SONAX PROFILINE Cut+Finish "5/5" One-Step Polish (up to P1500) 250ml

Remove sanding marks and get high gloss in one step with SONAX Cut+Finish

What can SONAX Cut+Finish do? A one-step polish with maximum cut (5/5) and maximum gloss (5/5) — it pulls out sanding marks up to P1500 and lays down a high-gloss finish in a single pass, silicone-free and low-dust.

In professional paint correction there's one situation that keeps coming back: the paint has been wet-sanded — whether to fix a defect, after a spot-repair respray, or to knock down orange peel — and now the sanding marks have to go. Normally that means two steps: a cutting compound to take down the marks, then a finishing polish for the gloss. SONAX Cut+Finish rolls both steps into one product. With a cut rating of 5/5 and a gloss rating of 5/5, it removes sanding marks from paper up to P1500 grit and leaves a high-gloss, hologram-free surface in a single pass. For workshops and detailers who need to get from sanding to a sale-ready result fast, that's a serious time-saver.

• Maximum cut at maximum gloss. A 5/5 for cut and a 5/5 for finish is unique in the SONAX PROFILINE range — no other product in the line hits the top mark in both categories. The special abrasive blend breaks down progressively as you polish: it starts aggressive to take down the sanding marks, then ends with a fine break-down that builds the gloss. That behaviour is exactly why a single pass does the job where other products need two separate steps.
• Silicone-free and workshop-ready. In a bodyshop, being silicone-free isn't optional, it's mandatory. Silicone-bearing polishes can cause craters and fish-eyes on a respray — a problem that only shows up after the paint goes on and then writes off the whole job. So Cut+Finish is deliberately formulated silicone-free and can be used right next to the spray booth with no contamination risk.
• Low-dust working with a long open time. The polish stays wet and workable through the whole pass without dusting or drying out. That long open time gives you the freedom to extend the pass when the paint calls for it — with no worry about polish dust settling into shut-lines and trim gaps. The wipe-off afterwards comes away in one go, no re-cleaning needed.

Detailing1's tip from the shop: Run Cut+Finish on a rotary with a medium-hard to hard foam pad (orange or white in the SONAX colour system). Start at 1200 to 1500 rpm and step up gradually to a maximum of 1800 rpm if you need it. Drop three or four pea-sized dots onto the pad, spread the polish at low speed and work in rows with about 50 percent overlap. Polish each section until the polish goes clear — that's the moment the abrasives have fully broken down and the gloss comes up.

Cut 5/5 and gloss 5/5 — how Cut+Finish pulls off both in one step

The secret of SONAX Cut+Finish is in the abrasive technology: the abrasive particles in the formula are built to break down progressively under pressure and heat. At the start of the pass the particles are big enough to take down the coarse sanding marks from P1500 paper — a job normally reserved for a dedicated cutting compound. As the pass goes on, the particles break into finer and finer fragments, until they're small enough to polish the surface to a high gloss without leaving fresh micro-scratches behind.

That progressive break-down is the reason the polish needs a full pass to show what it can do. Stop too early — say after thirty seconds instead of two minutes per section — and you stay stuck in the cutting stage: you get the coarse marks out, but no gloss. The pass is only done once the polish goes clear on the paint and the typical shine shows up. Reading that point takes a little experience, but after the first two or three panels you'll have the feel for it down.

One common misconception: some users think a 5/5 polish is more aggressive than a pure cutting compound like the SONAX CutMax (6/4). It's the other way around — CutMax has more cut at 6/4 and can take down coarser defects, such as sanding marks from P1000 paper. Cut+Finish starts at P1500 and reaches the same gloss result you'd otherwise only get with an extra finishing step. If you need to sand coarser, you need CutMax as the first step — Cut+Finish is then the fast one-step solution for lighter to medium sanding work.

Using a one-step polish properly — machine type, pad choice and technique

Cut+Finish is built primarily for rotary polishers. Here's why: a rotary, with its pure rotating action, builds more heat and friction than a dual-action machine — exactly the energy the progressive abrasive break-down needs to run the full spectrum from cut to high gloss. It works on a dual-action machine too, just with reduced cut: the eccentric action builds less heat, so the particles break down slower and the pass takes longer.

The pad choice drives the result more than anything. On a hard pad (white or orange) Cut+Finish gives you its full cut — ideal for working a panel after wet-sanding. On a medium-hard pad the cut is more moderate, enough for refreshing weathered paint without sanding first. On a soft finishing pad the polish loses too much cut and no longer reaches the performance it was built for — for pure finish polishing there are better-suited products like the SONAX PerfectFinish (4/6).

For the application: drop three or four pea-sized dots of polish onto the pad, spread them at low speed over the panel and then bring it up to working speed. Work in rows with about fifty percent overlap across the whole section until the polish goes clear. A typical section — say half a bonnet — takes two to three minutes on a rotary. Wipe the polish residue off with a clean microfibre cloth and check the result under an LED lamp: if there are still sanding marks visible, repeat the pass with a bit more pressure or a higher speed.

When you polish large areas — bonnet, roof, side panels — getting the pressure right is the key. Hold the machine so the pad sits evenly on the surface and let the weight of the machine do the work. Extra pressure from above does raise the cut, but it also builds more heat and can cause holograms on sensitive paint — exactly what Cut+Finish is meant to avoid. If you still see defects after one pass, a second pass at the same pressure beats a single pass with too much pressure. After polishing, it's worth degreasing with SONAX PROFILINE Prepare to strip the last of the polish residue. Under the Prepare control spray the real result shows up — without polishing oils and fillers that can visually mask defects. That step matters especially if a ceramic coating or paint protection film is going on afterwards.

