Need some expert help on what is next

[rick100]

Hello Guys , I ve been lurking this as well as other forums for a very very long time. I need some serious help here on what to do next, I keep on changing my mind and I m done watching videos online .

Background
I ve been detailing cars for roughly 2-3 years . I bought a da polishers , a lot of towels ( rag company, griots, mf madness, etc) , many products ( m105, m205, UP , UC, beadmaker, eraser, reload, ech2o, essence, essence plus ,etc etc etc.). I ve spend too much money but its been a hobby of mine, since the pandemic , it has really help me relax . However I think I m getting too deep and just overlooking a little too much lately.
I ve done corrections on 7 cars so far and they turned out pretty good , not perfect, but I must said that they turned out better than I expected. Only 1 car was pretty bad , turn out worst than what I started with, but the paint was done on that car anyways and it was my first time doing it

Here is where my " problem starts" , I have done full correction on 7 cars ( mine and family) but I have not really done any correction on my car ," garage queen" if you want to call it car, this car was coated in 2014. I washed this car once or twice a week in the past 3 years, rarely drive it in the rain , and its store 90% of the time in the winter ( canadian winter). My routine is pretty much wash, iron x, clay bar, wash , reload and hand polish some scratches twice a year. Then I do wash and bead maker once a week. I may do reload once in every 2-4 months

So far so good, however here is where my dilemma comes. This car was professionally coated with opti coat pro ( the very first formula, the one that was only available for authorized dealers) , I must admit , that coatings is very strong, I can still see it on the car after 6 years. I can wash the car, put nothing on top and you can still see the shine of the coating. As good as this is , it also comes with a very big con, the car has build many swirl marks over the years , light scratches, and under certain lighting you can see them. This would not bother me in the past, but as I get to do more corrections , I tend to look at this swirl marks more. I m currently in the middle of a decision, leave the car as it is , and keep doing my routine, or put in practice what I have done the past 3 years and try to get rid of most of swirl marks. I bought all this products for this moment and I practice on my cars first to avoid screwing this up.

The problem is a little bigger for me as the scratches and swirl marks are not really big, something like ultimate polish should get rid of most of them and a compound for sure would work better. However here is where it gets a little confusing for me. This coating seems the to be on the car and its thick , I ve read that this coating was not available to the public. So I m not sure what is the best way to approach this , the reason being is that if I want to apply something like cquartz light , or another coating, I would need to make sure the old coating is out. I could compound the whole car, but I m also afraid this is not necessary due to the minor swirls and scratches, however using a mild polish abrasive may not be enough to fully remove the existing coating.

This has make my decision on what to do next be hard. I can polish the car with essence , ultimate polish and maybe use ultra cut for deep scratches. But what do I put on top to seal the paint?....
I ve look into cquartz lite, the last coat black ice , can coat. But I m not sure they would adhere to opti- coating if there is still some left on the car after I do the polishing steps. I have also considered just sticking with reload, the last coat version 2 or turttle wax every 3 months as these products could be use as standalone and the can stick to any left over coating , plus I can use bead maker as drying aid every car wash. Lastly I have considered powerlock as a base coating, but I can not find answers if these product can be use on top of a coating ...

Also , I m debating my decision on coating a car. As good as a coating is , and as much as it apply to me in the past, where I just did my car washes and moved on. I m debating on whether is worth the effort on my current state where I would need to do minor corrections at least once a year. As good as opti coating is , it really leaves you stranded when it comes to paint correction. It makes it very hard to do any , without going to the hassle of buying a new coating for that panel. Thus my reason for not considering c quartz v3 , gliss combo and instead trying the lite version .

So as long as this post has been, what would you guys do in my situation?. I got some mix opinions on retailers on whether opti coat pro can be removed with a polish . And after looking at my car, they also agree that a compound would be too abrasive on the whole car since it has minor swirls and scratches. I even though about something like 3D hybrid , but I m not sure if this is too abrasive with a polish pad ....

If you ask me what I want?. I want to have some type of good sealant that lasts me 6 months to a year, something easy to apply on so that I can do my paint corrections or light polish once or twice a year . I also want something that its compatible with beadmaker, which is my drying aid. Lastly I m trying not too compound the whole car, so a product that can adhere to whatever is left over my current coating would be a plus.

