Anyone use glaze on a coated car?

[HAMBO]

Hi everyone,

I have some light swirls I'd like to periodically hide (say for a car show or something) in my ceramic coated car. Coating still has a lot of life left to it, so I don't want to polish it off.

Anyone use glazes over coatings to hide swirls? Any reason not to? I suspect it may detract from the hydrophobic properties, but I'm not too worried about that since it would just be for the occasional carshow or cruise, not a more consistent thing.

Thanks!

HAMBO

[The Guz]

Essence Plus would be an option. You also have IGL F4 as another option. Both fill in minor defects.

Just be aware you will lose some performance at least from my experience with Essence Plus.

[WillSports3]

Sort of. CarPro Essence Plus can be used for that. But it depends on what bad the swirls are.

[HAMBO]

Thanks! I have Essence Plus and tried it. It was ok, very minor improvement, but safe.

I have had better results on my non-coated car with other glazes, and was just wondering whether there is any reason not to use them on a coated car.

On Essence Plus, I have seen some detailers on YouTube use Essence Plus and say it can better hide or even correct minor swirls when used with a more aggressive pad (like AIO pads or MF pads) rather than the very soft Gloss Pad CarPro suggests to use with Essence Plus (which is what I have been using). I assume though, that if you use a more aggressive pad and achieve any real correction, you are still polishing off the coating? Seems like that might defeat the purpose.

Thanks!

[WillSports3]

Ya, it would just take off the coating basically. If not completely, then it would take it partially off.

[Bruno Soares]

If I had a show car I'd not coat it, I'd keep it sealed/waxed. You can't get the same amazing look from a wax with any coating. Coatings are great for daily driven cars as they protect better and make it easier to clean but for a garage queen I think a wax is the way to go, just looks better. The other advantage is that if you have swirls on some panels, you can just polish them and then wax again.

I also had mediocre results with Essence+, it didn't really improve the flaws but it really impacted the coating's performance on the panel I used it on. After that, I learned to accept some flaws until it was time to polish and coat again.

[Mike Phillips]

Anyone use glazes over coatings to hide swirls?

Any reason not to?

The only 2 "real" glazes I know of are the Meguair's #7 Show Car Glaze and 3M Imperial Hand Glaze.

Just about everything else with the word "glaze" on it is actually either a polish or a sealant.


One suggestion would be to use a finishing wax.

What's a finishing wax you ask?

The opposite of a cleaner/wax. That is a product that ONLY seals the surface, does not clean it or abrade it in any way.


Pinnacle Souveran Paste Wax is an example of a non-cleaning finishing wax.

[Mike Phillips]

Here's a true story.


I has a local car guy offer me his late model Monte Carlo for one of my 3-day detailing Boot Camp Classes.

Here's the car BEFORE the class. NOTE THE SWIRLS in the paint.














When he brought it to the class, I looked at it and asked him,

Did polish the car?


He said,

No.

I said,

What happened? The paint looks great! The swirls are gone?


He said,

While waiting for the class I applied a coat of Souveran Paste Wax.



Me?

I was impressed with how well a simple application of a non-cleaning, finishing wax masked the swirls.

[Mike Phillips]

More....

The swirls were still in the paint and my class did perform a full show car paint correction.


Here's the 1956 Chevy Nomad (behind the class), and the 2004 Monte Carlo

[Mike Phillips]

If I had a show car I'd not coat it, I'd keep it sealed/waxed. You can't get the same amazing look from a wax with any coating.

Coatings are great for daily driven cars as they protect better and make it easier to clean but for a garage queen I think a wax is the way to go, just looks better.

The other advantage is that if you have swirls on some panels, you can just polish them and then wax again.

Have to say, I agree with Bruce and what he wrote above.

Coatings are great!


But when something happens to them - the re-do is more complicated than if you just had a conventional wax or sealant on the paint.


Allow me to go a step further. I've shared this multiple times on this forum, here it is again. When I tested and reviewed the (at that time), NEW RUPES BigFoot 21 Mark III - I used a simple one-step cleaner/wax, that's an AIO for those that don't like to type out all the letters to use the words CLEANER/WAX.


Review: RUPES Mark III BigFoot 21 Polisher by Mike Phillips


I buffed out this 2006 Corvette Stingray. You'll see it and the black 2006 Stingray next to it in a pile of videos for the Pinnacle Natural Brilliance store pages and videos.






Here's the point to my story - That red Corvette was in the Show Car Garage for at least a week. Over the normal course of any given week we usually have a number of visitors stop by Autogeek, could be vendors, could be friends of friends. A number of people upon looking at the red Corvette asked me,

What ceramic coating did you use?


Then I would say,

That's a one-step cleaner/wax.



The cool thing about a one-step cleaner/wax is not only does it look GREAT, (well at lest the ones I use), but you can do spot repairs anywhere on the car.

Quick, fast and easy.

Looks like a coating?