Hmm, thanks for pointing it out. It does appear that the Zona is more like 14,000 while the MM is 12,000. Truthfully, I don't notice much difference in the finished product. Generally, I have been using the Zona over the MM lately. Now I'm wondering what grits the various plastic polishes are equivalent to.
Yeah, I have moved pretty much exclusively to Zona these days. It just seems to handle better than MM as well. I still have a full set of MM sheets (the little 3x6 or whatever they are, the ones with different shades of gray rather than the colors), so I'll have to use them up at some point. The Zona is just so nice, and I know I get that 1 micron grit at the end.
Regarding polishes. I've been researching this for a while, and it seems that polish and buffing compound "grits" are pretty tightly protected trade secrets most of the time. I don't know why. I've found various posts on various forums (including this one, actually) that indicate that polishing compounds can range from around 6000-8000 normal sandpaper grit, to as high as 30k-60k grits. I've read that the "Green" buffing compound is around 0.5 to 0.1 microns, and others can be much finer than that. Some of the materials used are also friable, so they will break down as they are polishing into finer, but still just as effective, grits...giving you a finer and finer polish.
I've finally finished off some of my other plastic polish compounds, and am now using Meguiars. I have two, one is just their standard "Plastic Polish", the other is an ultra fine Mirror Glaze polish. I may need to pick up some more, as the ultra fine I have is what they call a "light cut", and they have some stuff that is more of a "medium cut" and some stuff that is a "heavy cut". They just rate their cuts on a 1-10 scale, so I honestly have no idea what grits they are. The ultra fine works, but, it does take some work after I've sanded with Zona to 1 micron, before I get a truly scratch-free glossy glass-like shine. I do get there, and wow, this stuff works SO much better than any other polishing compound I have used so far. I think with maybe even just the medium cut stuff, it will make the polishing process much faster and get me to that perfect shine much more quickly. If you haven't tried Meguiars yet, I highly recommend you give it a try. I suspect that the heavy cuts are in the 6-8k grit range, the medium cut is maybe in the 15-20k range, and the light cut might be up there around 30k I suspect. I have no clue what the plastic polish is...but, on some materials, it seems to do a better job than the mirror glaze.
