then it should be perfectly fine.

In two great reviews Dave's and Epoch& Steve's one solo performed well with cured paint.

That's what led me to believe that meg's statement was a good marketing trick to attract bodyshops
Cheers:thumb:


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