Okay, I've since used many of the products. Meh results.
Everything takes a long time. I mean, even with the Porter Cable 7424xp DA, it takes a long time to see any results. Ultimate Compound does somewhat quickly take out very light scratches but you're likely going to have to spend 5 minutes polishing on a 2ftx2ft area to get anything worthy of writing home about. That said, it leaves something behind which doesn't even really need polish? Because of that the difference between the compound and polish seemed hard to notice. I really only did compound, polish, sealant, and wax on the front of the Jeep and there's not really much difference from before. I spent a few hours just on the front too. The Jeep has *a lot* of various kinds of scratches, chips, and so forth. Any kind of damage you can imagine, it has. The Ultimate Compound with the Chemical Guys pads just isn't aggressive enough for my tastes. I mean, I could go over the same area four or five times and it didn't seem like anything happened. Even for what I'd consider relatively scratches. I tried to apply light to medium pressure evenly. Maybe my technique is off, who knows. Maybe I need to spend more time on each section, I can't really say. But overall, I was really unimpressed. Next year I'll have more time (I'm going on vacation here soon) to test a few different techniques including wetsanding to get a better idea of how to go about it.
The Ultimate "Black" for plastic or whatever, it doesn't do much of anything as far as I can tell. I applied 2 to 3 coats like it suggested and wiped off the excess. Not much of a difference on the black fenders. Maybe it's not meant for that but it sure did seem like it was...
The Duragloss? Not worth it. Yes, it works for *very* minor stuff like water spots and maybe some super fine spiderweb type scratches but did it really get all the metallic looking flecks out of my Jeep's windshield? Nah. As soon as the sun is going down, it'll probably look like an explosion of pixie dust happened on the windshield. It looks better, just not that much better. Again, I spent probably 20-30 minutes just going over that small stupid windshield with a DA and glass polishing pads. Very little difference before and after but there is *some* difference. Not a dramatic difference like you'd hope. I haven't tried the Cerium Oxide yet but I will. If you know anything about YJ windshields btw, you know it's a PITA. (windshield wipers FTL)
I haven't seen the Jeep in enough sunlight yet to really get a conclusive decision but under a high powered flashlight, there's really little difference before and after. Yes, I got some minor stuff out with a lot of work but really not that much. I can't tell in current light whether or not the Jet Seal + Wax is really doing much of anything. It really looks the same under a flash light when you go from non-sealed-and-waxed to sealed and waxed. But, whatever.
If I was to do this over: I'd go with M205 and M105. I'd also get the Meguiars microfiber cutting pads.
I can't speak for the CG pads very well but from when I have been using them, it looked as if they were constantly falling apart and just spreading tons of tiny bits of foam dust all over the paint. Not awesome? I couldn't tell if it was the pad or the clearcoat but I'm pretty sure it was the pad. Not sure if the Meguiars microfiber cutting pads do that but I hope not. Pretty annoying.
Other products: Meguiars glass cleaner, meh. It's okay. Works fine.
Porter Cable is pretty loud and can vibrate a lot.
The razor scraper: don't use it unless you absolutely have to. It will scratch your glass inevitably.
Home Depot buckets + gamma seals: works well.
Meguiars washing mitt: falling apart after first use and trying to shake out the dirt from it. Seriously. Falling apart. What?! TOO delicate!
CG Wheel Brush: it's okay. It's pretty soft, which is nice.
Mothers clay bar system: works well. Left the paint suuuuper smooth. I feel like it doesn't come with enough detailer stuff tho. That bottle is nearly empty and I went over the entire Jeep. (wheels and all) I've got at least 1.3 bars left. Surprisingly, the Jeep didn't have that much. I mean, yes, the paint sounds way better and feels way better but the clay was not pitch black afterwards like some horror shows I see. I guess I did a decent job at washing the car.
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