Don M
07-25-2021, 08:41 AM
My wife, sister in law and niece went to Virginia Friday to visit their 100 y/o grandmother, and left the niece's Kia Soul at our house {Insert Evil Laugh}.
So with no adult supervision, I decided to experiment on the car a little. 303 brags that their Graphene Spray Coating can be used on ANY surface...prepped, unprepped, waxed, coated etc. SO I decided to test that theory. I know that it works really well on MY car, which is a prepped, "waxed" surface (It had 2 coats of TW Flex Graphene Spray Coating on it when I used the 303 on it). Now let's see how it does on an UN-prepared surface.
The Kia did get a thorough wash and some minor tar removal. I have to say, for a person who just puts gas in it and goes, the car was in remarkable shape. Apparently she DOES wash it regularly (there is a sticker in the windshield for a car wash place with a bar-code on it) which tells me she is a regular customer of whatever place that is. BUT...it must either be a touch-less or hand car wash, because there is NO swirling in the paint at all. The only defects were some water spotting and a place on the hood, where I believe she sat her purse down and slid it off, that's it. Since it was in such good shape, I only felt a little (OK, a Lot) guilty about not polishing it out first.
Since the car was not polished and smooth, the first coat of 303 went on just a touch grabby and removal was just a tad more difficult, but using new, fresh microfibers made a HUGE difference. I used a new towel per coat and a third towel after the 2nd coat as a 'final buff.' I waited an hour or so between coats, although the roof only got 1 coat (I HATE ladder work). The 2nd coat went on insanely smooth and slick and required less product to cover the entire car, the front windshield and rear window also got two coats along with the paintwork, but the side glass only got 1 coat. My thoughts being that with the box shape of the car, the airflow at the rear sucks all the dirt etc back up against the rear of the car and it has a rear wiper, so a little extra protection won't hurt. The windshield takes the brunt of the abuse, bugs, water and crud kicked up by the car in front during a rain etc. While in comparison, the side glass is relatively untouched.
At first, I couldn't see much of a difference between the 'before & after,' but I'm pretty sure that's because I'd been staring at the car for a few hours, but after taking a break and looking at it an hour or so later, the improvement in gloss was obvious (I'm sure many of you experience the same thing...immediately after finishing a car, you might see some improvement, but give your eyes an hour or so to 'relax' and then the difference is amazing).
Well, enough talk, here's the final results:
http://archive.meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/500/tn_Kia.jpg
So with no adult supervision, I decided to experiment on the car a little. 303 brags that their Graphene Spray Coating can be used on ANY surface...prepped, unprepped, waxed, coated etc. SO I decided to test that theory. I know that it works really well on MY car, which is a prepped, "waxed" surface (It had 2 coats of TW Flex Graphene Spray Coating on it when I used the 303 on it). Now let's see how it does on an UN-prepared surface.
The Kia did get a thorough wash and some minor tar removal. I have to say, for a person who just puts gas in it and goes, the car was in remarkable shape. Apparently she DOES wash it regularly (there is a sticker in the windshield for a car wash place with a bar-code on it) which tells me she is a regular customer of whatever place that is. BUT...it must either be a touch-less or hand car wash, because there is NO swirling in the paint at all. The only defects were some water spotting and a place on the hood, where I believe she sat her purse down and slid it off, that's it. Since it was in such good shape, I only felt a little (OK, a Lot) guilty about not polishing it out first.
Since the car was not polished and smooth, the first coat of 303 went on just a touch grabby and removal was just a tad more difficult, but using new, fresh microfibers made a HUGE difference. I used a new towel per coat and a third towel after the 2nd coat as a 'final buff.' I waited an hour or so between coats, although the roof only got 1 coat (I HATE ladder work). The 2nd coat went on insanely smooth and slick and required less product to cover the entire car, the front windshield and rear window also got two coats along with the paintwork, but the side glass only got 1 coat. My thoughts being that with the box shape of the car, the airflow at the rear sucks all the dirt etc back up against the rear of the car and it has a rear wiper, so a little extra protection won't hurt. The windshield takes the brunt of the abuse, bugs, water and crud kicked up by the car in front during a rain etc. While in comparison, the side glass is relatively untouched.
At first, I couldn't see much of a difference between the 'before & after,' but I'm pretty sure that's because I'd been staring at the car for a few hours, but after taking a break and looking at it an hour or so later, the improvement in gloss was obvious (I'm sure many of you experience the same thing...immediately after finishing a car, you might see some improvement, but give your eyes an hour or so to 'relax' and then the difference is amazing).
Well, enough talk, here's the final results:
http://archive.meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/500/tn_Kia.jpg