Meguiar's Ultimate Compound History

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Meguiar's Ultimate Compound History


Meguiar's Ultimate Compound and SwirlX

Notes

The 1974 Mercedes-Benz 450SL on the label of Ultimate Compound was detailed at a Thursday Night Open Garage or TNOG class taught by me.

The 1991 e34 BMW M5 on the label of SwirlX was personally detailed by me for the 2002 Bimmerfest in Santa Barbara.




The backstory....

When it comes to Meguiar's and other large companies that offer multiple lines for multiple markets, i.e.

Professional Line for the refinishing industry
Detailer Line for the reconditioning industry
Consumer Line for the enthusiast market
Marine Line for the boat detailing world


The products are formulated more specifically for their intended use and their intended user.

It's assumed that anyone working in a body shop has a higher skill level when it comes to machine polishing paint than the person first starting out washing and waxing their Ford Focus.

As such, the Consumer Line, Ultimate Compound, is formulated for ease of use by the masses while still accomplishing the task the name on the bottle says it will tackle.

I find UC much more user-friendly for the average person than M105 and most important, if UC doesn't remove the defects you're trying to remove then chances are very good they're too deep to safely remove using any compound and as a follow-up it's time to start looking at how the deeper defects are being inflicted into the paint and stop the problem at the root cause.

Just to note... the car on the label of Ultimate Compound is one of the many Extreme Makeovers I head up while working for Meguiar's and in charge of the TNOG's also known as The Thursday Night Open Garage classes. Most people don't know that when I started the Thursday Night Open Garage classes they were actually on Wednesday nights and then I moved them to Thursday nights. It is also the TNOGs that I first met Michael Stoops as before he worked for Meguiar's he attended many of the TNOG's.


Here's some pictures showing the Mercedes-Benz on the label of Ultimate Compound.

Meguiar's Ultimate Compound

Note: The graphic artist at Meguiar's removed the Mercedes-Benz emblem off the hood to make the car appear more generic.

Here's that Mercedes-Benz looked like when it first arrived to the shop...

After....

My Thursday night guys did the Mercedes, I personally did the BMW

Before

I compounded the entire finish before starting the below process to remove the shallow scratches and expose the deep scratches.


Process

Meguiar's SwirlX

Note the graphic artist at Meguiar's actually toned-down the horrendous swirls you see in the before pictures. They also removed the BMW emblem off the hood to make the car appear more generic.

Kind of cool to have two cars, one I was in charge of and one I detailed end up on millions of bottles of Meguiar's products.


There's a little car detailing history for the Car Detailing Coffee Table Book.


:xyxthumbs:

 

[Paul A.]

Be proud, Mike, be very proud! I love hearing the history of some of the detailing world's products, processes, tools, people etc.

 

[fightnews]

Thanks Mike, what do you put those little pieces of sand paper ON? Did you guys use anything after the ultimate compound on the red car?

Was the red car single stage paint?

I'mean thinking of going over my car on the drivers side doors with ultimate compound 1 more time to ease up on some of the Orange peel. I know everyone says you have to wet sand it to get rid of it but I know for a fact I cleared it from my 2 favorite panels. The strongest thinget I used was m101 on a griotz finishing microfiber pad. And I didn't even have my flex or G15 back then.


I'm pretty confident that I can do it. I'll take some pics to prove it. Is it safe to assume that the clear coat is thick if the panel has orange peel on IT? Orange peel is globs of clearcoat right?

 

[Natron]

SWEEEET. Thanks.

 

[dlc95]

Thank you, Mike!!

Love the historic aspect of the industry.

By any chance would you know when the original Porter Cable 7424, and the Flex 3401 VRG were introduced to market?

 

[natewood70]

Thanks for sharing, Mike!

 

[LEDetailing]

Those Ultimate Compound and Swirl-X bottles must be the pride of your Meguiar's collection.

Never thought of compounding/polishing the light scratches to expose the deeper RIDS. Only makes sense. Leaves that much more clear/paint for the next RIDS to be compounded. Great advice/article as usual.

 

[JustJesus]

AWESOME!!!

Huh, so those cars on the bottles are the real deal and not some photoshopped examples!!!! Coolness.

Thanks for sharing this!

Mike, for real. Get a book written on the "history" of detailing, or paint correction, etc. I'd buy the first book off the press.

 

[dlc95]

AWESOME!!!

