Coatings Pros and Cons

Well let's see here I have installed all of the following coatings:

Opti-coat
Opti-gloss
Cquartz UK
Gtechniq C1
Gtechniq EXO
Gtechniq Cystal Serum
22ple
Pinnacle Black Label (the entire line)
DP coatings (the entire line)
Few unreleased ones and few in the waiting.

As you can see I have some time in coatings and they all are different in the way they are made up, the way you apply them, and the way you take car of them after the install.

When deciding in a coating, if this will be your first trip down coating lane you need to ask yourself what are you looking to get out of the coating?

With today's market there are too many company's trying to jump on the coating train so you want to choose a company that has been in the game and has a great track record. Additionally when picking a coating since this maybe your first time you want one that is fairly easy to install as well.

Here is what I fell are my rose for coatings:

Offer a clean, glossy, and just detailed look for a longer length than a wax/sealant

Some coating offer more scratch resistance than the traditional clear coat that is currently on the vehicle.

They help to reject objects like contamination, road paint, tar, and dirt for example from sticking or attaching to the surface of the vehicle

It acts as an additional layer of clear coat preserving the already thin clear on the vehicle. This allows the coating to take the beating to so to say from the outside world instead of the cars clear coat

They offer easy maintenance routines after the coating is installed

They offer very hydrophobic surfaces

Coatings have the potential to offer a higher resell value to a car


Those are just a few and those will vary slightly depending in the coating.

The cons:

Some coatings are a bit more difficult to install properly than other and can cause streaking and Hugh spots to remain if missed. This will result in a non-uniform look. Fixing these issues requires polishing off the coating.

The coatings are not bullet proof meaning they can and will scratch if they are not properly maintained

If you have to fix an area that is coating you may have to polish and re-coat an entire panel

Some coatings will last longer than others

As you can see the pros definitely out weigh the cons.

I'll add a couple things to evan's comments.

1. They require intensive surface preparation prior to application. Be prepared, very prepared, before you start and don't rush the prep. Any defect left in the paint will be visible through the coating and you'll have to live with it or redo that panel

2. Even with top notch maintenance expect to polish and reapply in a couple years due to wash induced marring/swirls.

3. If you like waxing your car, forget about doing a coating, with the exception of reload, permanon and 22ple final coat, you really should not apply anything on your coating.

4. If you ever want to change things back to wax/sealant, you will need to polish to remove the coating.

One con Evan did not mention is that they are very expensive compared to durable sealants.

From a consumer and enthusiast perspective. I have nothing but good things to say.

Rick72 said:

From a consumer and enthusiast perspective. I have nothing but good things to say.

Click to expand...

:iagree: My first try at a coating was DP.

Zubair said:

Good counter argument, is the swirls/marring you talk about on the coating only yeah? That makes it worthwhile as the coating takes the beating not the clearcoat.

Click to expand...

My statements weren't simply cons; certainly a couple are, but mostly trying to illustrating the unique nature of coatings.

I would consider swirls and marring to be shallow enough to be only in the coating, making the coating a sacrificial barrier as Evan suggested. Again, illustrating that you will have to redo the work eventually. overall you are probably spending fewer hours in the long run with a coating.

At least one manufacturer has openly stated not to clay their coating, one would hope the coating prohibits bonded surface contamination, but I feel this is unlikely in real world use, so therein lies a problem with that particular coating.

Deeper scratches that are likely to arise over the course of a couple years could be problematic in that you may find yourself redoing a panel or two sooner.

The biggest con is that to many people think they are bullet proof and to many installers do not educate their customers.

Pureshine said:

The biggest con is that to many people think they are bullet proof and to many installers do not educate their customers.

Click to expand...

And it's not even the marketing department, which I, admittedly, like to blame for misinformation. Except for that one coating under a manufacturer's "bullet proof" line of products, that I will blame on the marketing department.

I see this more like poor assumptions by consumers and poor education by some installers.

I just can't call a consumer's lack of knowledge a con. However, poor education by installers is certainly a con. And poor education by some manufacturers is a con as well.

One "Pro":
Many Coatings will actually have a: Measurable Thickness.

One "Con":
The unraveling of the mystique surrounding
their prep & application processes.

Bob

FUNX725 said:

One "Pro":
Many Coatings will actually have a: Measurable Thickness.

One "Con":
The unraveling of the mystique surrounding
their prep & application processes.

Bob

Click to expand...

I am doubting this manufacturers claim more and more as I read things like, "add a few drops for the next panel" from Optimum.

