Need recommendation for towels for first ceramic coating

joebruin77

joebruin77

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I am preparing to do my first ceramic coating and I need help / recommendations for towels.

1) What towels do you recommend for the initial leveling wipe as well as for the final "buff"? I plan on getting 2 different colors, one for the first wipe and the second for the final buff.

2) How often do you have to change your towels when applying the ceramic coating? Do you have to use a fresh set of towels for every panel?

3) Can you use the same applicator for the entire car, or do you have to use multiple applicators?

Any advice on how to "manage" your towels during the application of a ceramic coating is much appreciated!

Thank you,
Joebruin77
 
I use the cobra polishing towels that autogeek sells. I have 12 in the red color, and that is plenty for a coating job. I make the color red for coatings only.

Ya just "know" when to swap out for a new towel. Just like ya do when wiping off a
polish/compound. No need for different colors for first and final wipe.

Also look into autosaver applicators. The best for applying coatings. Unfortunately AGO doesnt sell them.

use same applicator for the entire job

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I just bought The Rag Company Edgeless 300's to use for my coating. They have a low pile and are economical if I have to pitch or downgrade them to engine duty.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Autogeekonline mobile app
 
Definitely Autofibers to apply.

TRC 300 1st towel and 365 for second buff. I usually do a panel to half a panel per side and then flip to clean side.

I have also used the TRC 245’s with success as 1st towel.


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I have used both TRC Edgeless 245 and Edgeless 300 for Ceramic coatings.

 
I used The Rag Company - The Edgeless Pearl 320gsm.
I bought them from Amazon.
Only time ever ceramic coating, but they worked well.
I actually did the 3 towel method and just had them lined up so I knew which one to use first.
 
My favorite towels for this are the Gyeon Bald Wipe. They are expensive so it took some time to have about 12 of them (I guess I have at least that many).

I seem to use about 6 towels per layer of coating, I prefer to change often as that makes the wipe off easier and also immediately soak the towels in a bucket with MF washer and/or APC to avoid letting it cure on the towel. Wash as soon as I'm done with the job, never wait until next day. Then the towels come out clean and ready to use again, I'll re-use them on future jobs and never had an issue. I just can't imagine tossing a $7 towel in the trash every time, especially going through so many during a job.

To apply the coatings I like the Autofiber coating saving applicators. One applicator (the larger size) has 4 usable areas so I use one applicator for the entire layer of coating, I divide the car in about 4 areas and go that way to avoid using the same spot on the applicator too long. The coating will start to cure there and I want to avoid rubbing it on the paint when that happens.
 
fly07sti said:
What coating are you applying? One coat or two?
Click to expand...

This is my first attempt at applying a coating. Following Mike "The Guz"'s suggestions, I will either be applying Gyeon CanCoat Evo or Gyeon One Evo, followed by an application of Gyeon Cure, since I will have to apply it outside.
 
If you go with CanCoat you won’t need to use a two towel method as it goes on very thin and doesn’t leave a lot left over to be leveled. If you’re going with One, I like TRC 300’s for my initial wipe followed by TwoFace from CarPro. I also agree with having a bucket with some APC to put these towels in so they can be used for future detail work.
 
fly07sti said:
If you go with CanCoat you won’t need to use a two towel method as it goes on very thin and doesn’t leave a lot left over to be leveled. If you’re going with One, I like TRC 300’s for my initial wipe followed by TwoFace from CarPro. I also agree with having a bucket with some APC to put these towels in so they can be used for future detail work.
Click to expand...

This is good info. CanCoat comes with the included towel.

I just did a layer of CanCoat with the included towel and that was is. A second towel would be an insurance policy for high spots. But it’s pretty hard to get high spots with it.

Flip the towel to a dry side every so often and spray into the wet side and that one towel would be more than enough.

For One the TRC edgeless 300’s are a good option. I use them for both leveling and final wipe off. CarPro 2face lite towels are also good.
 
Just coated my car over the weekend. I’ve used trc pearl, edgeless 300 and edgeless 365. Here is what I think works best when applying csl + evo since that’s the costing I went with.

With csl, you can use edgeless 300. Two towels one for leveling and one for buffing excess product off. 2-3 towels should get the job done.

With exo v4 or a “topper coat” your towels get loaded a lot and that’s normal. I personally found that using the pearl towels worked better sicnce they did a better job picking up the exo. Again topper coats tend to smear around a lot more due to the base coats properties.

I initially went with the edgeless 300 since those seem to be safer in not marring but I had to use 3 towel method since it felt like it was just pushing the product around. Had incident where my 3rd towel transferred some exo back onto the surface. Decided to switch to a pearl towel for leveling and a edgeless 300 or 365 for buffing/removing excess. The CSL and EXO provided enough slickness to prevent marring for initial leveling but I would not recommend using a pearl for a final wipe off as that can be a bit harsh on the paint.

With this combo, I found that I don’t have to throw away 4-5 edgeless towels in between each coating since those generally cost more than the pearls. I will however suggest you go with pearl towels that are only edgeless. Mine had edges and could be a reason why they caused marring.
 
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