OK Curran, Carpro advice.

Curran

Could stick a 162-C plate on it and no one would be the wiser!

cena

How would you know if the iron x was working on black paint?

vectra

cena wrote: »

How would you know if the iron x was working on black paint?

Don't worry.
You would see the purple running.

Mc Love

I literally have no time anymore, my black beauty really needs a good clean and reading this thread is really tempting me to give the Carpro treatment a go before the winter comes.

It is an 11 though so there are a few swirls, marks etc but the almost maintenance free would be a dream.

Curran

Didn't you get it done with James recently? What did he use on it?

dodzy

vectra wrote: »

Liberally sprayed the car which was embarresing to me as it was so dirty.

I'd say your 'dirty' is the equivalent of most peoples 'spotless' in fairness :P

vectra

dodzy wrote: »

I'd say your 'dirty' is the equivalent of most peoples 'spotless' in fairness :P

:D:D

You could be right.
Though I do remember one of my cars being filthy one day. Cant remember which car though :pac::pac:

Ah no , In all honesty, my cars do get filthy at times.

Mc Love

Curran wrote: »

Didn't you get it done with James recently? What did he use on it?

That was almost 6 months ago (I know, where has the time gone)

shietpilot

dodzy wrote: »

I'd say your 'dirty' is the equivalent of most peoples 'spotless' in fairness :P

When you tell someone you're going to wash the car and they look at you like you fell out of the moon and tell you it's already "clean" :D:D

Curran

Mc Love wrote: »

That was almost 6 months ago (I know, where has the time gone)

What did you have done? Did he polish it? Protected it with what?

Mc Love

I had the enhancement done. I assume he polished it, not sure what product he used though or cant remember

ronnie3585

Hi Curran - I have some products inbound from you and just have a few questions regarding application.

Eraser - what's the best way to apply this, there doesn't seem to be any instructions on the website. Should I spray directly onto a panel and then wipe off with a microfibre cloth or should I spray it onto a wet sponge and essentially wash the car with it?

Perl - what's the most effective concentration for external plastics and rubbers? How effective is it for leather? The only leather I have in the car is the steering wheel. It's quite shiny and needs a good clean, would Perl be good for this or is it more of a sealant for clean leather?

Thanks:)

shietpilot

ronnie3585 wrote: »

Eraser - what's the best way to apply this, there doesn't seem to be any instructions on the website. Should I spray directly onto a panel and then wipe off with a microfibre cloth or should I spray it onto a wet sponge and essentially wash the car with it?

Spray onto the panel and wipe off with MF. The CarPro stuff tell you exactly what to do on the labels.

Here's one from Eraser, zoom in and you can see: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1160/5568/products/eraser5L__14398.1400223202.1280.1280_1024x1024.jpeg?v=1456585072

Curran

ronnie3585 wrote: »

Eraser - what's the best way to apply this, there doesn't seem to be any instructions on the website. Should I spray directly onto a panel and then wipe off with a microfibre cloth or should I spray it onto a wet sponge and essentially wash the car with it?

Perl - what's the most effective concentration for external plastics and rubbers? How effective is it for leather? The only leather I have in the car is the steering wheel. It's quite shiny and needs a good clean, would Perl be good for this or is it more of a sealant for clean leather?

Eraser is spray on, buff until its hazed out using a microfiber

PERL - exterior surfaces is straight out of the bottle - you'd dilute for an engine bay, and dilute a lot for interior. Ive actually never used it on leather - certainly not a cleaner. I dont put anything on my seats, only keep them clean.

ronnie3585

Excellent, cheers!

ronnie3585

Quick question for the experts;

I used HydroLite2 on my car recently and it was a heart breaking experience. Before I used the product the car was de-ironed, de-tarred, clayed, washed, Eraser used and a coat of AG SRP was applied. The paint was cool and not in direct sunlight. I followed the video on the CarPro site here, using the spray on wipe off method first. This was a disaster, when I sprayed onto a panel and tried to buff it off it became almost sticky, left loads of dark streaks and was extremely hard to work out. The car is black and the streaks looked matte black/brown. Thankfully I only tried this on one panel.

Next I used the spray on rinse off method. I rinsed down the car, then applied the product to two panels at a time and then rinsed it off. It wasn't until I had the whole car done and dried off that I noticed more dark streaks and water spots all over the car. They were worst on the roof and bonnet and particularly along anywhere where the water would drain off a panel. I was able to get rid of them with a damp Dry Me Crazy towel but it took the guts of an hour and an immense amount of elbow grease to do the whole car.

