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Looking good @Pudge !

 

Still a dork tho. Can’t believe you spent $1000 on stuff. I have only dropped 4000 this year on ceramic gold for 2 trucks and a DI system. But I’m cool. Lol

DUDE IM KIDDING. hahaha

 

Close to 2 hours in. Almost time for another coat. I'm not sure I'm in love with the look but I will give it the full 24-48 hours to cure before I pass judgement.

Right now it seems to magnify any imperfections. The paint was in really good shape and looked close to perfect after I polished it out. I can see some very small what look like spiderweb type scratches now that I did not see before. The is advertised as a forgiving coating that has filling properties and can be applied with minimal correction needed. We will see.
Oh it's safe for plastic too. I did the tailgate handle and I'm impressed how that looks. It's not good on glass from what scott says but perfect for trim and other plastic.

 

Props to you my man for documenting this. That’s all

 

Quick update on the DPC shield. I am going to wait until tomorrow to do a second coat. I have been doing some research and seems that it's likely I will get more longevity if I wait 12-24 hrs between coats. I think the bottle says 3 hours minimum but in scotts videos he mentions waiting longer so I'll do that. No good reason to rush this.

 

Nice sunset reflection. I will say that even with 1 coat the gloss is higher than the rest of my truck which has recently (about a month) had hydro2 and beadmaker applied, and beadmaker reapplied about a week ago. But the panels with beadmaker, even a week old, are much slicker than this fresh coat of shield. Maybe it'll get slicker as it cures. The gloss is pretty impressive though. 2nd coat tomorrow.

 

Really looking forward to your final thoughts on this. You didn’t waste time jumping on it. Must be jonesing since it’s been to cold for you up there.

Definitely curious about your imperfections. I know CQuartz will magnify them, but Scott claims this product should help fill them. Like you said, we won’t know until it cures.

As for Reset, absolutely normal that it doesn’t make a lot of suds. I’m not sure why that is, but it’s always like that. It was near worthless when I tried it in my foam cannon.

 

I'm so happy the weather is nice again up here. I have been able to do something with my truck a few days a week lately. I'll tell you that winter sucks so bad. Not being able go wash or do anything detailing wise really sucks. My next house will have a hot water tap in the garage, I'll figure out a way to wash in winter.

Good to know about the reset. Suds or not, that shit is really nice. Super slick and nice to use.

I have been itching to use this ceramic since it came in. I was gonna do it on the sap hauling Chevy as a test but I need some compound first. So I figured I'd pick a panel to do on my truck, tailgate was most logical even though I wanted to do the roof first, but my back has been really bad and I didn't wanna have to wash my whole truck again after the IronX and clay.
I'm very leary of this hiding imperfections, right now its definitely magnifying them. Maybe it'll do as Scott says once it cured. I can see some marring in the paint that I couldn't see even before I buffed it out.

Also FYI the carpro essence is really nice to work with. Definitely can see and feel a difference when using a polishing pad vs a finishing pad. I used both to get some polishing and gloss out of it. First time really using it and I will say it's a keeper. That may be the reason for the high gloss on the tailgate right now, maybe the essense in combo with the Shield.

I won't be doing much else with it the coating til I get some compound for some more significant scratches. I think I'm trading my 5 inch LC pads for some griots compound and other stuff with @briarpatch. And if you wanna sell or trade any of yours, let me know. I probably don't have anything here to trade that you don't already have. Except this Shield stuff. If not it's easy enough and cheap to head to harbor freight for some megs 105 next week.

 

If you’re not needing it right away, I can send you some of what compounds I have. I know I have Clear Cut, some CG stuff that came with the Torq polisher, and some Megs. It’d be Monday before I can ship it though.

Speaking of that great gloss, do your dad shorts have “tech pockets”?

 

I'm in no rush and will pay you or trade.

Lol yeah those shorts have many pockets haha. And a huge hole in the crotch, hopefully not seen in the reflection

 

10-4. I’ll try and remember to look in the morning. My memory has been slipping lately.

The shorts I wear have a pocket like this above the other one for a cell phone. Super handy.

 

Lol love the shorts. I need the pockets too. One for phone, one for my dip, and one just in case I find something I need to carry I prefer not to carry my tin of dip in my back pocket for all to see. Every pair of jeans I have, have a worn out circle imprint in the back left pocket.

 

No pics but the coating seems harder and a little slicker today after 12 hours of cure time. Also the magnification of some imperfections in the paint is slightly less now than when freshly applied.

 

Thanks Jim.
I'm gonna take a walk outside on my 10 minute break from work and take a look to see how it's looking as its curing. Then when I get home I'll throw on a second coat and buff it. If all goes well, it shouldnt be too difficult to do the rest of the truck, just very time consuming

 

Yes it will definitely take me several days to complete it and it's my only vehicle. So I will do areas from start to finish while watching the weather forecast. Next up will be the roof then who knows. I'm waiting on getting some compound to do some cutting on a few panels so it'll be a few days til I get back at it. It's not hard work just tedious and time consuming. This coating is very easy to use which helps a lot. I may only get 18-24 months of protection but it's a good project for my first ceramic job. I also need to do the maple sap truck. That will also be done on stages over a month or so

 

I checked and all the six inch pads I have are Amazon cheapies. You’re welcome to them, just letting you know I can’t speak for the quality.

