Please help me with Uber Ceramic Application technique - I need to finish today. 100 degrees out.

[emmjay]

Hello all,

Yesterday I completed my GF's Pilot and used PBL V2, and no way is this coating anywhere user friendly, if you do not have a temp controlled environment. I ended up using the entire bottle after a $50 phone call to Andre lol......That will be explained in another thread.

Today i HAVE to complete my Accord at all costs and I want to use Uber Ceramic. Today is my last day off for the next 6 months and my car needs it bad :

1. Temp is 100 degrees with 50-60% humidity avg. I will apply it closer to 6-7pm here when it should be in the high 90's
2. No temp controlled garage
3. No Full sealed garage. It is however covered and in the shade.

I need to know how to apply in these conditions as some people have said they used "barely" any product. I tried that with PBL v2 and it backfired real bad! Nothing but smears and INSTANT drying as soon as it hit the paint. I even have spray patterns or splatter pattern which would not buff off no matter what I tried. I was eventually man handling the paint with my towel to no avail.

Please tell me how much I need to apply for UBER. I thought i would go heavy as Nick says "more is better as you can wipe off, not less". I plan on using an X to prime, followed by 1 line per section. Will this give me enough time to work the coating? Even with 5 sprays of PBL it would dry immediately. Do I need to wait for the product to dry? DO I do the second pass with applicator in these conditions? If so...how soon, I feel 1 minute is too much.
Do I wipe wet as was instructed with PBL?

That was my GF's Pilot and she didnt care as her car now looks 100 times better, a few smudges make zero impact to her.

My car however, is spotless! Not even a tiny marr mark anywhere and I would like to keep it that way. I cannot afford the massive smudges on my car.

Many of you live in warm environments who have used coatings, so please answer.

Please do help as I need to finish this today...thank you so much.

Once again, Please help

 

[cyclops]

Performed my first coating last weekend using Optimum Gloss-Coat, temps when I started were low 90's in the garage. Applied up down then left right was very smooth, watched it flash then buffed off after about 90 seconds, maybe a little soon but looked like it was done flashing.

By the time I was almost done the temps were around100 in the garage. The Lake County applicator was grabbing immediately so I used more product and moved quickly. Using more product did make it glide smoother gave me some working time. Did not wait 90 seconds to buff off out of fear. Put it this way used the entire small tube of Optimum Gloss-Coat on a mini van but the results were amazing.

Not sure if this was the correct way of going about it, first time and all but liked the results.

 

[WillSports3]

Honestly, apply it to the pad in a X pattern, apply it up and down and then wipe. It has to be instant wipe at high temperatures. Keep a towel stuffed in your pocket and just apply and wipe. Be as quick as you can. I did cquartz uk in like.. 90 degree temperature and that's the only way to do it.

 

[emmjay]

Thanks guys, will do!

More product and faster wipe off (not the 1 min spread, 1 min buff technique?)

 

[emmjay]

Alright so I tried one panel (door). I split it in at least 8 sections. For each section I was using one line of product. A thick heavy line , not a fine line.

I spread the product out, it was spreading fine and then started to flash when I as going over it a second time. By this I mean, I did the section once, then when I went back it already started flashing. I did not wait the 60 seconds that is asked. I then wiped off while semi wet. If you had to look at the section, some areas have flashed, while some are still wet. So, not all gone.

Lastly, I made sure I got all product off. But when I look head on at the panel, I see streaks, now Im not sure if this is from the WG paint prep, or maybe not all oils off, But please chime in. For now I have stopped application.

SO PLEASE HELP = DO I have to wait for the product to completely flash away or what :/ See pics below of streaks, that look like drip marks.

These two show it best. To the right of the pressure washer, you should see some white lines, that are separated by dark lines.

They are very very obvious!

 

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

The temperatures are what is giving you the problem.

1. Temp is 100 degrees with 50-60% humidity avg. I will apply it closer to 6-7pm here when it should be in the high 90's
2. No temp controlled garage
3. No Full sealed garage. It is however covered and in the shade.

Any chance at applying it first thing in the morning when it is cooler?

 

[rlmccarty2000]

I applied PBL v2 in conditions of over 90 degrees and high humidity (South Georgia) with no problems. They designed PBL to work in Florida that has temps and humidity higher than Georgia. It would be best to contact the folks at AG before going further.

 

[natewood70]

I just did my wifes care over the weekend with Uber Ceramic where the conditions were as follows:

Temperature: 91 degrees
Humidity: 60%
Heat Index: 102 degrees

I tried on the glass to see how it would react first because you can see the flashing MUCH better on that then the white paint.

1. Applied product in an X pattern with two fine lines

2. Applied in crosshatch pattern and allowed to flash for ~45 seconds

3. Smoothed over high spots as instructed and waited ~20 seconds

4. Buffed lightly with Supreme 530

I first tried the recommended method of 60 second flash period, smooth high spots, and wait another 60 seconds, but the coating hardened before I could smooth it out... That was no fun.

The timing above worked out the best for me after trying different timing, and the car came out great.

This was done in a garage with no ventilation except an open garage door.

 

[emmjay]

I applied PBL v2 in conditions of over 90 degrees and high humidity (South Georgia) with no problems. They designed PBL to work in Florida that has temps and humidity higher than Georgia. It would be best to contact the folks at AG before going further.

Hey, I did and they reiterated my concerns that PBL is very difficult to work with if in an open garage + heat, wind, dust and humidity.

I will write a review about my experience soon where I shall write more details

 

[emmjay]

UPDATE:

Thank you all for your replies! I spoke to Andre once again and we figured out the problem. It was entirely my fault. I only used the Perfect Paint prep once with one towel and proceeded to coat. After a long talk, when I mentioned that, he said, Use plenty of towels. One for initial spray and wipe, one for second spray and wipe and one for final buff off.

