Silica Spray Showdown: McKee's v. Gyeon v. CarPro

[kevincwelch]

what camera are you using?

Pixel XL (phone)

 

[Cruzscarwash]

i need more skill, I have the same and my pics never look that awesome

 

[runrun411]

Is there a date on the big reveal?

 

[kevincwelch]

Is there a date on the big reveal?

When they aren't working so well, I will progressively reveal. Right now they seem to be neck and neck. It's been 3 weeks since application.

 

[vobro]

At least we've had some steady rain to show exactly how these products hold up! The sun came out today and seeing it felt foreign

 

[runrun411]

When they aren't working so well, I will progressively reveal. Right now they seem to be neck and neck. It's been 3 weeks since application.

How are the lower side panels holding up?

 

[kevincwelch]

If you are referring to the lower side panels of the hood, they look about the same as the horizontal portions of the hood.

(Sent via my mobile device...)

 

[WRAPT C5Z06]

Pretty cool that they've all kinda evened out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[kevincwelch]

That fact that they've evened out is reassuring in a way, and it does seem to suggest a suspicion that many people have -- that these silica products originate from a common source (Korea, among others) and possibly all contain the same active components. I'm sure there are variations in the prep and concentration of silica. But, what looks even now may start to reveal very different longer term outcomes.

 

[kevincwelch]

Ok.

So we are now at 1 month s/p application of the three silica sprays to the hood of my wife's Highlander.

Over the past week, we had a couple days of hard rain and the usual driving on the interstate into Chicago for kid transportation and car pooling. In other words, regular life.

I took the car to the coin op today and sprayed everything BUT the hood with their cleaner, and I rinsed the entire car with their spot free rinse.

There was absolutely minimal sheeting of the water off the hood. I mean MINIMAL. Looked like it did before application.

On the other hand, it wasn't really clean.

Here are the pictures of the beading.

Panel A/Product A

Panel B/Product B

Panel C/Product C

None of those beads flew off the hood when driving home (35mph). The beads were flat with obtuse angles.

I took the car home and cleaned it with McKees N914. Here is the beading on a clean hood.

A

B

C

So, maybe there is some protection left. Still beads, albeit not great.

Water sheeting test is below. Water still rolls off the hood in all three panels and leaves the hood fairly dry. Not as speedy as it was immediately after. But, it's decent.

They all look about the same. Maybe B is ahead. Hard to say.

This whole experiment has forced me to think about the question: "what is protection?" How do we really measure the level of protection? Does something that protects our clearcoat have to have perfect beads? Are disorganized beads a sign of protection? How fast does water sheeting have to be?

I would say that if a last step product exhibits any of these characteristics, it is protecting the paint. A perfectly rounded bead may be attractive to us, but that does not mean that an irregular water bead isn't a sign of protection.




(Sent via my mobile device...)

 

[Eldorado2k]

This whole experiment has forced me to think about the question: "what is protection?" How do we really measure the level of protection? Does something that protects our clearcoat have to have perfect beads? Are disorganized beads a sign of protection? How fast does water sheeting have to be?

I would say that if a last step product exhibits any of these characteristics, it is protecting the paint. A perfectly rounded bead may be attractive to us, but that does not mean that an irregular water bead isn't a sign of protection.

*crowd chants* baggie test, baggie test, baggie test.

 

[kevincwelch]

*crowd chants* baggie test, baggie test, baggie test.

The thought had crossed my mind, and there is a mild case of bonded contamination...less than the rest of the car.

Now: I can take either a fine grade Nanoskin or Speedy Prep towel or some fine grade clay to the car, but I am concerned that I would take some of that coating with it. I'd be more afraid to spray it with an iron remover.

I've avoided doing those very things for fear of degrading the silica coatings.

But, maybe that's what I need to do...in sections.

 

[Eldorado2k]

Great thread. Appreciate you taking the time to answer everyone's questions and even taking requests + providing us with the honest results without shilling.

 

[kevincwelch]

Part of the reason why I didn't want to clay was that I was afraid it might degrade the silica coatings. Another reason why I didn't want to was that I couldn't fathom that the hood would be significantly contaminated.

Well, it wasn't as bad as the rest of the car (which hasn't been clayed in about 18 months), but it did "fail" the baggie test.

So, I divided the hood into a top section (near the windshield) and a bottom section (near the grill). The bottom section was decontaminated with N914 using their clay lube dilution (1:128 - same as the waterless dilution) and a Griot's clay. After everything was cleaned, the baggie test was performed again, and the hood was a smooth as a baby's behind.

Here are the pictures of the beading on the cleaned and clayed surface.

Panel A/Product A

Panel B/Product B

Panel C/Product C

Perhaps slightly better, but at this point, it's hard to judge whether they are in fact better. So subjective. What I can say is that the beads are not super tight and round like they were on Day 1. But, I still see protection.

Here is the video of the water sheeting test. Judge for yourselves, but I'm not seeing a whole lot of differences in the beading and the sheeting, but I would also ask anyone else to weigh in at this point. There are some small beads left behind after the sheeting, so I'm not certain what that is at this point...

 

[Cruzscarwash]

Looks like B has the most rounded beads and the others are more of the blob randomly shaped variety

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

 

[WRAPT C5Z06]

Sheeting performance fell of real quick. Still plenty of beads. Regardless of shape, that still shows protection, IMO.

 

[kevincwelch]

Going through Week #5 now.

Update: the car traveled to Little Rock over the past week. Highway driving. Rain. Bugs. Outdoors 24/7 while in St. Louis and Little Rock. I removed the bugs and grime from the front with Gyeon Bug & Grime Remover. See my review here. I washed the rest of the vehicle with Rupes m101 and refreshed the REST of the vehicle with HydrO2.

Here are photos of the hood today.

Panel A/Product A



Panel B/Product B



Panel C/Product C





Frankly, I'm disappointed with the beads. The aren't tight. They're flat. They're irregularly dispersed. But, they are present, and this suggests some level of protection. To be practical, if my hood looked like this, I'd be reapplying a product at this point.


Here's the video of the bulk water sheeting. I'd take the time to make sure it is full screen and in 1080p.

To be honest, I'm really disappointed with the performance of all three products. The beading is subpar and the sheeting is simply horrible at this stage. Products A and C appear to be doing somewhat better than Product B in the sheeting department, but frankly all three are unimpressive at this stage.

 

[vobro]

I'd say you've reach the end point

 

[MattPersman]

Thanks for the update buddy ! On to coatings or 808 testing next ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Desertnate]

Thank you for doing this test and the follow through over the last few weeks.

I've always wondered about this class of product and how well it would hold up to daily driver use.