Maintenance Regime for New Car: Coating or WOWA or......

[andy2667]

Hi,

I am new to auto detailing and have not owned a new car for ages. I just replaced by trusted 20 years old Mercedes C200 which stopped working by a new BMW 520d. I parked in covered carpark of an apartment without hose or electric plug. Therefore, I will not be able to use power tools for policing and have to use Rinless wash for routine maintenance. I am a daily driver and do not want to spend too much effort in maintaining the car painting. My objectives are:
- Using not too much effort to keep my car clean
- As a new car owner, want to protect the paint, lamps, .....all exposed parts as much as I can. Don't want to get so many swirl, deteriorated lamp cover, bumpers.....soon
- excellent shinny waxy look is a bonus but not necessary. Decent finishing is already good.

As a newbie, I am considering the following maintenance regime. Would be very much appreciated if you can advise your opinions or views:

1. Nano Coating

I am seriously considering having a pro (a Carpro dealer) to completely coat the exterior of my car. Quartz Finest for paint, Cquart Delux for bumpers, wheels, bumpers, plastic, and coat all glasses and sun roof as well. Other similar coating can also be considered. By doing so, I hope that I could do min. maintenance on the exterior. May do rinses wash weekly or bi-weekly. Using refresh and reload mostly and the de-ion product every 6 months longer hopefully to refresh the car appearance periodically. It seems that it is a less troublesome regime but my concerns are:
- Whether the periodic "refresh maintenance" can keep the car appearance in a decent conditions
- Whether swirls will form in an extent that I have to redo it well before the 2 years warranty period
- Whether it is better to coat it now when my car is new and the paint are in good condition. Or I coat it in 6 months when my new car wax start to degrade.
- What to do if I need to repaint a section of the panel (e.g. a minor incident caused a deeper scratch ) . Need to recite this panel or I need to re-caot the whole car for consistence in the appearance?

2. WOWA + waterless wash

Noting that WOWA is not difficult. Will wit better if I do WOWA (e.h. Ultimate paint guard plus) bi-monthly and Waterless wash bi-weekly? Can the WOWA seal lamp covers and bumpers? Will it provide similar protecting as the Cquartz Delux if I apply WOWA frequent enough.

Thanks

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Hi Andy, welcome to AutoGeekOnline from Germany! Congrats on the new BMW.

In your scenario of not having the ability to polish the paint whenever you want, I would also consider having it coated so that way future Rinseless/Waterless washes are easier on you.

As far as maintenance of the coated vehicle that would be determined between you and the installer. Im sure the installer will have a wash routine for their customers with a coating.

It is best to coat the vehicle as soon as possible and keep up with it from day one.

Painting is a non issue. You will have to find out from the paint shop on where/what was repainted. If the fender was repainted only or if it was blended into adjacent panels. Here you will find out where the coating needs to be re applied after information from the painter.

[andy2667]

Hi Andy, welcome to AutoGeekOnline from Germany! Congrats on the new BMW.

In your scenario of not having the ability to polish the paint whenever you want, I would also consider having it coated so that way future Rinseless/Waterless washes are easier on you.

As far as maintenance of the coated vehicle that would be determined between you and the installer. Im sure the installer will have a wash routine for their customers with a coating.

It is best to coat the vehicle as soon as possible and keep up with it from day one.

Painting is a non issue. You will have to find out from the paint shop on where/what was repainted. If the fender was repainted only or if it was blended into adjacent panels. Here you will find out where the coating needs to be re applied after information from the painter.

Thank Mike for the advices.

Modern car detailing techniques and products are greek to me as I have not had properly doing detailing for my previously owned old car for a long long time. Now with the new car, I did search a while in the web. Initially, I thought nano coating is the ideal solution to me. However, after searching information for a while, I got mixed views and opinions. I am confused about the following points and characteristics of the the coating compared with normal sealant/WOWA. These are essential for my decision making on whether I would go for nano coating:

1. Easy of maintenance/cleaning
A lot of advertisement from all nano coating suppliers/installers on this. However, from the real life experience, how much improvement of the ability in reducing dirt attachment and making cleaning of the nano coated car easier compared with normal sealant or WOWA? Is it only comparable to normal sealant, marginally better, quite a bit better or noticeably better? What I am expecting is that the nano coating should have equal or better performance in this or there will be no point in using coating. Am I correct?

