Finally did my first 2 ceramic coatings

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rick100

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I finally pull the trigger on Car pro lite , sure it is not a true ceramic coatings but from my findings this is as close as it gets, its more "durable" than moonlight and cancoat from some of the testing I have seen , and it seems to be close to cquartz uk

Anyways , I have mix feelings after doing 2 of my cars. I went into this open mind , I had opticoat on my bmw done by a profesional in 2013 so I m not 100% new with ceramic coatings

Pros
1- Its actually easy to apply, you have to be more careful than a spray sealant but I found the suede/block combo is perfect to avoid high spots
2-Its thick and it has a stronger smell than regular sealant, you can tell this is going to stay on the car for a while
3 -Price was actually cheap , I did 2 coats on my sedan and 1 coat on my 7 seater suv and I still have more than half the bottle left ( 500 mls) , the bottle itself cost me 65$ canadians , for a coating that can last a year , this is a pretty good deal in my eyes

Cons
1-Slickness , it sucks , coming from beadmaker or other spray sealants , even quick detailers, the surface feels rough to the touch.
2- Looks , I was expected to be blown away , people talk about ceramic coatings looking better than spray sealants, etc ,etc and I should've known this since I had opticoating before ( I always used reload so I forgot how the coating looked by itself) . But I ll be 100% honest here, a spray sealant topped with some quick detailer after a car wash looks better than a coating. I think even a wax looks a bit better. I have too many products and I have tried a bunch of them on different cars so I have a good eye for these type of stuff , and I think these claims of a ceramic coating looking better than any spray sealant by itself are BS . Don't get me wrong the ceramic coating looks great , but after seeing what products like beadmaker or shinee wax can do , its a bit of a letdown


So this is just my personal opinion here, I like that I have something better to protect my paint , but I m definitively going to keep using some type of quick detailer after every car wash to have that wow factor , at this point I have too many good products and I just like using them . Looks wise ceramic coating doesnt cut it for me , it looks great but I know I can get a better look so I ll go with what looks better. On a side note , I really liked the look and slickness of TLC black ice more than car pro lite, , even the application was easier . I m not hating car pro lite but I m finding it a bit pointless since I m going to need to top it with something else . My car is a garage queen too , so the chances of taking the advantage of the ceramic coating are less. I like it more on my SUV that takes a lot of abuse, I feel that the ceramic coating makes more sense there .

On a side note , I was blown away with car pro essence and the gloss pad , very easy to use , and the car just glows after using it , but it doesnt correct much , its more of a gloss enhancer and very minor correction . I actually feel that car pro lite hide a bid of that shine after application. On the contrary TLC black ice enhanced that gloss.
Also I tried 3D compound polish with the red pad and I was disappointed, the product sucks to me lol , it was leaving residue all over , I could not even get it out with carpro eraser, and I tried a different pad and less product on the pad and the same thing happened, I ended up getting rid of the residue with carpro essence . I had better luck when I tried 3D with the URO microfiber pad , it actually corrected my BMW paint nicely but it was still a bit of a mess to clean the residue. I m not sure how people are using it as a 1 step product. The product is so expensive , I feel like my meguiers ultimate compound or ultimate polish are easier to work with and they can probably get the same results. If I m going to use carpro essence as my final polish then I may as well just use UC or UP. My car didnt need much correction , so 3D and uro pad was only used on the hood and trunk , I do not see myself using 3D on the whole car .
 
If you don't like it then polish it off and go back to what works.

Did you ever post photos of your results?

Essence is a fine finishing polish. On CarPro's scale it has a cut of 2 out of 10. In the end it is a finishing polish. Essence serves a couple purposes, a gloss enhancement fine finishing polish and for soft paints where a panel wipe an marr the surface.

As far as 3D One it takes some getting used to. Less product creates less residue to wipe off. When you say it was difficult did it appear oily or stuck to the paint?

Also judging by you mention that your paint did not respond until you used a uro fiber pad tells me the paint on your car is on the hard side.

I found the combo of Essence topped with Lite to produce some nice gloss. Now CQ Lite is tacky but most coatings are. Everyone enjoys having slick paint and not having it takes getting used to. I find slickness to be overrated if a product performs well enough to not need it. Sure it feels nice to have slickness because it triggers that feeling in the brain.

2019 Blazer RS AWD

Good luck with what you choose going forward.
 
The Guz said:
If you don't like it then polish it off and go back to what works.

Did you ever post photos of your results?

Essence is a fine finishing polish. On CarPro's scale it has a cut of 2 out of 10. In the end it is a finishing polish. Essence serves a couple purposes, a gloss enhancement fine finishing polish and for soft paints where a panel wipe an marr the surface.

As far as 3D One it takes some getting used to. Less product creates less residue to wipe off. When you say it was difficult did it appear oily or stuck to the paint?

