Effect of Humidity on Ceramic/Graphene Coatings

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SpeedoTT

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Greetings everyone,
I'm considering applying a ceramic or graphene coat to my vehicles, and since I have never worked with these products, I am concerned the Colorado's low humidity (at or below 50% most of the time) may negatively impact the time available for polishing off the product. I look forward to your insight and feedback.
Thank you

Cris

PS How much product will I need to coat the body of a compact crossover SUV?
 
Humidity like that will have NO effect! If your talking an actual coating like those in the little glass bottles there's enough in the kit to do your ride Watch videos like Apex Detailing for tips on how to do this correctly. If your not completely comfortable with an actual coating you could get something like 303 spray graphene. It's very user friendly and you'll get 4-5 months out of an application (I suggest 2x's after about 30 minutes inbetween)

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Humidity will affect the flash time of a true coating.

Depends on how large the vehicle is. What model is it?
 
Thank you Klasse Act. I'll keep the product in mind.
 
I don't know what graphene coating you are planning to go with but you could easily get 2 layers from a 30 ml bottle (ie: 1 bottle for each) on just the paint. If you are planning to coat the wheels and glass then a 50-60 ml bottle will do that with a little left over for each vehicle.

One tends to use less on the second layer if it is recommended by the manufacturer as the first layer goes into the pores and valleys of the paint.
 
Gentlemen thank you for the insight. It's very helpful.

I've yet to decide which product to use. I'm inclined towards ceramic coatings just because they've been around longer. As for which brand and product to use... :dunno: ... I'm working on it :work:
 
SpeedoTT said:
Gentlemen thank you for the insight. It's very helpful.

I've yet to decide which product to use. I'm inclined towards ceramic coatings just because they've been around longer. As for which brand and product to use... :dunno: ... I'm working on it :work:
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Lots of good coatings. I've only tried carpro CQUK. It lived up to my expectations so far. Depends on your budget has well. CQUK must be one of the best bang for your buck coatings out there now since all the graphene coatings started coming out. Many are double even triple CQUK.
 
noorth said:
Lots of good coatings. I've only tried carpro CQUK. It lived up to my expectations so far. Depends on your budget has well. CQUK must be one of the best bang for your buck coatings out there now since all the graphene coatings started coming out. Many are double even triple CQUK.
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Thank you Noorth
 
Speedo,

I too am in CO and have coated many cars here.

Having never coated a car in high humidity I have no experience, but putting on a coating in CO has never been an issue for me. Ceramic coatings are very nice as long as you prep well beforehand(clean and polish) as a coating will not hide anything.

Coatings can be a little finicky but if you’re capable, give it a go the CO humidity (lack of) shouldn’t keep you from getting it done.
 
You have a Lexus with softish clear, and a vw with hardish clear. Both are polish critical and pad critical. Choose wisely. I just used 3d ceramic coating, and really liked it. It does flash quickly, which I like.

You might try Sonax nano for the Lexus (test spot first) and the Sonax cutmax or cutmax plus on the vw. Medium pads to test spot, then power up if needed. The Tiguan, if heavy swirled, may need wool and rotary, or short throw orbital. Lexus probably rupes yellow foam.
use a couple clean ups with an IPA solution until it squeaks. I like Eraser, and have recently been using 3d wipe. All good. To me, diluted alcohol on the Lexus may mar it some.
 
Klasse Act said:
Flash slower

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It will probably flash much faster in the dryer conditions as the carrier solvents will evaporate faster. I've applied CQuartz UK and TiO2 in some really humid conditions with pouring rain outside my garage and the flash time was double...if not longer. Add cool conditions to the humidity and you can be waiting a REALLY long time for a flash on a product like UK.

With CQuartz UK 3.0's long flash time, it might be the ideal solution for a dry humid climate.

I grew up in the Denver area and really miss it. I'm pretty sick of our 70% humidity and have fond memories of a 25% humidity on a summer day.
 
Desertnate said:
It will probably flash much faster in the dryer conditions as the carrier solvents will evaporate faster. I've applied CQuartz UK and TiO2 in some really humid conditions with pouring rain outside my garage and the flash time was double...if not longer. Add cool conditions to the humidity and you can be waiting a REALLY long time for a flash on a product like UK.

With CQuartz UK 3.0's long flash time, it might be the ideal solution for a dry humid climate.

