Review: Pinnacle Black Label Diamond Paint Coating - 2011 Inferno Orange Metallic Corvette Grand Sport

[Mike Phillips]

Mike, how long did it take you to complete the Corvette? Between the washing, claying, correction, and then coating must have taken a while.

Thanks for the question. It's a good question too. I've always detailed cars and I consider myself FAST at it. I don't have to "guess" at what to do when I start, I know what to do because I have lots of real-world experience.

That said, I was just under 10 hours into this car not including any time spent taking and sharing videos on my Facebook page. The paint was very hard as is known by and experienced detailer. Even getting out the shallow swirls and scratches required an aggressive compound, foam cutting pads and I would state, not guess, 10 pounds of pressure against the head of the polisher. And then, only buffing out sections about the size of a microfiber towel, that is 16" by 16".

Also just to note - I started by machine scrubbing the tires to get the "crap" the dealership put on them off. I did not wash the car while washing the wheels and tires I did a waterless wash with the BLACKFIRE Paint Prep.

Feel free to ask any questions...

[PaulMys]

Also just to note - I started by machine scrubbing the tires to get the "crap" the dealership put on them off.

I cringe at the stuff my dealer puts on the tires. Looks like a gallon of used, thin motor oil. Smells awful.

[Mike Phillips]

Update

Saw this Vette at Cars & Coffee this morning - looking great!









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[Finick]

I cringe at the stuff my dealer puts on the tires. Looks like a gallon of used, thin motor oil. Smells awful.

The shop I worked at was a unique situation where we had dealers from the auto park come to us (not all - like 6 dealerships used us) and we would do work for them.

Our standard operating procedure was absolute butchery, and I hated it. But what was even weirder to me was that they used name brand stuff to do it.

Nanoskin clay pads, TRC towels (creature, edgeless 300s for interiors, and their standard waffle weave towels), their compound was essentially 3D hd cut +, and their polish was hd speed.

Anyway, our tire shine was megs all season dressing. Which I hate. I just find it weird a shop would go through the trouble of buying real products to destroy cars with, instead of just getting generic stuff.

Worlds a weird place. I feel bad for anyone that has a dealership touch their car in any capacity after working for some.


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[Mike Phillips]

The shop I worked at was a unique situation where we had dealers from the auto park come to us (not all - like 6 dealerships used us) and we would do work for them.

Our standard operating procedure was absolute butchery, and I hated it.

But what was even weirder to me was that they used name brand stuff to do it.

When you say, butchery, what do you mean? Just a rough idea?

[Finick]

When you say, butchery, what do you mean? Just a rough idea?

The prep process involved soaping down some of the dirtiest cars I’ve ever seen and then spraying that dirty soapy car with their dedicated detail spray/lubricant and claying the entire car with a medium nanoskin disc.

That was after using a bug sponge block across the bottom 1/3 of the car and all the high impact areas. We used an adhesive/tar remover and APC to lubricate this process. But it didn’t matter because the car hadn’t been washed, just rinsed.

The interior process utilized melamine sponges pretty much exclusively and citrus degreasers. Carpets were absolutely saturated by people.

There’s a lot of other things that’ll probably come to me later, but those were the things that bothered me the most.


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[Desertnate]

To date, I have NOT seen any of the well known car detailing gurus write an article that makes the case for multi-year coatings, (the opposite of the case I make in the above article), but then again, I don't really see anyone else writing articles now days, gurus or anyone.

I'm not a guru, and will never claim to be...just a normal guy trying to keep his family fleet in the best shape possible.

If someone is looking to keep a vehicle in a car show winning state, leaving a coating on for several years is probably not the way to go. However, I've found coatings made maintaining my daily drivers easier and less time consuming. Here are my thoughts.

• Vehicles stay cleaner longer. Things like dust and pollen don't tend to stick to the surface as easily and are blown off, rinsed off in a good rain. Normal road grime doesn't accumulate as fast.
• Easier to wash. The grime doesn't cling as well to the coated surface which makes washing and rinsing faster and easier. Drying has less water spotting as well.
• Multi-year durability means I only have to fully detail each vehicle every 18~24 months. I can put our vehicles on a rotation which leaves me more time for family, work and other responsibilities
• Snow removal is easier. This was a new one for me. While McKee's 37 Paint Coating v1 was no different than 845, but CanCoat and CQuartz UK made snow removal MUCH easier. Light fluffy snow just wafted away, while heavier, wet snow simply slid off the surface with very effort. After a bad ice storm, the ice on the coated car was mostly beads and narrow frozed streams vs a solid sheet on other vehicles. This made the ice melt faster and it was easier to scrape off the glass.

I fully agee the coating will hold on to road grime over time and after a year or so won't look it's best. I've witnessed this first hand. However, when balancing life, I'm OK with the coating not looking 100% after a year because the coating is still performing and looks better than 99% of the other cars on the road. I would never go more than 2 years.

[Mike Phillips]

However, when balancing life, I'm OK with the coating not looking 100% after a year because the coating is still performing and looks better than 99% of the other cars on the road.

100% agree and for the record - I keep a coating on the wife's car.

I would never go more than 2 years.

That'll work. And you're right, your car will likely always look better than 99% of the cars on the road.