Protection from winter salt with shiny paint and matte decals.

[ratfink]

I have a Challenger GT all wheel drive that I will be driving in winter and live near Buffalo/Niagara Falls NY. Roads are salted heavily at times. I'm thinking of a ceramic coating to protect the shiny paint. I also see matte paint coating for the matte decals I have. Picture of car attached. I'm not sure how to coat everything and keep the many many decals from from getting the wrong coating. There are too many small stripes to tape off to try to put the ceramic shiny paint coating right up to it. So I'm thinking of doing the section with the stripes and the paint in that section with the matte protection. Does anyone know how the paint will look with matte coating? Any better ideas? Thanks.

[osiapstndp]

With that many small pieces for the strobed stripes I wouldn't worry about using a matte-specific coating. If you want something that will last a long time and looks great on paintwork and matte vinyl graphics then look at Gtechniq's Crystal Serum Light. I've installed it on many Mopars with a lot of vinyl on them and they always turn out great. Immediately after you apply the coating to the black matte stripes they will appear glossy and wet looking, but after maybe a minute or less, after you remove the residue, they will turn back to a very nice matte texture again.

Gtechniq recommends their C1 product for vinyl graphics, but if you're working on small pieces I really wouldn't worry about it too much. If the whole vehicle was vinyl wrapped it would be a different story.

I've installed regular CQuartz to the matte stripes in my Challenger Scat Pack and they've held up just fine after two years and they are still as matte as ever. I recommend Crystal Serum Light over CQuartz.

GTechniq Crystal Serum Light (https://www.autogeek.net/gtechniq-crystal-serum-light.html)

[The Guz]

I have not done any matte surfaces but I have been doing some research as to which products will work for an upcoming project.

As mentioned up above GTechniq recommends their C1 coating for vinyl and matte surfaces. The GTechniq reps in the facebook group mention the same thing. They say that Crystal Serum Light will add a light sheen as does Exo. Nothing glossy. The thing about going with CSL as mentioned in the previous post is that you can use it on the entire car and have some nice hydrophobic properties. C1 appears to be more of a sheeting type protectant from what I have seen.

Dr. Beaseley's offers their matte coating and Mike has a review on the matte coating that can be found with a google search.

Meguiar's recently posted on their instagram page that fast finish is matte safe and won't alter the appearance.

Then their is Gyeon's matte coating but it is rather on the expensive side for someone who does not have a lot of matte surfaces to work with.

I think you will be fine with either of these options.

[dcjredline]

YOWZA! That would be a nightmare to do some with matte and some with glossy. That being said I have a nice big heated garage and live "close" to you (East of Rochester) and would be willing to help and provide the environment if you need or would be interested. PM me.

[ratfink]

With that many small pieces for the strobed stripes I wouldn't worry about using a matte-specific coating. If you want something that will last a long time and looks great on paintwork and matte vinyl graphics then look at Gtechniq's Crystal Serum Light. I've installed it on many Mopars with a lot of vinyl on them and they always turn out great. Immediately after you apply the coating to the black matte stripes they will appear glossy and wet looking, but after maybe a minute or less, after you remove the residue, they will turn back to a very nice matte texture again.

Gtechniq recommends their C1 product for vinyl graphics, but if you're working on small pieces I really wouldn't worry about it too much. If the whole vehicle was vinyl wrapped it would be a different story.

I've installed regular CQuartz to the matte stripes in my Challenger Scat Pack and they've held up just fine after two years and they are still as matte as ever. I recommend Crystal Serum Light over CQuartz.

GTechniq Crystal Serum Light (https://www.autogeek.net/gtechniq-crystal-serum-light.html)Thanks for your detailed answer. I'll look at the Gtechniq CSL.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Autogeekonline mobile app (http://r.tapatalk.com/byo?rid=87407)

[ratfink]

I have not done any matte surfaces but I have been doing some research as to which products will work for an upcoming project.

As mentioned up above GTechniq recommends their C1 coating for vinyl and matte surfaces. The GTechniq reps in the facebook group mention the same thing. They say that Crystal Serum Light will add a light sheen as does Exo. Nothing glossy. The thing about going with CSL as mentioned in the previous post is that you can use it on the entire car and have some nice hydrophobic properties. C1 appears to be more of a sheeting type protectant from what I have seen.

Dr. Beaseley's offers their matte coating and Mike has a review on the matte coating that can be found with a google search.

Meguiar's recently posted on their instagram page that fast finish is matte safe and won't alter the appearance.

Then their is Gyeon's matte coating but it is rather on the expensive side for someone who does not have a lot of matte surfaces to work with.

I think you will be fine with either of these options.Thanks for your comments and pointing out some more options. I'll look at these.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Autogeekonline mobile app (http://r.tapatalk.com/byo?rid=87407)

[ratfink]

YOWZA! That would be a nightmare to do some with matte and some with glossy. That being said I have a nice big heated garage and live "close" to you (East of Rochester) and would be willing to help and provide the environment if you need or would be interested. PM me.Your offer is truly above and beyond. I have a heated garage also so I have a place to do it. I actually put the stripes on myself because I couldn't find someone to do it. Won't say how long it took. So I better be able to put protectant on them. Thanks again.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Autogeekonline mobile app (http://r.tapatalk.com/byo?rid=87407)

[acuRAS82]

Good luck!!!

~From a Syracuse native and UB graduate