3 coating comparison

[RippyD]

Clayed the roof a couple of weeks ago, then washed with McKee's N-914 at 50:1. Have washed a couple of times since at regular rinseless dilution. The claying helped a lot. Stronger dilution of waterless helped some more. Contamination is clearly a big factor in how well these products repel water.

CQuartz UK is performing the best, sheeting water off quickly. The Duragloss coating is next and doing pretty well. McKee's is just behind the Duragloss in terms of performance. Very surprisingly, the Track Claw Racing Polish is right there, performing about as well as the McKee's coating. Sonus Ion and Polish Angel are still working, but are quite a bit slower than the others. Keep in mind these have all be through a fairly harsh winter: outside 24x7, wet practically every day, snow for a couple of weeks, ice a few times, and a lot of road grime. I'm going to start claying every 2-3 months to see what happens with durability.

Based on this, I'd have to say that Cquartz is better than the rest. Duragloss and McKee's coatings are both holding up, with Duragloss doing a little better. (Both appear to be bargains.) The Track Claw Polish is very impressive. Given the cost of a bottle and the durability this looks great.

(Cruz was going to do a sealant comparison - hope this is still happening. Would love to see how Track Claw does against DG 111, Opti-seal, and a few others. If he doesn't get to it I'll try to get a few on a hood before Winter.)

Two other comments: It occurred to me that gravity may be a factor given the slope of the roof and the slope of my driveway. I turned the car around to check and got the same results, fortunately. I also haven't topped any of these with anything, including a wash/wax product. We're seeing the products as originally applied.

 

[Rsurfer]

I bought M37's coating to try out, but all the issues with it really not lasting, becoming full of contaminates etc scared me away from that. I see MOHS but I dont really want to do two coats, I dont know.. As you can see, Im a bit indecisive.

If you had two eyes, you might have seen things differently.

 

[The Guz]

Can't see your photos.

 

[RippyD]

Can't see your photos.

Ugh... trying again since I can't edit the original post using a different host. Curious that you can't see them - they showed up fine in preview mode. (And sorry guys - I'm clearly doing something wrong. Struggling with pic posting on here - if I try to upload to AG rather than using a link I get a thumbnail pics rather than full size. Any help on uploading and getting full size to show up appreciated.)

 

[FrankS]

...Any help on uploading and getting full size to show up appreciated.

Make sure that when you copy the picture URL that you are copying the full size and not the thumbnail size URL.

 

[Klasse Act]

Would love to see what applying a booster to the entire hood would do?

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[RippyD]

Would love to see what applying a booster to the entire hood would do?

That's the roof I'm watching now rather than the hood. My concern with that is that I'm then measuring/testing the booster/topper rather than the coating. If I put Reload over the entire roof, I'm guessing it would repel water like crazy, which is what reload does.

Feel free to skip this nonsense. (I had long-winded opinion on coating toppers and layering different coatings, but I retracted it. I first tried to redact it with a bunch of blacked out text [humorous nod to Catch-22] but I couldn't find a way to show black background for the text. So while not funny now, I did have a plan that may have worked.)

 

[MattPersman]

No sense on adding an lsp (reload) cause like you said it's just gonna be a bunch of pics of reload beading it's ass off.

Good stuff you got going here


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[Eldorado2k]

My concern with that is that I'm then measuring/testing the booster/topper rather than the coating.

*nods*

 

[TTQ B4U]

Interesting results thus far. Thanks for the time and testing.

I'm personally keeping McKee's as my main coating for customers which of my 4 option packages is the coating I'm including with 3 & 4. I've since added 22PLe and Cquartz as the option upgrades.

My two vehicles are currently coated with McKee's and doing well. That said, I wipe them down after each wash with my ECH20 and Reload combo thus that's likely the top-coat doing most of the work. I am going to be stripping and recoating my Audi with Cquartz in the coming weeks if I can catch a break time-wise. Doing so to compare the two over time and have something to show customers.

 

[RippyD]

^^^ I can see why a pro would use these for a lower cost option. Both offer an inexpensive, low risk path to get into coatings. I'll like use mine up this summer on two cars, including wheels and whatever else they'll stick to. I don't they'll last forever. What I can't use in the next 6-8 weeks I'll pass along to somebody to try out.

The big eye opener for me was how quickly performance degraded with some road grime. Probably not surprising to those who do this for a living. Given were I live (8 months of rain), regular claying is going to be essential to keep performance up. TBD if a coating I have to clay regularly is better than a sealant I have to replace every 6 months. Pros and cons to both.

