Ceramic Coatings: Pinnacle Black Label vs CQuartz Lite

Didn't mean to imply that I was misled. You've been extremely helpful in your comments and recommendations.

In reading Desertnate's comments below, I may have an issue with dust. I'm in Louisiana and the local weather man mentioned upper level dust over us right now. Not a common occurrence. I'm wondering if that came down in the rain and helped dry out the water drops more quickly and left the dust as spots.

I'll watch it over the next couple days and report back. Hopefully this was just a weird happening.

Thanks Mike.
 
Mike Phillips said:
I remember when you first joined this forum in 2011. You had the normal newbie type questions.

Now days, when I read your posts - it seems you've become somewhat cynical?


Just an observation from your recent posting history.


:dunno:
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Somewhat yes. On the other hand - I think Sonax BSD & Synergy are great products to top this with. They both work as well or better than advertised
 
MSTucker said:
So I used the Pinnacle Black Label coatings this weekend on my Toyota 86. Clayed, polished, and prepped paint before hand. Started with the windows - quick and easy. PBL went on easily and after about a minute was easy to buff out the high spots. Moved onto the wheels. I little more difficult only because most of the wheel is painted black. Pretty easy except for the multitude of nooks and crannies on these wheels. Found doing half the wheel at a time worked well. After doing glass and wheels, I felt confident in moving to the paint. I started behind rear wheel, just in case I screwed it up. Went on easily, but buffing out the high spots seemed to take a long time. I think that were two reasons - using too much of the coating and not waiting long enough for it to flash/dry. Bottle really doesnt tell you how much to use on your 2x2 area. I will say you use way more on the glass than you do on the paint. I found that using about 5 squirts on a 2x2 area worked best, with one squirt on the applicator. Also waiting a full minute seemed to let the high spots buff out easier. Probably took me about 2 hours to complete the paint. Very happy with the depth of the shine. Finished Saturday night and it rained this morning, so I'll see what it looks like this evening when the wife comes home.

Last note I would make is that it was hard to get every high spot off completely. I'm not sure if I missed them or if they formed overnight. The car was in my garage with two fluorescent lights (four tubes) and an LED desk light that I could use for spot checks. I went over the car MULTIPLE times with thick MF towels buffing any haze I saw and of course buffed out each panel as I worked them. Even so, when I pulled the car out the next afternoon in the sun, I found some hazing. Some areas were small, but others like the trunk and hood had large portions with a slight haze. I was very worried, but found I could buff them out. Luckily, I used a forgiving coating (PBL) and could get them out. Has anyone experienced this - slight hazing after leaving the coating overnight to cure? Is it normal or did I not buff enough or use too much coating?
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The Pinnacle Black Label Diamond Paint Coating is one of the easiest coatings to work with and is an excellent choice for your new Toyota 86.

What polish, pads and polisher did you use to prep the paint surface? Hazing could be from your polishing step?

1-2 squirts on your coating applicator is plenty for a 2x2 section.

Excellent lighting at different angles works best for checking high spots. High spots are caused by too much product being applied. When you're working the coating side to side and up and down, excess coating builds up and needs to be leveled. if not, the excess coating causes a high spot. Quickly level any high spots with a short nap microfiber towel. If you've missed any high spots and the coating has cured, you can always polish the high spots out and re-coat the panel.
 
MSTucker said:
Thanks for the encouragement and reply Mike.

My wife took the 86 to work this morning looking great. It rained on the way there and she barely needed to use the wipers as the water was just flying off the windshield. Fast forward to lunch time and she calls telling me there are spots all over the car. See attached pics. She arrived at work around 7am and left about 4.5 hours later. Not sure how much it rained or didnt while at work, but I know it rained on the way there. The spots came right off and the finish is still ultra smooth. But, why would the water not bead up? I mean I've waxed multiple vehicles and water will bead on them overnight in my garage. This ceramic coating wasn't able to keep the water beading on it for 4 hours after initial installation. Did I do something wrong?
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Driving a car in the rain will kick up all sorts of road contaminates onto the paint surface of your vehicle. Dirt, dust, pollen, sand, oil, etc.. Looking at your pictures the "water spots" look like dried up dirt or pollen and will easily be removed.

Paint Coatings will bead and sheet water. While driving the vehicle in the rain you will see the coating sheeting water. Also while the vehicle is parked in heavy rain it will sheet water. While the vehicle is parked in light rain it will bead water. The Pinnacle Black Label Diamond Paint Coating will have really nice tight tall beads.

I would not apply a carnauba wax on top of a ceramic coating. If you want to top your coating i would recommend an SiO2 Spray Sealant.
 
You mentioned you had a problem with high spots that was leveled later. If you are notice problems with the water behavior going forward. This is where you could have a problem when you leveled the high spots later you could have been messing up the hydrophobic layer of the coating before it where able to cure hard enough. But this is a big if.

So just keep cool and see how it behaves the next coming weeks. Some coatings can be getting a higher water behavior after a week or so when it's been curing even more and some can take longer to fully cure. But as long as you stay away from any kind of chemicals other than the recommended topper which useally have a window of application after the coating has been applyied. Or you need to be waiting the stated time before you can apply the topper outside of this window of time. So keep calm and let it play out for a week or 2. The first week is only to gently drying it if it gets wet. But with your situation with a high content of dust in the air. I would wait until the first week after application has gone by. And do a thorough wash and hopefully the dirt spots cleans of easly.

So it can be a problem and don't be a problem. Let the time go and you will see what it is. Hopefully it's just a normal behavior and you will see it works better down the road. Just keep an eye on the behavior and see where it gets you later.

Looks great in the picture!

/ Tony
 
I certainly will keep you posted. Finish is still very smooth and looks great. The dust that was in our air has moved over to Texas so I think it was just an anomaly that spots developed after the first rain on the PBL coating.
 
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