Hi all,
This is my first post on this forum - I am located in Atlantic Canada. Been lurking forever but never joined until now.
I did my first DIY ceramic coating with GTechniq CSL and am curious if this is normal:
I did my wife's XC90 (which was 3 days old at the time) in late December and have to say I'm a bit underwhelmed. I was under the impression that it would seal the paint and not allow much to stick to the cured surface. Our XC90 is pearl white and only a week after application, there are small orange spots (iron spots that have rusted) due to our salty roads. I was really hoping that those iron spots would not cling to the paint. The downside of white cars in Canadian winters is the accumulation of those orange specks. It does not seem to have helped at all so far this winter.
When I did my XC90, I had a bit of coating leftover and did the driver's door of my Mercedes-AMG C43 as a sort of test. Visually, when I compare the coated door and the uncoated fender and rear door, winter dirt (salt spray, slush and dirt) sticks just as much on the coated door as on the uncoated. When it comes to rinsing, the winter dirt (caked for 2-3 weeks, not fresh) does not hose off any easier on coated vs uncoated. I was hoping that dirt and salt would rinse off much easier and require less effort to remove from car but I'm not seeing it. A bit disappointing actually.
Now I will need to clay bar both cars to remove the orange specks just like I always have on uncoated cars.
For what it's worth, I went all out with the prep, just as directed. Full wash, full decontamination with Iron-X followed by full clay bar everywhere. Followed by 1-step polish with Meguiars M205. Followed by IPA panel wipes all over the car to remove any leftover polishing oils or residues. Coated the car exactly as directed, left in heated garage for 24+ hours.
The only real sign that the vehicle is coated is the water repellancy is quite good - water just beads and sheets off but I was hoping for better dirt repellance. From a keeping the car clean perspective, I see little to no improvement.
[FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Did I do something wrong or this is just how it works and my expectations were too high? Everybody says that coated cars are so easy to keep clean and require less elbow grease when cleaning. I can say that the dirt does wash off nicely with a MF mitt but those specks that stay behind after the mitt are really killing my vibe. Any ideas?
Should I have coated with EXO? Should I have used a different coating? Or did I screw up somehow...[/FONT]
This is my first post on this forum - I am located in Atlantic Canada. Been lurking forever but never joined until now.
I did my first DIY ceramic coating with GTechniq CSL and am curious if this is normal:
I did my wife's XC90 (which was 3 days old at the time) in late December and have to say I'm a bit underwhelmed. I was under the impression that it would seal the paint and not allow much to stick to the cured surface. Our XC90 is pearl white and only a week after application, there are small orange spots (iron spots that have rusted) due to our salty roads. I was really hoping that those iron spots would not cling to the paint. The downside of white cars in Canadian winters is the accumulation of those orange specks. It does not seem to have helped at all so far this winter.
When I did my XC90, I had a bit of coating leftover and did the driver's door of my Mercedes-AMG C43 as a sort of test. Visually, when I compare the coated door and the uncoated fender and rear door, winter dirt (salt spray, slush and dirt) sticks just as much on the coated door as on the uncoated. When it comes to rinsing, the winter dirt (caked for 2-3 weeks, not fresh) does not hose off any easier on coated vs uncoated. I was hoping that dirt and salt would rinse off much easier and require less effort to remove from car but I'm not seeing it. A bit disappointing actually.
Now I will need to clay bar both cars to remove the orange specks just like I always have on uncoated cars.
For what it's worth, I went all out with the prep, just as directed. Full wash, full decontamination with Iron-X followed by full clay bar everywhere. Followed by 1-step polish with Meguiars M205. Followed by IPA panel wipes all over the car to remove any leftover polishing oils or residues. Coated the car exactly as directed, left in heated garage for 24+ hours.
The only real sign that the vehicle is coated is the water repellancy is quite good - water just beads and sheets off but I was hoping for better dirt repellance. From a keeping the car clean perspective, I see little to no improvement.
[FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Did I do something wrong or this is just how it works and my expectations were too high? Everybody says that coated cars are so easy to keep clean and require less elbow grease when cleaning. I can say that the dirt does wash off nicely with a MF mitt but those specks that stay behind after the mitt are really killing my vibe. Any ideas?
Should I have coated with EXO? Should I have used a different coating? Or did I screw up somehow...[/FONT]
