There are a myriad of polishes on the market and the choice for you can be so overwhelming and confusing. What’s best for different paint types and damage levels. After thirty-two years of experience with 160 brands of detailing products tested, here are those I have tested, a short description and rating out of ten for cut, finish and ease of use
But before I start with ranking each brand’s offerings, here is a quick rundown of the history of abrasives if you were not aware. – at least the history since I’ve been on this earth
Crystalline silica abrasives were used in many traditional cutting compounds and whilst these could cut extremely well they were very dusty/powdery or even if they were not as bad, they gouged and tore at the paint to correct it and could not finish down anywhere near as well as today’s products can. Other types of abrasives that have been used in compounds and polishes are kaolin clay and pumice as well as the most common one used today which is aluminium oxide. Diminishing aluminium oxide abrasives were the norm when I started doing paint correction and whilst these are still very good, there was the chance of users under or over cycling them and to get the best results you had to fully work them through their cycle using the well known zenith point technique of 900-1200-1500-1200-900 rpm or even 600 on the rotary at the end of the cycle. Then came non diminishing abrasives, products with both non diminishing and diminishing abrasives which I’ve used since 2009, alpha ceramic alumina and also silica carbide abrasives in Kamikaze’s Banzai Cut compound and last but not least, Meguiars SMAT – sub micron abrasive technology.
Non diminishing/SMAT abrasives give you the ability to do short cycles as quick as twenty seconds and not need to fully cycle the product to get a glossy finish. So paint correction can be a faster process today than it used to be.
3D PRODUCTS
ACA 500
This product looks like belly fat in a bottle to me and is a little too high on the greasy side for my liking but it definitely works really well especially with wool pads. This features alpha ceramic alumina abrasives which I believe are a more resilient grade of aluminium oxide abrasives with a hexagonal structure based on what I’ve read. Wipe off of residue is not too difficult but certainly not as fast and easy as some other brands. As we approach the last quarter of 2025 I believe with newer products out on the market that are creamier and not as greasy but cut more, 500’s days are probably at an end and it won’t be reappearing in my glass cabinet full of polishes and Pad King prototype pads.
Cut – 9/10
Finish – 7/10
Ease of Use 7.5/10
ACA 510
510 is the 3D brand’s 1500 grit or finer compound. The first thing I noticed when purchasing my first bottle and opening the cap and looking at the product is that it had the viscosity like a polishing product with all of it’s ingredients separated ie the water, lubricating oils and abrasive powders. Even with a thorough shake that’s how it stayed
So the solution I came up with to make it better was to put about 40 ml of Nanolex Optimizer in the bottle and shake the heck out of it. This is a viscosity changer and filming improver for polishes and coatings the company sent me for the cost of shipping only. This solved the problem and gave it a pouring cream like viscosity and it has remained that way now for a year sitting on the shelf. Anyhow this product is excellent, works super well and allows you to do short, medium or long cycles and dusting is super low if any. It won’t cement itself to the panel like some do when they start to dry up or get overcycled or too much machine speed is used. This has been the go-to product for Jason and the team at Detail Auto Haus in Sydney for as long as I have known them and worked to great effect.
Cut – 8/10
Finish – 8/10
Ease of use – 8.5/10
PRO TIP: Combine this product with The Pad King Green All Rounder pad in either GEN I or GEN II versions and use it for a fantastic single stage correction on most paints or use 510 with the All-Rounder pad for one pass then switch to a softer pad with ONE or ACA 520 for one slow arm speed pass or two normal passes to perform a “DUO GLOSS” enhancement within the timeframe of a single stage, three to four pass polishing cycle.
ACA 520
Of all modern-day finishing polishes, this one is an absolute ripper. I’ve enjoyed using it since day one and continues to impress me. A viscosity that I absolutely love which is not thick and creamy yet not runny, excellent filming properties and working time plus the ability to finish out some tricky paints that other well-known polishes struggled to finish down as good make this one a no brainer to add to your arsenal. Try it with my Afterburner leveling and cutting pad on soft paint to remove 25% of the orange peel at just speed one or two on a DA or Rotary.
