Please give your best coating application tips…

[Eric7810]

Guys, I’ve been doing coatings for a few years now. I’ve got two or three happening each week now and am curious your best tips for applying and leveling.

I run a dehumidifier. Seems to help.

What is your favorite towel?

I still struggle with ‘streaky-ness’ on certain jobs. I look at it with a scan grip headlamp on warm white to find streaks. Honestly I think the streaks happen because I haven’t panel wiped well enough.

I use new towels on every job. Sometimes grab new ones halfway through.

On sunny days I’ll bounce light from outside onto the paint with a poster board to find highs but if it’s cloudy I’ll back the vehicle outside and find them.


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[TTQ B4U]

Switch to GYEON's new EVO Products. It doesn't get any easier to apply. You won't get streaks unless you drip grease from your lunch on the surface.

 

[DFB]

Guys, I’ve been doing coatings for a few years now. I’ve got two or three happening each week now and am curious your best tips for applying and leveling.

I run a dehumidifier. Seems to help.

What is your favorite towel?

I still struggle with ‘streaky-ness’ on certain jobs. I look at it with a scan grip headlamp on warm white to find streaks. Honestly I think the streaks happen because I haven’t panel wiped well enough.

I use new towels on every job. Sometimes grab new ones halfway through.

On sunny days I’ll bounce light from outside onto the paint with a poster board to find highs but if it’s cloudy I’ll back the vehicle outside and find them.


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What coatings are you using?

 

[Desertnate]

I run a dehumidifier. Seems to help.

I've found temperature seems to have a bigger effect than humidity. The warmer it gets the faster the coating flashes with thee sweet spots around 70F.

I still struggle with ‘streaky-ness’ on certain jobs. I look at it with a scan grip headlamp on warm white to find streaks. Honestly I think the streaks happen because I haven’t panel wiped well enough.

I'm not sure what your streaks look like, but when encountering a similar issue I found it was due to a couple things: buffing the coating too early and not swapping out my low nap towel often enough.[/QUOTE]

Switch to GYEON's new EVO Products. It doesn't get any easier to apply. You won't get streaks unless you drip grease from your lunch on the surface

Yes, very easy to apply flawlessly, especially with Mohs EVO. It's almost as easy as a sealant.

I'm sure you'll get lots of good tips, but the game changer for me was how I approached my lighting. When I started using diffused, reflected lighting that simulated a cloudy day, it really changed the quality of my applications. I turn off all overhead lighting and then rotate the lights on my stand to reflect light off a wall or ceiling depending on where I'm at on the car. For horizontal surfaces I'll aim them at the ceiling and on vertical surfaces I'll usually aim them at the top of the wall behind me where I'm working. By doing this I found I'm seeing the actual surface conditions rather than seeing the paint below the clear or getting dazzled by the metallic flake in the paint.

 

[Eric7810]

Thanks already guys…

I am using Cquartz UK 3.0


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[Optimus Grime]

I'm in the Gyeon camp. It can't get any easier and the results are top notch. Give Mohs a try on a vehicle and see how you like it.

 

[DFB]

Thanks already guys…

I am using Cquartz UK 3.0


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Not that I have used the product, but I have heard of people having similar issues with Cquartz UK 3.0, on the flipside others say its easy to use. Go figure.

I would consider trying something new, if the UK 3.0 is giving you grief, then it's time to move on. As other have mentioned, Gyeon Pure EVO and Mohs EVO were designed with user friendliness in mind. Pure EVO is a wipe on, wipe off application but can be left on the panel for 10 minutes before leveling. Mohs has a more traditional application but offers superior slickness.

 

[Desertnate]

Not that I have used the product, but I have heard of people having similar issues with Cquartz UK 3.0, on the flipside others say its easy to use. Go figure.