A drop from an IV can be calibrated between 10 and 60 drops o'er ml...so using the biggest drop possible; there are 100 drops in 10ml of an Optimum coating. "A few", means three to me, so you should be able to coat 30 panels with 10ml (using 10 drops to prime the applicator)

Based on the math above, you should be able to coat 3 average sized cars with 10ml

At that application rate, the thickness of the coating would NOT be measurable


You can claim that a little goes a long way OR you can claim measurable thickness....you can't have both

I've heard people are only getting one vehicle out of the opti coat product. I believe that complaint has caused opti to produce a 20ml version for Autogeek. I have two vehicles, one being a Durango out of one bottle of Cquartz UK with plenty left.

allenk4 said:

I am doubting this manufacturers claim more and more as I read things like, "add a few drops for the next panel" from Optimum.

A drop from an IV can be calibrated between 10 and 60 drops o'er ml...so using the biggest drop possible; there are 100 drops in 10ml of an Optimum coating. "A few", means three to me, so you should be able to coat 30 panels with 10ml (using 10 drops to prime the applicator)

Based on the math above, you should be able to coat 3 average sized cars with 10ml

At that application rate, the thickness of the coating would NOT be measurable


You can claim that a little goes a long way OR you can claim measurable thickness....you can't have both

Click to expand...

Say what you must...about manufacturers' claims...
But I still stand by my original posting of what
I consider to be a Coating "Pro":

FUNX725 said:

One "Pro":
Many Coatings will actually have a: Measurable Thickness.

Click to expand...

And:
I'm not asking anyone to take my word for it...
Here's a documented example of said Measurable Thickness, by a well respected Professional Detailer:

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...pics-thickness-gage-applying-coating-cqf.html


Bob

Let's say everything goes well and you lay down a perfect coating. The major "con" to me is, from day 1, the coating starts getting beat up, just like clearcoat would. It gets swirled, bird bombs hit it, sap hits it. So, even if the coating is supposed to last 3 years, I would not be able leave it that long because it starts looking rough. I do a big polish once every 12 months, and a touch up fine polish once in between - so every 6 months. I just need something that lasts me 6 months, and many conventional sealants fit that bill and are easier to deal with than coatings.

I have CQuartz on my car and I love it. My car stays cleaner longer and is much easier to clean. Bugs can easily be removed. Even tar as shown below (after the video, one spray of APC and 1 second with a boar's hair brush and it was gone). I can even just spray my car down with the soap at the coin-op car wash, rinse, and then have a 90% clean car. Since I sometimes have to go months without a proper wash, it's nice that I can keep my car pretty much clean with just touchless methods.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyylOm1UDR8]CarPro CQuartz vs. Road Tar - YouTube[/video]

FUNX725 said:

Say what you must...about manufacturers' claims...
But I still stand by my original posting of what
I consider to be a Coating "Pro":


And:
I'm not asking anyone to take my word for it...
Here's a documented example of said Measurable Thickness, by a well respected Professional Detailer:

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...pics-thickness-gage-applying-coating-cqf.html


Bob

Click to expand...

I have seen the referenced thread before and I appreciate the OP trying to test the theory

That being said, the study does not stand up under closer examination:


The PTG (ETG) used is accurate to +/- 1%
This makes several of the measurements within the margin of error

If the surface was polished uniformly the measured variation of the change after polishing removed 1 micron from one area, but 5 microns from a different section of the same panel

The coating was applied to the section using the same application process, so the increase in thickness should be consistent on all areas of the panel. It is not, the increase in thickness was +1 micron in one area and +9 microns in another. None of the measured area saw a consistent increase in thickness


I do believe that anything you apply to paint has the potential to add thickness

I gave the coatings every benefit in the calculation. I did not count the fact that the coating contains ingredients that flash and do not remain on the surface. I also disregarded the manufacturers directions that indicate "a few drops per panel"

I have done the math on the total surface area vs. what's in the bottle and the numbers don't add up

allenk4 said:

I do believe that anything you apply to paint has the potential to add thickness

Click to expand...

Harks back to my previously stated Coating "Pro".

Going forward:
I'm now going to concentrate my efforts, in this OP's thread, on my previously stated Coating "Con":

FUNX725 said:

One "Con":
The unraveling of the mystique surrounding
their prep & application processes.

Click to expand...

Bob

Is it possible to put swirls back into the paint while polishing off a coating due to its chemical and physical makeup? I know some coating manufactures tell you to toss the applicator after one use because of the coating drying and forming "glass like particles".


I would like to see a more consistent definition of the coating category. What makes a coating a coating is it the length of time the product lasts or is it what the product is made of? The Sonus paint coating comes to mind also Chemical Guys leather serum which they refer to as a coating.

I'm gonna start researching coatings. Since the is new now would be the time to do it.

I do enjoy waxing so I'm on the fence. I'm pretty sure people have said you can wax or seal over the coating.

I talked to Evan about a PPF but unfortunately it's not in my budget right now.

I saw an old posting about cquartz finest. At the time was only available through a dealer. The way this was talked about it sounded like it was one of the best. Any thoughts