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    Detailing Mod Lowiepete's Avatar
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    gTechniq P1 Nano Composite Polish

    Hello Folks,

    What Is It?

    gTechniq P1 Nano Composite Polish

    What Does It Bring to the Table?

    Breakthroughs in nano-structured composite materials have allowed us to
    develop an incredibly uniform abrasive particle on the nanoscopic scale. This
    has allowed Gtechniq to manufacture a polish that requires almost no
    lubrication – giving it three major advantages over traditional polishes:
    1. With many more active particles working the surface, the polish
      works faster with less effort
    2. Virtually no lubricant means there is no ‘drop back’ – the amount of
      lubricants in traditional polishes are designed to hide minor imperfections
      which are revealed again when the polish is washed off - with P1 what
      you see is what you get
    3. Smaller active particle size means the surface does not heat up nearly
      as much, therefore it is less likely to burn through paint. The lack of heat
      also means you can make several passes over the same area to remove
      stubborn scratches, without the fear of over polishing

    When tested against leading hand polishes P1 outperforms. And, because
    P1 does not use fillers, your car’s new finish that used a lot of elbow grease,
    will not deteriorate.

    Plus instead of needing a cutting compound, medium compound, and finishing
    glaze - all of which require one, sometimes two, polishing pads - used in
    conjunction with Gtechniq’s pSystem HotSwap Pads, P1 will do the work of
    these three products with less holograms and as previously mentioned, no
    ‘drop back’.

    This means that perfecting automotive surfaces using Gtechniq P1 requires
    half the amount of passes with the rotary machine than with conventional
    systems, allowing for more time enjoying your car than maintaining it.


    What Do I Think of It?

    Well, it's that time of year again; of thinking about stripping back all the summer
    layers and preparing for winter. So, while I'm planning to do a write-up on my
    winter prep, something new has appeared in my armoury that's definitely worth
    a word or three. Having watched their video and read through several posts
    where it has featured, I thought I'd try gTechniq's P1 polish.

    Now of course there was no way I can or could use this by machine and if I'm
    going to be realistic about this, my limited motor function is also not going to
    help with hand application either. To date, all my pre-wax cleaners have been
    chemically based, the P1 would be the first true "polish" I'd have used. So, it
    was with some trepidation that I ordered a £25 bottle. More about that, later.

    My first trial with the P1 was on a Mercedes owned by the farmer's wife on
    the farm where I stay twice-yearly. This car is subject to no little abuse, not
    least all the Cumbrian rain. I did detail this car about 18 months ago, but
    someone "helpfully" removed all the protection by taking it to the farm's
    TFR laden power-wash facility. The first thing I noticed with this product
    was the audible indication of the paint's roughness.

    This audible smoothness indicator was going to be very useful later when I
    tackled the Mk1 Escort RS2000 under the covers. Now of course I'm not able
    to apply anything like the kind of pressure on the foam pad that most of you
    guys can. Compared to you, I'd probably only be tickling the surface. Would
    this be enough to have _any_ impact at all?

    Well, the first thing I did was to mask off an area of the boot lid on the Merc
    and then have a go. Getting the protective gloves on and off proved quite
    difficult in comparison to getting the sound of the pad crossing the paint
    down to the finest of whispers. However, the result wasn't as clear as that
    shown in the gTechniq video. Oh well, you can't win them all, so no pics.

    Does it Get Rid of Swirls?

    Of course, for any hand-applied polish, that's always going to be one of the
    hottest questions. The answer is not straight-forward. I don't want to say
    that it's an outright no, because there is no question that the paint is one
    whole lot smoother after treatment. Certainly, treating the area behind door
    handles gives a very satisfying result!

    Looking at my own car, use of P1 has by no means rendered the paintwork
    swirl-free. However, those that remain are much fewer than hitherto. Back
    in the winter of 2009 I have a feeling that I may have inadvertantly added
    some swirls by not being careful enough when salt was present. It's probably
    these that are still bugging me today and are only ever going to be removed
    by machine.

    Is P1 Good Value For Money?

    My initial response to this is No. £25 is no small amount to pay for something
    that is nothing more than a cream carrying a measured amount of abrasive
    material. OK, so it's nano, but I'm not convinced that it justifies this price.
    It desperately needs some competition to bring it down.

    Having said that, the results _could_ provide a very good argument for a
    complete justification of its price. So, once comparisons like that are made,
    the cost doesn't seem quite so painful. However, the greatest redeeming
    factor in this is its versatility. Yes, you did read correctly, there are a myriad
    ways to use this product. The clue to this came from someone saying use P1
    diluted 4:1 in response to a request for a paint-cleaner suggestion.

    With there being two application processes - i.e. using both smooth and
    smoother sides of the applicator pad, you'd think that it was going to use
    twice as much product when compared to a pre-wax cleaner. However,
    and this does depend upon you regularly examining the pad, it is possible to
    make this product stretch a good bit further than may be expected.

    How, by intermittent spritzes of ONR on either side the pad. As long as you
    check that there's no build-up of crud on the pad, it's quite feasible to do
    twice the area as this photo shows...



    So, the upshot is that you can either use it neat, or extend its use simply
    by a few sprays of ONR.

    The roof eventually came out looking like this...


    Does P1 Have any Downsides?

    Apart from taking care to protect your hands while applying there is one small
    niggle. It tends to find the tiniest cracks to dry white into, as seen in the
    chrome and rubber here. If, like me, you don't remove these before appyling
    your wax, it'll take the most finicky brush you can find to remove.



    Conclusions

    For paintwork preparation there is no doubt that this is the best product that
    I've used to date. Apart from the cost, I have no hesitation in recommending
    it. For use by hand you will need plenty of patience, but there's no doubt
    that you'll be rewarded for it.

    Where Do I Buy It?

    gTechniq P1 Polish is available in various amounts and sold from several
    Detailing Retailers. It's also available directly from the gTechniq Web site


    Regards,
    Steve
    Last edited by Lowiepete; 09-04-2016 at 07:02. Reason: spelling

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