CQuartzUK Gone After ONE Rain?

[Stokdgs]

So I got home and cleaned off the hood. Just used water, no soap and unfortunately it does appear that the CQuartzUK coating is gone.

At this point I may do a side-by-side with the DG105 and try to apply the CQuartzUK again OR if anyone wants to buy a barely used bottle of the UK let me know, although this isn`t exactly a good advertisement for it :/

Imatk, - Nice video, the paint looks beautiful !

I have never used your product, is it not supposed to sheet water off ?

Will someone who lives close by please give this man some CarPro Reset to wash the car a couple of times??
If you are in Northern California, I will come by with the Reset..
Dan F

 

[The Guz]

Mike --
Thanks for your post !
Glad you have much experience with the CarPro coating and all the other steps that have to be done..
Life was much simpler when Optimum just went on, dried, cured, and there you have it..

From the experiences with Optimum long term - years - on my personal car, it did go "flat" and then a couple of good washes with CarPro Reset, and it was all back to beading, rolling off, and looking much clearer and brighter..

I don`t like all the steps these guys are making everyone go through when coatings started out so much simpler.. I guess some things have to change with newer technology, but why cant someone actually make one that is very easy to use, don`t need a zillion other things to put on it, and be done with it ?? Yeah, I know, Marketing 101...

Dan F

I have been playing with various coating as of late so I’ve been able to play around with how each is applied and removed including both versions of Cquartz, Optimum, Gyeon and Sonax. Trying and testing them.

I’m currently applying Cquartz TiO2 or Classic on my brothers Tahoe and will be using the new topper Gliss so will see how that goes.

So I got home and cleaned off the hood. Just used water, no soap and unfortunately it does appear that the CQuartzUK coating is gone.

What this video shows me is that something is still in the paint based on the surface tension and how the water sheeted off. If there was nothing on the paint then the water would be laying flat and stuck on the paint.

Wiping it down with just water is not going to do much other than potentially grind dirt into that nice polished out finish.

Could you post up a video after you give it a wash with soap and then spray the hood with water on a mist setting to see if it beeds and then sheet rinse the hood to see how it behaves?

 

[Wing Commander]

https://www.autopia-carcare.com/carpro-ech20.html This gets my vote. Every time I use this on a coated vehicle I smile. Rinseless I use 1 oz. per 2 gal. but it is suggested 1 oz. per 3 gal. by the manufacturer.

 

[SWETM]

When you wash your hood after the curing time it will bounce back. That`s why you are recommended to apply reload after CQUK. To get the expected water behavior from the start. You know have the sheeting there but when it`s cured fully the sheeting will be more crazy than know. Wait up to 10 days so you are more on the safe side than you already are after 7 days. In the meantime if you don`t have bought carpro reset do so till you are able to wash it the first time. This will help you deep clean it and not interfear with leaving anything behind but the CQUK.

As I can read you have applyied it correctly. Some more questions to be on the safe side.
Did you shake your bottle of cquk thoroughly before applying it?
When you leveled the coating did you gently wipe it or did you use a more coarse wipe off? What mf towel did you use?
If you don`t use the recommended suede towel to level the coating it`s important to use a soft low nap or a split cut nap. The risk you are takeing is that you don`t only remove the excess coating aka not cured high spots. But leave the coating with microscopic trails in the already beginning to cure coating.

The big problem as I see it is that when they sell the kit of coatings it`s not enough of suede towels in it to both apply 2 layers and level the coating. For one layer you are fine with the amount of application suedes but not for level the coating. You would at least have 4-5 suede towels to get it leveled. Just think about it they recommend you to switch out the application suedes after a couple of panels so they don`t crystalise. Then you are leveling the coating when it`s starting to be cured. Why would a single suede be enough to do this. And this is not to you personal but to the sellers of coatings that not inform you on this. To get the suede towel to be effective many do use a own low nap mf towel to gentle wipe the first time and then follow up with the suede towel to level it nicely. But I will by more of the suede towel to use if I were to apply a ceramic coating. Mike Phillips on Autogeek have done write up on application of gyeon coating and which and how many he used when doing it.

