Mother Natures Car Wash and Ceramic Coatings

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Mother Natures Car Wash and Ceramic Coatings

I've been out of commission physically for almost 2 weeks. I've also been travelling and just plain busy. So I'm the first to admit I have not kept up with washing the wife's SUV nor my own. Yep - they're both dirty.


I came home from work last night and saw that my wife Stacy had parked her Honda H-RV outside of the carport where we live. (we have a condo). So I ask her,

Why is your car parked out front instead of under the carport?


She says,

It's dirty. It's supposed to rain tonight so I'm going to let Mother Nature wash it.



I get up this morning and before getting into my own SUV I took these pictures. The Honda looked like it had just been professionally washed.

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And water beading is looking good too!

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Self-cleaning effect

This is what is meant by a self-cleaning effect when you install a ceramic coating. I didn't pay attention to the dirt level on the car before walking into the condo the night before but that car looked clean first thing in the morning.


Just thought I would share since this is a real-world example of one of the key features everyone lists for why to use a ceramic coating.



:)
 
This post just gave me a chuckle, Mike.

Just the thought of Mrs. P having a dirty car and letting Ma Nature have at it........ Lol
 
And an old school trick.

Plus, rain water is naturally soft !
 
That could be the turning point for me and trying that new Wolfgang SiO2 Coating Wash product. Problem here is that while we had a wonderful shower last Saturday it was followed up with bright sunshine and light dust. Sadly I can see each and every water droplet after it dried. And I took extra time that morning to give it a rinse less wash. Oh, well practice makes me a bit quicker.

Thanks for the story Mike!
 
I like this type of post! So many questions about why to use a coating can be answered by this one example.
 
Come on, we both know it's not really clean. If it was that easy we could rinse our vehicles off with a hose every couple weeks and skip the soap and wash buckets all together.
 
rlmccarty2000 said:
I like this type of post! So many questions about why to use a coating can be answered by this one example.
Click to expand...

I think you guys are over selling it quite a bit. There's been other articles about coatings not being force fields. It's only a slight self cleaning effect.

If that car was waxed in the exact same situation there would have been virtually the same cleaning effect. I would bet money the difference wouldn't be noticeable
 
fightnews said:
I think you guys are over selling it quite a bit. There's been other articles about coatings not being force fields. It's only a slight self cleaning effect.
Click to expand...


I actually talk errr type about coatings NOT being force fields and I stress this to people using them on their own car and installing them on customer's cars because I think there's an issue with perceptions about what they are and what they are not. They are not force fields. You cannot coat your car and then run it through a brush style tunnel wash and expect the coating to prevent the type of brush scratches that these types of tunnel washes inflict into a car finish.

They do make washing and drying faster and they do have a self-cleaning effect. They also last longer and if properly "touched", the word touch means washed and dried, then they LOOK good longer than traditional car waxes and synthetic sealants.


fightnews said:
If that car was waxed in the exact same situation there would have been virtually the same cleaning effect. I would bet money the difference wouldn't be noticeable
Click to expand...


I'd have to politely disagree with you.

First - I hesitated at posting this thread with these pictures because I know it's easy for people, (not you fightnews), but people in general to become cynical; especially in the car care products world. But I'm the guy that coated it and I've been washing neglected cars and well-kept cars for longer than I like to remember and the paint on this Honda looked like it had just been washed after sitting in a hard rain over night.

I DO agree that you could get the same self-cleaning effect from a car wax or a synthetic sealant if either of these had been applied recently. My wife Stacy and I tried to remember when we installed the coating and a near as we can remember it was in November of 2018. The only clue I have is someone on this forum there's a thread where I talked about using SONAX Polymer Net Shield on the trim and the tires of this car. If I could find that thread I could confirm the time-frame when the coating was installed.

Besides a few hand washes since then and a few coin-op spray-off since then, nothing else has been done to the exterior of the car. Here's my opinion. All the cars under the carport get dirty, it's mostly dust from normal air-borne dirt and also when the grounds keepers do the lawn care and trim hedges, then use the gas powered leaf blowers to blow-out the parking lots and roads. So the cars get a pretty good film of dirt and dust on them even sitting under a car part. The real benefit to a car part, (in case anyone doesn't know or realize), is it block the sun from destroying the exterior of a car.

So when I came home and saw the car parked outside of the carport it struck me as unusual. She doesn't normally park this car out where it can be tortured by the sun. So I asked her why and she said so the rain could rinse her off. I figure, yeah, it rains pretty hard around here, couldn't hurt and I don't have time to do a proper wash.

Next morning, I walk outside and look at the car and she shined like she was just washed. I naturally attributed this self-cleaning effect to the coating.

Would this happen if the car had wax or sealant on it? Sure - if it was fresh. It's been near as we can remember 7 months see the coating was installed with only a few hand washes and a few coin-top spray-offs.

Everyone can make up their own mind but in my mind - it was the fact that this paint has a ceramic coating on it that enabled it to self-clean from a hard rain and do it better than would have happened if I had waxed it or applied a sealant. I do think SONAX Polymer Net Shield can do this same type of thing and hold up for a long time (depending upon how the car is "touched"), but that's my opinion, I'm sticking to it and I also put it out here for all of you to see and think about and then come to your own conclusions.


