Review: PBL Paint Coating & Surface Coating - IFINITI QX30 in Magnetic Red

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Review: PBL Paint Coating & Surface Coating - 2017 IFINITI QX30 - Magnetic Red

We recently traded in the 2009 Lexus RX350 for a very low mileage IFINITI QX30 from our local Stuart, IFINITI Dealership and for what it's worth, top notch people at this dealership. Highly recommend.

The IFINITI QX30 is a compact sport utility vehicle and basically this is a Mercedes-Benz GLA250 with an IFINITI stylized interior. There was only 12,000 one-owner miles on this car and overall it's in brand new condition. It's the Premium Model with the 2-tone leather interior, BOSE stereo system and full amenities.

The paint condition

Of course, the first thing I do is inspect the paint and I was relieved to find it's still in mint condition. So the first weekend I had off I brought it down to Autogeek's Show Car Garage to remove whatever is on it and replace it with what I still consider my favorite ceramic coating and this is the PBL Paint Coating topped and maintained with the PBL Surface Coating. I also use the PBL Surface Coating on all the exterior glass on all the cars I detail plus my own cars. I get all the benefits of a glass coating and never experience any wiper chatter. Of course anything applied to a windshield is going to wear-off due to micro-abrasion. Plus living near the Atlantic Coast, there's a certain amount of wind-blown beach sand that causes wiper-marks on cars in areas along coastlines. So I don't look for the longest lasting glass coating - I look for a glass coating that both works and is fast and easy to RE-APPLY.


Exterior Process

Waterless Wash with SONAX Glass Cleaner.
Clay using Pinnacle Ultra Poly Clay and SONAX Glass Cleaner.
Machine polish using a combination of the new Dr. Beasley's NSP 90 and 45.
Install the Pinnacle Black Label Paint Coating to everything on the outside of the car including the wheels.
Install the Pinnacle Black Label Surface Coating to all exterior glass and the grill.
Machine clean the tires using Pinnacle Vinyl & Rubber Cleaner and Conditioner by machine using the FLEX PE14 and a DA Brush


Interior Process

Interior leather
PBL Leather Cleaner
PBL Leather Conditioner
PBL Leather & Vinyl Coating
Plastic surfaces were treated with 303 Protectant
Interior glass cleaned with SONAX Glass Cleaner


Here's final results for the interior.

Here's final results for the exterior.

Here's most of what I used, I think the clay, glass cleaner and 303 are missing, plus all the towels.

Icky Tire Dressing

The only downside from most dealership purchases is that they tend to put on the oily, greasy silicone tire dressing on all thier cars. And of course, I detest this type of dressing. The good news is, just doing a simple machine scrubbing with an all-in-one vinyl/rubber CLEANER/conditioner not only removes the goopy stuff but restores a plain, simple non-oily, non-greasy natural black sheen.

That's better...

Took about 4 hours from start to finish.




On Autogeek.com


Pinnacle Black Label Diamond Paint Coating

Pinnacle Black Label Diamond Surface Coating, paint coating, nano glass paint coating

Pinnacle Black Label Hide-Soft Leather Cleaner, king ranch leather cleaner

Pinnacle Black Label Hide-Soft Leather Conditioner, king ranch leather conditioner

Pinnacle Black Label Leather & Vinyl Coating

https://www.autogeek.net/db-nsp-45-finishing-primer.html

https://www.autogeek.net/db-nano-surface-primer.html

https://www.autogeek.net/pileclco.html

https://www.autogeek.net/flex-pe150-cordless-rotary.html

https://www.autogeek.net/hd-scrub-brush-.html

https://www.autogeek.net/sonax-glass-cleaner.html

https://www.autogeek.net/303-automotive-protectant.html

https://www.autogeek.net/speed-master-swirl-finder-detailer-light.html

https://www.autogeek.net/ultra-poly-detailing-clay.html

https://www.autogeek.net/mf-green-12.html

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Review

I use and review a lot of coatings and to date, pretty much everything I've used from an established brand performs as advertised. Using the coating is the easy part, it's the PREP WORK that takes so much work and time.

But when it comes to putting something on my own car I always come back to the PBL Paint Coating/Surface Coating combination.

Why?

Because it leaves the paint feeling slick and slippery. Most coatings don't do this, in fact most coatings leave the paint feeling rubbery. It's just a personal preference thing for me but I don't like the paint on my own cars to have that rubbery feel when you wipe them with a towel. I like the towel, be it a microfiber towel or a microfiber drying towel to slip and glide over the paint.