2. Durability and performance
Advertisement advised that nano coating will last a lot longer compared with normal sealants. Some quoted 2 years, some quoted years, and some quoted longer. In my case, I may get 2 years warranty from Quartz Finest while Qtechniq installer advised that the Qtechniq C1 +EXo will last 1~2 years and Qtechniq Serum +EXO will last
3~5 years, and EXO requires annual re-application. Could your share what will be the Slickness and Shininess of these coatings compared with normal sealants? Throughout the useful life of the coating which I presume will align with the above advised by the installers, if i do maintenance, reload...etc as per recommendation,will the slickness, shininess, and water sheeting/beading performance deteriorate rapidly, or moderately or slowly, or could be maintained quite good until end of life of the coating? I note that this depends very much on the conditions/weather in which I use the car but I want to get a general views on this from real life experience. If I cannot upkeep the good cleaning performance, slickness and shininess even doing routine maintenance, and if it will be worse than using WOWA or normal sealant, there will be no point going for coating. On the other hand, if generally the slickness, shininess and water beading is as good as sealants and can last most of the useful life as quoted above with not too much degradation in performance, I will go for coating.

3. What to do when stubborn dirt accumulated
Using normal sealant, I can use clay for cleaning this. Is claying applicable for nano coating? Or I can do minor polishing to upkeep the coating?

4. What to do when Swirl accumulated
I think not much can be done in this area for coating except for repolishing and re-coating. Am I correct?

5. What to do during end of life of the coating
Coating will wear out, degrade or degenerate eventually. When coating approaching end of its useful life, what can I do to resume its performance? I presume that I can do re-coating using the same system. However, can I use other coating system instead and will it be very troublesome in doing so (e.g original coating is Quartz, then recoat it to Opti Coat at the end of life cycle). Alternatively, can I resume to using sealants/wax at the end of the life cycle of the coating in case that I don't like using coating? Will it be very difficult to do so i.e. Need to fully remove the coating which I think is not an easy task without substantially polishing the paint. This may be difficult even for a professional and may cause quite a deep cut to the the original clear paint coat or even will need to totally remove it? This will fully damage the paint system? This is the biggest concern I have and that is why I have still not yet decided.

By the way, what I am considering and are limited to either CQuartz Finest (and associated system such as CQuartz Delux) or the Qtechniq system because only authorised installers for these 2 brands/systems are available in my area other than those installers using unknown brand coating system. Nevertheless, the price quoted by the Cquartz Finest installer (Quartz Finest + Quartz Delux + glass coating) is quite a bit cheaper than the price quoted by Qtechiq installer (Qtechniq C1 + Expo. The Qtechniq Serum system + EXPo will be even more expensive ).

If I use WOWA, I may eventually need to get a professional detailer to have deep cleaning, polishing and detailing for my car yearly, or drive my car to my friend's place to do machine polishing.

Your thought and comments are very much appreciated.

Thanks

[njain2686]

Thank Mike for the advices.

Modern car detailing techniques and products are greek to me as I have not had properly doing detailing for my previously owned old car for a long long time. Now with the new car, I did search a while in the web. Initially, I thought nano coating is the ideal solution to me. However, after searching information for a while, I got mixed views and opinions. I am confused about the following points and characteristics of the the coating compared with normal sealant/WOWA. These are essential for my decision making on whether I would go for nano coating:

1. Easy of maintenance/cleaning
A lot of advertisement from all nano coating suppliers/installers on this. However, from the real life experience, how much improvement of the ability in reducing dirt attachment and making cleaning of the nano coated car easier compared with normal sealant or WOWA? Is it only comparable to normal sealant, marginally better, quite a bit better or noticeably better? What I am expecting is that the nano coating should have equal or better performance in this or there will be no point in using coating. Am I correct?

2. Durability and performance
Advertisement advised that nano coating will last a lot longer compared with normal sealants. Some quoted 2 years, some quoted years, and some quoted longer. In my case, I may get 2 years warranty from Quartz Finest while Qtechniq installer advised that the Qtechniq C1 +EXo will last 1~2 years and Qtechniq Serum +EXO will last
3~5 years, and EXO requires annual re-application. Could your share what will be the Slickness and Shininess of these coatings compared with normal sealants? Throughout the useful life of the coating which I presume will align with the above advised by the installers, if i do maintenance, reload...etc as per recommendation,will the slickness, shininess, and water sheeting/beading performance deteriorate rapidly, or moderately or slowly, or could be maintained quite good until end of life of the coating? I note that this depends very much on the conditions/weather in which I use the car but I want to get a general views on this from real life experience. If I cannot upkeep the good cleaning performance, slickness and shininess even doing routine maintenance, and if it will be worse than using WOWA or normal sealant, there will be no point going for coating. On the other hand, if generally the slickness, shininess and water beading is as good as sealants and can last most of the useful life as quoted above with not too much degradation in performance, I will go for coating.