 

2nd coat of DPC shield is done.
Before I put on the 2nd coat I did notice that the 1st had hardened up a bit from yesterday and it seemed to show imperfections a little less now that its cured. But I still don't believe it has the tremendous filling capabilities that scott described.
The gloss and depth is really really nice. Its not very slick compared to what I'm used to (hydro2/reload/beadmaker) so I can't wait to be able to top it with reload in a couple days.
So far so good though.

pro's are its very easy to apply and wipe off, its cheap, you get a ton of product (enough to do several cars with 2 coats), they claim it's pretty forgiving as far as the need to correct the paint, and very high gloss level.
Con's are I feel like it magnifies imperfections even though DPC claims the opposite.
Unknowns are longevity, hardness level, resistance to scratches , and water beading and much it'll improve the ease of cleaning.

I did email DPC today about using the carpro essense as a primer and jeweling coat directly under shield. They did reply and do not recommend doing that, they suggest that every panel is wiped down fully with and IPA solution so the paint is completely "clean". They said their formula is much different than cquartz so they can not promise I will achieve the same results as far as longevity goes. I guess I'm the Guinea pig on this.

 

I’ve been using this product lately for quick spot cleaning. Works really well and quick. Pretty much ONR in spray form. I use it daily to get bugs and bird droppings off. (Doesn’t work when they’re dried on though. You have to do it immediately.)

Pretty cheap also. I use the concentrate.

Optimum (22752 Opti-Clean - 32 oz.

$16 Optimum Opti-Clean Waterless Wash and Wax - Concentrated Waterless Car Cleaning Spray, Car Wax, and Polymer Protection (32 oz)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GG9FCW0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_cQ8.CbWRF01T9

 

Well damn, detailedimage has carpro 15% plus free shipping. I was pretty good and only spend 40 on some immolube, perl, ech20,and trix. I held off on other stuff i wanted. I need to have someone set parental setting on my phone and ban me from buying detailing stuff

 

You and me both. My wife found on our banking app where it shows how much money has been spent on different types of categories. “Automotive” was pretty high in the list.

By the way, I got a sample of Elixer with my last order. Not sure if it’s worth the price, but it works very well. Seems to be a stronger concentration than what we’ve been mixing ourselves.

 

I’ve gotten some pretty bad water spots or something on the truck. Don’t know if it happened when my Spotless system was acting up, or from some other source. Possibly left from a rinseless wash I drove through a while back, or something from the road or what, but it’s bugging me. No one else but me notices them though.
Tried to polish them out with Carpro Reflect yesterday, to no effect. That was the least aggressive product I had, so I’ll move up from there. I’ll try Finesse It next. Hopefully that will do the trick. I’d rather not use a compound if I don’t have to.
Reflect doing absolutely nothing to it has me worried. Hopefully these weren’t there when that guy did the terrible job of applying my ceramic. It’s gonna suck if they’re sealed under it. There were a couple of holograms on the area I did, and the Reflect took them out, so it should’ve gotten the spots also.

Unfortunately, I’ve noticed my eyes are getting bad and I’ll need glasses soon. The spots could’ve been there a while, I just couldn’t see them until the light hit them just right.

 

I'm curious as to what they use for a ratio and mix. I like my elixir and use it alot for touch ups here at there.

 

I wish I had some advice on water spots. Most of what I get can be wiped off with a detail spray or elixir. I wonder if it is indeed under the cquartz. That would suck.

 

Probably could’ve been if I’d seen them sooner.

 

Morning all,
So I’m upset, some dirtbag, decided my truck was a scratching post at my local shopping center.
What can you recommend I use to take these out.

First photo is the tailgate, 3rd photo is the passenger front door. 2nd picture shows how shiny it was.

 

I would try first with a cutting compound on a cutting pad. You could try by hand but a da polisher would be better. They may need wet sanding but try compound first. Followed by a polish then some sealant

 

Thanks Sean,
I have a Porter cable random polisher in my arsenal.
What pads should I be using and what compound would you recommend?

Thanks.

 

I haven’t done a ton of polishing, but I’ve researched it heavily, so here’s what I know:

You can get a bottle of Meguair’s Ultimate at Walmart for less than ten bucks. I’d get both the compound and the polish since they are so cheap. Try the polish first. If you have to use the compound, you’ll want to go back over it with the polish anyway. I’ve also had success with Meguair’s Scratch X.
There’s better stuff out there, like 3M Finesse It, Carpro stuff, and The Last Cut, but you have to order it and it’s more expensive. Depends on if you plan on doing it regularly.

As for pads, Lake Country is the best. Black for polish, orange for compound. If you don’t want to order those in, Harbor Freight, Sears, and some auto parts stores have pads. Not the highest quality, but you may not care if you’re not using them a ton.

 

You could get megs ultimate compound and ultimate polish and some megs cutting pads and polish pads. They are microfiber and work pretty well. likely available at walmart pr a parts store.
I like buff and shine or lake country pads myself.
Just be sure to use a cutting pad with compound and polish pad with polish. There are several brands of compound and polish better than meguiars but youd have to order online and wait for shipping.
If you have a harbor freight nearby they usually have megs M105 compound and M205 polish, both are very good.

 

Be sure to clean you pads as you go and after. They gets caked up and dont work well like that.
I will use compressed air to blow off excess product and or a brush to clean as I run the polisher at full speed.