Product Review: Sonax EX 04-06
by Ivan Rajic
The Sonax EX 04-06 is a medium cutting polish that finishes down like your favorite finishing polish! This allows you to remove light to medium imperfections, while finishing the paint down to that mirror like shine we all strive for. This unique formula was created specifically for use with dual-action or random orbital polishers and the abrasives break down consistently to help you produce the high amounts of depth and gloss. EX 04-06 is water based and contains no solvents, silicones or petroleum. The dust free formula allows for easy clean up and prolongs the life of the polishing pads. EX 04-06 works great as a one step polish and if you have heavy imperfections, we recommend starting off your polishing with the Sonax CutMax and following it up with the EX 04-06 to finish the paint down. Grab the Sonax EX 04-06 today and bring your paint back to life!
I got to test Sonax EX 04-06 at the same time as we did the CutMax testing. Thus, we also tested it immediately on my shop car/daily driver 2004 red Matrix. The photos below are of the same door we scuffed up initially to test the abilities of each polish. EX 04-06 performed very well and I was very pleased with the ease of use and results. It wasn’t as aggressive as some of the other stuff we use, but on this paint it cleaned up quite a bit of swirl marks, even some deeper ones, and left a really nice and glossy finish.
Here are a couple before photos of the paint…
I used a LC orange cutting pad with the Flex 3401 and after only about 4 quick passes over the section these were the results…
As you can easily tell, the EX 04-06 polish greatly improved the paint and left a nice finish. As expected, it didn’t remove some of the really deep swirl marks, but it performed very well and as the description states… it corrects very well for a polish that leaves the surface ready for protection. It is surely a great product for doing one stage paint polishing and expecting great results, thus I can see using it quite regularly for such projects.
Another good thing is that a little goes a long way, especially after the pad is primed a bit after a couple of polishing sections. This means you get more value out of the bottle and less product to sling around, especially if you end up using it with a wool pad. Comparing it with CutMax, I can definitely see EX 04-06 being used as a finishing polish after a fairly aggressive first compounding stage. It should easily clean up any haze and marring left by the compounding and result in a great finish. In other words, I see it in many cases making a 2-stage polishing into 1-stage and 3-stage into 2. I have yet to try it on some very hard paint to see how it does, so I’ll reserve that for an update or a second article.
Thanks as always for reading and hope others here find great use out of this awesome new product just like I did!
Great review bro, keep up the good work, update us if you find something else interesting about the product. Quick question, where can i find they empty bottles for polishes? Thanks
DI sells empty bottles
https://www.detailedimage.com/Meguiars-M43/Dispenser-Bottle-P527/16oz-S1/
I have a new 2015 BMW X5 with the dark gray metallic paint. The dealer did not do any new car prep other than pulling off the white stickers. There is little to no marring on the paint, but it does not have a high gloss.
Is the Sonax EX 04-06 a good choice for BMW paint? Should I use an orange pad or would it be better to start with a softer pad?
Unfortunately there’s really no way to make a proper recommendation without seeing the car. If it’s pretty new with little marring then maybe the paint simply isn’t capable of giving off gloss you desire. If it does have some marring that’s impacting gloss, then yes EX 04-06 should be able to improve it pretty well and I’d say starting with a white pad is best, then moving up to orange as necessary.
First would you use the sonax Cutmax as the cutting compound and then follow it up with the EX 04-06?
FYI, on an Audi paint (pretty hard if not the hardest I have corrected) with medium to light swirls, effect is limited. I went all the way up to MF on Rupes Bigfoot 15 and to the new wool on my MIlle. After 4-6 passes I got 70% correction. Finishing though, was left to be perfected. Paint (considering grey is not best to see all) had greater depth, but I have done better… Hope that helps some.
Milen