Porsche Cayenne - 1 year, 8 months later

[donbeezy]

History of the vehicle. This Cayenne came to me 1 year and 8 months, 30,000 miles ago for a coating. It`s been washed by the customer but never came back for any extra maintenance by me during its duration.


The good news - the vehicles surface is still coated, as you can see in the video.. water still falls off the paint surface. 1yr and 8 months? not bad for the coating.. plus its taken on a lot of mileage and abuse as a daily driver.


The bad news - vehicle has lots of swirls and scratches. swirls are pretty typical on black paint, its impossible to keep it perfect.


My thought process - This vehicle is only 2 years old, could it use another polishing to make it perfect again? Yes. Would that be a wise to keep polishing it everytime it needs it? No. The vehicle`s clear coat is about paper thin thick and every time you polish it, you`ll remove microns of it. Plus the coating is still on the surface and a polishing would remove it.


What I performed to the vehicle - Instead of doing a full polish and coating it again. I decided to "fill in" the swirls of the paint and enhance it. This was done with a non-abrasive product (CarPro Essence Plus). After that was applied by machine, it was topped with a silica spray to give it more protection.


My question for the guy`s with coatings that provide a warranty. How do you handle these situations with swirls and deep scratches in the coating? Does the warranty cover polishing the surface again and reapplying the coating?

Edit - forgot to add the coating that was done 1 year 8 months ago with Gtechniq Crystal Serum Light, topped off with CarPro Reload at that time. This time I used CarPro Essence Plus to fill in and topped with Tac System Quartz Max.

[RaydiantDetail]

Yikes. What was his wash process? Swirls galore.
Looks like Essence plus did a nice job of repairing the coating.

I do not apply any pro coatings but aren`t most coating warranties negated if the owner does not follow the maintenance regiment prescribed by the coating company to a T?
i.e. maintenance washes need to be done by an accredited coating installer or the warranty is void?

[rlmccarty2000]

Warranties are only as good as the detailer standing behind them. Personally I would never buy or offer a warranty on a coating as there are too many ways to void the warranty. Most importantly coatings have been shown not to be the wonders they were presented to be. They are better than waxes or sealants but expecting them not to scratch or mar is ludicrous. I don’t know what these warranties state but if it’s anymore than “some of it will still be on the vehicle in X years” they are deceiving theirselves (and the customer).

[donbeezy]

Yikes. What was his wash process? Swirls galore.
Looks like Essence plus did a nice job of repairing the coating.

i asked him who has been washing the car. he said the kids. enough said lol



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[donbeezy]

Warranties are only as good as the detailer standing behind them. Personally I would never buy or offer a warranty on a coating as there are too many ways to void the warranty. Most importantly coatings have been shown not to be the wonders they were presented to be. They are better than waxes or sealants but expecting them not to scratch or mar is ludicrous. I don’t know what these warranties state but if it’s anymore than “some of it will still be on the vehicle in X years” they are deceiving theirselves (and the customer).

i’ve been on the fence about trying a pro coating with warranty but it seems too complicated and too many variables to up hold a warranty. hopefully one of the certified guys can chime in.


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[wristymanchego]

Essence+ seems to have done a nice job of a fake-finish-down.

Warranty schmarranty. Theres nothing a warranty can reliably guarantee with a coating.

They’re simply a marketing gimmick to aid detailers in selling pro coatings. No one is returning to a detailer 7 years into an 8 year coating and having it resealed.

Selling a product with an 8, 5, even 3 year longevity claim is bold enough, no need to lie and say you will cover it too.

No one should be offering a warranty, it’s a completely false pretence.

Man, I’d just about pay to get a hold of the data from leading manufacturers on frequency and duration since applied of their coatings.

[DetailZeus]

That`s some pretty decent filling ability from essence plus

[SWETM]

Very intresting real world situation. The warrenty is also intresting in what it`s covers. And as others noted there are difficult to know what`s the warrenty covers. If I where to guess in this case. The only thing that would be done. Would be a thorough decon wash and then application of some kind of topper that is from the coating manufacture. So they would be not correcting and swirls or scratches. And only clean it up and top up the protection. As the swirls and scratches where inflicted by the car owner or who he left the maintance to. Don`t think that coatings warrenty accually covers the swirls and scratches if not the maintance is done by the coating installer. This is just thoughts about it and I don`t know how a warrenty would look in this case.