Also judging by you mention that your paint did not respond until you used a uro fiber pad tells me the paint on your car is on the hard side.

I found the combo of Essence topped with Lite to produce some nice gloss. Now CQ Lite is tacky but most coatings are. Everyone enjoys having slick paint and not having it takes getting used to. I find slickness to be overrated if a product performs well enough to not need it. Sure it feels nice to have slickness because it triggers that feeling in the brain.

2019 Blazer RS AWD

Good luck with what you choose going forward.
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I m going to post some pictures once the weather gets better, its been raining for 4 days

Carpro lite ceramic coating I dont like it by itself, again , it would be great if I did not see the end results I can get with other products. Its like driving a 400 hp car and going back to your 250 hp , nothing wrong with the 250hp , still a fast car but you already tried the faster car. I m not going to remove it , it still gives me better protection than a sealant or wax, but this car is a garage queen so it probably does not need that extra protection like my daily cars . On a daily car this would make sense. I added a sealant and some shinee wax on top an it looks much better now . I could ve skipped the ceramic coating and go straight to sealant and shinee wax on this particular car . I hope that makes sense .

As per 3D, it was pretty much stuck to the paint , I thought eraser would just wiped it off but it didnt , at least not fully and I was using a red car pro pad , I had to apply essence to get rid of it . I did not use a lot of product, that is the weird part, I tried another spot with less product and same results. The uro pad seemed to work better with 3D, not a lot of residue left. It did correct the swirl marks much nicer than essence, I ll give it that , but as standalone product I would probably hate to use it . Also it comes in at a premium price , I would expect a premium price product to give you a nicer user experience. I can honestly tell you that ultimate compound or even ultimate polish with the red pad can get the same results with a nicer wipe off , I should ve try the uro pad with ultimate compound , maybe on my cadillac . 3D reminded a lot of M105 on the user experience . However it is a recommended product by a lot of pros , so I really dont know , maybe I just need to adjust my technique , I do not do this for a living so I wont get much use out of it .

This is a bmw so yes it is a hard paint , that also makes a big difference. The gloss level of essence is insane , and it is very user friendly , like it is effortless, even easier to use than M205 which was my go to finish polish in the past. I think sonax makes a similar product which I would love to try , but it will be hard to change car pro essence for me . The correcting portion its lacking though , that would be my complaint, but this polish is not design for that, so I would usually get a different pad and product for some sections and use essence on the remaining of the panels.

I do not like the tacky feeling, I m on the slickness boat, it just makes it easier to dry your car and clean it overall for me , its not so much about the looks in that sense , more about the towels sliding through the panels when drying . But to each its own in this case
 
I remember how M105 behaves and I had experienced the "stuck on" with M105. I used to mist the area and do a quick pass to get rid of it. I never experienced the effect you are descripting with 3D One.

May I ask what type of polisher you are using as well as the speed you used and how many passes did you do ?

CarPro red pad.... I dont remember Carpro having a red pad. The only red pad I remember from CarPro is the glass pad.
 
psnt1ol said:
I remember how M105 behaves and I had experienced the "stuck on" with M105. I used to mist the area and do a quick pass to get rid of it. I never experienced the effect you are descripting with 3D One.

May I ask what type of polisher you are using as well as the speed you used and how many passes did you do ?

CarPro red pad.... I dont remember Carpro having a red pad. The only red pad I remember from CarPro is the glass pad.
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sorry I should clary that it is an orange pad , not a red pad . I m not a big fan of a mist , for some reason water and polish together doesnt feel like I m doing anything , but I m wondering if that would work better . I m going to give it another shot on the roof of my cadillac , I paid too much for that product , I feel bad not using it anymore . I also want to use the uro pads more . I was looking at griots boss correcting cream too , but its probably a waste of money now, I have way too much left of 3D, UC and UP . I gave away griots all in one compound and m105 because I just do not use it. I even have carpro ultracut and sonax cutmax. I m not even sure why I bought it lol

Im using griots DA polisher , the old one. Its good for what it is , I m not a big fan of rotary polishers , I do not do enough to justify buying one .
 
rick100 said:
I even have carpro ultracut and sonax cutmax. I m not even sure why I bought it lol.
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Carpro Ultracut is one of the best.... if not the best compound on the market. They absolutley nailed it with that one.
 
98CayenneTA said:
Carpro Ultracut is one of the best.... if not the best compound on the market. They absolutley nailed it with that one.
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I used it by hand once and it did a good job. No dusting.
Im just not a big fan of compounds and da polisher . Unless i have a big scratch or i want to polish after wet sanding. I like using my hand with a heavy cutting compound. I was happy with ultracut. Sonax cutmax was also great. 🔥
Im also happy that i purchased the smallest bottle. I d9nt see myself going through the whole bottle for years. Unless i get into doing side jobs for customers. Maybe one day
 
rick100 said:
I m going to post some pictures once the weather gets better, its been raining for 4 days

Carpro lite ceramic coating I dont like it by itself, again , it would be great if I did not see the end results I can get with other products. Its like driving a 400 hp car and going back to your 250 hp , nothing wrong with the 250hp , still a fast car but you already tried the faster car. I m not going to remove it , it still gives me better protection than a sealant or wax, but this car is a garage queen so it probably does not need that extra protection like my daily cars . On a daily car this would make sense. I added a sealant and some shinee wax on top an it looks much better now . I could ve skipped the ceramic coating and go straight to sealant and shinee wax on this particular car . I hope that makes sense .