Cut – 5/10
Finish – 9.5/10
Ease of Use – 9/10
ONE
One of the things I absolutely hated as a pro detailer was paints that seemed extra porous and absorbed polish into itself like human skin absorbing moisturising lotion being rubbed in fast and no visible film of polish to see and know what’s happening under the pad. This is a big problem with our Ford Territory Ghia from 2005 with PPG paint used by Ford. This paint I have used dozens of polishes and it was like the polishes were not even there. So one day I decided to give 3D One a test on that paint. The first test with it and I was absolutely blown away – 3D one was filming on the surface like a dream and I could not believe it. Everything else had failed miserably but this one – not a problem. That’s a brilliant polish if it can film on this crappy paint I said to myself.
As far as performance, from my experience it is a product with about 80-85% of the cutting power of a compound and 85% as fine as a finishing polish. It won’t give you ACA 510 cut or ACA 520 finish but it’s an amazing balance between the two and I commend 3D for what they have achieved with this formula. If ACA 520 did not exist then that is the name that I would give ONE as it is basically a single product correction system and has the best finishing ability of anything except 520. It’s one flaw is this – that on some paints it wipes off easy whilst with others it is very hard to get a streak free clear finish to inspect your results under lights. Even with a heap of rinseless wash and a damp or wet towel soaked in rinseless it sometimes takes ages and multiple towels to get the panel streak and cloudiness free to inspect what you have achieved. A 2009 Honda Accord Euro with soft medium hardness black paint earlier this year proved to be one paint that gave me this trouble really bad.
Cut – 7/10
Finish – 8.5/10
Ease of use – 7/10
PRO TIP: Try one drop of ACA 510 with the same amount of ACA 520 or ONE for improved finishing performance
ANGELWAX
Angelwax out of the UK are a premier brand and their paint correction line has been used by many.
Of the three products there were at my time of testing them, I really liked Regenerate the most from a formulation and performance standpoint. It does what it needs to consistently. I am not a fan of coloured polishes (anything but white) as my mentor who was the director of a multinational chemical company at the time who supplied me with his polishes stated that too much dye or the wrong dye can negatively impact on a polishes formula. Since he was involved in making the original System One polish and has made many upgraded versions since then, he should know a reasonable amount about formulations.
So thus why I don’t like anything but white polishes. Whilst peers interstate in Victoria and other eastern states reported no issues with dusting, here in South Australia where the climate in summer can be between 30 and 47 degrees celcius and extremely low humidity levels, dusting with polishes and a negative effect on polishes lifespans from drying out under immense heat when they are stored in super hot garages all summer long meant that for me, the Angelwax polishes were quite short on working time and they dusted way more than I liked however Steve O Connor, a pro detailer from Victoria reported no dusting whatsoever with his batch so it must have been the heat that effected them. Stinking hot days with products sitting in my non air-conditioned garage probably didn’t do them any favours.
However almost every product will dust if used on a 40 plus degree-low humidity day but the solutions to this are either a tiny drop of parrafin oil every so often, the same lubricant used in hundreds of polishes around the world, a supplimental wetting agent which could be water, a quick detailer without any protective properties or rinseless wash.
Regardless of all this, the Angelwax polishes most definitely work and Resurrection and the new Extreme have some serious grunt to remove defects but use them only when absolutely necessary. I would rather use my new Afterburner pad or some other super aggressive pad than a compound that strong. Angelwax polishes are easy to wipe off, give an excellent finish and are certainly no slouches in the paint correction world.
Resurrection and Resurrection Extreme – Cut 9/10 and 10/10 – Finish 7.5/10 and 6.5/10 (from my testing)
Regenerate – Cut 7.5/10 Finish 8.5/10
Redemption – Cut 4/10 Finish 9.5/10
Part Two coming soon and starts with Carpro
Before and After results of “THE PAD KING Afterburner pad” with 3 inch DA at speed 1
