Desertnate
Well-known member
- Aug 5, 2013
- 6,236
- 291
Despite only applying Gyeon Pure EVO to my car last year I found myself having to coat the car again. Last fall I was re-ended and a significant number of parts to the back half of the car were replaced and/or repainted. Since the car is so small, I decided to just go ahead redo the entire car. What a great opportunity to try out ADS's Quartz Coating.
Since I knew I was going to be mechanically polishing out the entire car, I stuck with a simple bucket wash. However, since I knew the 3D Pink I have on hand doesn't clean the best, I added about and ounce or two of CarPro's Lift to the bucket and was pretty happy with the cleaning ability of my concoction. I used a clay mitt on the car at the same time to get the paint ready for being polished.
The car got pulled into the garage and I started polishing. Overall the paint was in really good shape, but it is a daily driver and life happens so I had a couple light marrs to remove while polishing. Fortunately they come out really easily on soft Subaru Paint.
This year I decided to step it up a notch and see if I could enhance the gloss a bit. So, I went for a two step-polishing process vs my typical one-step. I was really pleased with the results, but not sure what got me there. More on that at the end.
One thing I did notice right away while polishing was a noticeable improvement in clarity of the paint and gloss. I wasn't expecting that from a coated car only a year after application. I've seen similar results at the three year point when polishing out a car with CQUK, but that was expected after that length of time. Under the right light angle I could see lots of tiny water spots and a slight haze not normally seen under bright lighting. Makes me wonder if it was the Pure EVO not holiding up very well, or the 3D Pink soap not doing a very good job of cleaning. My initial thought is a little of both. Once I was finished polishing, the car was really looking good with a nice, crisp shine to the paint.
After a panel wipe it was on to the coating. I found the ADS coating to be a little difficult to apply. I rarely got the "sweat beads" they describe to show the coating is ready and had a hard time getting my timing down on the right time to buff. Despite what their video's say, I found I had to level and buff it out while it was a little smeary. If I waited until it didn't smear, it was difficult to buff out. On the panels I did get perfectly timed I could actually feel the surface getting slick as I was working. Never felt that with a coating before. It was rather cool to experience.
One thing I've heard people ask in the past is whether a coating will darken the paint. Here is a picture of my trunk deck. The top us uncoated, the bottom is coated. Does it darken? Yep! Nice thing was I never had any doubt where to find the untreated areas.
One note: When ADS says to flip the applicator because the coating will harden the applicator, they aren't joking! I hadn't seen that since the last time I used CQUK 3.0.
After sitting the garage over night drove the car the next morning and then then parked it in the driveway for some pics. Despite being bombarded by pollen that morning it was still looking really good. I'm really happy with the overall result. The gloss and clarity is probably the best I've ever created on this car and it just gleams in the sunlight.
The story doesn't end there. 48 hours after I finished my work I drove the car to work and it rained...hard...all day, and didn't break until I headed from home. So, I gave something else for my co-workers to say about me, and took some beading pictures in the parking lot before leaving. The good news was the rain completely rinsed off all the pollen and I had clear car! Note the black plastic trim and the wiper arms in the second picture. I put the ADS coating on those surfaces too and it worked great on plastic and whatever it is they use to protect wiper arms.
I run a very un-scientific water shedding test on my coating cars and it's based on the speed I hit when the water beads start rolling off the hood of the car. On this car, Pure EVO would start to roll off at around 43~45mph when it's clean. ADS Quartz Coating was much earlier, around 40mph. That's roughly equal to the Mohs EVO on the wife's MDX, though the aerodynamics of the two cars are totally different.
Final thoughts.
Polishing: This year I did a two step polishing process starting with Rupes Yellow pads combined with Griots BOSS Perfecting Cream and followed up with LC Black HDO pads and Sonax 04/06 polish. Could I receive the same results using just one of those parings, or a different combo (i.e. the black pads with the Perfecting Cream)? Don't know, but I'm going to experiment with different polishes and my pads to see if I can get these results with a one-step.
ADS Coating: Lots of thoughts here, so I'll put them in a list.
Since I knew I was going to be mechanically polishing out the entire car, I stuck with a simple bucket wash. However, since I knew the 3D Pink I have on hand doesn't clean the best, I added about and ounce or two of CarPro's Lift to the bucket and was pretty happy with the cleaning ability of my concoction. I used a clay mitt on the car at the same time to get the paint ready for being polished.
The car got pulled into the garage and I started polishing. Overall the paint was in really good shape, but it is a daily driver and life happens so I had a couple light marrs to remove while polishing. Fortunately they come out really easily on soft Subaru Paint.