3. What to do when stubborn dirt accumulated
Using normal sealant, I can use clay for cleaning this. Is claying applicable for nano coating? Or I can do minor polishing to upkeep the coating?

4. What to do when Swirl accumulated
I think not much can be done in this area for coating except for repolishing and re-coating. Am I correct?

5. What to do during end of life of the coating
Coating will wear out, degrade or degenerate eventually. When coating approaching end of its useful life, what can I do to resume its performance? I presume that I can do re-coating using the same system. However, can I use other coating system instead and will it be very troublesome in doing so (e.g original coating is Quartz, then recoat it to Opti Coat at the end of life cycle). Alternatively, can I resume to using sealants/wax at the end of the life cycle of the coating in case that I don't like using coating? Will it be very difficult to do so i.e. Need to fully remove the coating which I think is not an easy task without substantially polishing the paint. This may be difficult even for a professional and may cause quite a deep cut to the the original clear paint coat or even will need to totally remove it? This will fully damage the paint system? This is the biggest concern I have and that is why I have still not yet decided.

By the way, what I am considering and are limited to either CQuartz Finest (and associated system such as CQuartz Delux) or the Qtechniq system because only authorised installers for these 2 brands/systems are available in my area other than those installers using unknown brand coating system. Nevertheless, the price quoted by the Cquartz Finest installer (Quartz Finest + Quartz Delux + glass coating) is quite a bit cheaper than the price quoted by Qtechiq installer (Qtechniq C1 + Expo. The Qtechniq Serum system + EXPo will be even more expensive ).

If I use WOWA, I may eventually need to get a professional detailer to have deep cleaning, polishing and detailing for my car yearly, or drive my car to my friend's place to do machine polishing.

Your thought and comments are very much appreciated.

Thanks

After the existing coating starts degrading, you will have to polish the remaining. Only after then can you apply a new coating ( For proper bonding).
After polishing you can use any Coating you wish.
Or you may use sealant with or without polishing, though keep in mind that the sealant may not form proper bonding if the remaining Coat has not been removed, unless you stick to a system like Carpro Cquartz and Reload.

If your car is almost swirl free and if you can , I would suggest do a hand polish,clean with eraser.IPA and put a coating like Mckee's or DP yourself.

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

1. There is a significant improvement in behavior of a coating compared to a normal Sealant. Coatings are incredibly slick and release dirt far faster and easier compared to a Sealant. You are correct. The coating will perform much better.

2. In the durability and performance category, nothing touches a coating. As far as time frame goes on when and how it performs, I honestly don't believe any claims over three years. Thats just me. However I have not experienced the pro level coatings in which authorized detailers have access too. Still, I'm not buying any claim after 3 years durability. Look into the manufacturers product line and look for the maintenance products to support their coatings. If the lineup falls short on products to directly support the coating, how are you supposed to believe a 5 year claim? The maintenance products will directly relate to the performance of the coating and the deterioration will depend directly on how you maintain the product and what products are used thereafter. Again, overall performance of the coating directly relates to the maintenance products that support it.

3. Again, comes back to the maintenance products and the products the manufacture produces to support the coating. Iron removers, tar removers, etc can be used to help maintain the coating. Use these before you start rubbing a clay bar against the paint. The clay may marr the paint. You do not want to perform polishing unless you plan to re coat after the polishing.

4. Correct.

5. Correct. All coatings will eventually wear out. To resume performance of the coating you will want to polish the vehicle and re coat. Here is where you have the chance to polish the paint that has accumulated swirls over the life of the coating and you can re apply the coating. At that point in time you can use whatever coating you like as by the time to original coating wears out and reaches the end of its life cycle and the vehicle has been polished to remove swirls the coating will have been effectively removed. There is no issue at this point in time to select a different coating if you desire. Yes at this point you can also pick up with the normal wax and sealant if you desire without issue. Nothing is in jeopardy at this point in time as the coating has delivered it performance and the paint has now been polished back to standard.

I would look into those as they are available local and have a proven track record.

Remember, either coating and its supporting maintenance products or a traditional Sealant and support.

[andy2667]

After the existing coating starts degrading, you will have to polish the remaining. Only after then can you apply a new coating ( For proper bonding).
After polishing you can use any Coating you wish.
Or you may use sealant with or without polishing, though keep in mind that the sealant may not form proper bonding if the remaining Coat has not been removed, unless you stick to a system like Carpro Cquartz and Reload.

