Review: Pinnacle Black Label Diamond Ceramic Coating Pro

[muaddba]

While I am but a hobbyist, I ordered some of this coating recently based on this post and gave it a shot on my car. I spent a lot of time claying and polishing with various compounds and polishes, and in the end decided that even though there are visible scratches remaining in the car, I don't want to cut too deeply into the clear coat of my daily driver trying to remove them, especially since I am still learning, unsure of my technique, etc, and it's a black car, which is the hardest to get looking perfect.

I worked on this on my birthday, because what better way to spend it? In the end, though, my lovely wife was waiting to take me out to dinner so I rushed the job a little bit. Never keep a beautiful woman who wants to buy you dinner waiting, that is a SOLID piece of relationship advice. Even if it means....

The next day, I discovered what some of that rushing had cost me: I completely forgot to buff the coating off the side mirror I did while waiting for the door panel to flash, and also left a couple of HUGE high spots of unbuffed coating (one on a door, pretty much forgot to buff the whole 24x24 area, and one on a front quarter panel where I just...missed a spot.)

This is where I discovered the truth of what Mike talked about in his review. This coating is HARD. I used a Lake Country blue finishing pad with M205 and after about 10 passes using a Griot's G9 I could still see that I had not removed it all. At that point I switched to M105 (same pad) and was able to get it cleaned up enough to wipe the panel and re-apply (sorry, re-install?) the coating. Of course in my stupidity I didn't take any pictures, and have since driven the car and gotten dirt on it. I'll post a picture or two after the next tine I wash it. Bottom line is make sure you don't rush the job.

[Mike Phillips]

The next day, I discovered what some of that rushing had cost me: I completely forgot to buff the coating off the side mirror I did while waiting for the door panel to flash, and also left a couple of HUGE high spots of unbuffed coating (one on a door, pretty much forgot to buff the whole 24x24 area, and one on a front quarter panel where I just...missed a spot.)

This is where I discovered the truth of what Mike talked about in his review. This coating is HARD. I used a Lake Country blue finishing pad with M205 and after about 10 passes using a Griot's G9 I could still see that I had not removed it all. At that point I switched to M105 (same pad) and was able to get it cleaned up enough to wipe the panel and re-apply (sorry, re-install?) the coating. Of course in my stupidity I didn't take any pictures, and have since driven the car and gotten dirt on it. I'll post a picture or two after the next tine I wash it.

Bottom line is make sure you don't rush the job.

I feel your pain. I've missed coating before and have had to compound it off the next day. A real paint in the butt.


And after a customer had this same experience and based upon my own experience, I wrote this article,

Installing a Ceramic Paint Coating? You MUST have a GREAT hand held light to avoid high spots!






I kind of like the Griot's Garage Swirl Finder Light for inspecting for high spots. I use the LED bar light.


Griot's Garage THE BOSS LED Swirl-Finder Light