My Take on Ultima Paint Guard Plus & Single Step Finish with Meguiar's Ultimate Compound.

New Formula Ultima Paint Guard Plus

This is a product I longed to try when I first heard of it. However it is next to impossible to get this product in Malaysia. Sure, I could find some on Amazon but all of the sellers do not ship here. I know I could use some of the proxy buying services here but I am not very comfortable with the service yet. So when my wife traveled to the US last year, this had to be my to buy list.

Lo and behold, this is the product. If I am not mistaken, this is supposed to be a newer formula and it is water-based. I think the old one could be oil-based. I am not really very sure because this is the only version I have.

Here is the back label.

The bottle that I have comes with a microfiber applicator pad. I think its a sponge wrapped with microfiber on the outside.

I have read many great reviews about this product but that was for the old formula. So, I am not sure how good this will be.

Meguiar's Ultimate Compound as a Single Step

After neglecting my DD for many moons, it was time to give it a full treatment. Done with washing and clay-barring (is that even a term?), I brought out my trusty old Clover DA and dug out some foam pads. Sadly, my Lake Country green foam pad had been busted. There were some water marks on the top surfaces on my DD but they are not really very bad. I was not planning to use the pink LC pad (heavy polishing). Luckily, I found myself some Flexipads foam pads that I bought and forgot.

Flexipads is a UK based company selling consumables for power tools from grinder pads to detailing pads (no sponsored content here). If I remember correctly I bought a few pads from their PRO-Detail line up test but ended up forgetting about them. I have their medium heavy cutting pad (orange), heavy polishing pad (green), and light polishing pad (white).

For this round of detailing I chose the green heavy polishing pad. I think this is similar to Lake Country's white foam that can be used for light compounding to polishing. Think of it this way, Flexipads' white is Lake Country's green and Flexipads' green is Lake Country's white.

Armed with my Clover DA and a new pad, I compounded the car with Meguiar's Ultimate Compound (UC) with just a single step. I did not go another round with the Ultimate Polish because the combo finished off pretty good. Since my car is silver in colour, it does not really need another fine polishing to make the shine looks deeper. There is totally no hazing and no noticeable fine swirls. The great thing about UC is that it has enough cutting power but can still finish off very fine with its "exclusive micro-abrasive technology". It could really be used as a one step product (speaking with my experience on light coloured cars).

Application of UPGP

After compounding, I went ahead to wipe down the entire car with diluted IPA (~25%). I have a bottle of IPA that is marked to be 99.7%. In approximation, I added 1 part IPA and 3 part water to achieve my 25% dilution ratio. The IPA wipe down is needed; in my opinion; because the new Ultima Paint Guard Plus is water-based and UC is oil-based. Oil and water do not mix. In order to ensure proper "bonding" of UPGP, I needed to remove any traces of oil.

The above picture shows my diluted IPA in a fancy barber's bottle.

Application of UPGP was really super easy. I followed the instruction of 2 sprays on the applicator per panel. Application was effortless but I was a little skeptical. It felt as though I was applying nothing on to the surface.

After completed the entire car including the side and rear glass panels, I had only use very little of the product.

I think the product was fill to the brim before using and after coating my entire car, I could see that only a very minute amount was used. Maybe this is one of the most economical product yet. Looking at price wise, it could be a little intimidating at US$40 for 12oz. However, when looking at the amount used, maybe it is not that pricey after all.

Results

Here are some results.

Overall, I am very impressed with the results. For something that is wipe on walk away, it is really very good. The surface feels super slick as with my other traditional sealants like Finish Kare Hi-Temp Paste Wax.

Being still a little skeptical after "feeling" the result, I applied another layer after 3 hours as a just-in-case measure.

The UPGP is certainly the easiest to apply among all my sealants. No buffing required. No waiting for the sealant to haze up. Super fast and super easy. I love it.

Wash Time

After about 3 weeks (yup longer than usual), I decided to wash the car. The GIF below shows the water "sheeting" behaviour during the first hose down (i.e. before shampoo). Dirt, dust, bird poo, and lizard poo seemed to wash out better in the initial hose down.

After washing, the behaviour remains.

Here is a shot of the water behaviour after the final rinse.

All in all, I am impressed.

That's it for this post.
Happy detailing.