Durability Test: Wolfgang SiO2 Paint Sealant

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Desertnate

Active member
A few months ago, I was provided a bottle of Wolfgang SiO2 Paint Sealant to try out. My first experience using it on my neighbors Porsche Cayenne was very positive. The only problem was I don`t see the vehicle all that often and I don`t maintain it. This makes it really hard to learn much about a product beyond how well it goes on and how it looks.

So, in order to see what it`s really like to live with Wolfgang`s SiO2 Sealant, I`ve applied it to my own car and I`m going to run it all winter. The car is daily driven and sits out in the elements all day long when I`m at work and it will see a couple road trips. The weather here is typical just-below-the-snow-belt mid-west USA. It will experience snow, salt, ice, rain, cold, and long periods of being covered in grime.

As for maintenance, I`m not going to treat the car any differently than I would any other vehicle regardless of LSP. I`ll wash it by hand when able (i.e. not too cold), otherwise it will be run though a touchless. If a QD spray is needed for any reason, it will be EcH2O.

Starting now, the clock is ticking. Let`s see where this takes us. I applied two coats simply to ensure I covered everything evenly. For here on out, that`s all it will get. Periodically, I`ll be updating this thread with pictures and thoughts on how the sealant is holding up.

Since I finished after sundown and today is another dreary, gray fall day, the best image I can offer from a really bright garage. The kind of conditions that make just about anything look good.



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A couple other notes from working on my car this weekend.

- Everything I said about the sealant from my first use still stands. The product is really easy to use and looks amazing

- The CanCoat I polished off was still going strong from a protection standpoint...12 months later. I`m sure regular applications of Cure and Elixr probably had a lot to do with it`s long lifespan. There is no telling how much longer it would have lasted. However, after 12 months of life and environment and multiple QD and booster sprays, the car just didn`t look as good. The paint started to look dull and lifeless.
 
I`ve gotten 6 months in the winter and about 3 in the summer down here in South Florida. Looking forward to see how it holds over the winter up north.
 
Here we go with the first update. Never thought I`d do one this soon.

We had hours of pouring rain yesterday, so the car was literally, "ridden hard and put away wet." I drove it home via a couple errands and parked it in the garage.

Water beading is shown below. I`d put them as better than any sealant I`ve used, but not quite like a coating. Not bad...just different. I didn`t get any better pictures since because I didn`t want to get my phone too wet. Also, the water beads do easily roll right off at fairly low speeds (around 45 mph) which provides a few hints the water sheading ability is pretty decent.

After sitting in the garage I didn`t notice any water spotting, which is also a good sign. There is more gloom and rain today, so still no good chances of any bright sun pictures.


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I just wanted to provide another update in case anyone is interested.

A couple of weeks ago before our weather finally turned cold for the winter, I had a chance to give the car a quick bath. The sealant is still holding up great, and as you can hopefully see from the picture, the sheeting is quite good as well. Water beading is still excellent also.

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One thing I`ve noticed after living with this sealant for a while is the difference in the appearance compared to the coatings I`ve used on the car in the past. Maybe, this is a Wolfgang trait, maybe it`s simply coating vs. sealant characteristic, but the car has a very "smooth" glossy wet look to it. Coatings in the past all have a very sharp reflective look which seems to highlight every crease and seam in the body panels...which on this generation of BMW there are plenty. I won`t say it`s better or worse because I like the look. It`s just different.

At this point I`ll also note I`m not sure where this test will go. The week of Thanksgiving I was put back on telework due to local pandemic conditions, so the car has gone from daily driver to garage queen until at least the beginning of the new year. We`ll see where it goes from there. The weather has been unseasonably mild, so it really hasn`t missed much while sitting in the garage. I`ll still run this test until at least spring, but right now I`m not sure conditions will allow for much of a stress test on this product.
 
It`s been a little over a month, so I thought I`d provide an update.

The weather has been unseasonably dry, but over the last month the car has seen a little snow, light road salt, and construction site mud on the road which led to a trip through a touchless wash. Yesterday, as a welcome back to commuting for work, it was treated to heavy rain and drizzle all day. Overall the car has sat in the garage since Thanksgiving and only been driven for short errands or a longer weekend drive to keep everything charged up and the tires round.

So far, the sealant is holding up nicely. I noticed after both the touchless wash and yesterday`s rain, it "self-cleans" better than other sealants I`ve used and performs similar to a coating. Water beading is still good as you can see in the picture. Sheeting seems to be steady as well based on the rate the beads roll off the car while being driven.


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Not sure....but believe it`s been a few months for this product on my Tundra.....maybe four or five months.....today had a very light rain....love the million tiny little beads


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Over here in South Florida, did my V60 back in September. Overnight it stays in the garage but all day it is outside at work sometimes under oak tree but mostly in direct sun. I try to wash once a week but 2 at max. It still looks great and is beading water like the first wash, nothing crazy just Mckee`s Xtreme foam and a hand wash.
 
Another six weeks have passed, so I thought I`d offer up an update.

Due to some work being done to my house and my garage being turned into a materials storage facility, the car has sat out 24/7 since Feb 1. This also lined up to the time winter finally decided to make an appearance, so the car was subject to nearly four weeks of sub-freezing temps and snow on an almost daily basis. Salt and heavy road grime became the order of the day. For the last two weeks we`ve seen quite a bit of rain. Needless to say the car has seen the worst of it. Over this time, I`ve taken it through the touchless car wash once and hand washed it twice.