Huh, so those cars on the bottles are the real deal and not some photoshopped examples!!!! Coolness.

Thanks for sharing this!

Mike, for real. Get a book written on the "history" of detailing, or paint correction, etc. I'd buy the first book off the press.

Me too!

 

[VISITOR]

UC has been a proven product and i will always have a bottle in my arsenal, even if some knock it because it's a consumer product...

 

[Klasse Act]

UC has always done what I've asked of it and it's usually available at your local auto parts store, so if your almost out you can get it ASAP!

Sent from my LGLS990 using Tapatalk

 

[Sharply Dressed]

That has to be an awesome feeling of pride you feel. Proud to say I trained with you at Detail Fest

 

[bodidly]

UC has been a proven product and i will always have a bottle in my arsenal, even if some knock it because it's a consumer product...

Here Here!

 

[dlc95]

UC has been a proven product and i will always have a bottle in my arsenal, even if some knock it because it's a consumer product...

I wish it came in a larger container. I'd be all over 32oz bottles of UC/UP.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Thanks Mike, what do you put those little pieces of sand paper ON?

My the tip of my index finger.

Did you guys use anything after the ultimate compound on the red car?

Don't remember off hand which polish but "yes" definitely did something. The good news is that all 28,000+ posts I made on MOL are still there and with a little help from Google you can find the thread for the extreme makeover on the Mercedes-Benz and the BMW.

Was the red car single stage paint?

The give-away is both the age of the car and how the paint had turned whitish. Single stage paints turn white when they oxidize and while clearcoats do oxidize they oxidize much more slowly than single stage paints. Clearcoats are known for getting swirls. I have an article on this topic here,

The practical differences between single stage paints and a clear coat paints

I mean thinking of going over my car on the drivers side doors with ultimate compound 1 more time to ease up on some of the Orange peel. I know everyone says you have to wet sand it to get rid of it but I know for a fact I cleared it from my 2 favorite panels. The strongest thinget I used was m101 on a griotz finishing microfiber pad. And I didn't even have my flex or G15 back then.

You can decrease orange peel from compounding only, I have a picture that shows this from back in the 1990's and an article on this topic here,

Can orange peel be removed or lessoned by just machine compounding?


I forogot I wrote the above article. :dunno:

I'm pretty confident that I can do it. I'll take some pics to prove it. Is it safe to assume that the clear coat is thick if the panel has orange peel on IT? Orange peel is globs of clearcoat right?

I'm sure you can improve it. And I would say that from experience, if it's a repaint then "yes" lots of orange peel can mean lots of paint.

I've seen and experienced factory paint jobs with orange peel that were very shallow. So be careful. As I like to say,


Words cannot describe the heart-sinking feeling when you discover you've buffed through the paint -Mike Phillips

 

[DBAILEY]

UC is probably my favorite one stepper polish. You can finish out fine except for the softest clear coats.

Mike does UC have any additional paint cleansers in it? It seems to clean the paint very well.

It is my preferred compound for bumpers. Firstly because I think it cleans so well and bumpers usually need it. UC seems to able to cut that flexible paint just right.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Mike does UC have any additional paint cleansers in it? It seems to clean the paint very well.

I think that would depend upon how you describe the word,

cleansers


Water is a cleanser, it dissolves other substances.

Solvents are cleansers, they can dissolve other substances.



This is where someone like Mike Pennington would have the accurate answer and it could be proprietary information.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Be proud, Mike, be very proud!

I love hearing the history of some of the detailing world's products, processes, tools, people etc.

Well I am proud, there's always a lot of hard work that goes into any successful project and even unsuccessful projects. The Mercedes-Benz Extreme Makeover came about simply from me being a "Car Guy". The natural outpouring of this was me meeting an older gentleman with a cool car in bad shape. Instead of sloughing the guy and his car off I invited him and his car to a TNOG at Meguiar's which I started for Meguiar's I think back in 2006. It's good to see they are still going and I'm glad I pushed for starting them as I did receive push back for the original idea.

Of course, it would have been easier to have worked my job until 5:00pm and then have gone home but instead I stayed after work and assumed the responsibility to teach these Thursday Night Open Garage classes to grow the Meguiar's company.

These classes originally were on Wednesday nights and I moved them to Thursday nights. I recently saw that Nick and Joe started an open garage class for McKee's and it's good to see others duplicate this concept to grow their reach and their company.

