Not that my opinion matters, since I'm the new guy, but here it goes for now. I need more time with this product...that is of course if Merlin let's me.
First, Robert thanks for coming over and giving me a hand. It was greatly appreciated! And yes, your opinion matters. Nice to see a honest "first impression".
Worthrj said:
So here's my take.
Shine and gloss is an A+ - this was tested on a black car. I'm sold on this particular part of the product.
This was your plain ol'e black paint job. The shine and gloss that is easily obtained from Essence was truly amazing!
Worthrj said:
Compounding is where I need more time to give a grade. Some parts of the black car cut like d300 and m205, plus left a super gloss all at the same time.
However, other parts of the car did not cut. To be fair 90 percent of this lightly micro swirled car looked great afterwards.
IMHO there are two basic products - compound and polishes. Compound for paint correction and finishing polishing for clarity and gloss.
To be fair, we did
not compound the vehicle first. We did the entire vehicle (1 step) with Essence (except the 10%). Kinda Kewl.
Worthrj said:
Merlin went after two scratches and this is where I was unimpressed, but I certainly am not speaking for him as he is the expert and I am the student just learning. They were not deep in my opinion and we even over used essence just to be sure we had enough to correct. No cigar on those two scratches. We had some other issues with other minor scratches, but again overall yes this is a good product that saves time.
Truthfully, I feel these few areas should have been treated with a light compound first.
I understand that Essence is a finishing polish but I wanted to push it to its max.
I wouldn't try to do correction with Reflect but the majority of the vehicle was corrected with only using Essence.
Worthrj said:
Left smudges behind that were difficult to remove in some spots. They were removed, but required more time than I wanted to put into it.
There were a couple of smudges (about the size of a quarter) and they were a PITA to clean up. A light cleaning of Eraser didn't make a dent.
It took some elbow grease and a light compound to remove. I chalk this up to new product learning curve. This was my first time with Essence.
Worthrj said:
Amount of product required to complete car - B. the 4 door sedan mid size car took 1/2 bottle (Sema size) to complete.
Agreed, as stated, I was hoping to get 3-5 vehicles from a SEMA sample size bottle.
I feel Essence was (for the most part) used sparingly except for the 10% areas where I really tried to get that "extra" to correct some light scratches.
Worthrj said:
Price - this is debatable. cost per ounce is high, but the benefits such as time and gloss bring it back down.
Although it costs more than Reflect, the additional filling with tons of shine and gloss created a truly outstanding finish.
This was a repeat client's girlfriends vehicle. He stated to me that there are a couple of sections scratched up where she ran into bushes.
When he came to pick up the vehicle he stated they are completely gone! To me, this is pretty amazing from a "finishing" polish.
BTW - He was truly blown away with the clarity, sharpness, shine and gloss. It looked like a sparkling mirror!
Worthrj said:
Merlin is way more knowledgeable than I ever will be, and has more products for detailing than a woman has shoes in a closet.
Anybody who reads my review should put minimal weight into what my thoughts were. Again, I'm new. Really really new to this. [emoji267]
Thank you for your kind words.
I've used MANY different compound and polishes over the years from rocks in a bottle to diminishing ultra-microscopic nano particles.
Some splatter, some are really dusty, some are like polishing with butter and some (to remain nameless) looked like it was snowing is south Florida!
As you stated, "
I'm new. Really really new" but after a little coaching, I felt comfortable letting you loose on a client's vehicle that I am responsible for.
We used Carpro Essence, Rupes 21 (Mark I w/KB washer mod) with a Rupes 5" backing plate and Meguiar's DMC5 5" DA Microfiber Cutting Disc
Along with CP gloss pad to "kick it up a notch", there were a few additional compounding products, pads and machines used to tackle those 10% areas.
All in all I'm very impressed with the results of Essence. Although correction was pretty good, where Essence truly shines (pun intended) is in the gloss!
This is a must have for your detailing shelf if you want the gloss and shine to be "over the top". Sorry, no pics yet...it's still raining...