 

[RippyD]

Another update. I clayed the roof a few weeks ago and the car has only seen 1 day of rain since then (took these last week).

Right after I hit it with water. You can see the top left section is sheeting the fastest (Cquartz UK).

The lower left (Track Claw) and upper right (DG coating) are a little behind Cquartz UK, but still doing well. Picture is not great and it's hard to see the upper right section.

A couple of more seconds and the Cquartz UK, Track Claw, and DG Coating have sheeted off all the water. The older version of the McKee's coating is doing ok. The Polish Angel and Sonus aren't doing very well.

Not too surprising that Cquatz is doing the best - it's more expensive than the other coatings and known to perform well. Once again most surprising is the Track Claw sealant. It's still sheeting water after almost 10 months, going through 6 months of rain outside 24x7, and used as a daily driver. It's almost crazy how well it's doing. Hoping to do a similar sealant test this winter to confirm and see how it does relative to some other wipe on-buff off sealants

 

[Calendyr]

Here it is after I hit it with the hose. McKee's on the right, Polish Angel in the middle, DG on the left. McKee's and DG both sheeted water. Polish Angle beaded. Not sure what this means, if anything. When I dried it off the Polish Angle was less slick than the other two. Certainly not grabby at all, but less slippery. Maybe I needed to buff it more after applying the glasscoat spray, or maybe it's just less slippery.
View attachment 53532

I'll report how these look in a few days. I'll try to do monthly updates after that. (Will try to fix these pics as well - too small.)

You know that coating should not be exposed to moisture, even less water, within 24 hours of application? Driving in the rain 12 hours after application will definatelly affect their durability.

 

[RippyD]

You know that coating should not be exposed to moisture, even less water, within 24 hours of application? Driving in the rain 12 hours after application will definatelly affect their durability.

Yes, fair point. And those didn't work out too well. I started over on the roof with 6 products. Please jump to page 6 to see what's going on now. Almost 10 months in on the roof tests. The hood test was scrapped.

 

[RippyD]

Update from a few days ago. Apologies for having the orientation flipping directions - had to get the best shot I could given the light and rain.

Everything is pretty much done except the Cquartz UK, which is holding up pretty well. I'll leave it on and likely use the rest of the roof for some sealant tests.

When the water clears you can still see tape lines, so the other coatings are there. Just not beading or sheeting like Cquartz UK. I can't say how well they're doing at keeping dirt off - I don't see a significant difference between different sections of the roof.

 

[MattPersman]

Looks good thanks for the update. So the only thing that visually is lasting is an actual coating (UK) not a sealant on steroids like the mckees v1 and duragloss


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[RippyD]

Looks good thanks for the update. So the only thing that visually is lasting is an actual coating (UK) not a sealant on steroids like the mckees v1 and duragloss

Yes. But I'm less critical of the McKees and DG, esp given the price.

Scorecard

• Still going: Cquartz UK
• ~8 months: DG coating, DG Track Claw
• ~6 months: McKee's V1
• 4 months or less: PA Cosmic and Sonus Ion

Note 1: I'm measuring sheeting action only. Others have mentioned that a lack of sheeting doesn't mean a coating isn't working. Tape lines are still evident for all 6 areas, so something is still happening.

Note 2: These were exposed 24x7 with 5 months of rain and a fair amount of snow and ice. YMMV.

Honorable mention (imo) to DG Track Claw. It sheeted water for 8 months, costs practically nothing, is ridiculously easy to apply, and has no cure time when used with DG 601.

 

[MattPersman]

It was 35 bucks vs 50 not a huge difference. Yes price per application might be more but it’s a longer actual coating vs a sealant of some sort. Technically we could call any lsp a coating cause you are in fact coating the paint with it but most of use are referring to quartz ceramic etc elements not just some sort of polymers


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[RippyD]

Have to consider volume as well. I think I could do 2 cars (or more) with the DG coating. Compared to Cquartz it's about 25% of the cost (est - I need to double check this).

I assume that both DG and McKee's v1 are true coatings based on their consistency, are applied, flash, and cure. They going on like coatings rather than sealants. The Polish Angel and Sonus Ion are called coatings but both go on and perform like sealants.

 

[Desertnate]

I'm actually surprised to see the McKee's fail so quickly because my experience has been completely different. I have three vehicles wearing McKee's 37 v1 coating. Two have been wearing the coating for 12 months and one has been wearing it for about 7 months. In all cases the protection is still going strong. I keep them clean, but do not top them and don't use any type of coating booster wash soap.

At this point, I'm confident I'll get 18 months out of the first two vehicles, and I have no reason to believe the third one won't go that far either.