New M340i - Help me decide what to use!

Took the car into the daylight today. Found a fairly significant area of rainbowing going from the LF fender onto the bumper. I fixed that using Essence and the Uro Fiber pad. Walked around the car, found a few other small spots, fixed them. Walked around the car again and found more spots! It was like ants, you see one and then you see a ton, alright maybe not that many but I'm a perfectionist. I fixed most of the spots using Essence. A couple spots that were really light I used CQUK to fix, allowing the solvents to dissolve or reactivate the area. It took some massaging but it worked. Then the annoying part was then I could see that the areas the coating(s) are is darker. I applied CQUK over the touch ups. Car went back in the garage to cure (it normally doesn't live there, I have a S2000 that has been sitting out in the rain while this process is going on). Tomorrow I'll go back with Gliss. Hopefully the 'splotchiness' of the touch up areas goes away.
 
I find that if you need to use Essence and then touch up you have to do that entire panel or you will see the spot where you touched up. It doesn’t seem to blend well. Hopefully you have enough product as I’m afraid you’ll end up doing it again for each full panel where you left a high spot.
 
BSoares said:
I find that if you need to use Essence and then touch up you have to do that entire panel or you will see the spot where you touched up. It doesn’t seem to blend well. Hopefully you have enough product as I’m afraid you’ll end up doing it again for each full panel where you left a high spot.
Click to expand...

I agree, CQuartz 3.0 does not blend well on touch ups.
 
I think touch ups (or lack of success doing so) are a “con” of coating applications.
 
gofast182 said:
Took the car into the daylight today. Found a fairly significant area of rainbowing going from the LF fender onto the bumper. I fixed that using Essence and the Uro Fiber pad. Walked around the car, found a few other small spots, fixed them. Walked around the car again and found more spots! It was like ants, you see one and then you see a ton, alright maybe not that many but I'm a perfectionist. I fixed most of the spots using Essence. A couple spots that were really light I used CQUK to fix, allowing the solvents to dissolve or reactivate the area. It took some massaging but it worked. Then the annoying part was then I could see that the areas the coating(s) are is darker. I applied CQUK over the touch ups. Car went back in the garage to cure (it normally doesn't live there, I have a S2000 that has been sitting out in the rain while this process is going on). Tomorrow I'll go back with Gliss. Hopefully the 'splotchiness' of the touch up areas goes away.
Click to expand...

This is why I am not a fan of coatings.
 
gofast182 said:
Took the car into the daylight today. Found a fairly significant area of rainbowing going from the LF fender onto the bumper. I fixed that using Essence and the Uro Fiber pad. Walked around the car, found a few other small spots, fixed them. Walked around the car again and found more spots! It was like ants, you see one and then you see a ton, alright maybe not that many but I'm a perfectionist. I fixed most of the spots using Essence. A couple spots that were really light I used CQUK to fix, allowing the solvents to dissolve or reactivate the area. It took some massaging but it worked. Then the annoying part was then I could see that the areas the coating(s) are is darker. I applied CQUK over the touch ups. Car went back in the garage to cure (it normally doesn't live there, I have a S2000 that has been sitting out in the rain while this process is going on). Tomorrow I'll go back with Gliss. Hopefully the 'splotchiness' of the touch up areas goes away.
Click to expand...

How was the lighting in your garage.
 
BSoares said:
I find that if you need to use Essence and then touch up you have to do that entire panel or you will see the spot where you touched up. It doesn’t seem to blend well. Hopefully you have enough product as I’m afraid you’ll end up doing it again for each full panel where you left a high spot.
Click to expand...

Yeah. Tried spot repairs with and without taping off. Ended up polishing and reapplying. Next time im gonna get one of those gyeon lights that Guz got cuz i don’t have best lighting


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
BSoares said:
I find that if you need to use Essence and then touch up you have to do that entire panel or you will see the spot where you touched up. It doesn’t seem to blend well. Hopefully you have enough product as I’m afraid you’ll end up doing it again for each full panel where you left a high spot.
Click to expand...

The two "bad" spots were the same area on opposite sides of the car, the front fender going onto the front bumper by the headlight. I didn't realize the other side until yesterday. The first side which I caught right away I masked off with painter's tape. It produced noticeable lines even after recoating. I learned not to tape off and let the polisher kind of feather the area out. In hindsight, redoing entire panels might've been better. Lessons for next time.
 
The Guz said:
How was the lighting in your garage.
Click to expand...

NOT GOOD ENOUGH! Even wearing my Scangrip headlamp on top of it still didn't tell me what daylight did. I opted to go inside for the coating because the paint was very hot out in the sun and rain was rapidly coming in (two opposite extremes).
 
acuRAS82 said:
I think touch ups (or lack of success doing so) are a “con” of coating applications.
Click to expand...

I'd definitely agree with that! On one hand I want to do CQUK again on another car soon so I can improve my technique, but on the other hand perfection is difficult with these things, especially in a home setting.

The other coating I have experience with is Polish Angel Cosmic V2. The durability isn't much better than Jescar Power Lock but the paste formula made it nearly impossible to mess up.
 
gofast182 said:
NOT GOOD ENOUGH! Even wearing my Scangrip headlamp on top of it still didn't tell me what daylight did. I opted to go inside for the coating because the paint was very hot out in the sun and rain was rapidly coming in (two opposite extremes).
Click to expand...

Lighting is definitely key. As good as the scangrip headlamp is the handheld is still a must have. But now you have more knowledge of what it takes to apply a coating. A high spot is not the end of the world. Some focus too much on that.
Take it as a learning experience.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top