CQuartz after 20 months on my MKX

[richy]

The job I had lined up for this weekend cancelled a few days ago so it finally gave me the chance I've been waiting for to work on my Lincoln. I've had a scratch that I filled in months ago and haven't had time to sand and polish. I also wanted to put another layer of CQ on it too. Boy, was that a struggle...more on that later.
Here's the filthy condition it was in:















And here's the filled in scratch:





Now every job requires the proper tools. This cannot be emphasized enough!! Here's my favourite tool for detailing:




Wheels/Wells/Tires:

The wheels were cleaned with Zep Citrus and a wash mitt in a bucket of 901 soap using a few different brushes. I was going to seal the wheels again too, so I had to make sure they were perfectly clean. The tires were pretty good as I had sprayed them with DP gel about a week ago and had even been driven through rain (obvious from the pics above). They were cleaned with OPC as I am out of Zep Purple right now. The wells were cleaned with Zep Citrus. The lower trim was also done at this first stage too with ZC and a long handled brush.

Wash/Decontamination:

After the wheels and lower trim was done, it was time to do the washing stage. Now I have played with all sorts of things on top of the CQ like ReLoad, Permanon, DG AW, FK425. I sure wanted to make sure I was down to bare CQ, so I gave it a very strong mix of DG 901/Dawn foaming followed up by a wash of the same mixture. Usually I end it there, but with the car still wet, I took a wet grout sponge and put some IX gel on it and went around the whole car again. That was power washed off. Interestingly enough, there was no purple on the ground following this. I honestly thought there would have been after 20 months of ownership. It was then brought inside and clayed with Elastofoam.
At this point, I was sure I was down to bare CQ. I had asked Avi about topping another layer on the Lincoln a few months ago, and he asked me to shoot a video of how it is holding up prior to re-coating it. Since I had just shot the one with the Lexus after a year with OG, I thought that was only fair. I know it's had a lot of stuff covering it, but I think the sheeting is still very impressive after that much time.

Here's the video:

- Broadcast Yourself. _detailpage&v=vvPPkQeWQwo



First order of business was going to be the scratch repair. I used one of my 3" Megs 3000 grit sanding discs on my GG 3" DA. I shot some ONR on the disc prior to use and had at it. I was surprised at how fast it knocked it down. I did not allow it to interact for very long (5-10 seconds) and it took 3 passes to make it completely disappear. I had lots of paint to work with and it did not remove very much doing the repair. Here are some shots of the sanding process:










That area was very quickly repaired with my Dyna and a black wool TB pad and M105 followed by M205 and my Megs DA and a white B/S pad. That area was wiped down with ERASER.

Now, it was time to re-apply CQ. I went down to my basement and retrieved a brand new bottle I had since last year. I opened it and it had hardened up. Useless. A $50 investment down the bloody drain. I expected it to last longer than that in a climate controlled, unopened state. Not a happy camper.
Luckily, I had a 2nd unopened bottle. Thankfully it had not hardened. However, using it was not fun. It was about 25°C or about 80°F in my garage at the time. (I had not bothered with the A/C as I didn't think I was going to be all that long on it). It went on as I remember (it's been a year since I've used CQ) and it looked like it did before. I applied it to the paint and wheels.
Then I went to remove it. The instructions said 10 minutes in that temperature. It had been about 30 minutes. I always remember CQ did better with longer dry time than shorter. I went to remove it and it was just gummy. I was having a very difficult time removing it. I was having to press WAY too hard to remove. I said F it and went to bed.
The next day it had been on there for about 12 hours. At this point it was marginally easier to remove, but not like before, and not by much. I kept changing mf's to make sure I was not going to scratch by having to use a lot of pressure. Once again, not a happy camper. Not pleased with CQ. At all.

After allowing it to have cured for more than 24 hours, I applied Permanon to the surface. BTW, for the glass, I was saving it for last, but abandoned CQ and used OG on the glass. Permanon was also applied to the wheels and blown off and wiped for good measure after.

The tires and wells were sprayed with my air gun and DP gel. The trim was once again treated to UTTG.

