2015 RAV 4 Polished with McKee's 37 & Coated with Crystal Serum Light & EXO

FrankS

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I purchased this new Toyota RAV 4 in November of last year (2015).

It was time for a new car and I was looking for a SUV since I do some mobile detailing.

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Room to put some of my stuff for mobile detailing.
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The wheels have been coated with GTechniq Wheel Armor and the tires coated with Tuf Shine Tire Clearcoat.
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Windshield and exterior glass coated with Pinnacle Black Label Diamond Glass Coating.
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Headlights coated with Opti-Lens.
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Plastic trim and wiper cowl coated with Cquartz Dlux.
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The car had been previously washed, clayed, Iron-X'ed and sealed with CarPro Reload back in December.

It was now time to begin applying the paint coating. My coating of choice was GTechniq Crystal Serum Light topped with EXO.

Some accumulation of dust and dirt - did a rinseless wash using Uber Rinseless Wash.
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I was going to be applying the coating on the front clip of the car for now and tackle the rest of the car at a later date.

The hood, front quarter panels and bumper, were clayed again using a Nanoskin Fine Grade Towel with Uber RW as the lube mainly to remove the Reload sealant.

The front clip was Iron-X'ed again to see if there were any iron particles present, there were some.
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This was a good opportunity to try out the new Mckee's 37 polishes and the CarPro Gloss Pads.
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Vehicle taped up before polishing.
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Compounded first using Flex 3401, White Hybrid pad and McKee's Fast Compound, even though the paint didn't need compounding since there were only very minor swirls and scratches, just wanted to try out the product.
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Very little dusting from the compound, long working time and easy wipe off and left a nice finish. This was after compounding.
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The Griots Garage PFM Towel did a nice job of wiping off the compound residue.
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Next step was to polish with McKee's Fast Polish and CarPro Gloss Pad. The CarPro pads are very similar in softness to the Rupes White Pads.
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Polish residue was wiped off with new Edgeless MF Polishing Cloths.
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After polishing, the panels were wiped down with GTechniq Panel Wipe to remove any polish residue and prepare the paint for the coating.

Crystal Serum Light and Exo kit.
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Contents of the CSL box.
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Letter found inside.
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Contents of the EXO package.
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Conditions at the time of coating.
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Lint brush was used to remove any lint on the towels to be used for coating wipe off. I have to give the credit to forum member Mike@DedicatedPerfection for this idea.
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Coating being applied to the supplied applicator pad.
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Coating being spread/applied.
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Coating being wiped down after doing a section.
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EXO was applied on top of CSL about 45 minutes after applying CSL.

Just a note: I had read a review on applying CSL on another site and it said you could wait a few minutes before the wipe down. I tried to do about 2/3 of the hood at one time but when I went back to wipe the high spots, there were some areas that had streaked and I wasn't able to remove them with the towel. I had to re-polish that section of the hood and try again.

After that incident, I did smaller sections as the instructions indicate and wiped the high spots about 1-2 minutes after beginning a section.

I talked to another professional detailer here in South FL who has been using CSL and he said that they normally begin wiping down immediately after they do a small section.

I found both CSL and EXO to be very easy to apply as long as you stick with the directions.

Here are some after shots.
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I had a similar experience installing Gtechniq CSL on a vehicle that I did on the weekend. For most panels I waited about 4 minutes before removing the excess. I must have lost track of time on the roof and it already cured by the time I went to wipe it off. I ended up having to re-polish the roof.

As with any new product you always need to test flashing times yourself.
 
Results look great, thanks for the review.

Walter

Looks great.

Great work Frank! :dblthumb2:

Looks outstanding Frank!

Thanks guys!

Very nice. Can't wait till it's my trucks turn!

Thanks Josh, hopefully we'll being doing yours this week.

I had a similar experience installing Gtechniq CSL on a vehicle that I did on the weekend. For most panels I waited about 4 minutes before removing the excess. I must have lost track of time on the roof and it already cured by the time I went to wipe it off. I ended up having to re-polish the roof.

As with any new product you always need to test flashing times yourself.

True.
 
Excellent review! Love all the new products you packed into one detail!!
 
Great work Frank. Love seeing the 2 Flex's next to each other.
 
Great work Frank. Love seeing the 2 Flex's next to each other.

Thanks Don! I wanted to have one as a back-up and now I can use one for smaller pads and smaller/narrow sections.
 
Sweet! Thanks for sharing your experience and process. The car looks fantastic. Can't wait to try out CSL.
 
Damn Frank! Amazing write up/review! Nice work!

Love how you captured many different products and made them all flow in one thread.

Many questions but will keep them streamlined: Thoughts on the new McKee's products from use? (amazing results) Gloss pads on the 3401? Im sure you picked up some lint from ironing out the mf's.
http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...g-questions/88875-smack-towel-method-stm.html (reference for others)

Thanks for an amazing write up. Well done good sir.
 
Sweet! Thanks for sharing your experience and process. The car looks fantastic. Can't wait to try out CSL.

Thanks, I think you're going to like CSL.

Awesome work Frank! If you can, keep us updated on the CSL! Been looking at trying it.

Thanks Justin, I'll try to remember to post some pictures of its hydrophobic characteristics. Looks like a great product.

Great job! Appreciate the thorough write-up and pics.

Thanks!

Damn Frank! Amazing write up/review! Nice work!

Love how you captured many different products and made them all flow in one thread.

Many questions but will keep them streamlined: Thoughts on the new McKee's products from use? (amazing results) Gloss pads on the 3401? Im sure you picked up some lint from ironing out the mf's.
http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...g-questions/88875-smack-towel-method-stm.html (reference for others)

Thanks for an amazing write up. Well done good sir.

Thanks Mike, good questions!

1. McKee's products - I liked using both the compound and the polish. The compound was long working, little dusting, easy wipe off and finishes nice. I don't know about it's correction ability since there wasn't much to correct in my case. I'll have to try it out on a darker swirled out paint.

Pretty much the same thing with the polish, long working, very little to no dusting, easy wipe off. I like the fact that it's white instead of grey and doesn't stain my white pads :).

2. Gloss pads - they are soft, very similar to the Rupes white pads, leave a nice finish and they run smooth on the flex.

The 6.5" pads fit nicely on the backing plate that comes with the Flex.

6.5" Gloss Pads.
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Fit on the 5.5" stock backing plate.
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5.5" Gloss Pads.
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Fit on the 4" backing plate - not a perfect fit but the back of the pads are stiff so no real issue there.
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3. Lint on the towels - I didn't pay too much attention to this part, I just passed the lint roller over the towels, if there was some lint, it was very little. I just took a quick glance at the roller when I was done and did see some minor stuff but I'm not sure if it was from a previous use.
 
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