But I think you have done it in the best way possible. If not the coating would be reapplyied without the warrenty claim again. But to be fair the maintance has not been good. And that`s is also up to the owner to the car to do it right. Would be interesting to see how the car would look like if there was no coating on there. If it would be the same amount and the same depths of the swirls and scratches.

I think that most of the people don`t know how to maintain a cars paint swirl free. And that`s with any protection version available. So whatever protection you have and if not right maintained. They are going to be swirling it up either way. And that`s what you can do is to get the information to them how to maintain the protection you apply on a swirl and scratch free paint. Then it`s up to the owner to do it right.

I`m very impressed with the results from Carpro Essence Plus. And would be awesome to hear how it holds up when he comes back to you.

What pad did you use with Essence Plus?

/Tony

[donbeezy]

I`m very impressed with the results from Carpro Essence Plus. And would be awesome to hear how it holds up when he comes back to you.

What pad did you use with Essence Plus?

/Tony

i’m impressed with gtechniq CSL, it’s holding up with all that abuse. 30k miles. 1 year 8 months and all that incorrect washing.

carpro recommended a flash pad, which was a finishing pad. i ended up using lake country black finishing pads. 3 pads for the whole car, speed 2-2.5, 2 moderate speed passes


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[JustJesus]

The Essence surely did help!

[showbbq]

I`m guessing the folks who did offer a warranty on their coating services included some fine print about what`s not covered: swirls, scratches, aaand everything else that a coating is supposed to help with. It wouldn`t be very realistic not to.

[RaskyR1]

The warranties are a joke and many have terms that could easily void them if they wanted to. I don`t even mention warranties with my clients unless asked. If they do ask I set them straight.

I do have a few clients that take good care of their cars though and just finished up coating maintenance on one where the pro coating was applied over 3 years ago. The car was swirl free minus a couple small areas by the front doors, likely from brushing up against them in the winter. Other than that the paint was still flawless and beaded well, even before a full decon. I also did a touch-up on a C7 this summer that was coated 4.5 years ago and it also looked flawless and beaded very well, though it was a seasonal car.

When cared for properly (and not even Autopia crazy) these coatings can last well beyond the 3yr mark and the finish can stay virtually swirl free. The problem is that very few owners actual take care of their cars so we see the swirled mess like Don posted above.

[SWETM]

i’m impressed with gtechniq CSL, it’s holding up with all that abuse. 30k miles. 1 year 8 months and all that incorrect washing.

carpro recommended a flash pad, which was a finishing pad. i ended up using lake country black finishing pads. 3 pads for the whole car, speed 2-2.5, 2 moderate speed passes


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Absolutely the CSL is impresive to not loose the hydrophobic caractics. Even when it`s scratched up and swirled up.

Think it was Youtube chanel Car Craft Auto Detailing that did trying to get more correction with a more coarse pad. And what I can remember it worked good. But that comes with a big downside that more of the old coating would be decreasing. So it`s more to the Essence Plus longevity it depends on. It`s only Carpro Essence Plus that I know of that you can heal the old coating to a little longer longevity from. Wonders if it is a product that you can fill the swirls and reduce the scratches looks. With some kind of topper with resins in it with filling ability.

[Older]

Is there any product that has a similar filling effect on non-coated cars?

[Merlin]

Nice Job!

My question for the guy`s with coatings that provide a warranty.
How do you handle these situations with swirls and deep scratches in the coating?
Does the warranty cover polishing the surface again and reapplying the coating?

Most coating warranties cover yellowing, peeling, flaking, and longevity of the coating only.
It does not cover setting it on fire. It is not bulletproof and it can not withstand a nuclear blast.

It does not cover neglect, client induced swirls, abuse, improper maintenance or steel wool.
Once the vehicle leaves your shop you no longer have any control over how it is taken care of.

Is there any product that has a similar filling effect on non-coated cars?

Essence PLUS can be used on a non-coated car. It is a non-abrasive product (only the abrasion of the pad).
The reason Essence PLUS is a great choice on a coated car is that it fills and does not remove the coating.
On vehicles that you do not want to remove clear coat, it`s a good choice to fill in rather than abraid paint.