What did I do wrong? I had followed the instructions to the letter and I can't figure it out.

Curran

Firstly, it's good to see that you havent totally disregarded the product as being rubbish based on one bad experience; and that youve decided to investigate where you might have gone wrong!

And the issue is down to the SRP. Hydro2Lite will only really work on bare paintwork, or products that it is compatible with (CarPro Essence Polish, and other coatings in the range). Any other layers in between will react or hinder the product from performing as it should.
As you probably know SRP, as with all hand polishes, have fillers in them to help hide defects. As such, they are applied, buffed off and layered with a sealant, Extra Gloss Protection or a wax, AG HD wax and they are designed to work in that way.

Machine polishing is different, bare with me, in that you have to remove the oils from the polish or the wax or sealant that you apply on it wont bond to its full potential.

So if your paintwork needed a bit of a polish and you wanted to hide the swirls - HydrO2Lite is not for you. What you could have done, in an attempt to add a bit of depth to the paintwork is to use SRP to do this, but then in turn used Eraser now, instead of before, to remove it from the surface...it will have enhanced the paintwork, somewhat. Now with bare paintwork, HydrO2Lite will perform as it should - and it should amaze you!

If I were you...I'd use Eraser on the bonnet, probably could do with two attempts, as the HydrO2Lite is still likely to be there. And wet the panel and see how the water reacts...shouldnt see anything amazing, the water sitting, slowly dripping away. Then on one half try the spray on, buff off method (ideally using two clean cloths; one to lift the heavy stuff and another to buff any light streaks, shouldnt take any effort) and on the other half, try the spray on, power wash off method. Literally all it needs is a quick dry afterwards - if you rinse with an open hose, most of the water should sheet away.

On a side note - your Dry Me Crazy will have picked up the HydrO2Lite and the surface will now be hydrophobic, so wont want to absorb water, but more like push it about the surface....a wash in the machine should sort that.

Let us know how you get on; as I can look into it further if you are still having issues.

ronnie3585

Many thanks for taking the time to pen such a comprehensive reply Curran. I fully understand what I did wrong now. I had done loads of research online about sealants and head read again and again that they are to be applied over polish - I didn't realise this meant machine polish and not a filler type like SRP.

I haven't disregarded the product at all. Although I swore blind I would t use it again as I was cleaning the residue off the car, the final results have been fantastic and I will be using it (or Reload) again - albeit correctly:) I applied a layer of HD wax over the Hydro2 and I've never seen such hydrophobic action on the car, the water just sheets off it.

Here's a pic of the beading afterwards:


I applied it to the windscreen too and I'm getting a kind of opaque haze when the wipers are on. I'm half thinking of getting rid of it but I haven't really driven the car in heavy rain so maybe that might reduce the haze. What would be best for removing it, glass polish or Eraser?

The Dry Me Crazy went straight into the wash afterwards, thanks for the tip. As an aside, it's a phenomenal piece of kit. I ran it under the tap to see how much water it can take and it's immense!

Curran

HydrO2Lite wouldn't work on top of any polish, or than CarPro's own Essence polish due to it have a different make up....it has built in SiO2 which will the HydrO2Lite will take to.

Hand polish - traditional wax and sealants will take to it and best to stick with the manufacturer for the polish and wax/sealant as they are designed to combo. Nano products don't take to these types of polishes.

Machine polish - remove the polish from the surface. There is no fillers as in theory youn should have corrected them. The oils prevent bonding.

Exception would be a product like CarPro Essence where is has semi permanent resins and the product says it's specifically designed to be layered. It's a stand alone product that has built in protection, it can be layered with CarPro HydrO2 products, Reload, or I'd a perfect base to CQUK.
And an expecting like this is quite rare...hence why it's getting a lot of air time in detailing circles, it's a bit of a game changer.

Yes Eraser will take away the HydrO2Lite.
After a few uses of the wipers you should notice the hazing becoming less obvious. It's a factor that has to be considered with many products applied to glass. Takes a while to get used to, and some haze out quicker than others. The better ones bead really well and wipers aren't needed at speeds over 40-50mph, and so putting up with the spit second hazing at slower speeds isn't so bad. The smooth action of the wiper blade is a joy though.