If your car is almost swirl free and if you can , I would suggest do a hand polish,clean with eraser.IPA and put a coating like Mckee's or DP yourself.

Thanks for sharing. As I have no experience in coating and is now treating my new car, I would get a Pro to do the job if I go for nano coating.

[andy2667]

1. There is a significant improvement in behavior of a coating compared to a normal Sealant. Coatings are incredibly slick and release dirt far faster and easier compared to a Sealant. You are correct. The coating will perform much better.

2. In the durability and performance category, nothing touches a coating. As far as time frame goes on when and how it performs, I honestly don't believe any claims over three years. Thats just me. However I have not experienced the pro level coatings in which authorized detailers have access too. Still, I'm not buying any claim after 3 years durability. Look into the manufacturers product line and look for the maintenance products to support their coatings. If the lineup falls short on products to directly support the coating, how are you supposed to believe a 5 year claim? The maintenance products will directly relate to the performance of the coating and the deterioration will depend directly on how you maintain the product and what products are used thereafter. Again, overall performance of the coating directly relates to the maintenance products that support it.

3. Again, comes back to the maintenance products and the products the manufacture produces to support the coating. Iron removers, tar removers, etc can be used to help maintain the coating. Use these before you start rubbing a clay bar against the paint. The clay may marr the paint. You do not want to perform polishing unless you plan to re coat after the polishing.

4. Correct.

5. Correct. All coatings will eventually wear out. To resume performance of the coating you will want to polish the vehicle and re coat. Here is where you have the chance to polish the paint that has accumulated swirls over the life of the coating and you can re apply the coating. At that point in time you can use whatever coating you like as by the time to original coating wears out and reaches the end of its life cycle and the vehicle has been polished to remove swirls the coating will have been effectively removed. There is no issue at this point in time to select a different coating if you desire. Yes at this point you can also pick up with the normal wax and sealant if you desire without issue. Nothing is in jeopardy at this point in time as the coating has delivered it performance and the paint has now been polished back to standard.

I would look into those as they are available local and have a proven track record.

Remember, either coating and its supporting maintenance products or a traditional Sealant and support.

Thanks Mike for the cleared and detailed response. It seems that coating is the way to go for my situation. However, after searching for information for coating these two days, I need to clear one point before going for it: Washing! As noted in a number forum discussion, the washing shampoo/agent has to leave noting on the coating or the new charters of the washing get left of the surface will mask the coating characteristics. That means shampoo with wax, shining agent or polymers additive will be out. This will not a problem for the conventional car wash method. In my case, my only option for car washing is rinseless (or waterless). It seems that I am not able to find a "Pure Washing" rinseless washing agent without additive. Even the ONR, Wolfgang Rinseless are said to leave something? Still searching hard on a viable rainless agent before going for coating.

[MattPersman]

You can use carpro reset for traditional method with is a great soap IMO. And then you can use d114 by Meg's for rinseless

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Thanks Mike for the cleared and detailed response. It seems that coating is the way to go for my situation. However, after searching for information for coating these two days, I need to clear one point before going for it: Washing! As noted in a number forum discussion, the washing shampoo/agent has to leave noting on the coating or the new charters of the washing get left of the surface will mask the coating characteristics. That means shampoo with wax, shining agent or polymers additive will be out. This will not a problem for the conventional car wash method. In my case, my only option for car washing is rinseless (or waterless). It seems that I am not able to find a "Pure Washing" rinseless washing agent without additive. Even the ONR, Wolfgang Rinseless are said to leave something? Still searching hard on a viable rainless agent before going for coating.

Sure thing. Hope I was able to help out and perhaps clear a few things up.

As for your situation in needing a Waterless/Rinseless wash to maintain a coated vehicle without any additives such as wax, polymers, glossifiers, etc. I would use Meguiar's D114 as the wash product. To ensure you are always on the safe side when it comes to washing the vehicle you can first take it to a wash bay and use just the high pressure clear rinse to knock off the debris from the vehicle. After that you can begin your wash cycle. And to take it another step you could mix up D114 in a spray bottle to use as a Waterless wash by first soaking the panel before wiping with your Rinseless solution from the bucket.

After you are finished you can follow up with a protection based product such as CarPro Reload.

Reload Spray Sealant, spray paint sealant, spray wax, CQuartz Reload
Meguiars Rinse Free Express Wash, rinseless car wash, no rinse

[ski2]

You may want to consider Opticoat Pro if you're looking into coatings. Comes with a warranty and can only be installed by approved installers.

Opti-Coat Pro Coatings | Opti-Coat LLC