Nanoskin Towel & 6" Fine pad review

[sscully]

Just got a chance to start the basic testing today.

Paint condition :
3 coats of Optiseal with 24 cure time between each coat.
2 coats of Opti Car wax
1 or 2 coats of PB Spray & Gloss.

Tree sap on paint, prior to this, the paint was smooth and had just been ONR QD'd and PB Spray & Gloss applied.

Nanoskin Towel, w/ Nanoskin Glide 7:1 mix & Nano Shock review

The hood of my F150 I would consider "well cared for", so I am starting with the towel and the 2 Nano lube products.

1st thing - Break in the pad/towel on the windshield for 20 seconds with your lube of choice PRIOR to putting it to paint.

My hood has the "weekly" tree sap on it from going to my Parents house ( Mature Oak trees on by the driveway make it impossible to avoid.

Figure no time better than now to give it the test on a paint that I could tell if marring was an issue.

Dusted off and ONR'd the hood, still had tree sap on the paint.

1st 25% of the hood was the Nakoskin Towel w/ the Nano Glide product mixed at 7:1 ( directions on bottle ).

Applied Nano Glide  mix with a sprayer turned all the way in, so it was a fine mist and coated the surface as I would with normal clay lube.  Used the Nanoskin towel folded in quarters and rubbed in a straight line over the test section.

Dried off, and checked.  No marring on the paint, and it was clean & smooth.

Next 25% tried the towel with Nano Shock as the lube ( this is the clay / clean & seal in 1 step ).

The Nano shock worked well as a lube, and added some pop to the finish, but it turned the Dark Stone more smoke color than UPS brown. Depending on the product used, this can happen I have found out.

I washed the Nanoskin towel in the ONR bucket, lightly dragging it over the grit guard and hung up to dry.

Nanoskin 6" Pad & PC w/ Nanoskin Glide 7:1 mix vs 6" pad & ONR at 15:1 as lube

Next 25% I used the Nanoskin Glide lube ( 7:1 ratio ) and the 6" pad on a 6" Megs back plate ( from the MF kit ) and the PC on speed 3. 

Coated the section with Nano Glide from the sprayer ( same coverage that I would use as std clay and as above with the towel ) and put the PC on the paint turn on at speed 1 and crank up to speed 3.
The pad did not spin, only had the random part of the motion, unless I picked up some weight off the PC.
Worked the section for about 12 seconds, and checked while still wet, felt no sap left on the paint.

Dried off the section, and checked again, it is smooth as glass.

Next 25% of the hood, I used ONR QD strength ratio, coated the hood and used the PC at speed 3.
Same as before the pad did not spin unless I took weight off it.  I bumped the speed to 3.25, and the pad seemed to spin with less weight being taken up.

Seemed to work a bit better with the ONR vs the Nanoskin Glide mixed @ 7:1 ratio, I should have mixed a small batch of Clay lube ratio ONR to test, but ran out of easy testing.

In my opinion the Nanoskin towel works better for the contours on the hood of my '06 F150, but for large surfaces the pad would be very useful.
It cuts down drastically on paint decontamination time, while leaving a paint that is ready for a touch up polish.

The part of the hood where I overlapped the towel w/ Nano Glide mix & the pad w/ ONR QD strength, I seem to have stripped the Optiseal, as when I sprayed the hood with water after finishing ( to check for beading ) that one overlap section seem to have more sheet than bead to it.  Some time this week I will find time to strip the hood down with Hyper polish and a black LC pad, and re start the Optiseal 3 coat application.

Don't know when I am going to have time to use the Nanoskin Med Pad on dad's truck, it needs to be clayed / compound / polish / Optiseal in the worst way.
This will give me more of an acid test for severe contamination paint.  I will not be able to get an indication of marring, as looking at the hood, it was loaded with swirling when I took a quick look at it a few weekends back.  Got dad 2 grit guards, new 3.5 gal buckets and a few new wash mitt options.  Don't know if I have broken him of the bucket of soapy water sitting around with the antique wash mitt from the Regan administration method of washing.

I have not tried the pads that seem to be of the same material or the SM Arnold towel to see if they are the same thing or not.

[Rollingrock]

what a great write up...gonna digest it again when i can see straight on Monday.

[Too Stroked]

Hmmm, this stuff is really starting to interest me now. Thanks for the very complete writeup Steve!

[sscully]

The towel seems to be the one to use for me.  Conforms to the contours in body panels a bit better.

Don't know if I should be putting this on the Flex on speed 1 or 2. 
Think the slow RPM ( is 1 = 150 RPM on the flex ?? ) with the orbit action might work better...
Still researching on that part.  Dad might be the test case without knowing it is jumping off a cliff.

[sscully]

Last night I got time to start on correcting the Fiberglass cap on my '06 to apply Opti Coat 2.0 on it ( last tall detail work gone  ).

Paint condition :
3 coats of Optiseal with 24 cure time between each coat.
ONR cleanings and 1 wash since application.
Few marring defects on the top of the cap ( out of sight ) that I did not see when I prep'd the surface for Optiseal, but saw after I did the 1st coat of Optiseal.

I dusted the top, used Optimum Opti-Clean to clean the cap. 
review of the paint surafce the marring seems to be the same as what was there before I cleaned it
- I did not take it to 100% when I did the Optiseal application earlier this year.

I used the Nanoskin Glide mixed at 7:1 ratio ( lube directions on bottle ) in a quart bottle with a double mist sprayer.
I applied the lube liberally to the top, same as I would with clay lube.