So wait for the coating to fully cure. And then do a wash with carpro reset or a rinseless wash with mckees 37 N-914. And see what you get in water behavior. Then do as Guz says and both rinse and spray the water on to be able to see the behavior it has. Cause this is one of the most used coatings in the EU and much used in the US too. And would it only last over the first rain even if it`s a rainstorm you can bet that carpro would not exists anymore. Depending on the mileage and the environment the car has the longevity of it would be over a year at least if not extreme mileage driven. Be carefull to use only water when touching the paint if you are not certain if it`s clean surface.

I hope it will bounce back and be the protection you where expecting.

 

[Loach]

I agree with the above, based on your video the coating has still survived but no where near the performance it should be at. It`s possible a heavy rainstorm like this on a coating less than a week cured could have a large impact on the performance, the McKee`s 37 coating held up much better than CQUK when I performed a wash shortly after applying it. Washing or wiping the paint down using only water could also have a strong masking impact if the rainstorm dumped some nasty water on the paint. I just did a test with washing using only water on F11 Top Coat and PA Rapidwaxx at 3 weeks old and it completely masked Rapidwaxx. Then when washing with soap I could see evidence Rapidwaxx was holding up fine (F11 Top Coat continued to be dead).

Give the paint a wash with soap and report back, if no changes to the performance I would reapply. CQUK has been an extremely strong performing coating on my test cars.

 

[Imatk]

Clean paint is going to have a certain amount of surface tension even if it`s bare. Unless it`s contaminated and "unclean."

This paint was completely bare. I washed it with water only so I wouldn`t introduce an chemical agent that might hinder the coating. And if I did "grind" dirt into it then I can polish it out, but I`m pretty sure it`s just fine since I used several microfibers to clean it... as they say in Texas this aint my first rodeo.

There are areas that show beading, so there were parts that were still in tact, but I didn`t include the entire video, for clarification here is the part where you can see definite beading. So either those areas just didn`t wash away, OR there was some kind of error in application that caused this issue.

I`m guessing it`s error in application so I`m going to try again and see if I can get better results.

 

[KEVINS]

Use your gut feeling then proceed.

ks

 

[DaveT435]

Clean paint is going to have a certain amount of surface tension even if it`s bare. Unless it`s contaminated and "unclean."

This paint was completely bare. I washed it with water only so I wouldn`t introduce an chemical agent that might hinder the coating. And if I did "grind" dirt into it then I can polish it out, but I`m pretty sure it`s just fine since I used several microfibers to clean it... as they say in Texas this aint my first rodeo.

There are areas that show beading, so there were parts that were still in tact, but I didn`t include the entire video, for clarification here is the part where you can see definite beading. So either those areas just didn`t wash away, OR there was some kind of error in application that caused this issue.

I`m guessing it`s error in application so I`m going to try again and see if I can get better results.

If it doesn`t work out and you want to try something else let me know, I`ve got a coating you can have. Actually a choice of a couple...free, but I would want you to pick up the freight.

 

[SWETM]

Is your paint single stage?

I`m uncertain to how different ceramic coatings works on them. But someone with experience with it maybe chaim in. If your car has SS. Either way it`s very surprising how your coating behave. Cause CQUK is one of the best consumer coating there is in harsh environment. In aspects to longevity and use degreasers on them to get the road salt and road grime build up removed with chemicals. The coatings is sensitive to chemicals with ph level above 11-12. But to acidic ph level down to 2 often.

 

[Rsurfer]

So I got home and cleaned off the hood. Just used water, no soap and unfortunately it does appear that the CQuartzUK coating is gone.

