The owner of this 2015 Avalon has seen my work on a few other vehicles and requested for his car to be corrected and "coated." He was quite impressed by the dirt-repelling capabilities from CQuartz UK on my girlfriend's car, so he specifically requested for a similar product to be used on his vehicle.
Up until now, this vehicle had been washed by a local "hand wash" car wash. There are many of these places in Southern California and the quality of their work can vary significantly. Clearly, the one that has been maintaining this car has done some serious destruction to the finish!
After a wash using Meguiars Hyper Wash and a decontamination using Nanoskin's fine-grade wash mitt, this is the damage that I found:
Untitled by The Critic, on Flickr
Untitled by The Critic, on Flickr
Interestingly enough, the owner had no specific concerns regarding the condition of his paint. But needless to say, the paint's condition had to be improved before I coated the vehicle.
For compounding, I used Meguiars M100 and a Rupes yellow foam polishing pad on the Rupes LHR21 for the hood, roof and fenders. This combination finished fairly well but sometimes required multiple passes to obtain the desired results. In the interest of efficiency, the rest of the vehicle was corrected with a Flex PE-14 rotary. On the sections that were done with a rotary, I used Meguiars M100 with a Meguiars WRFP7 pad to compound, but followed up with Meguiars M205 with the same pad to refine.
For final polishing, the entire car was finished down using the new CarPro Essence on the Rupes LHR21 DA with a foam polishing pad. CarPro Essence is a new product to CarPro's line-up and is used as a "primer" for their CQuartz line of coatings. This product also has some semi-permanent filling capabilities.
After polishing, two coats of CQuartz TiO2 (Classic) was applied. Here's a picture of the coating being applied onto the vehicle (it had just been applied and was beginning to "flash"):
Untitled by Michael Wan, on Flickr
CQuartz TiO2 is a Quartz and Titanium based hybrid coating that should provide up to 2 years of protection. It is a different formulation than the popular CQuartz UK; this version of CQuartz is easier to apply in warmer climates and also provides better gloss (but with less of a darkening effect). The only downside is that 2 coats are required, so the amount of product used is much higher (I used about 35ml on this car) and the time commitment is far greater (about 4 hours to apply two coats).
And this is the final product (went back 2 days later to take these pictures):
Untitled by The Critic, on Flickr
2 by The Critic, on Flickr
3 by The Critic, on Flickr
Untitled by The Critic, on Flickr
I think the total time spent was about 15 hours. The owner is now in possession of a wash kit containing rinseless wash, proper towels, grit-guard, etc -- so hopefully this car will stay in good shape for a while. The paint is fairly soft but the coating should help reduce some of the wash-induced marring.
- TC
Up until now, this vehicle had been washed by a local "hand wash" car wash. There are many of these places in Southern California and the quality of their work can vary significantly. Clearly, the one that has been maintaining this car has done some serious destruction to the finish!
After a wash using Meguiars Hyper Wash and a decontamination using Nanoskin's fine-grade wash mitt, this is the damage that I found:
Untitled by The Critic, on FlickrUntitled by The Critic, on FlickrInterestingly enough, the owner had no specific concerns regarding the condition of his paint. But needless to say, the paint's condition had to be improved before I coated the vehicle.
For compounding, I used Meguiars M100 and a Rupes yellow foam polishing pad on the Rupes LHR21 for the hood, roof and fenders. This combination finished fairly well but sometimes required multiple passes to obtain the desired results. In the interest of efficiency, the rest of the vehicle was corrected with a Flex PE-14 rotary. On the sections that were done with a rotary, I used Meguiars M100 with a Meguiars WRFP7 pad to compound, but followed up with Meguiars M205 with the same pad to refine.
For final polishing, the entire car was finished down using the new CarPro Essence on the Rupes LHR21 DA with a foam polishing pad. CarPro Essence is a new product to CarPro's line-up and is used as a "primer" for their CQuartz line of coatings. This product also has some semi-permanent filling capabilities.
After polishing, two coats of CQuartz TiO2 (Classic) was applied. Here's a picture of the coating being applied onto the vehicle (it had just been applied and was beginning to "flash"):
Untitled by Michael Wan, on FlickrCQuartz TiO2 is a Quartz and Titanium based hybrid coating that should provide up to 2 years of protection. It is a different formulation than the popular CQuartz UK; this version of CQuartz is easier to apply in warmer climates and also provides better gloss (but with less of a darkening effect). The only downside is that 2 coats are required, so the amount of product used is much higher (I used about 35ml on this car) and the time commitment is far greater (about 4 hours to apply two coats).
And this is the final product (went back 2 days later to take these pictures):
Untitled by The Critic, on Flickr2 by The Critic, on Flickr3 by The Critic, on FlickrUntitled by The Critic, on FlickrI think the total time spent was about 15 hours. The owner is now in possession of a wash kit containing rinseless wash, proper towels, grit-guard, etc -- so hopefully this car will stay in good shape for a while. The paint is fairly soft but the coating should help reduce some of the wash-induced marring.
- TC
