Hydrophobicity of CSL vs Cquartz Lite?

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Skip

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I have been practising with Cquartz Lite, and would now like to move up to CSL, and need to decide whether I want to also apply EXO V4. Is CSL at least as hydrophobic as CQL? If so, I don't think I'll bother with EXO, because I'm happy with the level of hydrophobicity CQL has.
 
CSL by itself isn’t very hydrophobic, you’ll want to top it with EXO V4 to get that nice hydrophobic behavior.
 
No it is not. Exo is the icing on the cake if you want the hydrophobics close to CQ Lite. CSL is more of a sheeter. I had CSL topped with Exo and then just CSL on my car and I much preferred Exo on top of it. CSL was lacking something to me.
 
Thanks. I suppose I'll have to get some EXO then. I bought the CSL quite some time ago, without putting much thought into it - I noticed that Matt Moreman liked it, so thought "that one will do". (but I know he uses EXO too)
 
After watching some videos showing the water shedding ability of CSL by itself, I've decided not to bother with EXO. The main thing I am concerned about is being able to blow dry the car, and I think I'll be fine.
 
Let us know how you like it compared to Lite and if you notice a drip in self cleaning. That is one thing I noticed with just CSL.

The good thing is it’s easier to apply and only one layer.
 
Update: I'm very happy with the hydrophobicity of CSL - if EXO is even MORE hydrophobic it must be quite amazing! Not sure yet about self cleaning vs CQ Lite.
I've had major setbacks lately - engine rebuild, a smash repair, and it looks like the body shop ran their lovely rotary over some panels that I had coated and did not require any work at all, so I'll have to re-coat them. But I'm forging on. :laughing:
 
And - I think my application of CSL has failed already. I noticed very pronounced "blotches" when I sprayed water on the surface (mainly looking at the hood at the moment), and these could not be removed by thorough cleaning. I even started to get worried that the clearcloat was starting to fail or something, however I finally hand polished vigorously with Optimum Intensive Polish, and the surface is now at least uniform, albeit with lots of swirls from the aggressive polishing (back to square 1).
If it did fail, a few ideas come to mind:
- I didn't clean the surface thoroughly enough after polishing (I certainly tried to though, finishing with Eraser)
- My bottle of CSL was WAY past it's use by date. (idiot)
- The car had been left at a mechanic for over a week, and later, at a body shop for two weeks, so who know what happened at those places. The hood didn't NEED any work on it, but who knows what it may have experienced.

I have a fresh bottle of CSL and will try again.
 
Skip said:
And - I think my application of CSL has failed already. I noticed very pronounced "blotches" when I sprayed water on the surface (mainly looking at the hood at the moment), and these could not be removed by thorough cleaning. I even started to get worried that the clearcloat was starting to fail or something, however I finally hand polished vigorously with Optimum Intensive Polish, and the surface is now at least uniform, albeit with lots of swirls from the aggressive polishing (back to square 1).
If it did fail, a few ideas come to mind:
- I didn't clean the surface thoroughly enough after polishing (I certainly tried to though, finishing with Eraser)
- My bottle of CSL was WAY past it's use by date. (idiot)
- The car had been left at a mechanic for over a week, and later, at a body shop for two weeks, so who know what happened at those places. The hood didn't NEED any work on it, but who knows what it may have experienced.

I have a fresh bottle of CSL and will try again.
Click to expand...

I just recently used a bottle of csl/exo that was used many months ago and it seemed to work fine. Not sure what the water behavior looks like as I have yet to wash that car so cannot really say if its all g or not.
 
Skip said:
And - I think my application of CSL has failed already. I noticed very pronounced "blotches" when I sprayed water on the surface (mainly looking at the hood at the moment), and these could not be removed by thorough cleaning. I even started to get worried that the clearcloat was starting to fail or something, however I finally hand polished vigorously with Optimum Intensive Polish, and the surface is now at least uniform, albeit with lots of swirls from the aggressive polishing (back to square 1).
If it did fail, a few ideas come to mind:
- I didn't clean the surface thoroughly enough after polishing (I certainly tried to though, finishing with Eraser)
- My bottle of CSL was WAY past it's use by date. (idiot)
- The car had been left at a mechanic for over a week, and later, at a body shop for two weeks, so who know what happened at those places. The hood didn't NEED any work on it, but who knows what it may have experienced.

I have a fresh bottle of CSL and will try again.
Click to expand...

Could have been contaminated from the body shop.
 
Body shop should be silicone/contaminant free for paint the mechanic probably could have a bunch of oils and grease.
 
Note that I used it shortly after opening, but I bought it ages ago - well past it's shelf life. I still have some left, but it's now gone all cloudy, so I presume it has started to cure. It's definitely going in the bin.
Btw, I did also run the car through a couple of automated touchless washes - can they exceed the CSL pH range? (2 - 12)
 
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