Yesterday , I did a correction on the hood and the top of the trunk where the swirl marks , scratches and water spots were bad. It turned out great. I used ultimate polish and essence with gloss pad to finish it off. I still have minor swirl marks here and there but I never used a compound, I would say its an 8 out of 10. I used reload and beadmaker to finish it off and its great. Durability is my concern with this combo though.

 

[coles_paint_correction]

Hey rick after reading it sounds like you still would like to polish here and there, I would try a series of test spots to see
what would be least aggressive and maybe even get away with going over it once, maybe a cutting pad with a polish of some kind or
vice versa, it sounds like it needs a decent cut to remove those swirls/scratches ur talking about.

I've heard of some coatings being so strong that if applied in correctly that you have to wet sand the coating of but that's more of the serious accredited coatings .

If it was mine i would do what it takes to remove the old coating , probably be a decent aggressive combo to remove before applying another coating.
I would really dial in a nice safe way to wash it after doing it all again, nice two bucket method or a nice blower to avoid drying with towels to avoid touching it more.

I believe Carpro makes a product you can polish the coating without removing the coating as well, if you like to touch stuff up once in awhile.

Another option to is to get a paint protection film to help against it as well but is costly but worth it too.

Hope it helps at all.

 

[Mike Hoekstra]

After reading your post the first thing I read is that you are not properly washing/drying your car. If you are hand washing and drying, you should not be getting swirls which leads me to say you are not using quality soft dry towels, and possibly not washing correctly with a two-bucket system. Once your coating is applied, it should be simple maintenance and boosting the product. The coating longevity, as Mike Phillips always states, depends on how you touch it. Once you apply a coating, there should be no need to repolish/compound anything.

This is what my approach would be -

1 - Re-evaluate the wash process. Make sure your wash mitts are not contaminated with debris - sand, leaves, tree seeds, etc. and make sure your drying towels are also clean and free of any debris or things that will scratch the paint. You've just spent hours compounding and polishing out a paint job to apply a coating, 30 seconds with a contaminated wash mitt or dry towel will ruin it.

2 - Compound off the original coating (or wet sand depending on the coating) to clean paint substrate or have a local professional do it. Stacking one product on top of an old product will possibly have consequences and failure, along with voiding any warranty that a coating offers.

3 - Apply whatever coating you decide to go with, or have a local professional install one.

4 - Refer back to #1 and how you touch the coating.

 

[rick100]

Hey rick after reading it sounds like you still would like to polish here and there, I would try a series of test spots to see
what would be least aggressive and maybe even get away with going over it once, maybe a cutting pad with a polish of some kind or
vice versa, it sounds like it needs a decent cut to remove those swirls/scratches ur talking about.

I've heard of some coatings being so strong that if applied in correctly that you have to wet sand the coating of but that's more of the serious accredited coatings .

If it was mine i would do what it takes to remove the old coating , probably be a decent aggressive combo to remove before applying another coating.
I would really dial in a nice safe way to wash it after doing it all again, nice two bucket method or a nice blower to avoid drying with towels to avoid touching it more.

I believe Carpro makes a product you can polish the coating without removing the coating as well, if you like to touch stuff up once in awhile.

Another option to is to get a paint protection film to help against it as well but is costly but worth it too.

Hope it helps at all.

hello, thanks for the reply

I did use essence plus , which is car pro filler ,but the swirl are deeper , so it did looked better , but there was still a lot of swirl left out.

Do you think something like 3D one with the uro pad , plus essence with gloss pad should be enough to remove this coating..

I keep going back to the last coat black ice, it seems to be very easy to apply on the paint, and the finish is great, plus it ll give me at least 6 months to a year durability.

I m wondering if black ice would still stick to my old coating , if there was anything left

 

[coles_paint_correction]

hello, thanks for the reply

I did use essence plus , which is car pro filler ,but the swirl are deeper , so it did looked better , but there was still a lot of swirl left out.

Do you think something like 3D one with the uro pad , plus essence with gloss pad should be enough to remove this coating..

I keep going back to the last coat black ice, it seems to be very easy to apply on the paint, and the finish is great, plus it ll give me at least 6 months to a year durability.

I m wondering if black ice would still stick to my old coating , if there was anything left

Hey rick its possible, I would try a series of test spots to see what works best.
Also what Spikey Mike said I would follow his recommendations as well.

