Welcome, Mariner!
As to your opinion about coatings in a white vehicle, I could not disagree more. I have a white 2015 Tundra, coated with Finest, and my wife's white Impreza, coated with a consumer version and both look amazing. I have received many compliments.
Can you tell us your process prior to applying the coating....deconning, correcting, and polishing?
Thanks!
fdresq4, thank you for the warm welcome.
My process.... I didn't want to make any mistakes before application that would compromise the coatings integrity, so here's the process I followed.
Firstly, a simple wash. Afterwards, I sprayed on the decon liquid that comes with the CQuartz package I had purchased. As I suspected, my spotless and blinding white hood turned into this purple speckled monster. After a few minutes, I agitated with a soapy washpad, and then rinsed. Following the decon, I went over the hood and grille again with both a clay bar and clay mitt, depending on what I deemed was necessary. The baggie test still felt rough even after all this, but thanks to my recently upgraded garage lighting (installed led tubes), I was able to see micro pitting pretty much everywhere... just these teeny tiny specks that you can really only see if you put a light directly over it and squint. Considering I had a windshield replaced last year due to micro pitting, I expected this type of damage.
After claying, I paint corrected using both correcting and finishing polishes. This took about an hour or so on the hood as I had multiple pads to continually swap out. Since my 4Runner paint is that single stage Super White, I was weary of polishing too much, so with the polisher continually moving, I was careful not to over do it.
To remove the polishing oils, I used a coating prep formula from another company. Now with everything bare, I could feel the resistance when trying to wipe my fingers across the paint. I spot cleaned one last time with my coating prep, and went over every inch with an led light to make sure there were no streaks. I could still see micro pitting, but there was nothing I could do about that at this point.
From here, I just followed the instructions on the CQuartz bottle. I cross-hatched the entire hood, then went back and buffed it off. Because of Florida's high humidity, I waited approximately 5-10 minutes before removing. I could feel the resistance in the towel while I wiped so I feel I applied it correctly. After completing the hood, I applied to the grille, then removed accordingly.
Overall, I'm very pleased with the process and application. Once I see how well it performs under water in 2 days, I'll go back and finish the rest of the vehicle. Once done I'll post pics or maybe a video of water application depending on if you can even tell the white is coated. Thanks to CarPro for such a user friendly product.