As per 3D, it was pretty much stuck to the paint , I thought eraser would just wiped it off but it didnt , at least not fully and I was using a red car pro pad , I had to apply essence to get rid of it . I did not use a lot of product, that is the weird part, I tried another spot with less product and same results. The uro pad seemed to work better with 3D, not a lot of residue left. It did correct the swirl marks much nicer than essence, I ll give it that , but as standalone product I would probably hate to use it . Also it comes in at a premium price , I would expect a premium price product to give you a nicer user experience. I can honestly tell you that ultimate compound or even ultimate polish with the red pad can get the same results with a nicer wipe off , I should ve try the uro pad with ultimate compound , maybe on my cadillac . 3D reminded a lot of M105 on the user experience . However it is a recommended product by a lot of pros , so I really dont know , maybe I just need to adjust my technique , I do not do this for a living so I wont get much use out of it .

This is a bmw so yes it is a hard paint , that also makes a big difference. The gloss level of essence is insane , and it is very user friendly , like it is effortless, even easier to use than M205 which was my go to finish polish in the past. I think sonax makes a similar product which I would love to try , but it will be hard to change car pro essence for me . The correcting portion its lacking though , that would be my complaint, but this polish is not design for that, so I would usually get a different pad and product for some sections and use essence on the remaining of the panels.

I do not like the tacky feeling, I m on the slickness boat, it just makes it easier to dry your car and clean it overall for me , its not so much about the looks in that sense , more about the towels sliding through the panels when drying . But to each its own in this case
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Add Gliss on top of it if you want slickness. Again nothing wrong with polishing it off and going back to what works. One last thing, you won't like many other coatings if you don't like a tacky feeling. There are exceptions like CarPro SiC.

If 3D one is sticking to the paint then you could be coming across porous paint almost on the verge of being sticky. I have encountered this on Toyota paint where it was hard to wipe off the polish as if the polish was absorbed into the clear. Essence works in those situations so I understand how it works in these kinds of conditions.
 
I’m going with CQuartz UK 3.0 with CQuartz SiC on top because I want slickness. Supposed to be a really good combo though SiC was just released at the end of last year so not enough real world feedback but I’ll give CarPro the benefit of the doubt with most of their products, especially coatings.. And UK 3.0 has already built and solidified its reputation.
 
To OP...

are you experiencing difficulty wiping off on both cars or is this only on the BMW? How many passes did you do?
 
psnt1ol said:
To OP...

are you experiencing difficulty wiping off on both cars or is this only on the BMW? How many passes did you do?
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I only tried it on the BMW but on different spots. 5 passes I think
 
Nice. But now I understand why you are not feeling a coating. White does not have that wow factor so it's not going to have that pop like a darker car. White and silver need the right light for it to look good and glossy. White gives off a more bright look.
 
The Guz said:
Nice. But now I understand why you are not feeling a coating. White does not have that wow factor so it's not going to have that pop like a darker car. White and silver need the right light for it to look good and glossy. White gives off a more bright look.
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yes you are 100% correct , under a darker type of light it pops hard, if it is very bright out there , it does not give you that.

my brown enclave pops harder even if I m just using something like turtle wax ceramic , which is not a bad product but its not a ceramic coating

Having said that, I m using shinee on top of it right now as a drying aid so it gives me the extra pop I like
 
so I finally finished the cadillac srx. This one went pretty smooth , the car turned out very good , I wish pictures did more justice lol . I had the chance to try 3D one more time , this time the wiping was better , not as easy as essence but def much better than it did with the bmw. I used less this time and my passes were a bit slower, Im still not impress though , mostly with the pricing point of 3D and user experience.

I also had the chance to check the carpro ceramic lite suede applicator that I used on the BMW last week and it has harden quite a bit. This is pretty much ceramic coating level hardness , I have no doubt this will outlast 6 months of protection , my detailer once show me an applicator suede from carpro uk and I can tell you that carpro lite is not that much different , I m sure if you put it side by side you can tell the difference though

Overall I m quite happy with car pro lite, the user friendly experience was awesome , very very easy to use . I think this is the perfect base coat , 1 year coat . 60$ for 150 ml is cheap . I did 2 suvs and a sedan ( total of 5 coats) and I still have half the bottle left . I can easily do another 3 cars.

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