# Heavy Correction by Wool Challenge : 3M vs. Wolf's vs. Meznerna vs. Meguiars



## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

The purpose of this little test by Gordon and myself was to try out some cutting compounds when applied using a middle of the road wool pad for application - testing the correction abilities for severe damage over a wide area. Wool has a reputation for aggressive correction and large paint removal rates, however its use should never be disregarded as you can use it to achieve excellent correction and minimise paint removal but cutting your work time short to ensure you are not removing paint unnecessarily (you will want to refine the finish with a finishing polish anyway  ).

However, for fun in this test, we used the polishes for longer sets to give the wool a chance to refine a little further, though still on the understanding we would want to be finishing with finishing polishes (which will be a subject of a different thread .

So - the products under test...

*3M Fast Cut Plus*: One of the older school cutting compounds now, but never one I would discount owing to its cutting abilities and flexibility over a large variety of finishes.

*Wolf's WP-6S*: Designed apparently for softer finishes, you may think it strange we have chosen this on on the Mercedes bonnet test panel... however, this finish has been resprayed and the paintwork is more middle of the road and not a ceramiclear finish, so we have opted for the 6S in this test (though perhaps we would see greater correction from 6N...)

*Menzerna PO85RD3.02 Intensive Polish / Power Finish*: the curve ball! Not Menzern'a compounds, but instead, the middle of the road workhorse polish - here out of interest and for amusement 

*Meguiars #105*: Unigrit abrasives compound, and when out on wool this is designed for the correction of aggressive marks - tested here with a little twist following some advice from Kevin Brown :thumb:

Test panel details: Mercedes C-Class, blue metallic, resprayed... chosen because the respray has some small area orange peel and hazing that was spoiling the clarity of the finish, and we wanted to see how the wool would deal with this in addition to the severe swirls and scratches  We washed it with a yard brush dipped in a muddy puddle to inflict the marks :devil:

** Health warning: on the videos, you will see the panel has been taped up for the sets, with sets including the contour of the bonnet. Personally I would not recommend typical sets go over contours like this, however we were limited by the test panel for where we could get out test areas... so the contour gives a little extra fun to the challenge, but required lighter pressure across it to avoid localised heat and potential paint burning.

*3M Fast Cut Plus*

The test panel before, under the Sun Gun:




























The strip lighting shows the real extent of the damage... not also the haziness from the respray work.










3M Fast Cut Plus was applied, as tradition, with 3M Ultrafina SE to give additional lubrication. Lakecountry Purple Wool pad was used for application, and the product worked at 2000rpm until it dried out and began to drag the wool...



The product worked well, panel ran pretty cool for the work (certainly compared to foam). The results of two such applications:




























under the striplight you can see the biggest difference, and this is used to look for deeper marks remaining: you can see the odd one here and there. Also, a significant enhancement in clarity now that the haziness has been addressed with the compound:










Moment of truth, following two wipedowns to remove as best as we could the oils and fillers...
































































With the longer sets, less hologramming was evident but you can still see some, as expected, which will be refined with a finishing polish (separate test  ).

Overall, good levels of correction of the severe defects, and decent clarity left behind as well for the aggressive process. The benchmark from one of the most popular compounds in correction.

*Wolf's WP-6S*

The panel before (Gordon had the compound on the panel before I could photograph it! :lol...





































Gordon did the polishing this time, working the Wolf's at slower speeds than the 3M as we found that higher speeds caused the product to dry out prematurely where as keeping the speeds below 1500rpm didn't give this effect...



The results following two applications:














































The finish was good overall under the sun gun, showing minimal hologramming, slightly less in the flesh than Fast Cut Plus. However, the level of correction achieved for the deeper marks seemed significantly lower than Fast Cut (and the other compounds on test here)... indeed, despite trialling a variety of applicaiton methods, we could not get the WP-6S to match other compounds for correction so perhaps we really need to be using WP-6N despite this paint not being overly hard, or ceramiclear. The clarity left was a bit less too, leaving some of the haziness of the poor spray work behind. Still - good levels of correction, that cannot be denied, but compared to the others it just seems to be less (and this is the same on foam too).

Following two panel wipes:























































No real difference in the hologramming suggesting limited or no filling from this compound...

Perhaps using this in combo with a finishing polish would lengthen the work time still further and increase the cut but we still could not get it to match FC+ or even the products below...

*Menzerna PO85RD3.02 Intensive Polish*

The curve ball - yes, we know, this is a middle of the road polish but we just wanted to see how it would perform on wool against these compounds... the panel before:





































This product was worked with the aim to give a little refinement as well, just to see what could be achieved, though we would still expect to see... Working up to 1800rpm, then 2000rpm and back down to refine a little:



The polish had a long working time on wool, shorter than you use it on foam, but it still could work longer and indeed the second set was even longer again. Results achieved:
































































We stood back, impressed. Correction seems greater than the Wolf's compound, and certainly on a par with Fast Cut if not slightly more than this too! Clarity was great (considering the aggressive of the technique), and minor hologramming evident equivalent to the Wolf's... After the wipedown:









































































Impressive results - yes, some hologramming but you would refine that with a finishing or middle polish... what impresses here is the level of cut achieved in comparison to more aggressive compounds - 85RD3.02 competes and appears on a par, or better! As will be the subject of another thread, this good old product from Menzerna has many many uses and is flexible to the extent of some of the unigrit products!