I think people praising it's ease of use like the long flash times it offers. It allows you to apply to the entire side of a mid-sized vehicle (if the temps are cool enough) before buffing off and it also gives you a pretty large window of time to fix any errors. The down side to this long flash time, from my use of CQUK 3.0, is if you get a little impatient and try to buff it out too early, you'll get streaks and smears. I found the getting the removal timing right on 3.0 much harder than with 2.0 which had a much shorter flash time.

ure EVO is a wipe on, wipe off application but can be left on the panel for 10 minutes before leveling. Mohs has a more traditional application but offers superior slickness.

I think you might have that backwards. Mohs you apply and it beads up/sweats (rather than flashing) almost instantly and can be wiped off. Pure will flash over a couple minutes like other coatings.

I'd also caveat the 10 minutes of dwell time with being cautious about ambient temperatures. I appled Pure to my car last weekend. When I started the work in the morning when my garage was pretty cool. Flash times were generous and you could let it sit for a few minutes. By the end of the job the things had warmed up and I found I only had a couple minutes to do any removal. It flashed much quicker and the removal window was only a couple minutes before it became difficult.

 

[Eric7810]

I’ll be honest this is not the advice I wanted to hear LOL..

I’ve got lots of UK 3.0 backstock, but I’ll give Mohs a try for sure and see how I feel.

The thing with UK is I can have jobs that go silky smooth, and others where I have a sore arm and wrist afterwards because I spent so much time fighting and wiping smear marks. Especially on glass.


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[Desertnate]

I did OK with CQUK. It was my go-to for a long time. The trick to eliminate smearing for me was catching the flashing at the right moment and having the lighting set to improve visibility of the flash. It's a good coating and I'd use it again. I just like Mohs EVO better now that I've tried it.

Just another thought. Could you be applying it a bit too heavy which slows the flashing and causes it to smear when you buff it off? My smearing issues with any coating has come down to buffing off the coating a little too early. I actually encountered it with Pure EVO last weekend when I applied it too thick in a couple places.

 

[Odrapnew1]

I've only applied Gtechniq CSL and EXOV4 and used small 15ml bottle of Cquarts SiC when I didn't want to buy a lot to recoat my door after someone scratched it.

When I did the Gtechniq, what I did was the 3 towel method.
First towel levels, 2nd towel you wipe a little more area and 3rd towel gets the last little bit that may have been missed or pushed outward.
After about 1/2 the car (VW Golf), first towel was retired, 2nd towel became first wipe, 3rd became 2nd and a new 3rd towel.
This seemed to work well for me.

For the SiC, since I was only doing 1 door, so I did similar method as above, but just flipped the towel to clean sides for each step of wipe off.

I will say the Gtechniq was much easier to tell when to wipe.

I used Rag Company Edgeless 365 and they seemed to work well.

 

[TTQ B4U]

I’ll be honest this is not the advice I wanted to hear LOL..

I’ve got lots of UK 3.0 backstock, but I’ll give Mohs a try for sure and see how I feel.

The thing with UK is I can have jobs that go silky smooth, and others where I have a sore arm and wrist afterwards because I spent so much time fighting and wiping smear marks. Especially on glass.

I was skeptical at first but once I tried Mohs EVO I left my UK 3.0 and SiC on the shelf. I will likely use them on an upcoming vehicle just to get rid of them but reality is they need to reformulate the product as the new benchmark for removal is with GYEON.

 

[vaca22]

I have very limited experience with applying coatings (I've only done it a few times), but each time I've done the cross-hatch thing. After seeing Yvan applying coatings in small circles with a foam applicator, I think I'll try that technique next...

 

[dlc95]

Sometimes applying too much or not enough product can make it act "funny".

Wipe off time is another thing. I've heard people say UK 3.0 is a wipe on wipe off coating, like CP Lite, but I feel weird not letting it set up.

Yes, towel management is key. Those suede towels they include with the kits are my favorite to remove them with. I'll remove the bulk, "level out", and sometimes use an Eagle style towel for the final wipe. I'll also sometime spritz with water an wipe.

