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  1. #1
    Mike Phillips
    Guest

    Review: 3D Wipe Panel Wipe for Ceramic Coating - 2009 Porsche Carrera S 997.2s

    Review: 3D Wipe Panel Wipe for Ceramic Coatings - 2009 Porsche Carrera S 997.2



    3D Wipe Surface Prep






    What is it?

    This is a panel wipe, which is a product used to chemically strip a paint surface before installing a ceramic paint coating.


    What does it do?

    Dissolves and emulsifies any residual polishing oils and other substances left on the surface after compounding or polishing so they can be removed with a microfiber towel.


    When do I use it?

    After compounding and polishing paint, or any other surface prep process but before installing the coating.


    Why should I use it?

    To make sure the paint surface is surgically clean so the coating can make a proper bond for best longevity and performance.



    From the manufacturer




    3D Wipe is a cleaner formulated to help you clean the surface of your car before applying a layer of protection. 3D Wipe does not contain any oils that can cause bonding issues when you apply a protective wax, sealant or coating. In fact, 3D Wipe will remove oils and grease allowing for the perfect surface for a coating to be applied. 3D Wipe is body shop safe, can be applied to almost all surfaces and is easy to apply.

    Before applying a coat of protection, it is important to make sure that surface is prepped and ready to go. This means it needs to be free of any oils or grease on the surface that would harm the bonding process. With 3D Wipe, you don’t have to worry about lingering oils affecting the protection you wish to add.

    3D Wipe is an essential preparation step to use before applying a protective coating. This product will easily remove dirt, dust and polishing oils from the surface, that way you won’t come across any issues when it comes to the protective coating from bonding to the surface. Before applying any protective coating, you should wash and dry the surface, then use 3D Wipe to finish the preparation.

    3D Wipe is body shop safe, making it the perfect product for a detailer at any level to be able to use. All your surfaces can be prepped and ready to be protected as this product can be applied to paint, glass, plastic, rubber and metal. Best of all, 3D is easy-to-use! All you have to do is spray on and wipe off, no additional tools (other than a microfiber towel) or experience necessary. Save time, money and energy by using 3D Wipe.


    DIRECTIONS
    Spray the surface.
    Use a clean microfiber towel to wipe off remaining product.
    Apply as many times as needed.




    Review

    We recently shot a video with Tunch Gorin, the President and head chemist for 3D Detailing Products to showcase his new ceramic paint coating, 3D Ceramic Paint Coating. I'll insert this video below as it has a lot of great information about both the coating and this product, 3D Wipe.

    At the time we we're shooting the video, this panel wipe was not yet available. The formula had been finalized but production products had not been shipped yet.


    The good news!


    3D Wipe is now available!

    We have it in stock here at Autogeek and this last weekend I had a chance to test it out.



    Pro-Grade Panel Wipe

    Generically these types of products are called panel wipes. They are a product to as the name implies, you use these types of product to wipe down a panel. The idea being to chemically dissolve or emulsify any polishing oils or other substances left on the surface of car paint typically after any paint correction steps that have been performed.


    The most important step

    When it comes to installing a ceramic paint coating the normal steps include,


    1. Wash and dry the car.
    2. Clay the paint if there are any bonded contamination.
    3. Compound and polish the paint to remove any below surface defects like swirls and scratches



    The above are the normal step for using a conventional car wax or synthetic paint sealant, BUT with a ceramic paint coating there is an EXTRA STEP required before installing the coating and this is the most important step because the product you use must be strong enough to remove any residual polishing oils or other substances but safe enough to prevent dulling or marring the paint.


    Clearcoat paints are scratch-sensitive

    This means that while they tend to be harder than old school paints like solvent-evaporation lacquers and enamels, they still scratch easy.


    So after you've invested hours into doing all the prep work, wash, drying, claying, compounding and polishing, NOW you have the paint on the car PERFECT - the next step is to take a panel wipe, a product that is not normally a great lubricant, and WIPE down the paint and it is at this point, if you're not careful you risk marring the paint. Marring is the kind, fluffy name for scratching.


