[ac328]

Hi Fellow GO1 owners, any suggestions on cleaners for the black trim on the car and something to remove the scratches with?

[teaston]

Meguiars Ultimate Compound is the way to go, then your choice of ceramic sealant to reduce future scratching.

[nvestr]

I would start with something milder than Megs UC... Perhaps Megs UP (Ultimate Polish) is enough. You cannot use compound without following up with a milder polish or else it will leave small micro scratches. It is like sand paper, you start coarse and work your way finer.

That being said, I think for shiny plastic trims, I would start with a fine polish first. Meguiars Ultimate polish line is user friendly, effective and can be applied by hand. And yes, a ceramic coating would be great to minimize future scratches, but buying a full bottle just to do trims sounds like a waste - might as well do the whole car...

[teaston]

Originally Posted by nvestr

I would start with something milder than Megs UC... Perhaps Megs UP (Ultimate Polish) is enough. You cannot use compound without following up with a milder polish or else it will leave small micro scratches. It is like sand paper, you start coarse and work your way finer.

That being said, I think for shiny plastic trims, I would start with a fine polish first. Meguiars Ultimate polish line is user friendly, effective and can be applied by hand. And yes, a ceramic coating would be great to minimize future scratches, but buying a full bottle just to do trims sounds like a waste - might as well do the whole car...

You should look into UC, it doesn’t leave micro scratches at all, it’s whole USP is that it cuts and finishes all in one go!

[ac328]

Originally Posted by teaston

You should look into UC, it doesn’t leave micro scratches at all, it’s whole USP is that it cuts and finishes all in one go!

UC?

[teaston]

Originally Posted by ac328

UC?

Ultimate Compound

[ac328]

Everyones got some sort of scratches on it right. The scratches aren't deep. I am looking for something to clean and wash it without adding more scratches. Also seeing if it possible to remove some of the scratches without using something abrasive, car is still fairly new and don't want to do any damage.

[teaston]

Originally Posted by ac328

Everyones got some sort of scratches on it right. The scratches aren't deep. I am looking for something to clean and wash it without adding more scratches. Also seeing if it possible to remove some of the scratches without using something abrasive, car is still fairly new and don't want to do any damage.

That’s exactly what ultimate compound is for.

[BMWZ4]

I've used this stuff for years...does the trick

https://www.amazon.com/Novus-Cleanin...vus&sr=8-6

[nvestr]

Originally Posted by teaston

You should look into UC, it doesn’t leave micro scratches at all, it’s whole USP is that it cuts and finishes all in one go!

I have both in my garage - I started learning to paint correct with a DA using Megz UC and UP and eventually graduated to the more aggressive professional versions of those products (UC=M105, UP=M205)... While UC is a mild compound, it's still a compound and it is too aggressive to be used as a finishing stage if you want a perfect finish. That being said, UC is a consumer product and is not the harshest, you could potentially get away with only using UC but if UC was a single stage solution, UP (Ultimate Polish) would not exist.

Ultimate Compound and Ultimate Polish are designed to be used together, one after the other. If you're only going to use a single stage, you would use Ultimate Polish.

[teaston]

Originally Posted by nvestr

I have both in my garage - I started learning to paint correct with a DA using Megz UC and UP and eventually graduated to the more aggressive professional versions of those products (UC=M105, UP=M205)... While UC is a mild compound, it's still a compound and it is too aggressive to be used as a finishing stage if you want a perfect finish. That being said, UC is a consumer product and is not the harshest, you could potentially get away with only using UC but if UC was a single stage solution, UP (Ultimate Polish) would not exist.

Ultimate Compound and Ultimate Polish are designed to be used together, one after the other. If you're only going to use a single stage, you would use Ultimate Polish.

I always used UC on my BSM F30 and it brought it to a brilliant shine. I used a medium firmness pad on my DA, so it didn't get rid of the deeper swirls, which is how I wanted it as I didn't want to remove too much lacquer each time.

I then coated it with Gtechniq C2v3 and the paint surface was like glass!

[nvestr]

Don't get me wrong, UC is great. Here's a black car I did with UC and UP :





To my eye, UC alone did 90% of the correction and UP did the other 10% and also added polishing oils to the paint for more gloss and shine. 90% is still better than 0% though!

[ac328]

Originally Posted by nvestr

Don't get me wrong, UC is great. Here's a black car I did with UC and UP :





To my eye, UC alone did 90% of the correction and UP did the other 10% and also added polishing oils to the paint for more gloss and shine. 90% is still better than 0% though!

Isn't that too abrasive for the piano black trims all over the car?

[nickb3]

A very good alternative is the Blackfire products. Blackfire paint cleaner is very good at dealing with swirls and minor scratches, with the sealant applied as a second stage to protect.

[nvestr]

Originally Posted by ac328

Isn't that too abrasive for the piano black trims all over the car?

Potentially, which is exactly why I started out earlier saying that a finishing polishing (with abrasives, not a pure polish with only polishing oils/cleaners) should be tried first. If the swirls don't come out with a few passes of UP, I would then try UC and then follow up with UP again to perfect the finish.

I personally use M205 (MEguiars Ultra-Finishing Polish), which is a more aggressive version of UP (same non-diminishing abrasive technology, just more cut, but a bit harder to use) and it would definitely be enough to remove minor webs and swirls on black gloss trim. M205 not meant for hand application though, so that's why the Meguiars Ultimate Line (consumer line) would be ideal.

[IM_ALL_IN]

Agreed, I always want to start with the least aggressive product to see if that fixes the problem. I'm annoyed at the scratching on my piano black interior and will likely attempt to polish it soon...there's no way I would start off with a compound before trying something with a much lighter cut. It feels cheap and I bet the clear is super thin.

[SROC3]

Ultima is amazing. It totally impressed me. Wipe on, wipe off, no buffing.....I was like..."WAAAAHT???" I even use it on the annoying piano black center trim we have and it works wonders. HIGHLY recommend it
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1