I mounted the 6" Fine Nanoskin pad on the flex, and set the speed to 1 ( 160 RPM on the rotation speed, then add in the orbital motion ).
I worked the surface for ~ 2 min total, 1 min on each half
- cap roof is on a 5.5' SCrew bed.

I dried the surface and inspected it. 

I found a bit of additional marring on the cap i do not recall seeing before, but I cannot say for 100%, if it is was there or not.  It is very minor addition to the surface.

the Flex on speed 1 did not sling the lube off the paint like the PC would on speed 4 ( trying to get pad rotation not just orbit motion ).

I would say for paint surface that is not in bad condition ( heavy contamination ) and is going to have at least a follow up polish ( depends on paint characteristics- soft or hard ) done on it, the Flex with the Nanoskin pad and the correct amount of lube, it is quicker when compared to the PC usage with the Nanoskin pad.

Thought I would update the review.
ITEM of NOTE :

This is on a Century Fiberglass cap, not factory paint.  This could have an impact on the amount of marring that "regular" paint might get.

I cannot say for sure if the marring I am seeing was caused by poor ONR QD cleanings, the Opti-clean application prior to the Nanoskin application or the nanoskin itself.  This could be a case of the marring was there before I started, and I just did not catch it ( using halogen work lamps for lighting ).

[sscully]

Got a chance to try a real acid test.

Got a different company car that someone else had for ~ 8800 miles.

The surface felt like 120 grit sandpaper, but in general in good condition ( no major defects ).

I just got back from Southern IL, and used PB Bird S#it remover on the windshield, hood and front to get off the cake of bugs.  Gave it a quick PB Spray & Wipe ( all 3 surfaces ) and thought about squirting some OptiSeal on it, just to help with the next bug removal.
*Bing* idea time.  Get out the Autoscrub towel and the NanoShock lub & sealant ( 1 step ) and went after the hood with the towel.

This was on a very contaminated surface.  Sprayed down the hood with Nanoshock ( about the same amount that I used in NanoLube ) and went after it with the towel.

When I got done "toweling" off the hood, I wiped it down with a MF towel and gave it the hand test.

WOW !!!

It felt about as slick as Menz PowerLock and was smooth as glass.

I am very impressed with the results.  I need to check in sunlight for defect amount, but with the light I was using I did not notice any major defects induced to the paint.

the Youtube videos really are true.  I figured it was a well used towel on a good surface to get the way it did. 

With this kind of luck, I am going to get a Ronco Chicken roaster and give that a try ! 

I am going to use the 6" fine pad with Nanoshock on the remainder of it and see how it turns out.  Might not have needed the Medium one, but only time will tell.

This is about the best acid test I can think of, the rail dust from the KC, MO plant and 8850 miles of driving it ground into the surface, one would anticipate worse results than this.

I need some time to tell if the sealant part of it lasts any measurable amount of time, but again good acid test.  This is an outdoor vehicle, and we are told to keep car washing costs between 6.00 and 12.00, so tunnel washing I am sure is all it has had to date ( and will continue to get at those limits ).

[Too Stroked]

Steve,

Thanks for continuing to take the time to write up such complete product reviews!

Tom

[Blown F-150]

Great review Steve, very thorough! Sure does sound like an interesting product.

[sscully]

I have to say I was not expecting what I got when I finished with the hood and front bumper.

I gave the Escape a "de-bugging"  a waterless wash and went after it.  Figure if I mess things up with this, I can always go after it with hyper compound & a Opti MF cutting pad if it is bad enough.

Still did not have a good sun shot prior to leaving out the house today, but taking a look again under overcast skys, I did not notice any defects that were obvious.  Tomorrow is to be sunny skys, so I should be able to get a good look at things.

I did notice some areas that need to be polished, but this is from switching IN plates for IL plates ( the IN ones are slightly larger and vibrated against the back leaving a line ) and a mar on the top of the lift gate above the window ( I recall that one from the day the vehicle delivery company dropped it at the house ).

I did not OCD this one the 1st weekend, so it is nice to have a test vehicle that I can keep an eye on somewhat long term to test these things on. 
I should have this one another ~ 20k miles or 2 years before it gets turned in, unless they call it early.

[Merlin]

I recently tried both the Nanoskin Autoscrub speedy prep sponge

Polymerized rubber - One sided
Nanoskin AUTOSCRUB Speedy Prep Sponge - Fine Grade


and the

Acrylic Resin - Double sided
Optimum Opti-Eraser - Fine Grade


I preferred the Nanoskin sponge. I believe the Opti-Eraser FINE Grade left marring.

[Rollingrock]

I wonder how Beachkid feels about these products.

[Too Stroked]

I wonder how Beachkid feels about these products.

We could always invite him over here to enlighten us! 

[Rollingrock]

I wonder how Beachkid feels about these products.

We could always invite him over here to enlighten us! 

No way that mofo would step foot in the cafe.....

[sscully]

I wonder how Beachkid feels about these products.

We could always invite him over here to enlighten us! 

No way that mofo would step foot in the cafe.....

He already has, as the IT Cyber Security department has clearly demonstrated....
 

[Rollingrock]

I wonder how Beachkid feels about these products.

We could always invite him over here to enlighten us! 

No way that mofo would step foot in the cafe.....

He already has, as the IT Cyber Security department has clearly demonstrated....
 

you know his IPA?