Thanks Mike, what do you put those little pieces of sand paper ON?

I put those on my fingertip. This is real delicate type work. Others may have done this in the past before 2002 but I think I'm the first in the history of car detailing to document the procedure with pictures and a full write-up.

Like a lot of detailing topics there are always plenty of guys that can do it but only a few that can document it with a full how-to article explaining with the written word step-by-step what to do and then taking and processing the pictures to show what to do. (that's two things)

Did you guys use anything after the ultimate compound on the red car?

No we didn't use Ultimate Compound on the red oxidized Mercedes-Benz as the product was not available at the time.

The marketing department at Meguiar's "found" my pictures and from what I could tell, they couldn't tell that I did the project and took the pictures, they simply used them. If they did know I did the project and took the pictures they somehow missed sharing that at the big "New Products" meeting everyone at Meguiar's attended where marketing introduced all the new products coming out because during the Power Point Presentation when they came to the slide for Ultimate Compound and for SwirlX I raised my hand and pointed out these two pictures and thus the two product labels came from cars we detailed right there at Meguiar's seem to catch them by surprise.

Was the red car single stage paint?

Yes. It was the original single stage paint. Back then Mercedes-Benz use very high quality paint and put a lot on their cars. I think it was Glasuruit brand.

I'mean thinking of going over my car on the drivers side doors with ultimate compound 1 more time to ease up on some of the Orange peel. I know everyone says you have to wet sand it to get rid of it but I know for a fact I cleared it from my 2 favorite panels. The strongest thinget I used was m101 on a griotz finishing microfiber pad. And I didn't even have my flex or G15 back then.

Give it a try and see what you can do. Take before pictures so you have a reference to compare to.


I'm pretty confident that I can do it. I'll take some pics to prove it. Is it safe to assume that the clear coat is thick if the panel has orange peel on IT? Orange peel is globs of clearcoat right?[/QUOTE]

Thank you, Mike!!

Love the historic aspect of the industry.

By any chance would you know when the original Porter Cable 7424, and the Flex 3401 VRG were introduced to market?

Sad to say I no longer have my original Porter Cable or my original FLEX 3401 - I believe I gave these both away to beginner detailers in an effort to help them on their way.

Those Ultimate Compound and Swirl-X bottles must be the pride of your Meguiar's collection.

Kind of yes, I have a bottle of each on the shelves of my antique wax collection. I don't know of anyone else that you read about in the detailing world that has cars they've detailed on labels of products found at the retail level by one of the largest car wax manufacturers in the world.

Never thought of compounding/polishing the light scratches to expose the deeper RIDS. Only makes sense.

Leaves that much more clear/paint for the next RIDS to be compounded.

Great advice/article as usual.

Thank you and "yes" that technique is the best way to remove RIDS while leaving the most paint on the car. In the example of the BMW this was also the original paint.

AWESOME!!!

Huh, so those cars on the bottles are the real deal and not some photoshopped examples!!!! Coolness.

Thanks for sharing this!

Yes.

I was told for liability purposes the cars in the pictures were de-badged, if you look you can see the Mercedes-Benz badge or emblem and the BMW emblem on the hood have been Photoshoped out.

I was also told the extreme swirls on the passenger side of the original pictures was toned down for the labels and it looks like this is accurate to me.

Mike, for real. Get a book written on the "history" of detailing, or paint correction, etc. I'd buy the first book off the press.

I agree it needs to be done and I guess I'm the guy to do it since I seem to be the only guy that knows where all the bodies are buried and remembers this stuff AND more important also types about it.

I know other guys in this industry that know a lot of stuff about the history of car detailing but they don't type.

That has to be an awesome feeling of pride you feel.

Proud to say I trained with you at Detail Fest

Detail Fest is always a great place for cars, fun and education.

 

[Aaryn NZ]

Learn something today . . . check! rops:

How cool Mike, thats a pretty neat story & reading through this thread there is some interesting stuff for sure. Really really cool post Mike, thank you for sharing.

Aaryn NZ. :dblthumb2:

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Learn something today . . . check! rops:

How cool Mike, thats a pretty neat story & reading through this thread there is some interesting stuff for sure. Really really cool post Mike, thank you for sharing.

Aaryn NZ. :dblthumb2:

Thanks Aaryn,

I updated the first post in this thread to fill in a few missing parts of the story and add a few more pictures.