Barry Theal
New member
Well as many of you know I love to sand cars. For sometime now I have been using 3m trizact 1500, and 3000 for the most part. 3m's trizact has been a game changer for a long time. I know many of you who use it as well know exactly what I mean. trizact 3000 has been a very good friend of mine. From seeing some posts on here and various other forums It has been a great friend to many of us. Now without having any bad issues at all with it, I would have never have thought about changing for something better. I also thought there is nothing better, Until Thursday of this week. I had my local rep supply me with a new product from Norton Abrasives. Norton is a long time supplier of Autobody shop supplies. I used to use some of there stuff back in the day. Thursday was a great day when I got my hands on there new setup. It has the exact same characteristics of 3m trizact. What I mean is 1500 sanded dry and 3000 sanding wet or damp persay. One of the major factors for me is price. We all know 3m makes great products, but are a tad on the expensive side. From my understanding these Norton sheets are gonna be at a fraction of the cost. From what I was told about 40% cheaper. Below is a write up of what can be done with them. These were the only two sheets attainable to me at the time.
Quick notes- After the little sanding on this car I tried out the film on more cars and I'm thinking It should take about 2-3 sheets to go around an entire sports car. Bob W. and John K from seeing threads and talking to one of you I know your admiration for 3000 grit. So Ill base my findings on a f430 size car. It should take 2 sheets to walk around the entire car as opposed to maybe 4 sheets of trizact 3000. From my findings anyway. So there cheaper and more durable. 1500 discs I didn't fully play with as much, but Ill play with them more and update later.
Here is a photo shot of Trizact 3000,1500 and Norton Dryice 1500,3000
This shot is of the 1500 from both suppliers They appear to have the same looks. Although the dryice sheets has a velcro backing like what is one all foam pads. Its felt as oppossed to Just the paper. I found this very nice for the paper, sticking to the backing plate or interface pad. Dry ice wins this catatgory hands down.In the second picture I was trying to show the thickness.
Now onto the 3000 grits. The Norton is the yellowish orange one. From my findings the Norton again is thicker, it also come supplied with a very small interace on the back. Which is really nice for contouring. Although I would suggest using another interface in between them
I was working on a newer model Mazda 6 that had some severe damamge across the hood, and thought this would be a great chance to try the new Norton on as it needed both 1500, and 3000 to remove the defects. In the picture below look at the marks going across the hood from left to right. Its not the best image, but they were fairly deep and there was some paint transfer from the fence post that laid across the surface. Prior to photo I used laquer thinner to remove the paint and ended up with these deep scuffs.
Below is the sander, the 3/4 inch interface pad (Norton Pad) and the 1500 dryice from Norton all together.
The fun begins! :bounce:bounce I dry sanded half the scuffed area with Norton 1500
This is what it looks like drysanded with the dust
After dust removal
Close up!!!! No pigtails. wow was I shocked. I really loved this fact 1500 dry and no pigtails made it nice for 3000 on the follow up. I also noticed the 1500 had more bite then the 1500 in trizact. In other words it leveled faster.
Once I sanded the entire damaged area I moved onto Norton 3000 dryice.
The sanding begins with a little mist onto the paper and had some more fun.
wetsanded out,
In this photo this is after the 3000 of Norton Dryice. I noticed that removed the 1500 grit nicely and quick and left a finish ready to be polished out. A lot of clarity came back and it wasy EASIER to compound out then its competitor trizact 3000 which is what I thought was nice, condsidering how easy trizact 3000 comes up.
Here is a relection shoot of m105 after sanding and just m105 and wool. Notice the small defect that was to deep to be removed in the center of the bottle. Probally could have gotton it with 800 or 1000 grit, but thought its a newer car and I wasn't risking future clearcoat failure.
Here she is all finished up.
In general the Norton paper blew its counter product trizact 3000 threw the roof. I will be switxhing over as soon as I'm finished with the trizact boxes I have in inventory. I would suggest to anyone trying these out. They are highly worth it!
Side notes - I am no way affiliated with Norton at all.
Quick notes- After the little sanding on this car I tried out the film on more cars and I'm thinking It should take about 2-3 sheets to go around an entire sports car. Bob W. and John K from seeing threads and talking to one of you I know your admiration for 3000 grit. So Ill base my findings on a f430 size car. It should take 2 sheets to walk around the entire car as opposed to maybe 4 sheets of trizact 3000. From my findings anyway. So there cheaper and more durable. 1500 discs I didn't fully play with as much, but Ill play with them more and update later.
Here is a photo shot of Trizact 3000,1500 and Norton Dryice 1500,3000
This shot is of the 1500 from both suppliers They appear to have the same looks. Although the dryice sheets has a velcro backing like what is one all foam pads. Its felt as oppossed to Just the paper. I found this very nice for the paper, sticking to the backing plate or interface pad. Dry ice wins this catatgory hands down.In the second picture I was trying to show the thickness.
Now onto the 3000 grits. The Norton is the yellowish orange one. From my findings the Norton again is thicker, it also come supplied with a very small interace on the back. Which is really nice for contouring. Although I would suggest using another interface in between them
I was working on a newer model Mazda 6 that had some severe damamge across the hood, and thought this would be a great chance to try the new Norton on as it needed both 1500, and 3000 to remove the defects. In the picture below look at the marks going across the hood from left to right. Its not the best image, but they were fairly deep and there was some paint transfer from the fence post that laid across the surface. Prior to photo I used laquer thinner to remove the paint and ended up with these deep scuffs.
Below is the sander, the 3/4 inch interface pad (Norton Pad) and the 1500 dryice from Norton all together.
The fun begins! :bounce:bounce I dry sanded half the scuffed area with Norton 1500
This is what it looks like drysanded with the dust
After dust removal
Close up!!!! No pigtails. wow was I shocked. I really loved this fact 1500 dry and no pigtails made it nice for 3000 on the follow up. I also noticed the 1500 had more bite then the 1500 in trizact. In other words it leveled faster.
Once I sanded the entire damaged area I moved onto Norton 3000 dryice.
The sanding begins with a little mist onto the paper and had some more fun.
wetsanded out,
In this photo this is after the 3000 of Norton Dryice. I noticed that removed the 1500 grit nicely and quick and left a finish ready to be polished out. A lot of clarity came back and it wasy EASIER to compound out then its competitor trizact 3000 which is what I thought was nice, condsidering how easy trizact 3000 comes up.
Here is a relection shoot of m105 after sanding and just m105 and wool. Notice the small defect that was to deep to be removed in the center of the bottle. Probally could have gotton it with 800 or 1000 grit, but thought its a newer car and I wasn't risking future clearcoat failure.
Here she is all finished up.
In general the Norton paper blew its counter product trizact 3000 threw the roof. I will be switxhing over as soon as I'm finished with the trizact boxes I have in inventory. I would suggest to anyone trying these out. They are highly worth it!
Side notes - I am no way affiliated with Norton at all.
) ....too many interesting things to try out!