So I stick with the PBL products.

There are a lot of other coatings that are advertised as lasting longer, beading water better, leaving a harder finish, etc. But - I take care of my cars. I wash them GENTLY. I don't strike Bic Lighters against them to impress my friends or the FB/YT/IG world.

Plus the paint looks incredibly glassy like you see above.


I like the PBL Surface Coating because I use this as a topper on the paint and on the glass. Heck I put this stuff on my eye glasses and my iPhone protector. The stuff is really nice.

The products are no more difficult to use than any other coatings on the market and I don't believe they are any more costly than anything else on the market. So I go with what I know.

 

[Bruno Soares]

Awesome color.

The Lexus you traded in is the one you were doing that hood test? Or a different vehicle?

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Awesome color.

Agree. After claying, polishing and coating it really pops.

The Lexus you traded in is the one you were doing that hood test? Or a different vehicle?

Yep, same vehicle.

Didn't do it on purpose and the testing was moving along just fine. But the Lexus was getting up there in miles and the wife likes these QX30s.


Here's the link to that,

Real World Ceramic Coating Test by Mike Phillips


And I did update it after we brought the QX30 home, you can see it parked under the carport and by default I get the Honda HRV

And we traded the Lexus in with the test still going strong...

My guess is the car will get auctioned off and somewhere along the line, no one will notice the paint is perfectly polished and doesn't need to be detailed but it will still get the normal auction or dealership wash and buff.

 

[Bruno Soares]

Oh yeah, someone will “detail” your old car and mess it all up for sure. When I traded in my wife’s Honda they asked how I kept it so shiny. It had been paint corrected and coated just 6 months before that so still looking awesome. I told them the first thing I did to keep it that way was not letting dealers wash my car. I said as soon as you guys prep this one for sale it won’t look this good anymore. It’s the truth.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Oh yeah, someone will “detail” your old car and mess it all up for sure.

My experience with dealerships is for the most part, the sales staff and everyone involved really are not knowledgeable about real car detailing. The finance gentleman that we worked with was actually up-to-speed with the latest products like ceramic coatings and knows who Autogeek and even said he's seen me on TV - "My Classic Car" with Dennis Gage. I don't think he knew me from our own TV show.

But the big picture is this - dealerships are not detail shops and again - for the majority of dealerships - the actually cleaning and detailing of a car is an unwanted and necessary evil. This dealership like the other dealership we visited, (and left in a hurry), farm out their detailing work and I think this is a corporate policy.

We really like Matthew and David, the gentlemen we worked with and I never worry about the detailed condition of the car because I'm already planning on taking over this aspect.

When I traded in my wife’s Honda they asked how I kept it so shiny. It had been paint corrected and coated just 6 months before that so still looking awesome. I told them the first thing I did to keep it that way was not letting dealers wash my car. I said as soon as you guys prep this one for sale it won’t look this good anymore. It’s the truth.

That's how it goes.

When they inspect my Lexus I received the same remarks and comments I always get,

Nicest looking car we've ever taken-in on trade


And it was detailed really nice inside, outside, wheels and tires, etc.

 

[acuRAS82]

The wife must be pretty pleased with your work on her new ride. Looks sharp!

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

The wife must be pretty pleased with your work on her new ride.

Looks sharp!

Yeah she loves the color. I think she likes the turbo charged engine too, it's pretty peppy.

I don't let her know that when I drive it - I tend to take advantage of the sport mode and the paddle shifters.


:bolt:

 

[WillSports3]

Great looking car, something my wife was looking at for a bit.

Nowadays anytime a dealership is involved, I ask them to not prep the car at all. No detailing, no washing, none of that. I'd rather do it myself from the getgo, and I don't want someone with a rotary to go nuts on thin factory clearcoat.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Great looking car, something my wife was looking at for a bit.

We like the exterior styling, so many cars kind of look like ice cream (on an ice cream cone), after it's melted a little, everything is simply "smoothed-over".

To be honest, it's closer to the size of a car with the "shape" of an SUV, that is 4-doors and a hatchback.

I have one criteria for most anything we outside of my next Monster Truck), and that is I must be able to reach to the middle of the roof when washing.

See how I'm washing the roof?

Unlike most SUVs the Honda HRV and the INFINITI QX30 are short enough I don't need a step ladder or a Werner Work Platform to reach the middle of the roof.