Another note, that beading is as a result of the HD Wax, HydrO2Lite is having no effect on water reaction; it will be helping the overall appearance though.
If you are looking for a spray on, buff off type product which offers good protection, CarPro Reload is fantastic. 15 mins to do the whole car and it is hydrophobic and a glossy shine. Best applied on bare paintwork and then layered when needed, or every 3rd or 4th wash to keep it looking amazing. It's good for 4-6 months.

AND yet another note...ha ha....when using products like HydrO2 products, Reload, ceramic coatings, etc, it's best to use shampoo that don't have gloss enhancers, as these effect the structure by clogging the nano links of the coating and while the product isn't effected, the shampoo is the top layer and thus beading characteristics, etc are now of the shampoo, not the product applied.

ronnie3585

Great info Curran thanks, you should really consider giving tutorials in this stuff!

The paint is in decent nick, it has some light swirls hence me using SRP as it covers them up well. I'm almost out of my current stock so I have been looking at replacements. Essence sounds like just the job I need, however I don't have a DA. I note from your site that it says it can be used by hand however CQuartz cannot be applied thereafter - does it follow that Hydro2Lite/Reload could not be used after a hand application of Essence?

I'll need shampoo too soon, would Reset be a good option? I really like the finish HD wax gives, and I'll continue to apply it over a sealant. I wash the car about once every two weeks and I don't want the shampoo to accelerate any degradation of the wax. Would Reset do this?

vectra

12 Months on.
Gave the Passat a wash Sunday.
Usual
Foam
Wash
dry
Light top up with Carpro reload.

Was heading off to Dublin Monday morning and was met by this after an overnight shower of rain.
I cannot complain with these results after 12 months since application.

vectra

Well,
Gave the passat a pre soak with a dilution of apc in a squirt bottle.
Let it dwell for about 5 or so minutes
Rinsed
washed with reset
Rinsed and rinsed.
The coating is looking well beyond it's best at this stage I think.
Sides of the car still look to be beading pretty well, but the bonnet / roof & boot all seem to have taken a bit of a hammering.
Zero beading and zero sheeting.
Misted some reload to act as a drying aid and it looks quiet good again, But this will only last until next wash time.

I have two options from here.

First off I have two very small chips on the bonnet I must get repaired.

Then it is either

A)
Get Dave ( FN ) to give it a quick once over for me some day and use up some left over CQUK I have.


Coat the whole car in Fusso as it will be gone in 9 months or so.

Decisions.. !!

Curran

C) Change it now....sure you know you want to!

vectra

Curran wrote: »

C) Change it now....sure you know you want to!

I am at the point of "what to buy next" already :P

ronnie3585

Quick question - how often should one re-apply Reload?

The car gets washed about once every two weeks. Would it be too much to top it up once a month? I want to protect the CQuartz layer underneath it but don't want to over do it at the same time.

Curran

You could use it daily and it won't do any harm...other than to your pocket!! A light misting per panel every wash or two is ideal...about 10-15ml per car is enough...a slightly heavier coat if it's extended periods between washing.

ronnie3585

Curran wrote: »

You could use it daily and it won't do any harm...other than to your pocket!! A light misting per panel every wash or two is ideal...about 10-15ml per car is enough...a slightly heavier coat if it's extended periods between washing.

Obliged as always Curran, cheers!

ronnie3585

What are peoples' experience with Reload's durability?

I did a job on the gf's car the October bank holiday weekend. Full decontamination, clay and a DA polish with Essence on a finishing pad. It's had two maintenance washes since then. I washed it again yesterday and noticed that it wasn't in any way hydrophobic.

The car doesn't get driven a whole lot and the weather hasn't been particularly bad so I was expecting more longevity than six weeks. CarPro quote up to six months protection!

I thought my prep was spot on, I followed the instructions to the letter, so the only thing I'm left with are the atmospheric conditions. We're pretty close to the sea and it was quite damp the day I applied it (as it always is!) - could this have degraded the product?

vectra

As far as I am aware.
Just because the beading is gone it doesn't mean the protection is not still working.
Curran might be able to explain in more words

Curran

As Vectra says, the protection is still there, even if you dont have the full effect of the hydrophobic characteristics.
What shampoo have you been using? Or have you applied something on top of it since, such as a quick detailer?

CarPro say up to 6 months protection - but as you can imagine, thats in favourable conditions. The Oct Bank Holiday weekend was 11 weeks ago!