    This is why it's so important to use a great panel wipe; you want to surgically clean the surface without undoing hours of hard work.


    3D Wipe is a pro-grade product that is formulated to strip the paint without marring the paint at the same time. 3D Wipe is a water-based panel wipe that uses highly refined and filtered water as a base. Tunch uses a reverse osmosis process to remove all the total dissolved solids as the water is the foundation for the formula. For cleaning ability, 3D Wipe uses a proprietary blend of surfactants and as Tunch explains, there's a fine balance in how much surfactant are used because there needs to be enough to do the job properly but not too much so that by using the product you also leave a residue behind.

    My first how-to article for installing a coating dates back to 2011. As I type this today, it's June 1st, 2020 so that's 9 years I've been installing coatings, using panels wipes and writing and documenting how to use this type of paint protection quality. As such, I've used a lot of panel wipes and this new panel wipe from 3D is TOP SHELF.

    Best of all, now that 3D has added this product to their product line, you can now stay within the 3D system when detailing your car. You can use all 3D product from start to finish and this is what I call a


    Synergistic Chemical Compatibility


    And that's a good thing!





    Test Car - 2009 Porsche Carrera S 997.2


    My good friend Donald recently purchased his dream car, a low mileage, 2009 Porsche Carrera S 997.2 - you can read more about this car here.

    The Porsche is excellent mechanical condition but the finish looked like someone used the car as a Hockey Puck. The paint was horribly swirled-out and filled with scratches everywhere.

    I performed a multiple-step, show car detail process to the paint and then used the new 3D Wipe to chemically strip the paint before installing the 3D Ceramic Paint Coating. The process from start to finish took just under 12 hours and while I am normally pretty good at taking before pictures to document the true before condition of the paint all my time was invested in working on the car to take it from a diamond in the rough to a glistening gemstone.

    AND - after all the paint correction steps were finished the new 3D Wipe performed as advertised. I was able to wipe the paint down, remove any residual oils and there was no marring of the BLACK paint. Doesn't everyone say, black paint shows everything?



    Here are the results



















    On Autogeek.com

    3D Wipe 16 ounces - $13.99

    3D Ceramic Coating Kit - 30mL - $79.99

    3D One - 16 ounce bottle - $23.99




  2. #2
    Mike Phillips
    Guest

    Re: Review: 3D Wipe Panel Wipe for Ceramic Coatings

    Continued.....



    What it costs to install a ceramic coating

    There is SO MUCH interest in ceramic coatings now days and that's because ceramic coatings, at least the knowledge of them has gone mainstream.

    What most people know is a ceramic coating is a product or a replacement for a conventional car wax except it comes in a tiny glass bottle.

    What most people don't know is that you need a few more things than the just the little glass bottle of coating and these other things cost money.



    A picture tells a thousand words....













    On Autogeek.com


    Orbital Polisher

    I used the BEAST. These are not cheap but they are good. Because this is a gear-driven orbital polisher there is zero pad stalling. Thus as I like to say, I can power through a detail job.

    FLEX XC 3401 VRG Gear-Driven Orbital Polisher aka The BEAST! - $436.00



    Buffing Pads

    I always tell people it takes more than one or two pads to buff out a car, at least when using foam pads. The reason why is because as a pad becomes wet with the product you're using, it SOFTENS the foam.

    A cutting pad becomes as soft as a finishing pad and stops correcting.

    A polishing pad becomes as soft as a finishing pad and stops polishing.


    When your foam cutting and polishing pads become soft they lose their ability to cut or abrade the paint therefore you're wasting your time. To do the paint correction steps as fast as humanly possible you MUST switch out to a clean, dry pad OFTEN.

    Not only will switching to a clean, dry pad often enable to you work faster and more efficiently, because you're NOT TORTURING your pads by getting them wet and getting them HOT and buffing for hours with them - they will last longer. You'll get more detail jobs out of your pads before they wear out. When you only use a few pad to buff out an entire car your pads only last for a few detail jobs and then they're toast.


