new car, what to protect paint from sun.

[jimbrewer]

Originally Posted By: RTexasF
Cheap and effective. Look where I live and I recently retired as a detailer for my livelyhood.

http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/autogeek_2269_71516870

Yes there are coatings that are better for a hundred times the cost. If they are worth it to you then go for it. If not then use this on the cheap and watch your car shine for months on end and be protected. One of the great secrets of the car world. Easy on, easy off, do it twice a year. Nothing to it. I earned my living with it.


There we go. No offense you guys, I want to hear from the Zonies on this one. Failing that, a pro from Brownsville will do. I think the Zonies will back up the guy from Brownsville: Duragloss.

 

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: doitmyself
Some questions about these new coating products like the Duragloss Enviroshield mentioned by The Critic. I hope it is not off topic for the OP.

1. Are you guys confident regarding the safety of these coatings for the long term? Convince me that some years down the road the clear coat will not turn bad due to some unforeseen chemical reaction between the clear coat and topical coating.

2. What about the environmental contaminants such as metal and/or dirt specs that get imbedded into the finish? Clay and/or ironx is used to rid the surface of these things. Won't these long term coatings need to be cleaned annually of imbedded debris?

3. What are the "high spots" mentioned as possible during the application? Is this stuff that thick that it can have visible high spots?

4. Could a first time diyer really screw this application up? I'm thinking the DuraGloss might be much more user friendly to us newbies. But still, I am a bit leery to try it.

5. Can it be removed if needed? How?

Thanks, Mr. Critic for dangling this new product before me just when I was ready to do my biennial Zaino order.


1) From my review of the MSDS sheets for both Opti-Coat and CQuartz UK, I do not see anything that would be of concern.

2) It depends. These coatings will resist soils and contaminants from sticking, but they are far from perfect. An annual Iron-X and light clay de-contamination is probably a good idea.

I have found that contaminants will stick to Opti-Coat 2.0 if the car is not washed on a regular basis. Of course, the trouble here is that the definition of "regular basis" is going to vary wildly from person-to-person.

In fact, I'm dealing with a situation right now where 2.0 has stopped beading completely after the car wasn't washed for a few months -- but I'm sure that de-contaminating the car will fix the problem.

From what I've seen so far, CQuartz UK appears to be less prone to this issue. I do not have enough experience with Opti-Coat Pro to comment on whether it has the same issue as 2.0 -- but Opti-Coat Pro doesn't have a lot of the deficiencies than 2.0 has.

3) The high spot issue is a bit overblown, and is something that is more exclusive to Opti-Coat. If the surface is properly prepped and the coating is applied thinly and evenly, any high spots will be easily wiped off after the suggested wait time. However: 1) high spots can be difficult to spot on light colors, 2) if you apply the coating on the thick side, after 5 min, the residue may not have fully "flashed," so you may end up smearing some of the residue around.

I have found that UK is much easier to apply than Opti-Coat. The reason is because you can see where you've applied the product (unlike Opti-Coat, which mostly disappears), and the residue is removed like a traditional sealant.

Here is a video on how UK is applied:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywKL6FV11ZA

4) Screw-up? Sure. Coating failure can be an issue if the surface is not completely free of oils and polish filler residues. Some coatings seem to be more sensitive to this than others. UK is definitely the easier one to apply than Opti-Coat. I do not know enough about the Duragloss one to comment, but I did read somewhere that it flashes and disappears quickly...

5) A light finishing polish will remove it -- something like M205. If you are using UK or Duragloss, you will need to do a light polish after 18-24 mo to remove the old coating and re-apply anyway.

 

[doitmyself]

Hmmm, well, it doesn't entice me as the miracle product that I envisioned. I might try it on some 500 gallon fuel tanks I repainted last fall with a one part poly alkyd paint (just slightly better than simple Rustoleum). Alkyd paints tend to start loosing gloss in about 3 years and require repainting at about 8 years of daily abuse to the elements.

My Zaino regimen seems pretty good and cost effective.

Just twice a year:
- Wash, clay, rinse: 30 minutes.
-Zaino AIO to further clean and prep: 1 hour
-Zaino Z2pro 2 coats: 2 hours

Applied by hand, relax and enjoy "bonding" with my car whilst doing other things (catch the Detroit Tigers game). Spend another hour or two vacuuming the interior and wiping down the plastic and windows.

I wash my car very seldom because it rains so much here and/or is dusty on the farm. It seems that if you have to clean these long term coatings more (wash frequently and still decontaminate 1-2 times annually), I am not gaining much. But, I am all ears.

That guy is Texas has an excellent idea also. What are Zonies??

 

[BTLew81]

You really can't go wrong with Duragloss. Can be hard to find other than online retailers, but otherwise, it's a solid line. The TPP 105 is a GREAT product. Looks good, slick, durable, and really priced right when compared to other similar products. Aquawax is fantastic. Nothing more to say there. Their car wash is also very nice.

I use some of their products, but not all. That being said, it's just preference. None of their products has ever let me down or not impressed me, especially for the price. Even at retail, they are a deal.

I won't go into the Zaino versus DG area, other than they seem VERY similar, but DG is priced better, IIRC

 

[jimbrewer]

Originally Posted By: doitmyself
Hmmm, What are Zonies??


'Zonies' are Arizonans. The Californians (of course) gave them that name when they would inundate San Diego during the summertime.