 

[TTQ B4U]

Here is where my " problem starts" , I have done full correction on 7 cars ( mine and family) but I have not really done any correction on my car ," garage queen" if you want to call it car, this car was coated in 2014. I washed this car once or twice a week in the past 3 years, rarely drive it in the rain , and its store 90% of the time in the winter ( canadian winter). My routine is pretty much wash, iron x, clay bar, wash , reload and hand polish some scratches twice a year. Then I do wash and bead maker once a week. I may do reload once in every 2-4 months

Welcome to the hobby. Here's my insight. My first peice of advice is to perhaps reconsider washing it so often. I get that it's a garage queen but unless you're doing weekly car shows for money, there's probably no need to wash it twice a week, especially if it's not seeing rain or getting really "dirty" Iron X isn't likely needed either. I also would definitely not clay bar it; again, not likely needed and will likely end up marring the paint. Beadmaker is fine, reload in that case wouldn't likely be necessary. It really doesn't "add" anything back to the coating either. Been there done that, don't care what CarPro states, it's nothing more than an SiO2 infused detail spray.

So far so good, however here is where my dilemma comes. This car was professionally coated with opti coat pro ( the very first formula, the one that was only available for authorized dealers) , I must admit , that coatings is very strong, I can still see it on the car after 6 years. I can wash the car, put nothing on top and you can still see the shine of the coating. As good as this is , it also comes with a very big con, the car has build many swirl marks over the years , light scratches, and under certain lighting you can see them.

Yep, have no doubt of any of this as that's one of the main reasons expensive thicker longer specified coatings are over-rated IMO. First, if you have a garage queen and take care of it properly, even a 2 year coating will last for far far far longer given it's lack of exposure. Also, on daily drivers and regular use toys most will need re-polished just to remove road grime and what not after 2-3 years anyway. I sell against them successfully all the time simply by showing people my own vehicles and sharing with them the reasoning behind shorter term coatings.

This would not bother me in the past, but as I get to do more corrections , I tend to look at this swirl marks more. I m currently in the middle of a decision, leave the car as it is , and keep doing my routine, or put in practice what I have done the past 3 years and try to get rid of most of swirl marks. I bought all this products for this moment and I practice on my cars first to avoid screwing this up.

Your call overall, but I'd wouldn't think twice about re-doing it yourself. Just go slow if you're not as skilled yet. You won't hurt anything.

The problem is a little bigger for me as the scratches and swirl marks are not really big, something like ultimate polish should get rid of most of them and a compound for sure would work better. However here is where it gets a little confusing for me. This coating seems the to be on the car and its thick , I ve read that this coating was not available to the public. So I m not sure what is the best way to approach this , the reason being is that if I want to apply something like cquartz light , or another coating, I would need to make sure the old coating is out. I could compound the whole car, but I m also afraid this is not necessary due to the minor swirls and scratches, however using a mild polish abrasive may not be enough to fully remove the existing coating.

Again, I've been doing this a long time and have yet to see even these long lasting coatings survive a strong compound/polish. There's more marketing BS and hype around them than reality in terms of some people claiming they can only be removed by sanding, etc. LOL! Have yet to see that.

This has make my decision on what to do next be hard. I can polish the car with essence , ultimate polish and maybe use ultra cut for deep scratches. But what do I put on top to seal the paint?....

Depending on your polisher and the severity of swirls, you won't likely need more than essence. I used forced orbiting/rotating polishers from Flex. I lean in hard on them with no issues and can correct more light to medium swirls, etc. easily with a one-step like Essence. From there, any quality coating will do well. For what you describe, I'd use CarPro Cquartz UK and Gliss as the top layer. I also really like GYEON Primer and their corresponding Syncro kit.

I ve look into cquartz lite, the last coat black ice , can coat. But I m not sure they would adhere to opti- coating if there is still some left on the car after I do the polishing steps. I have also considered just sticking with reload, the last coat version 2 or turttle wax every 3 months as these products could be use as standalone and the can stick to any left over coating , plus I can use bead maker as drying aid every car wash. Lastly I have considered powerlock as a base coating, but I can not find answers if these product can be use on top of a coating ...

As per my notes above, once you polish or compound and polish, the Opticoat is going to be removed. Coatings are microns thick not millimeters.

Also , I m debating my decision on coating a car. As good as a coating is , and as much as it apply to me in the past, where I just did my car washes and moved on. I m debating on whether is worth the effort on my current state where I would need to do minor corrections at least once a year. As good as opti coating is , it really leaves you stranded when it comes to paint correction. It makes it very hard to do any , without going to the hassle of buying a new coating for that panel. Thus my reason for not considering c quartz v3 , gliss combo and instead trying the lite version .