This year I decided to step it up a notch and see if I could enhance the gloss a bit. So, I went for a two step-polishing process vs my typical one-step. I was really pleased with the results, but not sure what got me there. More on that at the end.
One thing I did notice right away while polishing was a noticeable improvement in clarity of the paint and gloss. I wasn't expecting that from a coated car only a year after application. I've seen similar results at the three year point when polishing out a car with CQUK, but that was expected after that length of time. Under the right light angle I could see lots of tiny water spots and a slight haze not normally seen under bright lighting. Makes me wonder if it was the Pure EVO not holiding up very well, or the 3D Pink soap not doing a very good job of cleaning. My initial thought is a little of both. Once I was finished polishing, the car was really looking good with a nice, crisp shine to the paint.
After a panel wipe it was on to the coating. I found the ADS coating to be a little difficult to apply. I rarely got the "sweat beads" they describe to show the coating is ready and had a hard time getting my timing down on the right time to buff. Despite what their video's say, I found I had to level and buff it out while it was a little smeary. If I waited until it didn't smear, it was difficult to buff out. On the panels I did get perfectly timed I could actually feel the surface getting slick as I was working. Never felt that with a coating before. It was rather cool to experience.
One thing I've heard people ask in the past is whether a coating will darken the paint. Here is a picture of my trunk deck. The top us uncoated, the bottom is coated. Does it darken? Yep! Nice thing was I never had any doubt where to find the untreated areas.
One note: When ADS says to flip the applicator because the coating will harden the applicator, they aren't joking! I hadn't seen that since the last time I used CQUK 3.0.
After sitting the garage over night drove the car the next morning and then then parked it in the driveway for some pics. Despite being bombarded by pollen that morning it was still looking really good. I'm really happy with the overall result. The gloss and clarity is probably the best I've ever created on this car and it just gleams in the sunlight.
The story doesn't end there. 48 hours after I finished my work I drove the car to work and it rained...hard...all day, and didn't break until I headed from home. So, I gave something else for my co-workers to say about me, and took some beading pictures in the parking lot before leaving. The good news was the rain completely rinsed off all the pollen and I had clear car! Note the black plastic trim and the wiper arms in the second picture. I put the ADS coating on those surfaces too and it worked great on plastic and whatever it is they use to protect wiper arms.
I run a very un-scientific water shedding test on my coating cars and it's based on the speed I hit when the water beads start rolling off the hood of the car. On this car, Pure EVO would start to roll off at around 43~45mph when it's clean. ADS Quartz Coating was much earlier, around 40mph. That's roughly equal to the Mohs EVO on the wife's MDX, though the aerodynamics of the two cars are totally different.
Final thoughts.
Polishing: This year I did a two step polishing process starting with Rupes Yellow pads combined with Griots BOSS Perfecting Cream and followed up with LC Black HDO pads and Sonax 04/06 polish. Could I receive the same results using just one of those parings, or a different combo (i.e. the black pads with the Perfecting Cream)? Don't know, but I'm going to experiment with different polishes and my pads to see if I can get these results with a one-step.
ADS Coating: Lots of thoughts here, so I'll put them in a list.
- Not the easiest to apply, but not the hardest either. I'd say it's no worse than CQUK 3.0 or Pure EVO, but no where near as easy as MOHS EVO. MOHS is still me favorite from an application standpoint
- I'm not a fan of the large applicator ADS provides. I think it lead me to lay the coating down too thick and its harder to get into small areas. The small applicator with Gyeon coatings is better, or even the old school block and suede swatch you used to get with CQUK work better for me.
- The ADS bottle is so dark, you can't track your consumption rate. Had I been able to see the product in the bottle I'd would have known I was putting it down too thick. I still have no idea how much is left except to feel/hear is splashing around in the bottom of the bottle.
- The coating looks amazing and it's easily the slickest coating I've applied. I can't wait to give it the first wash and apply a little Amplify to it.
- Water behavior also seems to be tops in the coatings I've used. A tie with MOHS EVO from initial observation, and maybe better. Water beads are a bit larger with a lower contact angle, but the sheeting might be better.
- 3D Pink soap with a touch of CarPro Lift
- The Rag Company wash mitt
- Blackfire's clay mitt
- Griots wheel cleaner with assorted brushes
- Rupes yellow pads, LC Black HDO pads, and Griots 3" orange pads
- Griots G15 and G8 polishers
- CarPro Eraser
- ADS Quartz Ceramic Coating
- Griots Ceramic Tire Dressing
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Very Nice!