gTechniq P1 Nano Composite Polish

[Lowiepete]

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