McKee's 37 Coating applied, couple of questions

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01svtL

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So, I applied McKee's 37 paint coating to my '08 Jeep srt8 this weekend. I've used OptiCoat 2.0 in the past on a couple of different cars, so I appreciated the ease of application with the 37. However, I felt is was a little harder to judge if I was applying evenly. As such, I put 2 coats on the entire vehicle, except for the roof, as I applied that pretty liberally on the first coat, so I wasn't worried. I'm at almost 8,000 ft in northern NM, so protection from the sun is a concern.

Thoughts: The Jeep looks great! Being that it's silver, it's not as impressive as my 2014 Ruby Red Metallic Mustang GT was after polishing and applying OptiCoat, but it still looks like glass. It's just that if you're standing any more that 5 feet away, it just looks likes a clean silver Jeep with great reflection. It does look MUCH better than it looked when I bought it from the previous owner.

Now for the questions. I started with the coating at about 4PM on Sunday, and finished with the second coat around 6PM. It sat in the garage all day Monday and Tuesday. I left the house this morning at about 6:30, so it was a full 60 hours after final application until it was driven. Of course, it rained today at about 2 PM. My question is, do I have anything to worry about? I did take some pics, but I'll have to do some resizing so I'll post them in the morning. The roof was beading awesome! The hood looked pretty good. It was only lightly sprinkling when I took the pics, but at one point, I watched a few drops hit and immediately roll down and off the front of the hood. The sprinkle was too light to really judge the rest of the panels - you'll see in the pics. Question 2: when can I wipe her down? Question 3: I normally use ONR almost exclusively (unless it's just really dirty), so is this still ok? Is there something else that is better or more suggested with the 37 coating? Question 4: Is there something that can be applied to sorta "refresh" the coating every now and then?

Here was my process:
Wash
Clay
ONR wipe down
Correction using Griot's Garage compound with Orange pad
Polish using HD Polish with Black pad
Pinnacle Surface Cleansing Polish (by hand with a balled up microfiber)
IPA mist wipe down (just in case)
McKee's 37 Coating
 
I just bought some tonight too. Actually by McSteak but I'm going to keep it and try it out as it isn't expensive. Probably going to start with the wife's van to see how it holds up over winter. Both cars are nearly flawless in terms of swirls but I will likely hit the van with some Menzerna SF4000 to insure it's good, wipe it down and then apply the coating.
 
The Guz said:
You are fine. ONR can still be used.

I would recommend picking up PBL coating booster to maintain the coating.

Pinnacle Black Label Diamond Coating Booster

If you like you can pick up the detailer as well and wipe it more frequently.

Pinnacle Black Label Diamond Coating Detailer
Click to expand...

I'll take a look at those, thanks! How often would the booster be used? Do I need to wait at least a week before I can give it an ONR bath? I think I read somewhere to give coatings a whole week before washing.
 
01svtL said:
I'll take a look at those, thanks! How often would the booster be used? Do I need to wait at least a week before I can give it an ONR bath? I think I read somewhere to give coatings a whole week before washing.
Click to expand...

Here's a quote from Nick on the coating booster

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...lack-label-coating-booster-2.html#post1058957

Nick@Autogeek said:
Great review!

Since us Auto Geeks have a difficult time not touching our cars, and are addicted to a little thing called "shine" (:D) we developed Diamond Coating Booster and Diamond Coating Detailer as a way to maintain the insane gloss and incredible slickness of Black Label Diamond Coatings and coatings offered by other manufacturers.

Diamond Coating Booster and Diamond Coating Detailer will not build up on the surface, so you can use them as often as you'd like. :dblthumb2:
Click to expand...

I think you will be fine giving it an ONR bath prior to letting it sit for a week. I've used ONR on Optimum Gloss coat before the 7 day cure period and the coating has been holding up just fine.
 
I believe the cure time is 24 hours. After that it can be washed normally. PBL paint coating is similar.
 
You have nothing to worry about. Should be well cured.

For the maintenance, you can use the booster that is mentioned above, or just wipe down with a good quick detail spray. The Mckees, or anything other you like. This coating should last at least two years.

And it is so easy to apply.
 
Well, after all that work and subsequent worrying, 2 hours into our 6 hour road trip back from Denver today, the car in front of me ran over and flipped up an entire sheet of plywood. Of course I slammed into it and it bounced around under the Jeep. It crushed my front bumper, cracked it in a couple of places and dislodged the lower grill. Also, somehow the windshield is cracked. I guess from the sudden concussion of running the plywood over and compressing the shocks so hard? I haven't had a chance to look underneath to see if/what damage was done. So pissed right now.
 
As unfortunate as that situation is, at least you and the family are OK. Vehicles can always be replaced.
 
Sorry to hear mate. Glad you are OK. As others have said, cars can always be fixed/replaced :)
 
Thanks guys. If we had been in my wife's X1, it could very well have been much worse. There's a chance it could have come over the hood.

The upside, I guess, is that the shop in town is confident they can fix the bumper and get the paint to match perfectly, which is good, because Chrysler hasn't made the gen 1 SRT8 front bumper cover in years, and no one has them. I had wanted to get the cover repainted anyway, this is just a pain in the ass way to go about it, especially if they CAN'T fix it. I'll also have to drive 45 min into the neighboring town to get a rental.
 
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