Mike Phillips
Active member
- Dec 5, 2022
- 51,004
- 6
Which coating for a brand new car and how to I prep the paint for the coating?
Anytime I get questions via e-mail, a PM or a FB message I prefer to invest my typing time where
A: It's easier for me to share links, pictures and videos.
B: More people can read and thus benefit from the information. (no just one set of eyeballs
So I get an e-mail from a long-time Internet friend asking,
Hi Mike,
Jeff here up in Wisconsin. You used to answer questions for me back when you were with Meguiars and I've always valued your expertise and enormous contributions to our hobby.
After two decades of owning used cars that I drive for about a year, then flip, I'm going to buy a new Honda or Toyota soon.
Because I've never kept my cars too long, I just use traditional wax (usually Meguiars Ultimate or a Pinnacle product) as my LSP. But, I plan to keep this new vehicle long term and I'm excited to start with unmolested paint!
If you purchased a new Honda or Toyota and lived in Wisconsin, what would YOU do to keep the paint protected?
My instinct says to
However, I trust YOUR recommendation, though, as you've ALWAYS steered me in the right direction. Thank you for your input.
Keep up the fantastic work, you've solidified your place as THE paint correction guru.
Seriously.
Sincerely,
Jeff
Hi Jeff,
And thank you for the kind words.
Hope you don't mind that as a a practice I answer questions on the forum as my typing time is so limited now days.
As for your plan of attack for you new vehicle, there's nothing wrong with it that I can see.
From experience, even a BRAND NEW car will have at a minimum, light swirls and scratches and usually some form of chemical contamination.
These three steps,
Will remove any surface contamination as well as remove the fine or shallow swirls and scratches thus getting you down to a clean base for to apply a coating.
CQuartz is a great brand and as long as you do the prep steps correctly, then chemically strip the paint and then correctly apply and remove the CQuartz coating you should have an amazing looking finish.
My comments...
Sometimes M205 can be a tick too aggressive on softer paints and induce micro-marring. You won't know until you try. If you want, instead get the Pinnacle Advanced Swirl Remover. This is a medium cut polish, probably a tick more correction ability than the M205 but it works on any paint system, hard, soft or anything in-between. It's expensive but also bubba-proof.
As for coatings, if this is a daily driver and the car is driven in the rain at least some portion of the year, then I wouldn't get caught up in set-in and forget-it long term protection.
Instead, plan on doing a light polish once a year and the re-coat. That's if you want the paint to always look the best. If you're less concerned with how the car looks and are more interested in protection than 2, 3, 4, etc. coatings are the way to go.
Here's the link to CarPro products
Here's the link to Pinnacle Advanced Swirl Remover
Here's the link to Meguiar's products
Hope that helps and congratulations on the new car!
Anytime I get questions via e-mail, a PM or a FB message I prefer to invest my typing time where
A: It's easier for me to share links, pictures and videos.
B: More people can read and thus benefit from the information. (no just one set of eyeballs
So I get an e-mail from a long-time Internet friend asking,
Hi Mike,
Jeff here up in Wisconsin. You used to answer questions for me back when you were with Meguiars and I've always valued your expertise and enormous contributions to our hobby.
After two decades of owning used cars that I drive for about a year, then flip, I'm going to buy a new Honda or Toyota soon.
Because I've never kept my cars too long, I just use traditional wax (usually Meguiars Ultimate or a Pinnacle product) as my LSP. But, I plan to keep this new vehicle long term and I'm excited to start with unmolested paint!
If you purchased a new Honda or Toyota and lived in Wisconsin, what would YOU do to keep the paint protected?
My instinct says to
- clay,
- DA polish with Meguiars 205 and a finishing pad,
- then protect with CQuartz.
However, I trust YOUR recommendation, though, as you've ALWAYS steered me in the right direction. Thank you for your input.
Keep up the fantastic work, you've solidified your place as THE paint correction guru.
Seriously.
Sincerely,
Jeff
Hi Jeff,
And thank you for the kind words.
Hope you don't mind that as a a practice I answer questions on the forum as my typing time is so limited now days.
As for your plan of attack for you new vehicle, there's nothing wrong with it that I can see.
From experience, even a BRAND NEW car will have at a minimum, light swirls and scratches and usually some form of chemical contamination.
These three steps,
- Washing
- Claying
- Machine polishing
Will remove any surface contamination as well as remove the fine or shallow swirls and scratches thus getting you down to a clean base for to apply a coating.
CQuartz is a great brand and as long as you do the prep steps correctly, then chemically strip the paint and then correctly apply and remove the CQuartz coating you should have an amazing looking finish.
My comments...
Sometimes M205 can be a tick too aggressive on softer paints and induce micro-marring. You won't know until you try. If you want, instead get the Pinnacle Advanced Swirl Remover. This is a medium cut polish, probably a tick more correction ability than the M205 but it works on any paint system, hard, soft or anything in-between. It's expensive but also bubba-proof.
As for coatings, if this is a daily driver and the car is driven in the rain at least some portion of the year, then I wouldn't get caught up in set-in and forget-it long term protection.
Instead, plan on doing a light polish once a year and the re-coat. That's if you want the paint to always look the best. If you're less concerned with how the car looks and are more interested in protection than 2, 3, 4, etc. coatings are the way to go.
Here's the link to CarPro products
Here's the link to Pinnacle Advanced Swirl Remover
Here's the link to Meguiar's products
Hope that helps and congratulations on the new car!