Coat it.

So as long as this post has been, what would you guys do in my situation?. I got some mix opinions on retailers on whether opti coat pro can be removed with a polish . And after looking at my car, they also agree that a compound would be too abrasive on the whole car since it has minor swirls and scratches. I even though about something like 3D hybrid , but I m not sure if this is too abrasive with a polish pad ....

Yes/ no on harshness. It all depends on how you work the product. Some say start with the least agressive first, which is sound advice for many. At the end of day you're leveling the surface and removing microns of clear just same whether you do it quickly with a compound and polish or just a polish and work the hell out of the surface. Both get you to the same level of correction. I often will pop on a wool pad and some CarPro Clear Cut and get 2-3 passes done and have full correction then gloss over it (pun intended) with a few more passes of a polish to get FULL correction. Often saves me the time of having the grind on it with a one-step.

If you ask me what I want?. I want to have some type of good sealant that lasts me 6 months to a year, something easy to apply on so that I can do my paint corrections or light polish once or twice a year . I also want something that its compatible with beadmaker, which is my drying aid. Lastly I m trying not too compound the whole car, so a product that can adhere to whatever is left over my current coating would be a plus.

I would reconsider your goal. No need to do paint corrections or polishing once or twice a year. Not with the proper correction, coating and car along the way. Overkill and not good long term plus it's a waste of time. Beadmaker is fine week to week. Many here don't like it, I happen to love it. It's not long lasting and doesn't alter the hydrophobic properties of a good coating yet offers nice gloss, slick feel and ease of use. Lots of different ways to care for a coated car but it works fine for me and for my customers.

Yesterday , I did a correction on the hood and the top of the trunk where the swirl marks , scratches and water spots were bad. It turned out great. I used ultimate polish and essence with gloss pad to finish it off. I still have minor swirl marks here and there but I never used a compound, I would say its an 8 out of 10. I used reload and beadmaker to finish it off and its great. Durability is my concern with this combo though.

Water spots? Not picking but again, in terms of day-forward care, I think another poster mentioned it, the cause of water spots and these swirls is very likely due to your handling of the paint during wash and dry cycles. As noted, cut back on those as anytime you touch the car your exposing possible issues. Also, look closely at your techniques washing and drying. I stand by the fact that most everyone I know and see causing issues like this are doing it in the drying phase. Unless your scrubbing your paint, washing is far less likely to harm it as it's got water and soap as a lube. I propose you blow dry the vehicle and I would only use a dampened towel not dry to finish wiping it down. As you do, spritz some beadmaker on that fine rag. You won't have any issues if you do it right.

Hope I wasn't too blunt. Just cutting to the points quickly. Hope my insight makes sense and helps.

 

[rick100]

Welcome to the hobby. Here's my insight. My first peice of advice is to perhaps reconsider washing it so often. I get that it's a garage queen but unless you're doing weekly car shows for money, there's probably no need to wash it twice a week, especially if it's not seeing rain or getting really "dirty" Iron X isn't likely needed either. I also would definitely not clay bar it; again, not likely needed and will likely end up marring the paint. Beadmaker is fine, reload in that case wouldn't likely be necessary. It really doesn't "add" anything back to the coating either. Been there done that, don't care what CarPro states, it's nothing more than an SiO2 infused detail spray.



Yep, have no doubt of any of this as that's one of the main reasons expensive thicker longer specified coatings are over-rated IMO. First, if you have a garage queen and take care of it properly, even a 2 year coating will last for far far far longer given it's lack of exposure. Also, on daily drivers and regular use toys most will need re-polished just to remove road grime and what not after 2-3 years anyway. I sell against them successfully all the time simply by showing people my own vehicles and sharing with them the reasoning behind shorter term coatings.



Your call overall, but I'd wouldn't think twice about re-doing it yourself. Just go slow if you're not as skilled yet. You won't hurt anything.



Again, I've been doing this a long time and have yet to see even these long lasting coatings survive a strong compound/polish. There's more marketing BS and hype around them than reality in terms of some people claiming they can only be removed by sanding, etc. LOL! Have yet to see that.



Depending on your polisher and the severity of swirls, you won't likely need more than essence. I used forced orbiting/rotating polishers from Flex. I lean in hard on them with no issues and can correct more light to medium swirls, etc. easily with a one-step like Essence. From there, any quality coating will do well. For what you describe, I'd use CarPro Cquartz UK and Gliss as the top layer. I also really like GYEON Primer and their corresponding Syncro kit.