 

[dishdude]

Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Wash the bird poop and bug guts off, and forget it. Modern paints will outlast modern cars- the days of 'clear coat cancer' are long gone. Clean regularly, wax maybe once per year if at all. My daughter's '99 Cherokee never saw a garage or wax until 2008, and only rarely since then. Except for some bug/bird etchings the previous owner let happen, the paint is nearly perfect anyway. That whole appearance products aisle at the parts store is pretty much a wallet-suck and little more. If you want to take care of your car, do it with wrenches not rags.

I think I agree with this and it's taken me a few years to come around to this line of thinking. A regular washing and keeping contaminants such as bird droppings and bugs off will do more than anything else.


Originally Posted By: qwertydude

And I see it all the time with Honda's in particular. In fact all of my high school friends bought Honda Civic's and all of them to this day have clear coats that failed even the ones that waxed regularly. My Ford Focus of the same vintage as my friend's though had paint that was darn near immaculate when I sold it. Only lost about 4-6 microns in thickness in the clear over the course of the 8 years I've owned it. And that's pretty much due to me just wanting to keep it shiny and relatively swirl free. Not perfect mind you because I'm very well aware of the issues of thin paint.


I think you're just reinforcing 440's point. If the clear coat is defective, it's going to fail even with regular waxing.

 

[qwertydude]

The problem is it really wasn't defective. The paint is just thin. Just because it's guaranteed to happen with Honda's doesn't mean other cars aren't prone to it.

The difference being I do know that regular waxing will stave off the probability of clear coat peeling.

The problem comes from excessive polishing. Many paints have most of their UV protection in the very top few microns. Polish that til it's gone and paint life dramatically reduces but don't wax it and yeah it might last 15 years. But if you plan on keeping your car longer, regular waxings will likely keep it going 30+ years no problem.

If you look at garage queen cars even from the 1970's when clear coats were vulnerable and just starting, many of the garage queens that got regular waxings and a lot of outdoor cars in California that I see from similar days still have factory paint when most cars that didn't get waxed look like a bad sunburn victim. So you can surmise that regular waxings will help even today's tougher but thinner paints.

Every little bit helps and it's best to insure yourself against the possibility of paint peeling with wax. I will say the peeling on my one friend's Civic that did get waxing peeled after 8 years vs my other friends that only made it 3 years before paint failure. And what did fail wasn't nearly as catastrophic.

It's sorta that Honda experience that let me compare the effects of waxing vs no waxing. It's the same model car from the same generation. So the main difference was regular waxing vs no waxing and the waxed car's paint lasted more than twice as long.

 

[jimbrewer]

Qwerty's story sounds about right--Its a matter of slowing down the deterioration rather than shooting for preservation. So with good care your 10 year old car looks like a 5 year old car. You don't feel the pressure to replace it if the mechanicals are OK too. That's worthwhile if you don't break your back doing it.

 

[Shellguy]

I think these new car coatings are worth looking into..if not id grab some optimum spray wax/ aqua wax and you could rewax after every other car wash as you dry..I use the two bucket method when washing my cars to reduce swirls on the paint..using a micro microfiber towel to dry it along with the spray wax really helps maintain the paint.

 

[Sam2000]

3M have a cleaner wax product. Any experience or thoughts on it?

 

[Shellguy]

its pretty basic at what it does...better options to be had

 

[Vikas]

I have not been able to find any *real* reviews of this Duragloss coating. There is a lot of excitement but no data.

Incidentally, the product under that name has been selling abroad for many years. There are bunch of hits on Malaysian web sites. From what I could gather, this product was not WOWA at the time.

Personally, I am not too thrilled with Blackfire Crystal Seal which is another very hyped product too. There is a one video which makes it abundantly clear that it made zero difference. Of course the guy who posted it was thrilled with BFCS! Fortunately, he had kept the camera on the tripod and it was done indoors with constant lighting. It is easy to look at the before and after by selecting the timeline in the video. As far I can see, the before and after looked identical to me. I will post the video later.

I just don't want to have another disappointment with the Duragloss Enviroshield bottle.

 

[Vikas]

Here is that video. You tell me if you can notice the difference when the video starts and when it ends.

 

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
I have not been able to find any *real* reviews of this Duragloss coating. There is a lot of excitement but no data.

Incidentally, the product under that name has been selling abroad for many years. There are bunch of hits on Malaysian web sites. From what I could gather, this product was not WOWA at the time.

Personally, I am not too thrilled with Blackfire Crystal Seal which is another very hyped product too. There is a one video which makes it abundantly clear that it made zero difference. Of course the guy who posted it was thrilled with BFCS! Fortunately, he had kept the camera on the tripod and it was done indoors with constant lighting. It is easy to look at the before and after by selecting the timeline in the video. As far I can see, the before and after looked identical to me. I will post the video later.

I just don't want to have another disappointment with the Duragloss Enviroshield bottle.

I think you are relying too much on the wax/sealant/coating for the final appearance. The improvement in appearance should come from your prep work, not the protection product itself.

I suppose if you really want to see a difference, then go use an oily carnauba wax or something with a lot of fillers...like HD Poxy.

 

[Vikas]

So, is the water beading the only valid test for the a sealant/coating?

 

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
So, is the water beading the only valid test for the a sealant/coating?


Beading and sheeting, mainly.

 

[KitaCam]

I "refinish" when the tightly spaced dime-sized symmetrical island-beads first start to enlarge into irregularly shaped continents...