No kidding. I currently use Mother's Chrome Polish. It does an admirable job cutting through the staining, rust and contaminants on my chrome. But it is a little slow in working its magic.
I know that M101's aluminum oxide is coarser than M105, significantly more so actually. It's almost not SMAT really. It's also really loaded up with abrasives which likely explains why it needs more mineral spirits as lubricant since water based lubes would load up with paint and dry up too quickly like in M105 which would be bad on such a coarse abrasive.
So I decided to run a little test. I have a brass lighter which is a decent test for chrome polishes as you can actually see what happens and any results will be more obvious than trying to differentiate results on chrome. Which in real life you'd be able to see with very specific lighting but would be harder to photograph reliably for comparison's sake.
Here's what it looks like for both. In normal lighting it looks like a clean shined up brass lighter.
But using indirect lighting to highlight the swirl damage. This is Mother's Chrome polish. Quite a gentle yet effective chrome polish. It cut the oxidation but took a little work about a minute to polish up tarnished brass. The finish though is quite good. Comparable actually to their fantastic Incredible Billet Polish. I will say Mother's really knows how to make a metal polish.
When they say M101 is the big guns of the polishing world they're not kidding. M101 could polish out tarnished brass by hand faster than a dedicated metal polish! Literally it turned the cloth completely black with brass residue in 10 seconds vs 1 minute with Mother's Chrome Polish. This stuff is fast.
Chrome polish is already made to be quite aggressive as it's meant to cut metal oxidation and work on a much harder metal surface than paint. The fact that M101 can cut even faster than a dedicated metal polish is testament to my espousing not to overwork this polish and in general SMAT polishes. SMAT cuts fast and just because it leaves a fine finish doesn't mean it's not removing as much material in less time than traditional polishes.
Also if you're wondering, on chrome it does leave a slight hazing with very fine swirling, not visible really except in extreme lighting made to highlight such swirling. So M101 really is cutting even into chrome.
So unless you also think it's safe to be polishing your paint with the equivalent of chrome/metal polish. M101 is every bit as aggressive as metal polish. It just happens to leave a quite good finish. But realize it's at least 6 times as fast as metal polish. Not something to be taken lightly. And if you think you're safer with M105, you're not. It cuts as fast as M101 really. The individual SMAT particles may be finer but I can tell by how fast it loads up my polishing cloth it's cutting just as fast as M101 on the brass, likely because it's loaded up even more with polish than M101 and is using a more aggressive water based lubricant.
So if you're using these compounds to attain a perfect finish. I really advise you to get a paint thickness guage. Once you get rid of that last swirl you never know just how much paint you're removing afterwards. And unlike diminishing abrasives which leave a compounding haze and you simply polish til it's gone and you know you've polished enough. SMAT you don't know because the finish is as good on the first pass as the last.
I do know one thing. I've found my new chrome polish. M101. It's even faster than actual chrome polish at least 6 times faster. So now I know unless the damage is absolutely severe, M101 is not touching my paint. But my chrome wheels on my Caddy, well I can shine them up fast now.
I know that M101's aluminum oxide is coarser than M105, significantly more so actually. It's almost not SMAT really. It's also really loaded up with abrasives which likely explains why it needs more mineral spirits as lubricant since water based lubes would load up with paint and dry up too quickly like in M105 which would be bad on such a coarse abrasive.
So I decided to run a little test. I have a brass lighter which is a decent test for chrome polishes as you can actually see what happens and any results will be more obvious than trying to differentiate results on chrome. Which in real life you'd be able to see with very specific lighting but would be harder to photograph reliably for comparison's sake.
Here's what it looks like for both. In normal lighting it looks like a clean shined up brass lighter.
But using indirect lighting to highlight the swirl damage. This is Mother's Chrome polish. Quite a gentle yet effective chrome polish. It cut the oxidation but took a little work about a minute to polish up tarnished brass. The finish though is quite good. Comparable actually to their fantastic Incredible Billet Polish. I will say Mother's really knows how to make a metal polish.
When they say M101 is the big guns of the polishing world they're not kidding. M101 could polish out tarnished brass by hand faster than a dedicated metal polish! Literally it turned the cloth completely black with brass residue in 10 seconds vs 1 minute with Mother's Chrome Polish. This stuff is fast.
Chrome polish is already made to be quite aggressive as it's meant to cut metal oxidation and work on a much harder metal surface than paint. The fact that M101 can cut even faster than a dedicated metal polish is testament to my espousing not to overwork this polish and in general SMAT polishes. SMAT cuts fast and just because it leaves a fine finish doesn't mean it's not removing as much material in less time than traditional polishes.
Also if you're wondering, on chrome it does leave a slight hazing with very fine swirling, not visible really except in extreme lighting made to highlight such swirling. So M101 really is cutting even into chrome.
So unless you also think it's safe to be polishing your paint with the equivalent of chrome/metal polish. M101 is every bit as aggressive as metal polish. It just happens to leave a quite good finish. But realize it's at least 6 times as fast as metal polish. Not something to be taken lightly. And if you think you're safer with M105, you're not. It cuts as fast as M101 really. The individual SMAT particles may be finer but I can tell by how fast it loads up my polishing cloth it's cutting just as fast as M101 on the brass, likely because it's loaded up even more with polish than M101 and is using a more aggressive water based lubricant.
So if you're using these compounds to attain a perfect finish. I really advise you to get a paint thickness guage. Once you get rid of that last swirl you never know just how much paint you're removing afterwards. And unlike diminishing abrasives which leave a compounding haze and you simply polish til it's gone and you know you've polished enough. SMAT you don't know because the finish is as good on the first pass as the last.
I do know one thing. I've found my new chrome polish. M101. It's even faster than actual chrome polish at least 6 times faster. So now I know unless the damage is absolutely severe, M101 is not touching my paint. But my chrome wheels on my Caddy, well I can shine them up fast now.