    By my count, I used,

    15 - Lake Country 6.5" Force Hybrid Orange Foam Cutting Pads - $10.99 Each

    2 - RUPES 180 mm (7 inch) Yellow Polishing Foam Pad - $14.99 each

    6- Lake Country 6.5" Force Hybrid Foam Finishing Pads - $10.99 Each



    Products also referred to as liquids


    SONAX Glass Cleaner - $11.99

    I used the SONAX Glass Cleaner as my rinesless wash, my clay lube and as a glass cleaner for the windows.


    Wolfgang Elastic Poly Clay Bar - FINE Grade
    - $29.99

    3D One - 16 ounce bottle 16 ounce bottle - $23.99

    Wolfgang Finishing Glaze 3.0 - 16 ounce bottle - 39.99




    Microfiber Towels

    Most people don't have enough HIGH QUALITY microfiber towels to do the paint correction step and then install the ceramic coating. Besides behind high quality - they also must NOT be contaminated. If there's just ONE tiny abrasive particle lodged into the weave of just one of your towels and you wipe the paint with it - you will undo all your hard work by putting swirls and scratches back into the paint.

    I used a combination of the

    For the rinseless wash, claying, wiping off compounds and polishes I used the Cobra Forrest Green Edgeless towels.

    For chemically stripping the paint and then giving the paint a final buff to spread the coating and remove any high spots, I used the Cobra Storm Gray Edgeless towels.

    These are the same type of towel, just different colors.



    How many towels?

    I took these pictures after washing and drying the towels.





    I took this picture after inspecting and folding the towels to get a towel count.

    51 Forrest Green Edgeless towels and 12 Storm Gray Towels





    The best deal is to purchase these towels by the 12-packs.

    Forrest Green Edgeless Microfiber towels - 12 Pack $19.99

    Cobra Storm Gray Edgeless Microfiber Polishing Cloth - 12 Pack - $19.99


    Then put into practice a towel management system to keep them from becoming contaminated. I'll include the link to my article on this topic below.





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  6. #4
    Mike Phillips
    Guest

    Re: Review: 3D Wipe Panel Wipe for Ceramic Coatings

    Continued....


    I added up what it would cost to purchase everything I used to give anyone reading this into the future a general idea of what it would cost to do-it-yourself. For the Forrest Green towels, I used 51 according to my laundry count but I'll just round this out to four 12-packs.



    3D Wipe 16 ounces - $13.99

    3D Ceramic Coating Kit - 30mL - $79.99

    3D One - 16 ounce bottle - $23.99

    FLEX XC 3401 VRG Gear-Driven Orbital Polisher aka The BEAST! - $436.00

    15 - Lake Country 6.5" Force Hybrid Orange Foam Cutting Pads - $10.99 Each x 15 = $164.85

    2 - RUPES 180 mm (7 inch) Yellow Polishing Foam Pad - $14.99 each x 2 = 29.98

    6- Lake Country 6.5" Force Hybrid Foam Finishing Pads - $10.99 Each x 6 = $65.94

    SONAX Glass Cleaner - $11.99

    Wolfgang Elastic Poly Clay Bar - FINE Grade - $29.99

    3D One - 16 ounce bottle 16 ounce bottle - $23.99

    Wolfgang Finishing Glaze 3.0 - 16 ounce bottle - 39.99

    Forrest Green Edgeless Microfiber towels - 12 Pack $19.99 x 4 = $79.96

    Cobra Storm Gray Edgeless Microfiber Polishing Cloth - 12 Pack - $19.99



    Total = $1,020.65



    Couple of comments for Do-it-Yourselfers


    If you already own an orbital polisher then you can subtract the cost of the FLEX 3401 ($436.00) to bring the cost down to $584.65

    And of course, if you already own plenty of pads and towels, ($360.72) this would bring the cost down to $223.93


    And if you already own compounds and polishes, car wash, clay, clay lube, then you can subtract these costs too.


