are these essentially the same things to restore paint on an old 3 speed? I have free access to the turle wax polishing compoud (which says to restore paint) or i can buy the scratch x.
Any help would be great?

Any good cleaning wax (Meguiar's, Mother's) should do a decent job. Polishing compound is going to be exactly that, a polishing compound...not a wax. I would try the polishing compound on an out of the way portion of the frame like under the BB shell, and follow up with a good wax and see how it does.

Pete

I use the Turtle Polishing compound all the time to REMOVE minor scratches and scrapes on frames. It basically removes the car door scrub/storage rubs I commonly see on bikes. But if I don't see such issues, I don't use it. I just use regular car wax.

Polishing compound is a very fine abrasive that will cut through the top of the paint layer and remove old wax that may have been applied previously. Fine surface scratches can be removed this way as well. A heavier duty version of this is rubbing compound. You follow it up with a good wax to protect the treated paint. From reading the description, it looks like Scratch X probably is a polishing compound.

Turtle Wax red rubbing compound, then Turtle Wax white polishing compound and then any one of half a dozen waxes I have on hand is the way I do it. I have no brand loyalty. They're all good. If one company came out with something better than the rest, the rest would soon copy their formula.

Rubbing/polishing compound can also be used to remove orange peel and other imperfections in a fresh paint job.

well thanks... the bikes are in decent shape .. little scratches... ill do the polishing compound ( discreet location ) and the follow up with a good wax. I have Banana wax and LOVE it!... thanks again!!

Minor scratches = think white Turtle wax polishing compound. Walmart sells it.

Here is the low down, Scratch X 2.0 is the most recent formulation of the Scratch X product which is rated similar to a 2-4 on their abrasive scale (10 being the most abrasive). Scratch X makes use of Meguiar's diminishing abrasives meaning that the formula starts off with large particles that will "cut" into the paint and with friction, work themselves finer and finer until they breakdown into a super fine polish. This is the magic that separates Meguiar's from any other product on the market...though Klasse does have AIO.

The Turtle Wax does NOT break down and is actually composed of randomly sized particles, some small and some "large", this has obvious effects; like adding the products own scratches to the problem requiring in most cases the use of a high-speed polisher to remove the resulting finer scratches.

The key with Scratch X 2.0 is to continuously work new product until you are happy with the product, apply, RUB it long and hard (no pun intended) - until a smooth and fine haze really, wipe off then rinse and repeat as necessary. While you're at it, add some Ultimate Compound to the mix. It is FAR more aggressive and can fix some real doozers by HAND! Oh and by the way, hand application is actually MORE aggressive than rotary and DA polisher.

Enjoy!

wow! you know yer stuff. Well no I have to go buy some scratch 2.0!

FWIW, I've had much better luck on dull bicycle finishes with Scratch-X than with the white polishing compound.

Be careful of the red rubbing compound. It is quite agressive and can cut right through the paint to the primer very quickly!

+1 for the red compound being too abrasive. The red rubbing compound from Turtle Wax is for severely damaged and faded paint. I would not recommend using that on any paint that has some shine left to it. Ive always had good results on my cars when using Zymol products. Claybar, Wax, then Polish.

Over 10 years in the industry and I run a little detailing business when I broke off from the detailing business that I had had started up with a friend. It got too business-y and less about the passion of vehicle detailing. Meguiar's stands behind their products so CALL them, they WILL help you out and explain things better than I can

ok so i used the turtle wax WHITE compound last night cuz it was late and I have no $$. and for a free product it worked pretty good. the paint ended up feeling very smooth and looked very clean. I followed up with a good wax and WOW the bike looks great.
Now it did not get rid of the bigger scratches but hey what do you expect out of a 30 year old bike.
How would one get the rust out of said scratches where there is rust. these are big scratches and i fear there is no paint under them anymore.. oh what to do?

Polishing and waxing a frame without first cleaning it is kinda like wiping after pulling up your pants...

Not that anyone here would fit that profile

You are really better off by doing Ia thorough cleaning before the rubbing paste comes out. I have found that using soap and water is good but a better item is "Scrubs in a bucket" which are available at most hardware stores and Sam's and some others as well. Those scrubs really pull off crap that other methods don't and make the amount of rubbing compound needed in later rounds less. IMHO

yes i did clean the bike first... car wash soap and water.

On rust, search is your friend. You will have to deal with it separately. I am in the oxalic acid camp, although on minor scratches I just use a rust converter product, then touch up with the appropriate paint to match the bike (lots of threads on touch up as well).

Best way to search this site, go to google. In the google search box, type in: oxalic acid site:bikeforums.net

Replace the words oxalic acid with whatever search term you want to use.

Back when I had a car I cared about ('99 Audi A4 Avant, laser red, sigh) I used 3M Imperial Hand Glaze before waxing. It was apparently a very fine abrasive with some kind of oil or polymer that would fill micro-scratches in the paint. At least that's what I think was going on. It yielded an amazing surface even before the wax, the red on my car would almost hurt your eyes. At the time 3M seemed to have 3 levels of compound/polishes for hand application, IHG being the finest, with Scratch Remover and Rubbing Compound above. Looking at the 3M site IHG is still available if you search, but it's not listed among their automotive polishes so it may be phasing out. I gave my bottle to a car detailer on a film shoot...need to get some to try on our bikes!

I've had good results with the TW Polishing Compound but might have to try Scratch-X based on the responses here.

Some of it reads suspciously like ad copy.

Used a number of polishing and rubbing compounds a number of years ago on a car that used to go from dark blue to almost pink from oxidation and pollution, and never noticed the polishing compound adding scratches, in fact it usually took out scratches left by the rubbing compound. This was an annual job with that car, added a nice coat of hard paste wax and it looked like a million bucks, when done. This was all done by hand, every spring.

The above looks like you copied it from an advertisement for the product, not saying the product doesn't work, but not sure that for bicycle use, a few microscopic scratches would even be visible, especially after a good wax and polish. Problem I have is that only one bike is in a condition where it would make sense to give it that treatment. I need to get a tin of touch up paint for the Norco and, and the wifes bike need a strip and repaint, the paint on there is not really worth saving and she prefers pink. Wondering though about a white frame with pink accents.....

thanks for the heads up =)

Whatever I have said is not in any way representative of Meguiar's. It is my own view right from my head; I am very familiar with how the product and products from the company work because I give local 101s to those looking to improve their knowledge. I was hesitant and I'm certain I said that on a bike with a unique painting process that things may not work like a car. If I didn't say that...sorry!

Glad it is all working for you. If it is surface rust, I'd feather the scratch with some sand paper (after trying clay bar or maybe the rubbing compound again) and follow that until there isn't any rust. I don't have any experience with rust converters...sorry.

ill check out that acid stuff