I'm completely okay with anyone that disagrees and would even challenge me on my conclusions, but with 42,836 posts at the time I'm typing out this reply, I would challenge anyone to wade through the 42,000+ posts and document a history of me purposefully misleading people. You won't find it. There's no there there as they say. Not that post count matters.... :)


postcountJune19.jpg




I may bring this car down to Autogeek this weekend and do a normal wash because Stacy made me Mango Pie yesterday and also because the tires are brown with blooming and I want to test out the new Pinnacle Black Label Tire Clearcoat. If I do, you can expect another review and write-up documenting my car detailing work. Another opinion I have is anyone that is going to teach car detailing for a living should also DO car detailing. Walk the talk, not just talk.


Homemade Mango Pie

Mango_Pie.JPG


Note the crust is a series of overlapping Starfish :dblthumb2:


:)
 
I know from personal example that driving my coated car in a rainstorm will give it a good cleaning on the hood and top areas. Not so much on the rear deck and sides where road crap is thrown up. Normally even the bugs on the front bumper clean right off. Now I keep a good fresh SiO2 product on my bumper and hood area because these parts take the brunt of the environment so things that normally would stick actually slide off. Wax does not work as well, give it a try. IGL Premier is a good long lasting topper that will make stuff slide right off and it’s oleophpobic as well. I’m not saying a coating is a force field either but right now it’s the best thing going.
 
Great example, and I agree a waxed/sealed car never turned out as well after a rain as one which has been coated. When I used to use sealants, the vehicle would often be water spotted or simply look worse than before the rain due to pooling of the rain or the dust and pollen not being totally washed away. Only the heaviest down pours would have any real cleaning action. With a coating, even a light shower serves as a good rinse and clean the car up nicely.

I love going to work and noticing my car needs to be washed when I get home and then have a rainshower during the day do the job for me!
 
I was just noticing my wife's car outside this morning and I finished coating it 17 days ago. For the first 7 days there was no rain, great for curing. Then from that point on we've had a lot of on and off rain, some heavy storms. The car looks like it was washed recently. Even the tires are still nice and black (they were dressed with PERL after I finished coating). It's great to have coating and get free washes from mother nature. Just not good if you live in an area where water will spot after it dries. Coatings form a lot of beads that dry quickly with sun exposure and can leave a lot of water marks. They usually come off with the next wash but some areas tend to leave things behind that etch. I've been fortunate to not get that issue around here.
 
I am a wax/sealant guy who now also enjoys the SiO2 toppers. I will vouch for wax/sealants for every strength they hold, but when it comes to self-cleaning, I see a huge difference in cleanliness after a rainstorm. Wax/sealants, for me, always look like dust/dirt has been moved around by water and then dried. This is OK, I typically WW/RW/Wash 3x per week.

SiO2 products leave the paint shining after a good rainstorm. Bottom panels will still have traces of dirt noticeable up close, and the backs may still be dirty, but less so; much easier to clean.
 
i am amazed every time it rains, my wifes black 2012 suburban sits outside 100% of the time...un covered !

we have 4 kids playing various sports and all lots are rocked, once a year i refresh the detail and re apply Black Label Diamond Surface Coating.

just a single rain showers makes it look like new again, from about 5 ft away. Most people are amazed when i tell them it has over 100k miles, and rarely gets a real washing.
 
The self cleaning aspect of my coatings is the best characteristic to me. We've had a ton of rain here in Tampa lately and the car looks clean.

Am I accumulating a bunch of road film? Yup. So my rockers and tail look dirty? Yup (up close). But those are addressed with my weekly washes.

Plus, I use the drip method after a final rinse and this coating leaves very little water to then blow off.

I've never had a wax or sealant behave this good.
 
I have one client who called me and told me that all he has to do is speed up when it rains and car is clean again.
I thought he was nuts..but after 50+ coating installations, he is not the only one who claims it...
And car does look clean after a good rain storm...is it perfectly clean. NO, but it is clean...
 
Took a few pics of the wife’s car (1 month old Essence topped with Cosmic Spritz) when she got home yesterday, made me think of this thread. Car hasn’t been washed in 5 days, it T-stormed many times this week, and she commutes 22 miles each day, mostly highway. Sooo... its not like the car just sat in the driveway for 5 days.

Looks pretty clean to me! The last two pictures I tried to capture the tiny bit of noticeable dirt... but there’s also driveway pavement reflections making it hard to differentiate the very minor road grime spots.

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This is my dilemma. I do the finish coat of 845 twice/yr. In the fall, my garaged vehicles all bead like new still. The only reason I do the fall tx is because I lice in CT. Cars either get put away or endure nasty winter CaCl etc. How much better can it get? 1x/yr? Ahh, but in tne real world we do get swirls etc so 2x/ yr is ideal to keep things nice looking
 
ddsski said:
This is my dilemma. I do the finish coat of 845 twice/yr. In the fall, my garaged vehicles all bead like new still. The only reason I do the fall tx is because I lice in CT. Cars either get put away or endure nasty winter CaCl etc. How much better can it get? 1x/yr? Ahh, but in tne real world we do get swirls etc so 2x/ yr is ideal to keep things nice looking
Click to expand...
I agree with you here, and only use the sprays for that reason (or when I do use a coating it will be economical enough that I don’t mind polishing off way before its dead). I can’t go a full 1+ year without polishing, even when the car only has very minor swirls. I just like to get the grime off and start 95% clear of swirls.

Collinite is great. The SiO2 does keep clean better than anything though.
 
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