Streaking & Spotting With Panel Wipe When I Was Preparing To Put On Ceramic Coating

[S2G-Unit]

So I did a lot of reading & ended up buying Gtechniq CSL & EXOv4 to apply to my car.

At my best friends body shop, I did the following based on my research:



Washed car

Iron remover

Wash car again

Clay Bar

Polish car

When I applied Gtechniq panel wipe, on the on the car I was getting streaking, & what looked like dried water spots. Did we do something wrong? Temperature was about 10 celcius. Was it because I sprayed the panel wipe directly on to the car? We tried spraying the panel wipe on the towel & I think it was the same issue. We then tried using his usual pre primer/paint spray cleaner. It seemed to go away but I backed out of putting on the coating.

In the end we decided to try (for fun) what he had lying around Chemical Guys Hydro Slick.




I would like to try again at applying the coating this week.

What steps do we take from here? Do I need to remove the Chemicals Guys stuff & re polish the car or compound the car (car was re painted last year but we were both so busy, I didn't get around to applying the ceramic coating. Car wasn't driven much at all)

[The Guz]

Best to use panel wipe into the towel instead of spraying onto the panel for this exact issue. And spray away from the paint.

You will have to polish of that other product in order to prep for the coating.

[psnt1ol]

How many towels did you use during the wipe off and how big of an area did you do? The spotting and streaking you mentioned... were they only on some panels or is it all panels?

[fly07sti]

To piggy back on what Guz said. Gtechniq panel wipe is quite strong. If your paint is soft or medium-soft, it can cause havoc IME. Chances are you may just need to go over everything with your finishing polish to make sure everything looks good again and to remove the CG’s product.
Would also look into getting CarPro Eraser or Gyeon prep.

[bolts]

To piggy back on what Guz said. Gtechniq panel wipe is quite strong. If your paint is soft or medium-soft, it can cause havoc IME. Chances are you may just need to go over everything with your finishing polish to make sure everything looks good again and to remove the CG’s product.
Would also look into getting CarPro Eraser or Gyeon prep.

Why is gtech pw considered strong? It does seem solvent based. I do use nason wax n grease before eraser when coating.

[Loach]

I will echo what the others have cautioned, Gtechniq Panel Wipe is too hot for some paint.

My test panel that I’ve bombarded with solvents and degreasers and wheel acids galore, it handled a lot of undiluted abuse with no issues, but one direct spray with Panel Wipe immediately causes paint swelling. This swelling subsides once the paint has had time to settle down, but this is not something that you want to see. Same with Duplicolor’s aerosol Prep Spray, this swells the paint worse than Gtechniq.

Another reason why Klean Strip Prep-All is my go to panel wipe product, no issues on any paint that I’ve used it on so far.

[BudgetPlan1]

Another reason why Klean Strip Prep-All is my go to panel wipe product, no issues on any paint that I’ve used it on so far.
That stuff is lubri-liscious! Runs so nice I always follow with Eraser cuz i think something that glides so smooth *must* have some kinda oil in it [emoji1]

I went thru a Gtechniq PW phase for a bit, stuff is like pure alcohol; think i still have an unopened bottle cuz i quit using it pretty quickly.