I grew up in the Denver area and really miss it. I'm pretty sick of our 70% humidity and have fond memories of a 25% humidity on a summer day.
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I applied CQUK outside about 2 mths ago in 5-10 degree Celsius and over 50% humidity. I waited about 5-7 mins. It flashed and was very tacky to remove.

My previous application in similar conditions i waited about 3 min. Much easier wipe off and it looks just has good has the other panel.

If i would of waited over 10min i would of had a lot of issues.

Caveat: I applied the coating very thin. I found you really don't need very much.
 
I'll do very thin applications too Typically a full size sedan like a charger or a BMW 3-series sedan or small-ish SUV can be completed with half a 30ml bottle; maybe a bit less. 50% humidity would be a dry day where I live.

Two years ago I helped a friend apply an application in temperatures which were around 60~65F in my garage and humidity around 90% due to rain/mist/fog. Flash times were around 20 minutes, maybe longer. Three weeks ago I coated my son-in-law's car. Temps were around 70~75F in his garage and humidity was 70%~80% and I could easily go 7~10 minutes waiting for it to fully flash. Buff out could go longer (I found a small high spot an hour later that buffed out easily). Depending on where I was on the car, I found myself sitting around waiting for areas to flash so I could start buffing it out.

I think it's interesting to see how much different the products behave with variations in humidity and temp. There have been several times when I've been working on a car in my garage and really found a groove with the product and timing. All of a sudden one of my kids or my wife will open the garage door and EVERYTHING changes almost in an instant.
 
rangerbay said:
You have a Lexus with softish clear, and a vw with hardish clear. Both are polish critical and pad critical. Choose wisely. I just used 3d ceramic coating, and really liked it. It does flash quickly, which I like.

You might try Sonax nano for the Lexus (test spot first) and the Sonax cutmax or cutmax plus on the vw. Medium pads to test spot, then power up if needed. The Tiguan, if heavy swirled, may need wool and rotary, or short throw orbital. Lexus probably rupes yellow foam.
use a couple clean ups with an IPA solution until it squeaks. I like Eraser, and have recently been using 3d wipe. All good. To me, diluted alcohol on the Lexus may mar it some.
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Thank you. Having a base from where to start testing for each car is very helpful. I bought the flex "beast" a couple of years back, and LC Hybrid pads (i.e. orange, white, black, and red) to detail a friend's 1963 MGB, and light correction on the Lexus. I'll check the products you recommended.
 
noorth said:
I applied CQUK outside about 2 mths ago in 5-10 degree Celsius and over 50% humidity. I waited about 5-7 mins. It flashed and was very tacky to remove.
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Thank you Noorth. This is a good reference of what to expect.
 
Desertnate said:
I grew up in the Denver area and really miss it. I'm pretty sick of our 70% humidity and have fond memories of a 25% humidity on a summer day.
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Hi Desertnate,
It's hard to beat Denver's weather. Once, I turned down the opportunity to move to KC for work and chose to travel every week instead.

Thank you for sharing your experience with CQUK. Much appreciated.

BTW... red your blog; love how the Porsche Cayenne turned out. :dblthumb2:
 
Desertnate said:
I'll do very thin applications too Typically a full size sedan like a charger or a BMW 3-series sedan or small-ish SUV can be completed with half a 30ml bottle; maybe a bit less. 50% humidity would be a dry day where I live.

Two years ago I helped a friend apply an application in temperatures which were around 60~65F in my garage and humidity around 90% due to rain/mist/fog. Flash times were around 20 minutes, maybe longer. Three weeks ago I coated my son-in-law's car. Temps were around 70~75F in his garage and humidity was 70%~80% and I could easily go 7~10 minutes waiting for it to fully flash. Buff out could go longer (I found a small high spot an hour later that buffed out easily). Depending on where I was on the car, I found myself sitting around waiting for areas to flash so I could start buffing it out.

I think it's interesting to see how much different the products behave with variations in humidity and temp. There have been several times when I've been working on a car in my garage and really found a groove with the product and timing. All of a sudden one of my kids or my wife will open the garage door and EVERYTHING changes almost in an instant.
Click to expand...

Just noticed this Desertnate. Must of been burning the midnight oil recently and hit dislike by mistake. :) Can't seem to reverse it.
 
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