Removing sanding marks after wet-sanding — the ideal jobs for Cut+Finish

The main job for SONAX Cut+Finish is the follow-up after wet-sanding with P1200 to P1500 paper. Day-to-day you'll run into that in a few scenarios:

On a spot-repair follow-up in the bodyshop, blend-ins and touch-up areas get wet-sanded first to level the paint and knock down orange peel. Cut+Finish takes the sanding marks out in one pass and brings the repaired area up to the gloss level of the surrounding original paint — without a second polishing step.

On a new-car prep, plenty of vehicles come from the factory with light orange peel and transport scratches. A careful wet-sand with P1500 levels the surface, and Cut+Finish brings the gloss back. Here the silicone-free formula plays an important role: should the new car need a respray inside the warranty period, the silicone-free polish causes no problems with the repaint.

On a classic-car restoration or the recovery of badly weathered paint, Cut+Finish is enough on its own in many cases, as long as the weathering doesn't run too deep. On original stove-baked paint, which is often softer than modern water-based finishes, Cut+Finish offers enough cut to take down the oxidised layer and enough finish to bring the gloss underneath back out.

Another scenario that comes up a lot day-to-day: scratch removal without sanding first. Not every scratch needs the sandpaper. Surface scratches that sit only in the clearcoat and disappear when the surface is wet can be polished out directly with Cut+Finish. The 5/5 cut is enough to take down the damaged clearcoat layer far enough for the scratch to disappear — and the 5/5 gloss makes sure the spot doesn't end up looking duller than the surrounding paint afterwards. For this job a medium-hard pad beats the hard pad, so you keep the cut more controlled.

Where Cut+Finish hits its limits: on sanding marks from P1000 and coarser it doesn't have the cut to take them out fully in one pass. Here CutMax (6/4) is the better choice as a first step, followed by a finish with PerfectFinish or the NP 03-06. Cut+Finish is no replacement for a dedicated cutting compound on heavy defect removal — it's the one-step solution for the P1200 to P1500 range, where it plays its strength in full. On extremely hard ceramic clearcoats too, like the ones some German premium makers use, Cut+Finish can need more passes than on softer Japanese or Korean paint systems — the abrasives break down slower on the hard substrate, and the polishing process takes correspondingly longer.

One-step polish comparison — Cut+Finish vs. CutMax vs. PerfectFinish

In the SONAX PROFILINE range, Cut+Finish, CutMax and PerfectFinish form a logical gradient that covers different needs:

CutMax (6/4) is the pure cutting compound — maximum cut (6/5), moderate gloss (4/5). It comes out when coarse defects like P1000 sanding marks, deep scratches or heavy weathering have to be taken down. After CutMax a finishing step is nearly always needed, because the gloss result alone isn't enough.

PerfectFinish (4/6) is the counterpart: moderate cut (4/5), maximum gloss (6/5). It's built for the finishing step after a cutting compound and creates the last bit of high gloss needed for concours results and showroom quality.

SONAX Cut+Finish (5/5) sits right in the middle and is the all-rounder: it manages the cut of a medium cutting compound and the gloss of a good finishing polish in a single pass. The upside is obvious — time saved, fewer pad changes, less polish residue. The downside: if you have to push to the extremes — heaviest defect removal or that absolute last bit of high gloss — you're better served by the two-step approach of CutMax and PerfectFinish. For an estimated seventy percent of the day-to-day polishing work in workshop and detailing, Cut+Finish is plenty as the only polish you need.

Against polishes from other makers, Cut+Finish positions itself as the workshop-focused solution: the silicone-free formula, the low-dust working and the long open time are properties that make the difference in daily workshop use. Hobby detailers who polish once a year notice these upsides less — for them what counts above all is the end result. In a workshop polishing ten to fifteen vehicles a week, though, these upsides add up to a tangible efficiency gain: less cleanup thanks to no dust, no contamination risk thanks to being silicone-free, less wasted product thanks to the controlled consistency.

Buying a one-step polish — bottle sizes and recommendation

Cut+Finish comes in 250 ml and 1000 ml. For getting started or the occasional job on your own car, the 250 ml bottle is enough — that polishes a whole vehicle and leaves you a reserve for touch-ups. For workshops and professional detailers polishing every day, the 1000 ml bottle is the more economical pick: the price per litre drops noticeably and you reorder less often.

For the optimal workflow we recommend the combination: Cut+Finish as the main polish, SONAX Prepare for result checking and degreasing, and SONAX PolymerNetShield as the final sealant. This trio covers the whole process from defect correction to long-term protection — in three steps instead of the five or six a multi-stage process with separate cutting and finishing polishes would need.

With several vehicles a day a further upside of Cut+Finish shows up: you only need one product and one set of pads, instead of switching between cutting and finishing polish. That cuts not just the setup time but also the risk of mix-ups — in a workshop where several people polish, a simple one-product system is less error-prone than a three-stage process with different polishes and pad combinations.

A practical note on storage: Cut+Finish can separate slightly when it stands for a while — the abrasives settle at the bottom. Shake the bottle well before every use until the consistency is evenly creamy. Store the product frost-free and sealed, and it keeps its full performance over the whole shelf life. Frozen polish loses its homogeneous consistency and won't work evenly anymore even after it thaws.