    BIG PICTURE

    Here's the big picture. Everything I used was top shelf quality. I used one of the best, most powerful but safest tools on the market today. Also a tool that enables me to work fast as there's zero pad stalling. You can purchase less expensive tools but your time has a cost. If you're polisher is a free spinning polisher and the pad is stalling when buffing out curved panels and thin or intricate areas, this will take you more time to get the job done.


    If you don't have a huge pad collection to draw from then as your pads become wet with product (pad saturation), it's going to take you longer to do the paint correction step and you're also not going to get as good of results because wet pads don't do paint correction.

    If you use cheap products - say hello to micro-marring or what I call, working backwards or wasting time and perfectly good paint.


    There's lots of options for taking a car that is neglected to respected and each person can decide for themselves which path is the best path for them to go down, I merely showed you the path I took and from start to finish it took me 11.5 hours. It would have taken longer with less pads and a less powerful tool or I could have skimped on quality and left some swirls and scratches in the paint.



    Couple of comments for Do-it-For Me people

    Next time you call a detailer and get a price to have a ceramic coating installed on our car, truck or suv - the above costs are one factor as to why they charge as much as they charge. Even when a pro detailer already owns scads of pads and towels as well as their own tools, the reality is, they have to factor in wear-n-tear for these items. Buffing pads certainly don't last forever, neither do towels and tools.

    The biggest cost factor outside of tools, pads, towels and liquids is the time/labor factor. The way a car is buffed out is the detailer takes large panels like the hood, fender or door and divides them into smaller sections. Then the detailer buffs out these smaller sections using a series of 8 to 12 section passes. The "section passes", that is moving the buffer over the paint in a controlled and methodical manner TAKES TIME.

    A detailer cannot simply MOVE THE POLISHER FASTER to make the job faster - the pad, the product and the action of the tool needs a certain amount of time to work-over a section of paint to LEVEL it and thus remove the below surface defects while at the same time making it LOOK GOOD. That is the goal remember?

    So keep the above in mind when hiring a detailer to install a ceramic coating on your car's paint. If you really want to be thorough, as them,

    1. What kind of polisher do you use?
    2. What brand of paint correction products do you use?
    3. How many buffing pads and what type do you use for a car like mine?
    4. How long will it take you from start to finish?



    These are legit questions and an experienced detailer will have a good answer after looking at your car and diagnosing the below,

    1: The level of defects IN the paint - the worse the paint the more time it will take to undo the damage.

    2: The level of paint correction you want - the more perfect you want the paint the more paint correction steps will be needed.


    If the detailer has a great reputation, count yourself lucky they'll take your car. Remember, the factory clearcoat is THIN. There's not much room for error. If your car is important to you, let a true pro do the work if you decide you don't want to make car detailing your new hobby.


    If you do want to learn how to do-it-yourself then the good news is - this forum can help you to get what you need and then exactly how to use it.





  7. #5
    Mike Phillips
    Guest

    Re: Review: 3D Wipe Panel Wipe for Ceramic Coatings

    Continued....


    Couple other products used to complete the exterior detail.


    Tire Dressing

    For thin sidewall tires, I tend to use tire dressings instead of tire coatings. When it comes to tire dressings I prefer a water-based dressing SO I CAN REMOVE IT AND REPLACE IT. I know, most of the rest of the world wants a LONG LASTING tire dressing. The problem wit long lasting tire dressings is they are solvent-based so they don't break-down in water or more accurately, when you drive your car in the rain (water). But this also means they don't wash off when you wash your wheels and tires. And to the un-initiated this can seem like a good thing - the fact is - you're tires are going to get DIRTY. If you use a solvent-based tire dressing it's really difficult to wash the old dressing off along with all the road grime that builds-up on them.