I did the above and had amazing results. I knew it was working because during my buff off with the third towel, the towel was grabbing the paint - it was now bare!! Lets just say I have 3 loads of laundry to do tomorrow

SO a big thank you to Andre@Autogeek.

I would also like to thank you all for you replies.

I ended up using twice the recommended product ( a light X pattern ) for each section. It was still flashing pretty quick. Andre suggested wiping off wet which I did initially and it was fine.

After playing around a bit, I let the product flash a little more all the while spreading it - so spreading it for at least 30 seconds non stop. I noticed that the product was the thickest at the point where the applicator first touched the paint (for that section). I would actually take some product from that thick wet section and spread it more. However, this extra flashing and spreading, made wipe of easier and I had less product to buff off. It was almost like a sealant. Lets hope the I see the results tomorrow, and theres no high spots. I finished all this at 2:45am, it is now 4am...lol

However, the BUT.....I lost close to 4 ml as the syringe was leaking.....I noticed it too late. I left it on my sunroof while I went to grab dinner - facing up and resting on the applicator pad ( i switched to a new one as I took a 30 min break). I have a massive spot on my sunroof of dried coating now. When i noticed I grabbed the syringe off the sunroof and checked the blue tip, It was secure but had product oozing from around it and from the tip itself even though I was not pressing the top. The worst part, during this checking, 5 drops dripped onto my paint which I also did not realize till it was too late and I have 5 thick drops on my paint...cured. The second picture shows this (the drops are against the white wall backdrop)





I followed instructions of using a plier to unscrew the white tip and place the blue tip and use the same plier to tighten it. So who knows. Due to this, I was not able to coat my front and rear bumper, these got Powerlock instead. Everything else (except glass, wheels and trim) got coated. SO the panels that matter the most are coated .

More in the full review

Once again thank you to all!

NOW A BEAUTY SHOT! Car complete

 

[emmjay]

I just did my wifes care over the weekend with Uber Ceramic where the conditions were as follows:

Temperature: 91 degrees
Humidity: 60%
Heat Index: 102 degrees

I tried on the glass to see how it would react first because you can see the flashing MUCH better on that then the white paint.

1. Applied product in an X pattern with two fine lines

2. Applied in crosshatch pattern and allowed to flash for ~45 seconds

3. Smoothed over high spots as instructed and waited ~20 seconds

4. Buffed lightly with Supreme 530

I first tried the recommended method of 60 second flash period, smooth high spots, and wait another 60 seconds, but the coating hardened before I could smooth it out... That was no fun.

The timing above worked out the best for me after trying different timing, and the car came out great.

This was done in a garage with no ventilation except an open garage door.

Thank you so much Nate, I had a similar experience, as you will read in my previous post titled UPDATE.

On another note, my garage door was shut, however, picture the garage open to my garden from the inside. So I have the garage door as I enter and one wall to the left. The other two "walls", to make a square, are just open, one to my rear garden at the back and one to the front garden on the right. This made things difficult.

Lastly, I would never coat a white car....I am not ready for that kind of commitment, not to mention the headaches and stress of not being able to see anything

 

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Looking good! Happy to see you got it to work out.

 

[emmjay]

Looking good! Happy to see you got it to work out.

Thank you Mike!

 

[medicscott]

On another note Uber is similar to gloss coat in terms of application. Easiest way to do this is apply very heavy first coat. Let it flash for 30 seconds. Do not wipe. Apply second light coat over the same exact spot and immediately wipe. This is how we do the Opti-Coat Pro. You'll get perfect coverage.

 

[Hantra]

On another note Uber is similar to gloss coat in terms of application. Easiest way to do this is apply very heavy first coat. Let it flash for 30 seconds. Do not wipe. Apply second light coat over the same exact spot and immediately wipe. This is how we do the Opti-Coat Pro. You'll get perfect coverage.

So you apply an "x" on the applicator for the first coat, and then a lighter "x" for the second?

Thanks!

 

[emmjay]

On another note Uber is similar to gloss coat in terms of application. Easiest way to do this is apply very heavy first coat. Let it flash for 30 seconds. Do not wipe. Apply second light coat over the same exact spot and immediately wipe. This is how we do the Opti-Coat Pro. You'll get perfect coverage.

I wish I could have done this. Towards the end, I had still 3 panels left and I had barely any product left, thanks to the leaky syringe. If, and thats a big IF, i even buy a coating again, it will be a 30cc syringe.

 

[emmjay]

One more update:

I thought everything went well, and I was SURE that there was no product left over during wipe off. I even rebuffed the area with a clean towel after every time I was done.

Fast forward to today, I took the car out in the day and it looked gorgeous. Later in the evening when the sun was low....I was greeted with this:

The drops, along with what looked like high spots, but I am sure that the coating dried too fast before, resulting in not complete buff off

Look from top to bottom, between the handle and the orange sun outline

Bang in the center of the hood:

Right above the belt line

Another shot of the beltline, look right above the beltline, zoomed in to what looks like the points where the LC applicator reached before going back down:

And ofcourse, more drips from the damn leaking syringe making that a total of 10 massive drops and the big mess on my sunroof:

Oh well....its still going to protect right? :/

I guess, my technique of spreading it a little more instead of wiping heavy/wet bit me in the behind. PBMG needs to be pretty clear how to apply this product if a part of the masses, not all of us have air conditioned garages.....and not all of us live stateside either. It is said that these are easy to apply, but theres zero indication of what to do if the conditions are not favourable, or surgical room perfect in the case of the show car garage.