That using the stuff at work.

For my personal jobs I only use Optimum Gloss Coat. It handles water spots like a champ, and doesn't usually give me the grief the glass bottle varieties do.

If Gloss Coat didn't exist, Duragloss 111 + 601 would be my top end protection package.

 

[Optimus Grime]

I was skeptical at first but once I tried Mohs EVO I left my UK 3.0 and SiC on the shelf. I will likely use them on an upcoming vehicle just to get rid of them but reality is they need to reformulate the product as the new benchmark for removal is with GYEON.

I’d say that GTechniq still has the crown for ease of removal. You can coat quite a few panels and still have plenty of time to wipe off before things get streaky. Unfortunately, none of their coatings have the all around great performance of Mohs. To get the benefits of Mohs you’ve got to apply CSL and EXOv5 and if time is money, it’s much cheaper for Mohs.

 

[DFB]

I think you might have that backwards. Mohs you apply and it beads up/sweats (rather than flashing) almost instantly and can be wiped off. Pure will flash over a couple minutes like other coatings.

I'd also caveat the 10 minutes of dwell time with being cautious about ambient temperatures. I appled Pure to my car last weekend. When I started the work in the morning when my garage was pretty cool. Flash times were generous and you could let it sit for a few minutes. By the end of the job the things had warmed up and I found I only had a couple minutes to do any removal. It flashed much quicker and the removal window was only a couple minutes before it became difficult.

I was referencing the info explained in the Gyeon product videos -

Pure EVO (from 1 min 45 sec) -

"maximum removal window of up to 10 min.................." ".......the initial bond of the coating happen within seconds........"

Mohs EVO (from 2min 15 sec) -

"...........a very clear working signal when its ready to be removed........." "...................perfect time to remove Mohs Evo is when the product starts to sweat or bead...........within 30 seconds of the material being on the finish, so if you over work the product, you'll miss this signal..........."

To me, that meant Pure EVO was more forgiving and required less micromanagement.

 

[Desertnate]

Interesting, I don't think I ever watched the Pure EVO video, but I have watched the Mohs EVO video before applying it on my wife's car last year.

While I don't argue Pure will bond within seconds, I'd say that is probably true with most coatings. I'd also say there is a big difference between the bonding starting immediately and the ability to properly remove it. If you try to remove Pure immediately without letting it flash for a bit, it will make a big smeary mess because the carrier agents haven't evaporated enough. The 10 minute dwell time is highly temperature dependent. At around 60~70F I'd say it's about right. Get above 70F and that window starts closing pretty rapidly, down to only a minute or two.

The Mohs EVO quotes are spot on. It will bead/sweat within seconds and is ready to remove. Add on top of that it doesn't have the same tendency to smear. Depending on the size of the section you've applied it to, it becomes pretty close to wipe on/wipe off. No worrying about the flashing or smearing, it's very simple.

 

[Desertnate]

Sometimes applying too much or not enough product can make it act "funny".

Wipe off time is another thing. I've heard people say UK 3.0 is a wipe on wipe off coating, like CP Lite, but I feel weird not letting it set up.

Agree on all points.

I highlighted one item because it brought up something else I do to when it comes to removal. While the coating is flashing I'll take my gloved finger and very lightly make a tiny swipe at the coating. If it simply smears coating material around and just makes a smudge, I know to let it sit longer. If it appears to only make a slight smear, I know it's ready. If it comes out cleanly, I know I probably waited a touch too long.

 

[dlc95]

Agree on all points.

I highlighted one item because it brought up something else I do to when it comes to removal. While the coating is flashing I'll take my gloved finger and very lightly make a tiny swipe at the coating. If it simply smears coating material around and just makes a smudge, I know to let it sit longer. If it appears to only make a slight smear, I know it's ready. If it comes out cleanly, I know I probably waited a touch too long.

I will give that a try.

A new take on Meg's "swipe test".