As per my notes above, once you polish or compound and polish, the Opticoat is going to be removed. Coatings are microns thick not millimeters.



Coat it.



Yes/ no on harshness. It all depends on how you work the product. Some say start with the least agressive first, which is sound advice for many. At the end of day you're leveling the surface and removing microns of clear just same whether you do it quickly with a compound and polish or just a polish and work the hell out of the surface. Both get you to the same level of correction. I often will pop on a wool pad and some CarPro Clear Cut and get 2-3 passes done and have full correction then gloss over it (pun intended) with a few more passes of a polish to get FULL correction. Often saves me the time of having the grind on it with a one-step.



I would reconsider your goal. No need to do paint corrections or polishing once or twice a year. Not with the proper correction, coating and car along the way. Overkill and not good long term plus it's a waste of time. Beadmaker is fine week to week. Many here don't like it, I happen to love it. It's not long lasting and doesn't alter the hydrophobic properties of a good coating yet offers nice gloss, slick feel and ease of use. Lots of different ways to care for a coated car but it works fine for me and for my customers.



Water spots? Not picking but again, in terms of day-forward care, I think another poster mentioned it, the cause of water spots and these swirls is very likely due to your handling of the paint during wash and dry cycles. As noted, cut back on those as anytime you touch the car your exposing possible issues. Also, look closely at your techniques washing and drying. I stand by the fact that most everyone I know and see causing issues like this are doing it in the drying phase. Unless your scrubbing your paint, washing is far less likely to harm it as it's got water and soap as a lube. I propose you blow dry the vehicle and I would only use a dampened towel not dry to finish wiping it down. As you do, spritz some beadmaker on that fine rag. You won't have any issues if you do it right.

Hope I wasn't too blunt. Just cutting to the points quickly. Hope my insight makes sense and helps.

thanks for the reply. I think I m leaning towards the last coat black ice, i m liking the application process . Cquartz looks tempting , but the applications seems to be such a pain in the butt, and the product expires after 6 months, so I would have to buy new product whenever I want to correct something, kind of reminds me of the opti coating I have now. The very few corrections I had to do in the first 3 years required me to bringing it over to my detailer and fork out 80$ - 120$ because he was the only one with the product.


On regards of the car wash , I m pretty sure I was doing it wrong at the beginning, when I first coated the car, thus I m pretty sure most of those swirl marks come from there and I got better in the past 2 years after I bought some quality products but again 6 years is a long time without a proper polish . Keep in mind this car has only got very light hand polish on certain spots in the past 6 years and it was driving daily up to 2018 where I finally bought a winter beater , Canadian winter. On that note , I m debating on how to wash this car in the winter. For the past 3 weeks , I ve been doing ech2o rinse less washes with a hand pump , that is one of the main reasons I try to wash the car at least once a week , I want to avoid the car getting too dirty and doing a rinse less wash. I do not have access to water hose in the winter, taking if to a coin car wash may be an option , but if the roads are full of salt which is usually the case in jan and feb where the city doesnt clean my roads., I may come back with more dirt on the car... I still have mix opinions on waterless washes , and I ve seen many videios on how to do it and I m using many towels to apply...

 

[psnt1ol]

Spikey Mike and TTQ B4U are on point.

The only thing I will add is .... If you are planning to compound off the the Opti coat, make sure you have lots and lots of pads and switch them out often. You will be creating more work for yourselves if you grind all that residue back on your paint. It would be like taking 1 step forward and 2 steps back.

 

[rick100]

After reading your post the first thing I read is that you are not properly washing/drying your car. If you are hand washing and drying, you should not be getting swirls which leads me to say you are not using quality soft dry towels, and possibly not washing correctly with a two-bucket system. Once your coating is applied, it should be simple maintenance and boosting the product. The coating longevity, as Mike Phillips always states, depends on how you touch it. Once you apply a coating, there should be no need to repolish/compound anything.

This is what my approach would be -

1 - Re-evaluate the wash process. Make sure your wash mitts are not contaminated with debris - sand, leaves, tree seeds, etc. and make sure your drying towels are also clean and free of any debris or things that will scratch the paint. You've just spent hours compounding and polishing out a paint job to apply a coating, 30 seconds with a contaminated wash mitt or dry towel will ruin it.