At this point I may do a side-by-side with the DG105 and try to apply the CQuartzUK again OR if anyone wants to buy a barely used bottle of the UK let me know, although this isn`t exactly a good advertisement for it :/

You are flooding your hood from a hose and that`s how a protected (CQuartzUK) hood should react (sheeting). Put a nozzle on your hose and spray it or mist it and I bet it will bead. If you use a soap like Reset, it will bead even more. I say that the coating is still on your paint, based on your vid.

 

[Imatk]

If it doesn`t work out and you want to try something else let me know, I`ve got a coating you can have. Actually a choice of a couple...free, but I would want you to pick up the freight.

Thanks man I appreciate the offer, and I might take you up on it!

 

[Imatk]

Is your paint single stage?

I`m uncertain to how different ceramic coatings works on them. But someone with experience with it maybe chaim in. If your car has SS. Either way it`s very surprising how your coating behave. Cause CQUK is one of the best consumer coating there is in harsh environment. In aspects to longevity and use degreasers on them to get the road salt and road grime build up removed with chemicals. The coatings is sensitive to chemicals with ph level above 11-12. But to acidic ph level down to 2 often.

Yes it is single-stage. I wonder if that has some kind of effect on it... didn`t think about that but yeah maybe that`s the issue.

 

[Imatk]

You are flooding your hood from a hose and that`s how a protected (CQuartzUK) hood should react (sheeting). Put a nozzle on your hose and spray it or mist it and I bet it will bead. If you use a soap like Reset, it will bead even more. I say that the coating is still on your paint, based on your vid.

If you look at the second video you will see there are two distinct places on the hood that have beading, so if what you claimed was true then there wouldn`t be any area on the hood that had beading.

So what that tells me is for some reason those two spots survived. I don`t know if that`s because of user error(probably) or as SWETM wrote it might have something to do with my single-stage paint. Maybe the coatings were designed for clear?

 

[Rsurfer]

If you look at the second video you will see there are two distinct places on the hood that have beading, so if what you claimed was true then there wouldn`t be any area on the hood that had beading.

So what that tells me is for some reason those two spots survived. I don`t know if that`s because of user error(probably) or as SWETM wrote it might have something to do with my single-stage paint. Maybe the coatings were designed for clear?

I`ve had some small areas bead while the majority of the panel sheeted.
Try washing with Reset and use a spray nozzle to rinse. The beading should return. I just can`t believe the UK just disappeared.

 

[SWETM]

Yes it is single-stage. I wonder if that has some kind of effect on it... didn`t think about that but yeah maybe that`s the issue.

I would test to apply 2 layers so you get a thicker layer. Cause it can be that your SS is a little more porous than a clearcoat. So with 1 layer you filled the valleys and not got an even hydrophobic layer. I it seems to be a hassle to get it to work out for you. But if you are ready to sort it out I think you will get satisfied when you do it. Do you have any idea what VW used for SS paint? What I have been able to get when searching is that acrylic paint and really old paint they have problems with ceramic coatings applyied.

I would get carpro essence to help filling the base of the paint. Before polishing with essence and if you use M205 to get the old coating off. Do 2 wipe offs with your ipa or eraser to be safe that the polishing oils is removed. If you polish with essence and after letting it sit for 5-10min I would let it cure over night.
Then even if you are useing essence or not. Apply 2 layers of cquk and have lighting available to see when it`s flashing. And gently level the high spots with a quality low nap mf towel and doing a second leveling with either the suede towel or a more soft long nap mf towel. Inspect for high spots and move on. Have in mind to dial in when to level the coating every time you first start to apply it. Since the environment situation and the surface is different every time.

If this would not work then the cquk don`t play well with your SS paint. And do a test panel first to see if you get it to work and waiste as little as possible of product. If you are going to drive your car on daily basis and in rain I would apply reload to let the coating cure fully with the help of reload. The big benefit with essence is you don`t have to use ipa or a panel wipe product after 4 hours since the polishing oils and solvents evaporate together.