Suggestions on a coating

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awdxtc

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I ordered a new Tacoma in celestial silver. I have it narrowed down to either cquartz 3.0 uk or crystal serum lite. Should i consider topping those with their respective coatings, exo for csl and sic for uk 3.0 or should i just stick with the base coating? Should i use something like reload every few months or will it somehow interfere with the coatings? Do you have suggestions on something other than the options I have listed?
 
If you go CQUK you could even top with Reload, especially if you plan on keeping up with it on a regular basis.

If I was going to top CQUK I'd use Gliss - but that's just me. A lot of people enjoy SIC. If I ever have SIC it would be in a #2 ceramic coating option, between Cquartz Lite or Gliss on the more affordable end, and CQUK 3.0 × 2 / Gliss on the more expensive end.

Another option? Optimum Gloss Coat is a favorite of mine too.
 
awdxtc said:
I ordered a new Tacoma in celestial silver. I have it narrowed down to either cquartz 3.0 uk or crystal serum lite. Should i consider topping those with their respective coatings, exo for csl and sic for uk 3.0 or should i just stick with the base coating? Should i use something like reload every few months or will it somehow interfere with the coatings? Do you have suggestions on something other than the options I have listed?
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Between the two CSL will be slightly easier to apply. In my experience it is not as durable or hydrophobic as CQUK 3.0. CSL needs Exo as a topper to get the hydrophobic behavior and better self cleaning than CSL as a stand alone. CSL will be slicker than CQUK.

CQUK does not need to be topped with Gliss or SiC. The benefit is slickness and slightly more gloss. SiC will be the better topper as it is more durable than Gliss and slicker than Gliss. SiC is actually a stand alone coating. The other benefit is that SiC can be applied 1 hour after UK rather than waiting 4 hours to apply Gliss.

Keep in mind that Reload does not get a lot of love on this forum. The only time I use it is when delivering a customers vehicle during the curing time frame so it protects against water spotting. If you use Gliss or SiC then you don't need to use Reload. Reload is not recommended on SiC after the initial application. Elixir would be the better maintenance product after the first month.
 
My vote would be CQUK and not top it. Keep things simply and it's really not needed.

I've had great success with CQUK for many years now and across at least two generations of the product and never felt the need to use a topper. I keep ECH2O around for taking care of things like bird droppings and random smudges, but it also works well for a post-wash wipe down to get rid of any random water spots left behind after drying. It might add a little gloss, but the biggest benefit is it doesn't interfere with the properties of the coating itself.
 
awdxtc said:
Any suggestions on a coating for glass?
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I've coated my windshield with CQUK, it still performs great over 1 year in. I'll do the rest of my windows when the weather warms up. My roof is glass, so basically my entire car will be bathed in CQUK soon.
 
CQUK as one of the best reputations across the board. From youtube, to facebook, forums, different locations etc And like The Guz said it doesn't need a topper like CSL to have very nice water behavior. And its one of the cheaper coatings! lol Besides aliexpress/chinese stuff of course.
 
My vote goes fro CSL + EXO. I have used CQ UK 3.0 in the past and after 1 full year (including winter) it was not holding up to good. I then did CSL + EXO and it has lasted much longer then CQ. Mind you I had an extra layer due to EXO but even application I found was much easier.

As others I do not like Reload, it just does not last for me, if your lucky maybe a month ish. I use gtechniq c2v3 which lasts months
 
bryanviper said:
My vote goes fro CSL + EXO. I have used CQ UK 3.0 in the past and after 1 full year (including winter) it was not holding up to good. I then did CSL + EXO and it has lasted much longer then CQ. Mind you I had an extra layer due to EXO but even application I found was much easier.

As others I do not like Reload, it just does not last for me, if your lucky maybe a month ish. I use gtechniq c2v3 which lasts months
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Thanks for your take. Regarding CQ UK 3, did you try a decontamination wash before you switched? You never know what was going on but UK usually gives favorable results. Not saying your experience isn’t valid as there are too many variables to know why your experience was different.
 
I consistently see over 2 years from CQUK.

My daughter's car got over 3 years with v2.0 and I'm about to polish off an application of 3-year old v3.0 on my wife's car. After three winters and 90K miles of driving the coating is still holding up pretty well in most areas, but I need to polish out some defects and light swirls.

I've found the key is frequent washing to keep water behavior consistent. That isn't possible all the time in the winter, but from my experience a couple good hand washes with my normal car shampoo or one good wash with CarPro Reset in the spring restores the water behavior.
 
Desertnate said:
I consistently see over 2 years from CQUK.

My daughter's car got over 3 years with v2.0 and I'm about to polish off an application of 3-year old v3.0 on my wife's car.
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Is polishing off an existing coating tough? Because I'll be doing that in the spring. My CQUK would be close to 2 years at that point.
 
vaca22 said:
Is polishing off an existing coating tough? Because I'll be doing that in the spring. My CQUK would be close to 2 years at that point.
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Not at all hard to polish off. Machine polish the car like you normally would for any other reason, and it will remove the coating.

Coatings, while pretty hard and durable on a surface, are very thin and will easily polish away. I've removed high spots I missed during the application with nothing but a soft foam pad and a finishing polish.
 
I had CSL and EXOV4 on my Golf R.
I did apply Cquarts SiC to one door because I wanted to polish out a scratch but didn't want to buy a massive bottle (for one door). I think the CSL/EXO was easier to apply.

At about 18 months, it was still going strong.
The car was garaged and I put probably 8k miles on it during that time, so it lived a relatively easy life.
 
bryanviper said:
My vote goes fro CSL + EXO. I have used CQ UK 3.0 in the past and after 1 full year (including winter) it was not holding up to good. I then did CSL + EXO and it has lasted much longer then CQ. Mind you I had an extra layer due to EXO but even application I found was much easier.

As others I do not like Reload, it just does not last for me, if your lucky maybe a month ish. I use gtechniq c2v3 which lasts months
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It's sometimes interesting (and odd) that different folks have such different results with the same products. The year I did CQuartz UK 3.0 + Gliss V2 on one vehicle, CSL + EXOV4 on an identical vehicle and watched 'em nearly daily over the course of a year, the Cquartz ate the CSL for lunch with regards to self-cleaning/hydrophobics and overall performance, including looks (albeit a very subjective metric). And when I did CSL alone 2 years prior to that and maintained with C2V3 I came away with the feeling that C2V3 was one of the worst maintenance products I've ever used....I even tried it again 2 years later with much the same results. Maybe we're looking for different things out of a product? I'll admit that the CQUK3 - CSL EXOV4 was on vehicles that rec'd limited maintenance so maybe the CSL/EXOV4 is just more sensitive to being ignored?

:shrug:
 
When you guys have customers that aren’t coating savvy but think they want one, how many of them think it’s a bulletproof vest for a car rather than what the reality is?


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chilly said:
When you guys have customers that aren’t coating savvy but think they want one, how many of them think it’s a bulletproof vest for a car rather than what the reality is?


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I'm not a pro, but have done a few paid jobs for family/neighbors. After coating both of my neighbors cars, they passed along a question from a co-worker who asked if the coating would prevent scratches from dogs nails...

I think some people do fall for the whole "9H" hardness marketing and thin it's armor plating for your vehicle.
 
Desertnate said:
I'm not a pro, but have done a few paid jobs for family/neighbors. After coating both of my neighbors cars, they passed along a question from a co-worker who asked if the coating would prevent scratches from dogs nails...

I think some people do fall for the whole "9H" hardness marketing and thin it's armor plating for your vehicle.
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That’s exactly what I thought

The few times I discussed this with people I got that impression

Fanks!


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