*Meguiars #105*

For a while, often regarded as the pinnacle of flexibility... until P1 came along for a slice of that crown! On wool, this product is designed for aggressive correction, so here's its challenge:





































Application here is using the white wool pad, which is meant to be lighter cutting than the purples used above however we have found that the difference in cut is not really huge and the white wool still delivers the aggressive correction... however, we are using it here with a slightly altered technique after discussion with Kevin Brown, with a prolonged work time and a water spritz to maximise the potential of the compound and using this we found we were able to get better results in terms of both correction adn the refinement of the finish. This does not work with all compounds, P1 also benefits though we found that on wool, Menzerna, Wolf's or 3M didn't benefit. The application method:



The results of this were impressive on the first set, and after two sets...









































































The correction and finish are impressive at this stage, now after the wipedowns:























































A small amount of hologramming in common with the other compounds, and good correction levels as expected from #105 - arguably, the best correction on test and the refinement of the compound was one of the best as well - a strong performer!

*Conclusion*

All of the products here corrected a significant amount of the paint defects, and could refine decently read for the following refinement stages to ensure hologram removal. Of all products, #105 and Intensive Polish seemed to be at the top for correction, FC+ very close behind and WP-6S a little behind that, but none were poor in this department! In terms of surprises, Intensive Polish was the biggest, really punching above its weight in this company and will certainly see the product being used for more aggressive work that would have been previously anticipated! Refinement - all of these products need followed with a refinement stage or two, however the amount of marring left is a key consideration: in this regard, all compounds did well, with perhaps the Wolf's coming out on top with Meguiars and Menzerna very close behind.

An interesting test from our point of view, certainly all products showing great correction abilities, with Menzerna being the biggest surprise


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## gally (May 25, 2008)

Superb Dave. 

I used FC at work for the first time in a long time the other day and was struggling to remove 2000 sanding marks quickly. 3M green pad used.

How many sets should I be looking at? And how long each set? 

I never used to have a problem but I think the difference between older cured paint and fresh resprayed paint is a lot. The 2000 marks seemed to be there after 2 solid sets and only after the 3rd were they away.

Any advice?


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

Loads of factors, as you will know - such as the depth of the marks, the hardness of the paint... this bonnet was resprayed quite some time ago apparently, but was still not the hardest paint I have seen.

With FC+, I have used this quote a lot during my time detailing, and have found that pressure is effective when using it on foam pads: getting it srpead out and working, and then working it at 2000rpm with moderate pressure over the head of the rotary to achieve the results... however, with some deeper marks, I choose to leave them for the sake of paint thickness. An example of FC+ being used for correction on a car is in this thread:

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=181523

Two hits used, and worked at 2000rpm with pressure to give the results, but you still see the odd marks here and there left behind that I viewed as too deep to safely remove.

You could try stepping up to wool pads, checking the removal rates, and seeing if this enhances your achieved cut - it normally does for me, quite significantly, an cuts down the number of sets required on foam. Worth a look


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## gally (May 25, 2008)

Thanks for that Dave. Of course the marks are from de nibbing in my case from the resprayed panels.

But I may have been using the Millwaukee at too low a speed. Can you remember the letter speeds from memory?

It's always an idea to keep heat down on the panel so working at 2000 can build heat up quickly. I did get it eventually but after 3 sets.


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## LeadFarmer (Feb 23, 2011)

Anther great post Dave KG:thumb:

I'd love to see a guide for removing holograms if ever you find time


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

gally said:


> Thanks for that Dave. Of course the marks are from de nibbing in my case from the resprayed panels.
> 
> But I may have been using the Millwaukee at too low a speed. Can you remember the letter speeds from memory?
> 
> It's always an idea to keep heat down on the panel so working at 2000 can build heat up quickly. I did get it eventually but after 3 sets.


I'm sorry, I can't remember off hand the letters and speeds... I used to have a graph of them actually, but that was on a laptop where the hard disk failed and it was one of the files that was lost


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## gally (May 25, 2008)

That's okay Dave. Indeed a hologram test would be great. 

Ended up with some from UF the other day after correcting with FC. Took some time to remove completely.


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## ronwash (Mar 26, 2011)

Dave,thanx very much
just a few days ago i corrected my brothers citroen c5 with p1+LC purple wool pad and a rotary.
the paint needed a lite-medium correction,i gave it one set at 1800 RPM,and after another set at 1000 rpm.
i was supprised with the level of cut,but still a super finish.
all that with "only" p1 and one pad.
hope that you will include p1 in one of your great tests.