This means no getting up and down and up and down to reach the roof for any maintenance process,

1. Washing
2. Drying
3. Claying
4. Paint correction
5. Ceramic Coating
6. Spray detailers and spray boosters

This is not OCD it's called L-A-Z-Y.

Nowadays anytime a dealership is involved, I ask them to not prep the car at all. No detailing, no washing, none of that.

Exactly. You and I and probably anyone that hangs out on a car detailing forum or facebook group thinks like this. This is also the reason I wrote this article

DON'T WASH CAR! by Mike Phillips

I wrote the above article in 2013 after the previous owner of Autogeek took his Mercedes-Benz to the Mercedes-Benz dealership for service and they washed it and scratched the hell out of the paint. This was AFTER I had just did a full exterior detail to it. So I printed out the signs you see in the article and taped them to various places inside the car and then wrote the article.

Fast forward about 4-5 years and someone here at Autogeek had these printed. I have also noticed other companies with similar types of hang tags but I'm pretty sure the idea started with my original article from 2013.

Just some more, Car Detailing History

I'd rather do it myself from the get-go, and I don't want someone with a rotary to go nuts on thin factory clearcoat.

And of course, this is one of the MOST shared articles I've ever written.

Clearcoats are thin by Mike Phillips


Just how thin is the clear layer of paint on a factory paint job?

The factory clearcoat on a new or modern car measures approximately 2 mils thin.



The average Post-it Note is around 3 mils thin.

This means the factory clear layer of paint on a new car is THINNER than a Post-it Note.


Once you hold a Post-it Note between your thumb and index finger like I show above it's pretty easy to wrap your brain around just how thin the paint on your car is and this is why you don't want un-trained people working on it.


By the word working, I mean you don't want other people,


Washing your car - Wash mitts get dirty and contaminated and then they put scratches in the paint. AUTOMATIC BRUSH car washes, (we call the Swirl-O-Matics), are the WORST way to wash a car as this style of car wash also scratches the heck out of your car's finish.


Detailing your car - There's nothing wrong with machine polishing a new car as long as the person doing the work is using the right tools, pads and products and has some level of actual or real training.




You ca be sure, when we take the QX30 to the dealership for any service work we'll do our normal protocol.

First - Point out how nice the car already looks. It does NOT NEED to be washed. Most the time the car wash is done automatically, whether the car needs it or not. A person most be PRO-ACTIVE and point this out.

Second- Request that the car NOT be washed or detailed in any way. No tire dressing applied to the tires, no dressing on the inside, NOTHING. We take care of this.

Third - Place the Autogeek DO NOT WASH CAR onto the rear view mirror.


And of course, doing all of the above in a polite and respectful manner.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

:bump:


Added a picture of the leather interior - driver's side from after the interior detail.

This is what we used,

There was some kind of oily dressing on the dash, kind of the norm for most detailers.

The PBL Hide-Soft Leather Cleaner can be used on both leather and vinyl.

Logical thinking - safe enough for leather.... safe enough for vinyl.


The Leather & Vinyl Coating is our favorite product for sealing and protecting leather. Keep in mind, NOTHING lasts forever where you sit. That is get in and out of the car over and over again and again. Nothing. So the key is to,

Find something you LIKE and use it often.

 

[acuRAS82]

Leather & Vinyl Coating is our favorite product for sealing and protecting leather. Keep in mind, NOTHING lasts forever where you sit. That is get in and out of the car over and over again and again. Nothing. So the key is to,

Find something you LIKE and use it often.

Mike, how often do you apply the leather coating? I have my own agenda but was curious what yours is.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Mike, how often do you apply the leather coating?

I have my own agenda but was curious what yours is.

Great question.

We and by the word "we" I mean my wife Stacy, she usually hits the interior of our cars once a month or every other month. Basically, if I'm going to be down here on a Saturday doing something she'll come down to do her interior and then hit mine.

For everyone reading this into the future - the most IMPORTANT area to hit or detail or clean besides vacuuming out all the dirt from the floors, is the driver's seat.


For most people, they are the primary person in the car. At least that's what I see when I drive to and from work each day. One person per car. And this means each time you get into and out of your car anything you touch, your hands, arms, pants, shirt, etc. these parts of your body are MICRO-ABRADING the surface they are touching.

This means, with the most commonly used area being the driver's seat - that whatever you're using on the driver's seat is WEARING OFF.


So simply find something you like and and re-apply it often.


If you like it - this usually means you like how it goes on, how it comes off and how it makes the surface look and feel.


