Scholl Concepts S17+ Polishing Compound

Professional cutting compound restores faded and slightly scratched paintwork

Auto Express Car Reviews

September 2011

Price: £12.50 (500ml S17+); £5 (Hand Polishing Puck)
Contact: 01780 721470, www.spautopia.co.uk

If you clean your car regularly, it’s inevitable that the paint will suffer from swirl marks in the lacquer. Until now, the only way to get rid of them was with a tricky-to-use and costly machine buffer. But now car cleaning specialist Spautopia has a cheaper solution: its S17+ polishing compound and special hand-held applicator pads.

A 250g bottle of S17+ costs £12.50, and the purple paste is applied sparingly to your bodywork. The foam pad is a costly £5, although it is machine washable.

We put four drops of S17+ on a pad, and four blobs on a section of black bodywork. You need to apply a fair bit of pressure and make repeated passes, because it’s not the most aggressive cutting formula available, but when you consider the saving you’re making by not using a machine buffer, the effort is worth it.

We tackled our panel twice and the results were clear. After buffing off, S17+ left a deep shine and glossy finish, ready for waxing.

Rating: ★★★
What is it?
An easy way to restore the shine of your dull paintwork by hand.
Problems?
Not the most aggressive compound, hand-polishing pads are expensive.
Why buy?
It’s great at removing defects, as it improved both the depth and the shine of our black test panel.