I can't say how satisfied I am with this rubbing compound. I had about a one square foot area on the hood where I had used a sanding disk and shouldn't have. I tried Meguiars heavy cut compound as well as another recommended brand with no success. Read about the Perfect-it line by 3M and decided to try it. Fantastic results. It took out every bit of the scratches using a Porter Cable 742XP. Great machine. I love 3M products, and this product is one reason why. Cost more, but well worth it.
This is a great product for helping to remove light scratches. My daughter's car had minor scratches and I used this product to help cut the clear and it removed it with no problem. Just keep the buffer moving and use it at a lower speed and you'll have no problem. Detailers use 3M products to help with paint issues. Stop going the cheap route like I've been doing. Now that I know that it works I'll be buying the 32oz bottles.
I used this 3M Perfect-It rubbing compound to fix a botched paint repair on my Trek Emonda ALR, and the results were simply amazing -- a perfect factory-like finish, and best of all, it turned out to be way easier than I had thought.
I made a careless mistake of leaving a wheel on top of my bicycle in the trunk of my car, and of course, the spoke on the wheel ended up scraping off some of the paint on my bike at the point of contact, which was on the chainstay. There were also some other not-as-deep scrape marks on the frame. My bike has an aluminum frame, and the paint scrape was deep enough for the aluminum to show, which was not a good sign. Ignoring it was not an option because it was (a) ugly, and (b) the exposed aluminum might start to corrode.
My bike has a "black pearl" paint finish - a classical black color with a subtle tint. I went to a Honda dealership to pick up a touch-up kit for their "black pearl" finish (not exactly identical, but close enough). The kit came with the paint as well as the clear coat. I had done paint chip touch up on my cars before, so I though I knew what I was doing. I applied the touch-up to the paint chip and the scrape marks, but then I made the unforgivable error of putting the clear coat on too. On hindsight, this was dumb (Honda probably should not have included the clear cost in the kit). The result looked terrible because the clear coat applicator laid down a fairly think and uneven layer of the clear coat. My attempt to try to improve the result by putting more clear coat on only made it look worse. At the end, I had terribly looking bumpy finish, which was almost 1.5 inches long by 0.25 inch wide on the frame. Under the sun, this bumpy patch looked disgusting in contrast with the factory-perfect paint finish surrounding it. This was a classic amateurish botch, and I would rather die than be seen riding a bike with that botched paint patch.
I spent the next few hours feeling dejected. But I started researching what fixes were available for these kinds of paint job botches. In the auto finishing business, these uneven bumpy surfaces are called "orange peel", and they seem to be the result of an uneven application of paint and/or clear cost (exactly my problem). The recommended fix for orange peel is to use a rubbing compound, like this 3M Perfect-It, to smooth out the bumpiness, and then apply a polishing compound after it to restore the shine to the finish. On Amazon, this 3M Perfect-It rubbing compound was available for a reasonable price with same-day delivery, so I thought I would give it a try. The only other options would have been: (a) to pay much more to have someone fix it for me (but don't even know who fixes bicycle finishes?) or (b) throw this bike with its ugly botched paint fix away.
I picked up the rubbing compound from an Amazon locker that evening and watched a couple of videos on youtube demonstrating how to apply this using a power rotary polisher to cars. Since the area I needed to work with was small, I decided to apply the compound by hand. Internet searches showed that application by hand was an option, but there was no indication of how difficult or how long it would take. I decided to give it a try.
I put a dab of the rubbing compound on a microfiber cloth and started going over the orange peel. The rubbing compound contained fine P1200 particles (like a 800 grit sand paper) in a paste, which did not feel gritty at all on my fingers. I went over the orange peel repeatedly, applying more compound when needed, going in different directions. At first, the results were not very noticeable. But gradually, the rubbing took off more and more of the orange peel. After about 20 minutes of repeated rubbing using a total of about 2 tablespoons worth of the compound, the surface became super smooth. The amount of paint the rubbing compound took off was barely noticeable in each pass, so there was no risk of taking off too much. But on the other hand, the rubbing compound was quite effective in smoothing out the paint. This 3M rubbing compound did the job it was designed for, in an amazingly easy way, to produce an almost perfect finish that far exceeded my expectation.
At the end, after about 30 minutes of work, I wiped the area with a clean cloth and examined the finish. It was almost indistinguishable from the factory paint job on the rest of the bike. The end result was a super smooth finish, and checking the area that had the orange peel under light from different angles, I could hardly see any bumpiness at all. Comparing the result to the ugly orange peel from before, the outcome, in my opinion, was nothing short of amazing. I didn't even need to apply a polishing compound. The finish was spot on.
This 3M Perfect-It rubbing compound turned my amateurish paint fix into a super smooth finish that perfectly matched the original factory paint job on my bike. I was astonished as to how effective this product was, and how easy the process went, and how little effort it took to achieve an outcome I never even though was possible by a DIYer. Now, I am going to using this to fix all the scratches and scrapes on all my other bikes. May be I'll even start a bike detailing business to help poor souls like myself with no clue how to properly patch the paint finishes on our bikes.
As with any automotive rubbing compound, you will get FAR better results if you use an electric buffer, as compared to hand buffing. I use the 3M quick-release with white foam compounding pads and Perfect-It EX compound, followed by the 3M blue ultra-fine foam pads with ultrafine machine polish. This always achieves a mirror finish on my motorcycles and cars, and the blue combo removes all swirl marks, holograms, etc. left by the rubbing compound. Don't bother with the intermediate compound or the black pads, as they are entirely unnecessary.
Works great with DA Polisher. Easily removed micro scratches, and with a little more time it removed small scratches. Also very very easy to wipe off compared to older 3M scratch remover.
Note: it does haze the clear coat a tiny bit. You will definitely need to use polish afterwards for an amazing shine.
Feature Product
- Extra cutting power
- Extra smooth handling and finish
- Extremely easy to use and clean-up
Description
3M's best rubbing compound when looking for EXtra performance, EXtra Cutting, and EXtra Smooth Handling EXtremely Easy to Use and Clean Up Performs better than other compounds in all conditions, especially EXtreme conditions
great all around compound,will need to buff with swirl remover after
3m makes the best. I went to try this new perfect it EX compound. I normally use the regular perfect it compound and this stuff seems to be less dusty when buffing, has a different smell to it but I still think the cheaper 3m perfect compound works better then this.
This just seems to be more low dusting then anything.
I've used polishing and rubbing compounds for eons of time and, this is a good one. It produces a great surface that you can walk away from and be happy or, you can then hit that surface with some polishing compound for a higher luster and shine. Your choice. I'd recommend it.
Worked great with 3M 39003 Finesse-it II Finishing Material Machine Polish to polish corian after I sanded out a burn mark. (as seen on u-tube)
I have not used the standard version of the Perfect-It rubbing compound, but I have used the standard polish. The EX versions do stay wet a little longer and give you more time to do a larger area. I definitely appreciate them for that. I would not call this low-dust, however. My garage looked like Christmas after finishing my car. Granted, I went over some areas 5 separate times using my DA polisher, but don't get this for it's low-dust properties. Otherwise this is an amazing rubbing compound and worth its price.
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