For us, it's the Pinnacle Black Label Vinyl & Leather Coating. It's fast and easy to apply when you keep up on the interior and it makes the interior looks and feel great.


Simple Simon.


There are lots of great products for maintaining a leather interior. LOTS. The key is to do some research, buy a "product" and use it. See if you like it. If you don't, then try the next product you "think" you might like.

Sometimes its a personal preference thing. But at some point, you have to get out from behind the keyboard or the "device", go out to the garage and do stuff.


And just so I don't leave any mis-understanding in the BIG PICTURE of taking care of interior leather - anywhere you skin touches - this area is going to become grimy over time due to the body oils, sweat, lotions, etc on your skin. So once in a while you need to pre-clean the surface. The PBL line includes a dedicated cleaner. It's real thin like water so don't be surprised but do be aware. You pump some out and onto a microfiber applicator pad or towel and then wipe this over the surface. After this, if it's leather use the conditioner. This goes fast, apply, massage, wipe the area. Then apply the coating product.

For vinyl surfaces, use the cleaner and coating but skip the leather conditioner product.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

:bump:


Had the car here over the weekend and took a couple more shots showing the interior after detailing the interior with the PBL Trio.

 

[DMiglio]

Really nice looking SUV’s these QX30s, that color looks great on it too!

As always a stellar job Mike, inside and out! I know it’s a new vehicle, but that dash just looks perfect, I know it didn’t leave the factory looking like that.

My wife also likes the design, seems to be a common denominator in this thread, did Infiniti have a target market in mind?

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Really nice looking SUV’s these QX30s, that color looks great on it too!

As always a stellar job Mike, inside and out! I know it’s a new vehicle, but that dash just looks perfect, I know it didn’t leave the factory looking like that.

Yeah.... Stacy is really good at interiors.

My wife also likes the design, seems to be a common denominator in this thread, did Infinite have a target market in mind?

They partnered with Mercedes-Benz and basically borrowed the their drivetrain, frame and body from the GLA 250 and then gave it their own interior and exterior styling touches.

The BIG PICTURE is it's a compact SUV. This is basically a car with a SUV style hatchback. The sad news or good news, depending upon your point of view, Infiniti has stopped making the QX30 mostly due to low sales. Nothing wrong with the car there's just not enough demand for this "category" of car.


We both really like it and best of all, when it's time to wash or do anything - I can easily reach to the middle of the roof. Thus - no work platforms or step stools.

 

[DMiglio]

Yeah.... Stacy is really good at interiors.

Well she definitely knocked this one out of the park! As I can see why you let her get to your interior as well.

They partnered with Mercedes-Benz and basically borrowed the their drivetrain, frame and body from the GLA 250 and then gave it their own interior and exterior styling touches.

The BIG PICTURE is it's a compact SUV. This is basically a car with a SUV style hatchback. The sad news or good news, depending upon your point of view, Infiniti has stopped making the QX30 mostly due to low sales. Nothing wrong with the car there's just not enough demand for this "category" of car.


We both really like it and best of all, when it's time to wash or do anything - I can easily reach to the middle of the roof. Thus - no work platforms or step stools.

I actually never knew that they had partnered with Mercedes on this, the Mercedes has a very nice design too. My wife had looked at a Mazda CX3(Now CX30 I believe) a year or so ago before we bought her Mazda 3.

Her and I were never ones for larger SUV’s likening them to school busses, but crossovers tick many boxes for us! I think most crossovers look better than their larger counterparts.

Must be nice being taller than 5’4” :laughing: I struggle to reach half way across her roof and just about make it without the use of a platform!

 

[acuRAS82]

The BIG PICTURE is it's a compact SUV. This is basically a car with a SUV style hatchback. The sad news or good news, depending upon your point of view, Infiniti has stopped making the QX30 mostly due to low sales. Nothing wrong with the car there's just not enough demand for this "category" of car.

I’m surprised, compact SUVs are still all the rage, I thought. This is the same class as Audi Q5, right? Maybe too much competition in the group? Otherwise I don’t know why Infiniti would want to concede such a high selling category.

 

[Desertnate]

It would compete with the Audi Q3 or Mazda CX3. I looked at the Mercedes version once and it was very comparable in size and trunk space to the GTI I owned at the time.

 

[acuRAS82]

It would compete with the Audi Q3 or Mazda CX3. I looked at the Mercedes version once and it was very comparable in size and trunk space to the GTI I owned at the time.

Ahh, gotcha! Yeah, I see a lot less of those sizes on the road. Thanks for the knowledge.