New M340i - Help me decide what to use!

[The Guz]

I'm zeroing in on these choices: TAC System Moonlight, Xtreme Solutions Poly Seal, or Power Lock.

My priorities are (in order):
1. Gloss
2. Dirt repellency
3. Durability
4. Hydrophobicity

You must be watching a lot of Apex detailing's channel haha.

Check out this video from forensic detailing channel. It has three of the lite coatings you are interested in.

The more I research coatings the less inclined I am to buy into the multi-step process with coatings and toppers. I'm all for the benefits of Si02, but to me it doesn't make sense to need a sacrificial layer to protect your sacrificial layer that takes other maintenance on top of that to keep going. I'd rather use the 'light' coating or topper standalone and have to refresh it every 6-9 months without the same worries of special maintenance wash and stripping before reapplication.

You don't have to do a multi step process. You can coat over the surface when you find the level of your paint to be "perfect" that you are satisfied with.

[gofast182]

May I suggest WGDGPS? Some great stuff.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

I have this already. The initial gloss level is fantastic but I find that after 1-2 washes that gloss is gone (even though overall protection still remains). I know I ranked durability third but for the gloss to go so quickly is kind of a letdown.

[gofast182]

You must be watching a lot of Apex detailing's channel haha.

Check out this video from forensic detailing channel. It has three of the lite coatings you are interested in.





You don't have to do a multi step process. You can coat over the surface when you find the level of your paint to be "perfect" that you are satisfied with.

Haha yes I have been watching a lot of Apex Detailing's channel and also some Forensic Detailing as well. Thanks for posting this, I haven't seen it yet so I'll check it out.

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Congrats on the new BMW! Looks great.

Keep us posted on the direction you take with it.

[gofast182]

Good comparison. Of those four it would be between Moonlight and CarPro Lite for me.

[gofast182]

Well I got CQuartz UK 3.0 for my wheels and then decided I will use it for the whole car even though I wasn't planning on going in that direction and am still suspect of everything involved with maintaining coatings.

I have some light factory-installed scratches that I need to remove. I have Menzerna SF4500 but I'm considering getting CarPro Essence to help maximize effectiveness of the coating. Does anyone have experience with Essence? Everything I've seen/read is excellent.

Also does anyone have experience with Reload immediately following CQ UK 3.0? They suggest applying this over the newly-installed coating to help prevent water spots. My questions are: 1. Is it worthwhile? 2. If you have a coating that is curing and you apply a product with its own carriers/solvents before the base is fully cured won't it harm the original coating?

[acuRAS82]

I have experience with Essence. My best experiences for best gloss would be in line with completing your light polishing first with Menzerna, then use soft finishing pads to massage Essence on. The gloss is great and I’ve seen good durability of anything ceramic I put on it. I’m sure your CQ UK will be happy on it... same brand, match made in heaven.

I have no experience with Reload.

[gofast182]

My goal is to do one polishing step. I figured that would be with Essence just to help the coating that comes after unless someone tells me using just the Menzerna is 100% better.

[spazzz]

Just use Reload on the wheels with UK, since they are just wheels, no need for Gliss.

But do a coat of Gliss V2 over the 2 coats of UK on the car. If you don't you will wish you did not much later.

I redid my daughters 2008 328XI with UK and Gliss just because I didn't do a Gliss topcoat and went for Reload instead.

On my 2008 535XI I did both right (UK & Gliss) out of the chute.

Final polishing step was with Essence and on my daughters car the second time that was the polish I used before the recoat.

I used Menzerna 3500 for the first step on mine.
Don't forget Eraser wiping before the first layer of CQUK3

If you are really hankerin down, coat the glass with Flyby30 or Forte

[acuRAS82]

My goal is to do one polishing step. I figured that would be with Essence just to help the coating that comes after unless someone tells me using just the Menzerna is 100% better.

OK. New car, light swirls. Do the one polish with Essence. I assume you’ll use the equivalent of LC white light/medium polishing pad. When you do your test pass, try with as few passes as possible and go up from there. I’ve seen my gloss decrease when I was trying to over-work (too much pressure, too many passes). Either way though, you’re going to get the Essence/CQ UK courtship I’m sure.