    So instead - use a water-based dressing and this way you CAN easily wash it off and then REPLACE it. You see it's more about finding a product and process that enables you to maintain that pristine look to your tires versus trying to find the ultimate one-and-done tire dressing. It's not going to happen. As long as you're using dressings the tires are going to be messy. So find a product and process to reduce the messy part. The ultimate way to take care of tires in my opinion is a tire COATING but sometimes tire coatings simply are not the right product for the tire, the car and the car owners. So when a tire DRESSING is the right match - go with a water-based tire dressing.

    The above all said, the tires on this Porsche were brand new and had a tire dressing on them. I'm not sure what brand it was but that's the good thing about an ALL-IN-ONE tire dressing, the CLEANER in the tire dressing will remove the old dressing and replace it with itself. Especially when you MACHINE apply it like I do.

    Here's what I used for the tires.







    Glass Coating

    And here's what I used to coat and seal the glass.




    Note that while I was doing the compounding step with the 3D One and the orange foam cutting pads I machine polished the glass to remove all the years of road grime off of it so the PBL Surface Coating could make a proper bond.


    The good thing about the PBL Surface Coating on the windshield?

    No wiper chatter


    Also - the above tools, brushes and products are not factored into the costs I shared in the previous post.




  8. #6
    Mike Phillips
    Guest

    Re: Review: 3D Wipe Panel Wipe for Ceramic Coating - 2009 Porsche Carrera S 997.2s




    For those interested in 3D Wipe, here's my review for the 3D Ceramic Paint Coating.

    Review: 3D Paint Coating and 3D One Cutting Compound and Finishing Polish








  9. #7
    Super Member WillSports3's Avatar
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    Re: Review: 3D Wipe Panel Wipe for Ceramic Coating - 2009 Porsche Carrera S 997.2s

    Hey Mike,

    How strong would you rate this panel wipe? Right now I use CarPro Eraser. For example, I personally find Gyeon prep to be a bit weaker in comparison to CarPro Eraser, especially when it comes to some of the more oily leveling liquids. I also use CarPro Eraser as a detail spray for coated cars after a wash just because I find that no matter what it is, some sort of residue is always left and as a drying aid. Is this a product that I would be able to use? I'm interested because there actually is a 3D brick and mortar store near me.
    2016 Mazda 3 Sports GT
    2015 Lexus IS250 F Sport

  10. #8
    Mike Phillips
    Guest

    Re: Review: 3D Wipe Panel Wipe for Ceramic Coating - 2009 Porsche Carrera S 997.2s

    Quote Originally Posted by WillSports3 View Post

    Hey Mike,

    How strong would you rate this panel wipe?
    I don't think it's as strong as GTechniq Panel Wipe and I think it's easily one of the strongest panel wipes on the market.

    If I had to guess I would say it's stronger than GYEON Prep. I really like GYEON Prep by the way and not only have I used it a LOT I also have 20 bottles of it in my Detailing Class inventory so when I'm teaching GYEON - each student gets their own bottle to use when it comes to chemically stripping paint.

    I'd say for the cost - give it a try. One thing for sure, Tunch is the real deal when it comes to chemistry.



  11. #9
    Mike Phillips
    Guest

    Re: Review: 3D Wipe Panel Wipe for Ceramic Coating - 2009 Porsche Carrera S 997.2s

    More....


    Anyone that is a fan of 3D products or interested in 3D products - I highly recommend watching these 3 new videos we shot with Tunch here at Autogeek.

    My job as a host is to draw out the kind of information "we" are all interested in from the user's point of view. I've been doing this type of video work for a long time so I think you'll find these videos - information-rich.


    This first one goes over the 3D ceramic paint coating and also the panel wipe product I reviewed in this write-up.

    3D Ceramic Paint Coating






    3D SPEED - ONE and POXY






    3D Abrasive Technology







    Everything 3D!







  12. #10
    Mike Phillips
    Guest

    Re: Review: 3D Wipe Panel Wipe for Ceramic Coating - 2009 Porsche Carrera S 997.2s



    The 3D Wipe is now available in bulk size

    3D Wipe - 1 gallon


    Good stuff!

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