Mothers Professional Line Compound

[rzatch]

Mothers® Professional Rubbing Compound Review

First I would like to thank Forrest and Jim because without their generosity these reviews wouldn’t be possible and you guys would be missing out on or overlooking some very good products. Yeah I know you’ve read this before on my last review, but it’s true and I’m sure you’ll be reading it againJ
Mothers products are primarily know to be an over the counter type of product. You can buy it at almost any big box store or auto parts stores. While this may be true for their consumer line, they also have a Professional line for use in paint finishing by trained body shop professionals that can be found at paint supply stores or directly from Mothers online store.

https://store.mothers.com/index.php?cPath=23


[IMG]http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc164/rzatch/Mothers/MothersRubbingCompound.png[/IMG]


Product information from Mothers website. http://www.mothers.com/index.html

Mothers® Professional Rubbing Compound quickly removes 1,500 grade and finer sandscratches from all types of refinish and factory applied automotive paints. May also be used to remove light oxidation, car wash scratches and other defects from paints that do not require sanding.
#81132, 32 oz.

For those working in a body shop environment, our Professional line is formulated especially for the body shop as a system. By their nature, all of the compounds, the polish and the glazes are body shop safe.


This is what Mothers chemist Craig Burnett had to sat concerning the abrasive technology in the professional line.
The term "diminishing abrasives" is to me, a marketing term and perhaps good Internet fodder but not a truly practical subject for discussion. All abrasives diminish in use. Some compounds may diminish more slowly than another do to its composition, size and hardness. It is a formulator’s job to choose the appropriate compound to accomplish a specific task. If a compound is to large, or hard it will scratch rather than polish. It is too soft or small; it will be ineffective to its task. So to answer the question, we do use diminishing abrasives, as does the rest of the industry. This is really a non issue that appears to have developed internet legs. I would use "non diminishing abrasives" and "pixie dust" in the same sentence.

Craig Burnett
Chemist

Here is the constancy of the compound. This was a new white pad before starting on the truck even with claying it there was still a lot of dirt embedded in the paint. I didn’t think to take a picture before I starting buffing on the paint. Actually the contrast helps it show up better so all is not lost.




Now that we know a little bit about the product let’s see what it can do.
For this review I was able to use a very beat up 100,000 mile dark blue pickup truck that is used on a farm and for hunting. So it has seen its share of corn fields and bushes getting rubbed against the paint. It is also the same truck that was used for the interior products review that can seen here.

http://www.autopiaforums.com/forums/detailing-product-reviews/38852-mother-interior-cleaning-products-picture-heavy.html

In the body shop setting a rotary is the primary tool of choice for paint correction from wet sanding or scratches. Knowing that the majority of people on forums are using DA’s compared to rotary’s I wanted to make this review more useful to a broader range of people so I used a Griots Garage DA and a Dewalt 849X with few different pad types.
In all counting the interior I probably had close to 16 hours on this truck. I’m glad he took it on vacation after the interior was cleaned and I got a couple of weeks break in between.
This is the condition of the truck as it was delivered to me.

[IMG]http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc164/rzatch/Beaupre%20Truck%20Exterior/100_3507.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc164/rzatch/Beaupre%20Truck%20Exterior/100_3664.jpg[/IMG]

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That’s some serious wax caked on there but I have a remedy. Using a detail brush I was able to remove all of it in less than 10 minutes and that’s including moving the ladder. More information will come at a later date on how it was done. Sorry 













All cleaned up











My main concern at this point was to get the paint washed and clayed to start the correction process. The thorough wash would come later as I knew there was going to be multiple wash jobs before this was over.

For the first test section I started with the left rear door.

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Using a GG6, orange CCS pad, speed 3.5, 6 passes slow arm speed and medium pressure I was able to achieve these results.









For comparison I did the lower half of the door with the Dewalt 849X. As you can see the DA had just as much correcting ability as the rotary. Granted it wasn’t as fast in making the correction but it was able to make the correction. So this product will defiantly work with a DA and foam pads.





Next I moved to the front door to try out a MF pad. For this test I used the GG6 with an OPT MF finishing pad. Again using speed 3.5 , 6 passes slow arm speed and medium pressure I was able to achieve these results.







Now it was time for the rotary on the left front fender. I used a white 7.5 LC pad at 1000 RPM’s and medium pressure to start and lighten up for the finishing passes.










As you can see it finishes off pretty darn nice for a compound. I was able to go straight to the Professional Foam Pad Polish skipping the Machine glaze. Look at the flake in the paint now! Nice





Messed up hood, water spots scratches ect.



Getting shiny again 



Here is a dusting and fly off pic. Not too bad for a compound.



Well if you stayed with me this long here are a few finished shots of Mothers showing her love!!!


















Total Mothers products used.




Final thoughts.

A very good product that can achieve excellent results using either a rotary or DA.

Working time with a rotary is short. It almost has a dry feel to the compound when your trying to work it and needs a spritz of water to finish it off nicely. I suspect it being body shop safe and lacking any oils or silicones has something to do with the dry feel of the product.

Working time with a DA is considerably longer almost to the point of stopping when you feel the need not the product stopping you.

Dusting is minimal for a compound so clean up isn`t that bad.

Overall I was quite impressed with the product.


I hope you enjoyed the review and have a good idea what you can expect from Mothers Professional Line Compound using the pads and machines that I did.

[BobbyG]

Mothers has been around a good long time and I`ve always liked their products.

Mothers products are reasonably priced and are widely available and unless I`m mistaken they seem more available today then lets say 4 or 5 years ago.

The products you used turned that truck from an ugly duckling into a real eye catcher. I`ll bet it was a lot of work but the end result is amazing.

[Todd@RUPES]

Very nice job. I have used all of the Mother`s Professional Line polishes and found the compound and the polishes to work extremely well. The compounds, to me, where real stars, cutting extremely well and and finishing surprisingly well.

[tropicsteve]

great review and the truck detail before & afters were stunning. very nice.

[rzatch]

Sure makes a guy feel good when the owner is very happy with the end results and you guys compliment my efforts. Thanks!

I have to tell you though, there was a point late afternoon I was questioning myself for even agreeing to do the truck. It was sure beating me down, my butt was dragging at the end. My wife even felt sorry for me and helped dress the trim lol.

[mjlinane]

Great review and write-up!!

[BobbyG]

Sure makes a guy feel good when the owner is very happy with the end results and you guys compliment my efforts. Thanks!

I have to tell you though, there was a point late afternoon I was questioning myself for even agreeing to do the truck. It was sure beating me down, my butt was dragging at the end. My wife even felt sorry for me and helped dress the trim lol.

I`m always amazed that many feel detailing is easy but the reality is it`s exactly the opposite... When I do an 8 hour detail I work my ass off and at the end of a day sometimes I feel like I`ve been beat with a bat!

Maybe it`s my age...

[Bunky]

Thanks for the nice review and getting the monster cleaned up.

[SpeedFreak]

Truck looks Amazing, very nice!

I`m always amazed that many feel detailing is easy but the reality is it`s exactly the opposite... When I do an 8 hour detail I work my ass off and at the end of a day sometimes I feel like I`ve been beat with a bat!

Maybe it`s my age...

Bobby, for me its the next morning climbing out of bed.lol


David