Used FG400 For First Time Today

Durallymax

Durallymax

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Got my FG400 yesterday along with Powerfinish to add to what I had from Menzerna already (PG1500,SIP,SF4000,Glaze,CleanerWax,Power Lock, Color Lock, Paint Refresh and Top Inspection).

I won't say this is a professional review and it is brief, but the product impressed me.

First I want to disclose, I literally started getting into polishing and such this month. I don't even have 10hrs experience with my Flex rotary and barely that much combined between the PE14 and 3401 I own. So my skills are nowhere near honed in yet, just based off the reading and watching I have done on here. Thanks for all of the insight on this forum BTW.


Anyways, I had been rebuilding an 03 Duramax that was smashed into a telephone pole. new frame and radiator stack, got busy and it sat for a few months with the freshly painted hood in the bed in its cardboard wrapper. I know I know, some of you are probably cringing. I put it on and sure enough it is scratched everywhere. I was just going to leave it for my buddy who did the body work to fix, since he needed to align it some and fix a couple dents in it anyways, but decided to try the FG400 first.

I just simply used some Ultima Waterless Wash to clean the dust off. Then used an orange CCS 6.5" pad on the PE14 Flex with the FG400. It cleaned up the lighter scratches quickly and left a flawless shine. It was not powerful enough to clean up the deep abuse up front though. I switched to a 4" TufBuf Black wool pad on the rotary and it along with the FG400 cleaned up those scratches very quickly, there were faint holograms left though after that pad. I did not go any further on processes before taking these pictures.

Again I am not a pro so to me this seemed like great results. Hopefully my pictures are not too bad, I do not have a digital camera that is any better than my phone one and I am not too good and photographing with the Brinkman. I'll have to practice more with the tape trick or something.

I look forward to using this stuff more when needed.

Bad area before.

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Lighter scratches at the back of the hood before.

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Front after.

cat


Trying to show holograms on front after. They are faint but there.

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Rear part after

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Thanks for looking. Hopefully will revisit this thread later when I have used it more, but it really impressed me over their other products so I got a little excited.
 
Damn good pics! Welcome to the world of polishing and great review!
 
Thanks, its been a lot more enjoyable with the better products and tools ive found versus the OTC stuff I used to use.
 
Looks great Vinny. You have one heck of a product choice at your disposal. Pick up the Flex brothers more often and get some seat time with them.
 
What I do to get a little more cut add some 105 to the mix works great.
 
smack said:
Looks great Vinny. You have one heck of a product choice at your disposal. Pick up the Flex brothers more often and get some seat time with them.
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Been trying to get caught up with the repairs and fieldwork first. Things are a littlw hectic with the late spring. We milk 1500 cows, Ill be workong my wag through polishing the cars/trucks, tractors and semis as I can, but I also do all of the repairs and maintenance on them as well. Hoping to get to spend enough time after hours or on weekends with them though, polishing is a nice change from turning wrenches.





Pureshine said:
What I do to get a little more cut add some 105 to the mix works great.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip. I have not used 105 yet, but it was on my short list of other products to try once I get a little more honed in on what im doing first. Once I get some ill try mixing some up. How much do you add?
 
Pureshine said:
What I do to get a little more cut add some 105 to the mix works great.
Click to expand...

I would have assumed that mixing a SMAT (105) based product with a DAT based one (FG400) would not be advisable given the different way in which these products are 'worked'?

I am not discounting that it works but rather just a bit curious about it..... and seem to recall somewhere a comparison between FG400 and 105, the results being somewhat similar in terms of cut....

Apologies for the hi-jack, just thinking out loud
 
lawrenceSA said:
I would have assumed that mixing a SMAT (105) based product with a DAT based one (FG400) would not be advisable given the different way in which these products are 'worked'?

I am not discounting that it works but rather just a bit curious about it..... and seem to recall somewhere a comparison between FG400 and 105, the results being somewhat similar in terms of cut....

Apologies for the hi-jack, just thinking out loud
Click to expand...

105 has a little more cut than FG400 and I prime the MF pad with FG400 and put a little 105 and FG400 together. FG400 has a longer working time than 105.
 
She looks great!!! You definately have quite the arsenal to take care of anything you come across!
 
I see one of the pictures was broken, the after shot for the front of the hood without brinkman. If somebody with more power wants to add it in that would be great here it is.


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Still liking the FG400 a lot. Used some last night on the hood of one of the semi's. This one was a repaint and it appears to have some sort of clear on it. I am guessing whoever did it possibly used to hard of a clear as it is spider cracking badly in many spots.

FG400 shined it up nicely though. I left the deeper scratches, they get put back in as soon as it goes out the door anyways. Main thing I was after was the finer ones from the rough brushes they use to clean it and the etching from silage sitting on it. I used a tufbuf wool pad on a Flex PE14. Then tried out a Tangerine Hydrotech pad on the 3401 with SF4000 to take out the holograms.


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Good God, a man with a rotary polisher and not afraid to use it to produce stunning results! :props:

A rotary polisher is a great tool and one of my all time favorites! They're so easy to use and can produce beautiful results with just a little practice and understanding.

If you'd like to see additional gloss try Menzerna SF-4000 or Menzerna SF-4500 on a soft gray or blue foam pad at about 800rpm....Slow rpm and slow arm speed..
 
BobbyG said:
Good God, a man with a rotary polisher and not afraid to use it to produce stunning results! :props:

A rotary polisher is a great tool and one of my all time favorites! They're so easy to use and can produce beautiful results with just a little practice and understanding.

If you'd like to see additional gloss try Menzerna SF-4000 or Menzerna SF-4500 on a soft gray or blue foam pad at about 800rpm....Slow rpm and slow arm speed..
Click to expand...

Thanks, there was a lot of fear put into me over the years about ruining paint with one. One day decided to just do it. Never used any other polishers before the PE14 and 3401, I like using the rotary so much more. To me it feels like the difference between hand polishing and the 3401. The PE14 is much nicer to run than the 3401 though.

I have both SF4000 and SF4500 and tried SF4000 on a gold jeweling pad at 600rpm with very slow arm speed on another semi the other day just to see what it would do and it definately gave it that extra shine that looked very nice. For a show I would probably do it, but the daily abuse these see I wont do it often.
 
Wow, that FG400 made it look LSP ready. Hard to believe that SF4500 could create even more shine
 
runrun411 said:
Wow, that FG400 made it look LSP ready. Hard to believe that SF4500 could create even more shine
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You can't tell in the shop, in the sunlight it helps just a little. I'm not good enough to leave a swirl/hologram free shine with the RB and a wool pad so I use it to clean that up. If it wasn't for the faint holograms that you can see in the sun I would've just left it. FG400 finishes LSP ready IMO.
 
I have been a huge fan of Menzerna products for about 3 years, I noticed you had list Color Lock, have you used it yet? I am going to order it anyway, but wanted to see what your thoughts were.....
 
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