Ask the Detailer

Really? I don't think I've ever heard of such a thing. Although, I'm not all that surprised these days. Back when I was a kid, I'd park my '66 Mustang over the storm drain, throw a screen down over the grate, and proceed to do an oil change.

Ahhhhh, I miss the simpler times.

 

I mean zero disrespect, but unless your local municipality has water reclamation rules don't fret over washing your vehicle. No different than the street crud flowing into the storm drain when it rains (actually worse) than washing your truck.

 

Anyone have suggestions for good microfiber towels for cleaning glass?

 

Sometimes I just get a bucket of water and my regular car wash soap and use that.

 

I've seen detailer do it while washing using the car wash soap as thr lubricant. I've never done it or been a fan of it...but ya could I'd assume

 

Yea.....not the best practice unless you wash/rinse the vehicle first and then go right into claying. Use a fresh wash solution of course.

 

If I know I'm claying, I'll foam soak, rinse, hand wash, rinse again, then leave just enough in my foam cannon to spray the panels down as I go. CG Snow Foam with a dab of ONR in the reservoir works great as a lubricant.

 

Yep that's the way I do it.

 

Pretty much anything will work, but try to find something that doesn’t produce any lint. I generally use Costco microfiber towels for glass.

 

I just use whatever detail spray I have a lot of.

 

Any suggestions on interior glass cleaner/preventer/make me not have to clean it as often?

I must be a heavy, mouth breathing SOB because I always get streaky, greasy stuff on my windshield interior...

 

A mask.

 

clean it....stoner's glass cleaner.
prevent from fogging....learn how to use ac to defog and/or put some antifog on our inside glass. i used a rain-x anti fog a long time ago and it seemed to work pretty well. even used it on my mirrors at our old house cuz it was small and old and the fan sucked. worked well on that too. i haven't used it in a while though.

 

For anyone interested, I will be comparing Undrdog Pro with Owner's Pride here shortly. This stuff has been destroying a lot of the "professional" coatings on the market right now in YouTube reviews. Will be putting it on my wife's car. For reference my truck and Mini Cooper have Owner's Pride 7 year on it. I saw a concerning test on OP and will be giving it a 30 day wash on both vehicles to test it then not touching it on the Mini (daily driver) for several months to see how it reacts to a real world scenario of a client not keeping up with it. My wife beats her car to all hell so it'll be a good side by side test of the two.

I've also got an OEM paint Honda door out back I'm wetsanding currently and will be applying what's left of this onto a strip. A video of the coating circulated where someone poured paint thinner on this coating along with several other well known coatings. It diminished it obviously, but it rocked the other coatings whereas this held up very well on that stress test.

Edit: price point is $70 for 30mils (which is excellent by other standards) and folks have easily been getting two cars out of this bottle (paint, trim, wheels) with Autofiber saver applicators (applicator pad with a thin lining of plastic to stop coatings from absorbing too much). And it's available for anyone to purchase.. none of that "installer only" bullshit.

 

Cant wait to see how it works.

I did a full correction and cquartz on my commuter car and wasn't really impressed. Didn't seem to last that long. Now the poor thing has skin cancer (flaking clear coat)

 

Teflon is old tech but the company was able to somehow figure out a way (according to them) to allow Teflon to bond through chemical resins. Layman's terms it's basically the same shit on your nonstick cooking pans (that stuff is bonded by extreme temps of 500+, can't bake a car that hot lol).

 

Never could say how long my cquartZ lasted I just keep putting stuff on top of it.

 

This has my interest

 

Is that really all that cquartz is?

 

No that's Undrdog Pro. Cquartz is SiO2.

 

I think i would have been better doing that way. I kinda thought that it would be a one-n-done for a few years outside of regular washes. I really wish i would have put some stuff on top....maybe it would have kept the clear coat from flaking.

 

Ohhhhhh.....gotcha.

 

Most coatings are SiO2. Opticoat and Owner's Pride are SiC. Some coatings claim "graphene" which is basically an SiO2 coating with a smidgen of graphene in it so who really knows. This is PTFE (teflon).

Easiest way to describe them is SiO2 bonds in a resin on top of your paint (makes it thicker). SiC chemically bonds within the clear coat and strengthens it. "Graphene" sits on top like SiO2. This does the same as SiO2 but is not a ceramic. Completely different chemical makeup.

SiO2 coatings increase color/depth. SiC increase reflectivity/mirror finish. "Graphene" do a little of both. This apparently is just glossy and slicker than shit. We will see!

 

New (old) kid on the block.

 

Basically. I asked some really technical questions to the owner and I could tell he knew his stuff and gave me non-bullshit answers. I'm looking to find a coating with more realistic expectations for your average person since I apply these professionally. Can't expect someone to pay 1k+ and maintain it as recommended and it perform flawlessly. If I can find one that works as good as day 1 without a wash for a couple months, I'd be sold.

 

Number one reason I tend to steer normal people away from coatings. They still take scheduled work to maintain. @War Machine hooked me up with hydro2 which definitely helps applied once a month. It’s actually one of my favorite products now.

 

you gonna start a new thread dedicated to it?

 

Yeah I don't do as many coatings as I'd like because I always tell the clients straight up what to expect and not expect. Takes money out of my pocket but I'm not a snake oil salesman.

 

I was thinking about it. I have access to IGL and Owner's Pride professionally. Glassparency, Undrdog, and other retail ceramics I can get whenever. Glassparency was installer only but opened up to everyone not too long ago.

 

So.... should we start taking bets on how long your OCD actually lets you go on this before you have a breakdown?