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

ronwash said:


> Dave,thanx very much
> just a few days ago i corrected my brothers citroen c5 with p1+LC purple wool pad and a rotary.
> the paint needed a lite-medium correction,i gave it one set at 1800 RPM,and after another set at 1000 rpm.
> i was supprised with the level of cut,but still a super finish.
> ...


P1 (and P2) got a run out against Megs 105 and 205 in this test: http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=222286 :thumb:


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## pete001 (Dec 21, 2006)

Another very interesting test there and thank you for sharing.

Would be interesting to see how Scholl S3 gold stands up against 3M FCP and Megs #105.


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## Dan J (Jun 18, 2008)

Love the Lake country purple wool pads, have recently corrected a 5 series bmw using one with Mirka c20 compound with very good results, made the job alot quicker for me personally and as you have stated they run alot cooler than foam which is a massive bonus in my book.


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## -Ashley- (Nov 19, 2010)

Great test gents, very helpful


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## Carlos_Bilibio (Jun 28, 2011)

Tanks man !!. Very nice !!!


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

I'm a firm believer that the polishes react uniquely to different paint types.

The BMW I'm currently working on is horrific, my reach for combo for heavy correction is sheepskin and M105, although on this occasion it didn't really give the desired effect in 2 sets, so switched to Scholl S3 and it was better but hologrammed quite severely.
Fast-cut on the other hand gave the desired results within the shortest time and left the least amount of additional refining.

On other occasions though FCP hasn't touched the defects, and M105 has been superior, it is beneficial to carry a variety of different brands and not be afraid to test them out, don't just settle for the 1 polish and make do.

I'm not surprised IP 3.02 performed so well, I have had better results using it with foam on med/heavy defects when a more aggressive compound didn't work. I am surprised though it worked so well with wool, would expect it to gum up and clog the fibres.


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

Naturally it is important to have a variety of different polishes to call on - not just the paint will affect the polishes, but also ambient conditions and different people's use... However, having said that, it is also interesting to see how products perform alongside each other on the same paint and similar paints, as this performance can be carried forward to different paint types as well.

No issues with IP gumming up the wool fibres, it worked very well and cleanly and also worked very well with 106FA as an additional lubricant in tests as well. It is a strong performer in a huge range of conditions and application techniques and as such will be the subject of a thread all of its own in due course.


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## Kokopelli (Sep 18, 2009)

pete001 said:


> Another very interesting test there and thank you for sharing.
> 
> Would be interesting to see how Scholl S3 gold stands up against 3M FCP and Megs #105.


+1

I also wonder how that one-step wonder S3 Gold plus a White Spider Sandwich pad would work against #105 on wool. This sandwich pad is said to be the key element to cooler and effective cutting and a good finish. And the best part is 135mm and 85mm of these pads arrived just a few of days ago.


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## Black Widow (Apr 6, 2009)

Gleammachine said:


> I'm a firm believer that the polishes react uniquely to different paint types.


Absolutely. 
Last weekend, I reached significantly more correction on a certain paint with a *orange Lake Country pad and M105* then with a *Meguiars woolpad and M105*.


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## ak07 (Dec 4, 2010)

Intresting work there Dave, keep it up.


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## Racer (Oct 27, 2005)

Dave you should traded the 3.02 for Fast Gloss , it would give the others hard time


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## Porta (Jan 3, 2007)

Nice test, Dave. As always


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## MAXI-MILAN (Oct 26, 2008)

Nice test , Dave don't forget the Farecla G3 .


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## dschia (Sep 21, 2008)

Thanks for sharing Dave..


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## Kevin Brown (May 10, 2008)

Dave-

*Thanks to you and Gordon and for the insightful review.*

I think I am going to have to bite the bullet and start doing videos. I feel the same way as you I think. No experience with it, so it all seems a bit unnerving. But- it sure would be easier to show a procedure as opposed to trying to explain it. The two together certainly would be the best.

Regardless, I look forward to your reviews. 
You seem to look at things in a neutral manner, and discuss what _could_ have changed things, or what _might_ work to change the results.

Our buffing procedures are different, for sure, but that's okay.
That's why there are speed dials, and various pads and compounds.

As for all the chiming in as to the other compounds you should have tried....
Sounds good.

But why not just get to the end of it all.... and test* Meguiar's M101*.
Holy smokes the stuff is so good- it'll change _your_ life, and the guy standing _next_ to you!

I already know how I like using it... and it's not what it was intended for!

If I ever get back to Paisley, we must have a get-together.
Would enjoy meeting you and all of your DW friends.


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## Mad Ad (Feb 7, 2011)

Nice review, I am a big user of the menz RD85 3.02 and use with a flexi pad wool with great results if I need step up a drop of the menz s500 does the job with a longer working time than FC+


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