10 month update
10 Month Update
I applied this coating just over 10 months ago... here is a quick update....
Maintenance
I have been maintaining the vehicle with a weekly (or at least every other week) maintenance wash. This either consists of a rinseless wash with ONR, a standard wash with CG Citrus Wash & Gloss, or a foaming with Honey Dew Snow Foam followed by a traditional wash (all depending on how dirty the car is at the time/how much time I want to spend cleaning). Occasionally I will follow the wash up with CG V7 to remove any remaining water droplets.
Thoughts/Comments
The coating looks fantastic. The paint truly has a 'glass-like' appearance. The vehicle is noticeably easier to clean/maintain as it is remains cleaner for longer periods of time, and the dirt wipes away very easily during washing. The surface is very slick.
I performed "the baggie test" after my most recent wash on a couple of areas, and found some mild contamination, but certainly nothing to be worried about at this point in time.
The hood of the car got sprayed with a sprinkler during a hot summer day which left some awesome water spots on the paint... me, being particularly lazy at the time, left the spots on the car for over a week. The car is garaged, but it sits outside in the hot sun while I am at work... needless to say they etched the coating. I was not surprised. I would be crazy to think anything would have resisted etching from the ridiculously hard water that we have here and in such high heat over the course of a week in the middle of the Summer... I like to think of it as "accidental durability testing" rather than me being lazy.
Water beading and sheeting is very good. The hydrophobic properties of the coating are still fully in tact. If they have diminished at all over the course of these 10 months, it is negligible. (see pictures below).
Overall, I am very pleased with the 22ple VX1 Pro Coating at this point, however this may be my last update on the product. I am itching to try something new, so whenever I get a "free" weekend, I plan on polishing the vehicle and applying CQuartz Finest to see how that compares.
This picture was taken 3-5 days after a regular maintenance wash. The vehicle was actually pretty dusty, but the gloss is still very intense. Like I said - the car stays cleaner for a longer period of time, and it looks great!
Since we finally got some long overdue rain last night... I snapped a couple of pictures of the car while I was leaving the gym. Note - the car was washed 6 days prior to being rained on. These images were (clearly) taken with a cell phone in the dark, so I apologize for the lack of clarity. Believe it or not, I don't carry a DSLR, tripod, and remote triggers with me at all times
^Nice, tight beads. The larger bead of water that you see towards the bottom is maybe the size of a nickel - just to give you a sense of scale.
Due to the excellent sheeting abilities of the coating... the vehicle was nearly dry when I got home even though it was still raining. You know how much fun it is to watch water fly right off your windshield after it has been coated or RainX'd or whatever? Well you get to watch water fly right off your entire car when you've got a good layer of protection on it. My wife thinks I'm nuts when I stare at the hood while driving just to watch the water flying at me like I am going into warp speed on star wars.