2 - Compound off the original coating (or wet sand depending on the coating) to clean paint substrate or have a local professional do it. Stacking one product on top of an old product will possibly have consequences and failure, along with voiding any warranty that a coating offers.

3 - Apply whatever coating you decide to go with, or have a local professional install one.

4 - Refer back to #1 and how you touch the coating.

I m using the rag company edgeless microfiber towels for my sealant or bead maker and I use dry me crazy from mf madness to dry the paint. I also have some griots PFM. For washing the car the mitts get clean before using it and I m using car pro reset as a soap. The towels seem pretty new, they get wash weekly some proper soap and I add some white vinegar , they come out as new. They also get dry on low heat.

However , the first 3 years after the coating , I was using cheap towels and gas station touchless washes. Also the car has not been machine polish since 2014 after first application of coating. And it was daily driven up to 2018 all year round, including canadian winters. I may have done hand polish in a few spots where it had some deeper scratches but that is about it for the past 6 years

 

[TTQ B4U]

thanks for the reply. I think I m leaning towards the last coat black ice, i m liking the application process . Cquartz looks tempting , but the applications seems to be such a pain in the butt, and the product expires after 6 months, so I would have to buy new product whenever I want to correct something, kind of reminds me of the opti coating I have now. The very few corrections I had to do in the first 3 years required me to bringing it over to my detailer and fork out 80$ - 120$ because he was the only one with the product.

Re-think the Cquartz line. UK is super easy to use. If you can apply wax, you can use it. The key is to use Essence as the base. Makes wipe off loads easier and serves as an initial layer of protection too. Also, the product won't expire after 6 months. Keep them inside out of extreme temps and you'll be fine. I have a dozen or so bottles of all kinds of Cermic Coatings in my garage and they are fine. I am not a full time detailer but I do 1-2 per week and yes, I have older coatings. You'll be good. You only need about 10-15ml per coating per car.

 

[rick100]

Re-think the Cquartz line. UK is super easy to use. If you can apply wax, you can use it. The key is to use Essence as the base. Makes wipe off loads easier and serves as an initial layer of protection too. Also, the product won't expire after 6 months. Keep them inside out of extreme temps and you'll be fine. I have a dozen or so bottles of all kinds of Cermic Coatings in my garage and they are fine. I am not a full time detailer but I do 1-2 per week and yes, I have older coatings. You'll be good. You only need about 10-15ml per coating per car.

Ok I will re think c quartz. That is the reason I have not commit to anything yet and I ask questions here. So many products , its overwhelming. Would you recommend lite over ukv3?.... The price is not far from each other, only difference being is that lite bottle is 150ml while uk is only 50ml..

 

[The Guz]

If you are removing defects then you are removing the coating. Opti-coat does not need wet sanding to remove.

Polish, prep wipe and re-coat. Don’t let the longevity of Cquartz Lite throw you off in the bottle. It has a 1 year life span once opened.

Your car is a garage queen so the coating is going to last forever. Plus you’re always topping it.

Your best bet is to reevaluate your washing regiment. I am sure you constantly touch the paint with wipe-downs. Sometimes loving the paint too much increases the chance of swirling.

 

[rick100]

Spikey Mike and TTQ B4U are on point.

The only thing I will add is .... If you are planning to compound off the the Opti coat, make sure you have lots and lots of pads and switch them out often. You will be creating more work for yourselves if you grind all that residue back on your paint. It would be like taking 1 step forward and 2 steps back.

Yes I have quite a few pads. I m debating on the uro fiber 6 pads or stick to orange pads. I ve use the orange pad before and the cutting was not much , but I have also used microfiber pads and the cutting was more. Something in between would be perfect, so I came across the uro pads. Not sure what the opinions are here on them . I was thinking of 3D hybrid with uro pads for a polish and essence with gloss pad for finishing ( I already have essence and the gloss pads)

 

[rick100]

If you are removing defects then you are removing the coating. Opti-coat does not need wet sanding to remove.

Polish, prep wipe and re-coat. Don’t let the longevity of Cquartz Lite throw you off in the bottle. It has a 1 year life span once opened.

Your car is a garage queen so the coating is going to last forever. Plus you’re always topping it.

Your best bet is to reevaluate your washing regiment. I am sure you constantly touch the paint with wipe-downs. Sometimes loving the paint too much increases the chance of swirling.

yes I tend to do that a lot lately. Damn pandemic has me re doing the washes to often . I m looking into those wash buckets with the grits at the bottom from chemical guys. May be worth the investment since I own 3 cars and I don t want to touch them up every 6 months.

