S20 Black and Navy SpiderPad – first impressions

S20 Black and Navy SpiderPad – first impressions

I have been thinking about how to approach the new S20 Black REAL 1-STEP COMPOUND fairly. Whilst our testing is still underway, a great opportunity came to light the other day: A neglected Porsche Cayman requiring a multi-stage correction.

After a thorough wash and decontamination stage, it was time to polish the paint. The client’s brief was simple: Remove 85 percent of the defects and add some gloss!103191_S20BLACK_1kg-LR

We have done many of these corrections to similar Porsches before and we already knew what was in store – a grabby heavy polishing stage, some pad hop, drying out and dusting of the compound. However, you’re typically rewarded with an easier second stage refinement by swapping out to a dual action polisher.

Whilst my colleague set to work with the rotary polisher, I took the opportunity to give the new S20 Black a test run by dual action polisher. These new compounds and pads are rapidly closing the gap in performance once held by the rotary polisher and I was keen to see what could be achieved.

2 S20 pad readyI chose to pair the S20 Black with the new Navy Blue heat-resistant SpiderPad (SC-20373). This can only be described as a very firm pad, and I’m not sure how many times we will use it, but this was our first chance to pair these two new exciting products together.

1 S20 b4Paintwork: On inspection, plenty of defects to repair (pic right). Everything from light swirls and heavy machine marks from a previous polishing attempt, right through to some quite heavy and deep scratches.

I am still experimenting with this new type of SpiderPad, but multiple drops of compound seem to suit it rather than a full priming (see pad priming blog). We cleaned the pad between each polishing set using a combination of blowing the pad with compressed air and brushing to ensure consistent polishing.

3 S20 duringOn to the polishing: The pad runs very smooth. It will fight you slightly over some contours, which is to be expected due to its hard nature.

I stayed to a running time of around two-three minutes per polishing stage.

I didn’t experience any pad hop, clumping of the polish and only a very light dusting (performing better than my colleague with the rotary polisher) it wiped down relatively easily revealing a near perfect correction.4 S20 after

An alcohol wipe-down revealed great looking paint, good enough to pass off as finished in a single step. Impressive!

5 S20 after IPAI have some reservations on the hardness of the pad, especially on delicate paint edges, but for quick clean correction work on bulk sections it is definitely worth looking at.

Recommended!

About the Author:

Roy Kunz is a professional detailer who has been detailing cars professionally since 2004 and carrying out high end valeting, detailing, Concours preparation and paint correction services nationwide. Roy has looked after some of the world’s finest cars, including the Horsepower Racing collection of prestige and iconic sports cars. rare Ferraris and Porsches, valuable private collections and has attained many Concours D’ Elegance victories.