At this point I`m starting to see the sealant starting to degrade, but not horribly. The water beads are not as tight and uniform like they once were. They are starting to get the big, fat round beads you typically see with many sealants or waxes. Sheeting has slowed noticeably as well. When washing the car the water doesn`t slip right off and a flood rinse doesn`t leave the car mostly dry like it once did. Again, nothing terrible, but it used to be really good. With the slowing of the sheeting action, the self cleaning has dropped off some too. We`re starting to see pollen build up and I`ve noticed a hard rain won`t rinse the car as cleanly as it did last fall.

By my rough calculations, I`ll hit the 5-month point next week. Based on what I`ve seen so far, the sealant should easily make it another month, maybe two. My only question right now is where the lifespan of this product would be if the car didn`t live in the garage for nearly two months while I teleworked every day and the weather hadn`t been unseasonably mild and dry until February.
 
Seems to me that sealants have a hard time making it past the 6 month mark in the real world. Despite the latest additive package craze, it seems like any improvements are minor.
 
From a longevity I went into this test with no expectations at all. I wasn`t sure what the "SiO2" additives would do to the product.

As you point out, it didn`t improve the durability. The difference I did notice is the water behavior. The additives seem to give the sealant water behavior which is more coating-like and in this case, those properties seemed to hang around for over four months and have not started to degrade. At this point it`s starting to act like a normal sealant on the downward slide.
 
Desertnate said:
From a longevity I went into this test with no expectations at all. I wasn`t sure what the "SiO2" additives would do to the product.

As you point out, it didn`t improve the durability. The difference I did notice is the water behavior. The additives seem to give the sealant water behavior which is more coating-like and in this case, those properties seemed to hang around for over four months and have not started to degrade. At this point it`s starting to act like a normal sealant on the downward slide.
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Great test ! Thank you for keeping up with it for us !

Have you ever washed it with something like Carpro Reset to see if helps ?

In my experience after Coating (and using nothing else, toppers, etc., in between), and seeing the appearance degrade, the beading degrade, once I washed it a couple of times with Reset, the coating was now back on top and all the gunk and crap that sticks to the paint was gone...

I finally decided to only use Reset for all my washes, and the coating is very happy with that... I guess that is why they named this product Reset...:)
https://www.autopia-carcare.com/carpro-reset.html#.YFUy_FWpH3g
For $10 more, you can get the 1 liter bottle..

Dan F
 
Stokdgs said:
Great test ! Thank you for keeping up with it for us !

Have you ever washed it with something like Carpro Reset to see if helps ?

In my experience after Coating (and using nothing else, toppers, etc., in between), and seeing the appearance degrade, the beading degrade, once I washed it a couple of times with Reset, the coating was now back on top and all the gunk and crap that sticks to the paint was gone...

I finally decided to only use Reset for all my washes, and the coating is very happy with that... I guess that is why they named this product Reset...:)
https://www.autopia-carcare.com/carpro-reset.html#.YFUy_FWpH3g
For $10 more, you can get the 1 liter bottle..

Dan F
Click to expand...

I`ve used Reset in the past on coatings and really liked it. Due to the price, I could see using Reset a couple times at the start of the year to do just like you describe: get the winter crud out of the coating. However, knowing the soap is stronger than most and designed for coatings, I`ve not used it on this sealant.

When I posted up that update last week I`d washed it once with Optimum Car Wash and once with Meguiars Hyperwash. After a week of torrential rain and an autocross event on a wet, grimy parking lot, I had to wash it again yesterday. This wash was again with the Hyperwash and I`m seeing the continued slow decline of the water behavior.
 
Be interesting to see if reset does anything. So if looks like 4-5 months (max performance) is realistic for a garaged car. Not bad considering it’s not hard to reapply.


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rand0m said:
Be interesting to see if reset does anything. So if looks like 4-5 months (max performance) is realistic for a garaged car. Not bad considering it’s not hard to reapply.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
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4~5 Months of max performance is fair. I`d also caveat that with it being left naked and untouched in some rather awful weather. Even though "max performance" is gone it`s still going and I`m not quite to the point where I`d issue a death certificate. I`m comfortable is saying it is still offering some protection. Most people should be able to get through an entire winter before needing to re-apply. If the same person has a warm garage or moments of mild weather where they could give it a quick spritz of a spray sealant of some form, you`d make it easily. I simply haven`t for the sake of testing to see how it holds up.
 
Desertnate said:
4~5 Months of max performance is fair. I`d also caveat that with it being left naked and untouched in some rather awful weather. Even though "max performance" is gone it`s still going and I`m not quite to the point where I`d issue a death certificate. I`m comfortable is saying it is still offering some protection. Most people should be able to get through an entire winter before needing to re-apply. If the same person has a warm garage or moments of mild weather where they could give it a quick spritz of a spray sealant of some form, you`d make it easily. I simply haven`t for the sake of testing to see how it holds up.
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I`ll be experimenting with some other stuff this spring.....but it`s had this sealant on it since the fall. It got boosted with the WG SIO2 spray sealant a handful of times along the way, and is still beading very nicely. Of all the current crop of liquid sealants, it`s the one I like the best
 
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