My Review of Black Fire Crystal Coat

**Krwtek1** · 04-04-2015, 10:43 PM

Spent the first part of this weekend doing the prep work and applying the new Black Fire Crystal Coat Paint Coating. I will follow this up with longevity and durability testing. This was the first coating that I have applied. There was a slight learing curve and i will go over that in a bit.

As this is the first real attention i have given my truck since just before the first of the year. I started with a good wash, scrubbing wheel wells, tires, normal attention given to wheels, paint, and glass. I also used my new bottle of Trix, I saw bleeding even where i didnt see any visual evidence of rail dust. While the truck was still wet i used my new NanoSkin Sponge Fine Grade, broke it in on the glass then proceded to the paint as directions recommended. The paint was washed once more then dried. The NanoSkin did a great job. I didnt notice any marring but i did notice while dying some streaking of what appeared to be ruber residue. The streaks appeared to be removed while drying. ONR was used as lube diluted to clay lube ratio. The Trix was very effective on iron and tar no visible iron deposits were left and very very little tar was left over was easily removed with mineral spirits. Any remaining watermwas blown out of crevises, mirors, molding with compressed air. (High class i know) Time spent 3 hours.

Polished as needed. Two spots had to be corrected with M105 and a yellow 4" LC pad. A scratch over the drivers rear wheel well and a stone scratch on the hood. The res of the truck was gone over with a orange 6" LC pad and WGTSR/ M205. I was able to stretch my remaining TSR to get the complete the cap roof, cab roof, and hood. I then switched to M205 for the verticle panels. The polishing was finished up with WGFG an a blue 6"LC pad. This much polishing was more than likely unnecessary as the paint showed only a few rids and no visible swirling. I will admit it was worth it. The paint shines better now than the day i drove it home from the dealer. Time spent 10 hours.

Black Fire Coating Prep Spray. I went over the truck three times with this, 15 minutes in between each wipe down to allow for complete evaporation. The pray seemed to be effective the first use. I chose to do two more wipe downs due to fear of having ANY issues with the application process of the coating.

At this point i was tempted to throw a coat of my trusted WGDGS on and call it a day. I was hesitant to aply the coating due to the fact that it doesnt "play well with waxes/ sealants" when layered. I will admit that i should have done more research befor selecting this product simply for this reason. I also read varying reviews on DP and PBL coating as far as long term hydrophobic and longevity concerns. Knowing that all three brands are PBMG brands i have fears that the new BFCC would result in the same results. Only time will tell.

Black Fire Crystal Coat Paint Coating. Again this is my first experience with a coating. My understanding of the application process was limited. I PM'd Nick@autogeek and left a message with the Black Fire customer support line, both with no response. Thay must have been closed down thursay for a long holiday weekend. Nick@autogeek stated that the application process was similar to GTechniq Crystal Lacquer. So i google this product and watched the application how to videos by the manufacturer. I also got some very helpfull advise from HateSwirls. So i started the application on the cap roof. Working with the "wet to wet" aplication method i coated the entire cap roof working four sections. The flashing process took place 3-6 minutes after i finished the last section. It was dificult to tell when the coaring had flashed on my light color and high metalic content paint. It does not flash to a haze, more like a rainbow effect. High spots were leveled with little effort. This is where i again was foggy with correct method. The bottle say to let flash for one minute then polish residue off with microfiber. The GTechniq video shows their product flashing after a few minute, the high spots being leveled, wait a minute or so, then buff the panel to remove any remaining residue. The Gtechniq method seemed to be done with less effort and grabbing of the microfiber. When following the BF directions i felt the microfiber grabbing the surface significantly more seeming to remove un flashed coating too soon. I followed the GTechniq methos for therest of the truck. Maybe i was wrong in not strictly adhearing to the directions on the BFCC bottle, if so smeone let me know. I moved to the cab roof and once it was completed I now felt that I had the application process under control. I continued to each panel, coating sections of each panel, working wet to wet, until the panel was completely coated, then leveling and buffing each panel before moving onto the next. Please correct this process if it is incorrect. I had little info to go on.

After curing over night i dressed the tires, polished and applied a coat of DGPS to the door jams and tailgate jam, cleaned the windows, and pulled outside for an inspection. After inspection the truck was quickly pulled back into the garage for the rest of the 24 hour cure time.

All said and done the BFCC looks great. The melted glass shell has an extreme gloss/ shine appearance. The application process was easy once figured out. The coating is forgiving when applying with ample time to knock down high spots and buff residue away. The slickness was less than what was expected. Not quite sure if this characteristic even means anything. It is substantially less than DGPS. Again not sure if this is even a fair comparison. The bottle and pour sput just plain sucks. It is very difficult to regulate ammount dispensed out of pour spout to just a few drops causing over dispensing coating to applicator and coating running down side of bottle. The product would have been much easier to manage if a finger pump sprayer or a better pour spout was included. Poor packaging of a seemingly great product. Long term characteristics are obviously not in yet. I was afraid the coating would mute the metalic in the paint, it actually did the opposite. I did notice the coating actually seemed to darken the paint a bit. These observations may just be and optical illusion but i noticed them. I guess each product has its effect on the paint, i know WGDGPS seem to bring a warm golden glow to this color.