So would you do c quartz lite over uk ? , in my case? ... The whole flashing time and weather humidity conditions on the uk has me very confused on the application. Some people are saying leave it 30-45 seconds before wiping, others are saying 1-5 minutes. Then I m confused about the wiping towels, I know you have to throw the towels out once used, but I ve seen it where people use one towel per panel, while others tell me 2 towels for the whole car is more than enough.
I was even thinking of buying Costco towels to use for the wipe off ceramic coating , but apparently they are not good. The car pro towels I saw online are like 40$ for me to get shipped to Canada. If I m throwing away towels after use I still have to factor in the cost of towels.

Sorry but the information on youtube regarding the application of uk varies quite a bit, while the one I saw for the last coat black ice seemed pretty straight forward. May have to re watch again once I settle for what coating to use

 

[TTQ B4U]

So would you do c quartz lite over uk ? , in my case? ... The whole flashing time and weather humidity conditions on the uk has me very confused on the application. Some people are saying leave it 30-45 seconds before wiping, others are saying 1-5 minutes.

Then I m confused about the wiping towels, I know you have to throw the towels out once used, but I ve seen it where people use one towel per panel, while others tell me 2 towels for the whole car is more than enough.

I was even thinking of buying Costco towels to use for the wipe off ceramic coating , but apparently they are not good. The car pro towels I saw online are like 40$ for me to get shipped to Canada. If I m throwing away towels after use I still have to factor in the cost of towels.

UK is very forgiving. It will flash slower in the cooler air. No stress. Do a small test section, you'll see it flash. Once it's on in cool air it will take longer to have the carrier solvents flash but you will see it "rainbow" a bit. Just touch it after say 30 seconds, if it smears and is still "wet" then leave it for 1 minute. If it comes off too "sticky" you may have left it on too long. Basically with coatings you're wiping off excess product and the remaining carrier solvents. If you let it dry too long and it seems sticky to remove it's because too much of the solvent evaporated.....wipe sooner. I have a heated garage but that Audi I just did and posted in the Show-N-Shine section, I let if flash for about 1 Minute + I would do an entire front fender in one shot. Doors in 2 sections., etc.

Use two rags for each wipe off. One for the initial wipe the other to do the final buff of what remains. I prefer the orange CarPro suede like towels as they leave ZERO lint. No chance of it based on how they are made. They work awesome. I use 2 per panel with the exception of larger roofs and hoods where I may use 4. When done, simply toss them in a 5 gal bucket of soapy water for laundering later. No you DO NOT need to throw them out. That's ridiculous and I know there are some that do that but honestly, it's a waste. Send them to me if you're going to do that. 99% serious. I do nothing but ceramic coatings and use towels over and over. They launder just fine. The only exception is with GYEON CanCoat and that's only if I don't swap my applicator towel often.

Enjoy and don't stress. Again, UK is very forgiving and worse case you can easily polish down a high-spot if you find one and simply re-apply.

 

[Mike Hoekstra]

I m using the rag company edgeless microfiber towels for my sealant or bead maker and I use dry me crazy from mf madness to dry the paint. I also have some griots PFM. For washing the car the mitts get clean before using it and I m using car pro reset as a soap. The towels seem pretty new, they get wash weekly some proper soap and I add some white vinegar , they come out as new. They also get dry on low heat.

However , the first 3 years after the coating , I was using cheap towels and gas station touchless washes. Also the car has not been machine polish since 2014 after first application of coating. And it was daily driven up to 2018 all year round, including canadian winters. I may have done hand polish in a few spots where it had some deeper scratches but that is about it for the past 6 years

Are you inspecting your towels when they come out of the dryer? I can tell you first hand that I visually inspect, and then feel, my mf towels on both sides and pick a lot of things out of them before the next use. Particularly my black ones that I use for door jambs and other filthy areas.

 

[The Guz]

yes I tend to do that a lot lately. Damn pandemic has me re doing the washes to often . I m looking into those wash buckets with the grits at the bottom from chemical guys. May be worth the investment since I own 3 cars and I don t want to touch them up every 6 months.

