Do toppers extend the life of your coating?

C

Cadfael

Member
Got to thinking about this after the discussion of using toppers. Do they actually extend the life of coatings? For instance, if you were to use Reload every month, would you stretch CQUK from two years to three?
 
I would say yes. It acts like a sacrificial barrier. It`s like putting on sunscreen to protect your skin. If anything it won`t hurt your paint.
 
Yes it will! Anything to help it protecting your finish ( paint ) will be beneficial in saving mucho dinero in a paint job down the road.
 
William_Wallace said:
Not sure but definitely helps with water spots I have thought
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It does help a bit. A topper will also keep the coated surface from getting rough to the touch along with weekly/bi-weekly washes.

To the op you would have to use Reload monthly as it has some lack luster water behavior and overall durability. There are better products on the market these days. CarPro needs to reformulate Reload.
 
I suppose my leave-stuff-behind Drying Aids do that to some extent on my conventional LSPs, but gee...on a coating it seems like it shouldn`t be either necessary *or feasible* if only because I thought nothing was supposed to stick to the coatings. OR at least that`s what they said back when I was using OptiCoat (and nothing did seem to stick to that, not that I did strict experiments).
 
Anecdotally, yes. But, who really knows? Once you`ve modified your base coating there`s really no way of knowing or measuring how long it would have lasted without the topper, eh?

Food for thought.
 
Accumulator said:
I suppose my leave-stuff-behind Drying Aids do that to some extent on my conventional LSPs, but gee...on a coating it seems like it shouldn`t be either necessary *or feasible* if only because I thought nothing was supposed to stick to the coatings. OR at least that`s what they said back when I was using OptiCoat (and nothing did seem to stick to that, not that I did strict experiments).
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Agree, topping isn`t `necessary`. My experience is that toppers do not adhere to fully fledged coatings as they would bare paint - no scientific basis for this just lots of real world testing and flushing of perfectly good standalone products down the drain.

To this day it puzzles me that so many top coatings with QDs, wax or sealant like products (which categorically have poorer self-cleaning effect) on a regular basis as a way of `boosting` performance. That`s what everyone is used to with waxes but coatings need maintenance, not topping.

Where a coating is starting to show signs of ageing post a thorough decon, a topper becomes a really useful tool to eek out a few more months - in my view, unless your coating has a major achilles heel (slickness, beading etc that you`re trying to `fix`) a topper is completely unnecessary at the outset for anything more than protecting the initial cure period where a car is prematurely exposed to the elements.

Are they fun to use, definitely. Do they extend the life of a coating, yes, albeit in my view at the expense of benefiting from the full performance of that coating you paid good money for.
 
Here is the problem we wing nuts know the coating prob doesn’t a topper but for some OCD reason after washing we cannot help ourselves to avoid putting something. Each and every coating I started strict wash only air dry only. I made it 4 months.

I enjoy topping the coatings and trying the latest and greatest product. One thing that I have been really looking for in toppers is a product that once applied...I want to be able to see a physical change in the look of the paint. Weather it darkens the paint, or fills the paint or bumps up the gloss. It’s hard to find a topper that does one of these slight improvements but then also beads well. And the changes are ever so slight but some of them will change the look after application. I’m try not to be only obsessed with beading alone. I have a few toppers I like for the different categories.
 
Theoretically yes but none of us know to what extent the solvents hurt the base coating. Water based products shouldn`t be an issue.
 
Did my car with CqUk3.0 and a friends 1 month later. Taught him proper wash techniques and had him buy Mckee’s 914 and Reset.

He bought reload and used maybe once in 1.5 years. At the one year 8 month mark mine was still beading/sheeting fine and his needed to be redone.

Now his was a new black suburu SuV and mine was 3 year old ford paint this was only difference other than I topped the hell out of my coating.

For me the absolutely work. Main thing though is in spring and summer topping the coating amped the gloss. I do this more for appearance than protection...... longer protection just a bonus.


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