So would you do c quartz lite over uk ? , in my case? ... The whole flashing time and weather humidity conditions on the uk has me very confused on the application. Some people are saying leave it 30-45 seconds before wiping, others are saying 1-5 minutes. Then I m confused about the wiping towels, I know you have to throw the towels out once used, but I ve seen it where people use one towel per panel, while others tell me 2 towels for the whole car is more than enough.
I was even thinking of buying Costco towels to use for the wipe off ceramic coating , but apparently they are not good. The car pro towels I saw online are like 40$ for me to get shipped to Canada. If I m throwing away towels after use I still have to factor in the cost of towels.

Sorry but the information on youtube regarding the application of uk varies quite a bit, while the one I saw for the last coat black ice seemed pretty straight forward. May have to re watch again once I settle for what coating to use

Lite uses the UK 3.0 as the base formula. With Lite you don't have to worry about flash times. It is wipe on, wipe off. It is also more forgiving when it comes to high spots. UK 3.o is a great coating and the application is straight forward as well. Flash times are going to depend on the temperature and humidity so you will have to play around with that.

I tend to use my coating towels for other uses after using them for coatings. You can add some APC to a bucket of water and toss your towels in there. There is no guarantee that they will be completely coating free.

Follow the advice above about using the two towel approach.

The thing about costco towels is their quality is hit or miss. Look into the edgeless 300 from the rag company.

 

[rick100]

Are you inspecting your towels when they come out of the dryer? I can tell you first hand that I visually inspect, and then feel, my mf towels on both sides and pick a lot of things out of them before the next use. Particularly my black ones that I use for door jambs and other filthy areas.

yes always. I dont even used them if I thought that they touch a dirty surface.

 

[rick100]

Lite uses the UK 3.0 as the base formula. With Lite you don't have to worry about flash times. It is wipe on, wipe off. It is also more forgiving when it comes to high spots. UK 3.o is a great coating and the application is straight forward as well. Flash times are going to depend on the temperature and humidity so you will have to play around with that.

I tend to use my coating towels for other uses after using them for coatings. You can add some APC to a bucket of water and toss your towels in there. There is no guarantee that they will be completely coating free.

Follow the advice above about using the two towel approach.

The thing about costco towels is their quality is hit or miss. Look into the edgeless 300 from the rag company.

thanks

I do have the edgeless 300 from rag company , as well as the 500 . I had some lint from the 300 the last month and I stopped using them , they were great the first year. and they were my go to towel for top coating applications. Since I had lint on the 300 , I washed all of them again and add it some white vinegar. I still stored them and I was not sure what to do with them , since they looked good and felt great, I didnt want to demoted just yet . Yesterday was the first time pf me re using them . I used them to buffed off after polishing the hood and trunk, surprisingly there was no lint anymore. Zero lint . So im not sure if it was just a bad washed , the towels feel great and all , I may used them again to buff off the coating and then demoted them after

Im wondering if a bad wash would caused those towels to lint and re washing them would fix the issue.

Although I remember using them with a heavier application of reload, and I do not think those 300 like it when there is too much sealant, they seem to drag quite a bit on the surface compared to the 500 gsm towels, I m wondering if this could cause them to lint a bit . I had the very same experience once with microfiber madness crazy pile, and those towels were a month old , they also left quite a bit of lint with car pro reload. Never had an issue with reload with my bigger gsm towels. I m assuming a coating like cquartz is not going to be as wet as a sealant when they are being removed after application?

 

[psnt1ol]

Yes I have quite a few pads. I m debating on the uro fiber 6 pads or stick to orange pads. I ve use the orange pad before and the cutting was not much , but I have also used microfiber pads and the cutting was more. Something in between would be perfect, so I came across the uro pads. Not sure what the opinions are here on them . I was thinking of 3D hybrid with uro pads for a polish and essence with gloss pad for finishing ( I already have essence and the gloss pads)

I mostly use the Uro fiber as a one step. 3D One is a staple in my collection of correction liquids and I love it to the point that all my Menzerna products been on the shelf collecting dusts. I also done many "one step" using Essence and Uro fiber pads then follow up with CQUK. However...Never try using Essence and Uro pad to remove a coating. Not sure if it would work on Opti Coat but then it has been 6 years since it was applied. The last time I had to remove Opti Coat... I used Meguiar's M101 and MF cutting pads with a 8mm free spinning DA. It was a long process. Long throw polishers or DA dedicated wool pads were not a thing yet...LOL

BTW.... what type of polisher are you using? CarPro Essence is different then CarPro Essence Plus. Which one do you have again? What type of paint system is your vehicle?