The chrome tips were done with Collinite metal wax on the inside and were cleaned with M205 and a mf and then sealed with OG on the outside.

The interior (no shots taken as I did it tonight) was vacuumed. The seats were cleaned where necessary with my AG interior pad and OPC. They were then treated to UIGP. That was followed up with a sample of a leather sealant sent to me by a fellow L2D member. He had also sent me some carpet/fabric sealant that I used on the carpeting too. It was allowed to dry with my overhead fan on.

Here are the outside shots of the outside of the car:
























Remember the scratch???














Thanks for looking. Comments welcomed.

[Bigbull2984]

Looks great Richy! Sorry to here that about the cq..

[richy]

Looks great Richy! Sorry to here that about the cq..

Thanks. Ya, I don't get it? Maybe I'm too used to dealing with OG now??

[604_Snooze]

The 3" Griot DA looks pertty useful on small paint sanding and headlight restoration. But the 3000grit disc is expensive.

Hey Richy, remember the keyed corolla you post awhile ago, do you think you could save half the sanding time compare with hand sanding?

[bmwgeek]

Have you tried C1? Very easy to apply and remove.

[snellvilleauto]

Nice job as always. I am glad to heard you did your car the same way you do w/ your customer's vehicles. It showed that you care for their vehicles as much as yours. I have the same problem w/ CQ being "difficult" to buff off. That's the reason i like OC better. Thanks for sharing

[Avi@CarPro]

Hi Richy

sorry to hear you had difficulties with the CQ, but if you have had follow the instructions , Aka 10 min waiting at 25 deg C. you wouldnt find these problems..
its very easy to blame a product while not following the instructions.
30 min at high temp is way too long waiting and thats why you faced very hard removal.
about the Hardened bottle you got, we say very clearly, Cquartz is not normal chemical composition you know . it react with moister , storage it more then a year will make this hardening liquid you got.

if you have any questions about how to apply cquartz well you are more than welcome to contact me or Corey.

[richy]

The 3" Griot DA looks pertty useful on small paint sanding and headlight restoration. But the 3000grit disc is expensive.

Hey Richy, remember the keyed corolla you post awhile ago, do you think you could save half the sanding time compare with hand sanding?

The sanding discs save time, no question. The problem If I remember is that they are not available in as many grits as you would need.

Have you tried C1? Very easy to apply and remove.

No, I've tried AQ, CQ, OC (original pro version), OG and element 119. OG is my go-to now.

Nice job as always. I am glad to heard you did your car the same way you do w/ your customer's vehicles. It showed that you care for their vehicles as much as yours. I have the same problem w/ CQ being "difficult" to buff off. That's the reason i like OC better. Thanks for sharing

Thanks. I use my vehicle as a show piece when people ask what kind of work I do. Easier to do when the car is older, as it's more impressive.

Hi Richy

sorry to hear you had difficulties with the CQ, but if you have had follow the instructions , Aka 10 min waiting at 25 deg C. you wouldnt find these problems..
its very easy to blame a product while not following the instructions.
30 min at high temp is way too long waiting and thats why you faced very hard removal.
about the Hardened bottle you got, we say very clearly, Cquartz is not normal chemical composition you know . it react with moister , storage it more then a year will make this hardening liquid you got.

if you have any questions about how to apply cquartz well you are more than welcome to contact me or Corey.

Avi, I almost did contact you. I did not want to write a book on the difficulties I was having, but yes, I did follow them to the letter. The hood was done first and removal was attempted at exactly 10 minutes. The fenders were done at 15. Both very problematic. I remember from using it before that more time to cure was often better, and it did help somewhat, but it was much more difficult this time vs what I remember. I therefore decided to wait a longer time to see if it would help. At that point, it couldn't have been worse.
Was it because it was over previous CQ? Don't know. Was it because the bottle was a year old? Don't know. All I know is that I was not happy with what it took to remove it.
I'm not trying to bash you or the product. I'm just sharing my honest impression based on what happened. The video link didn't work, I will post it again. I think it's very impressive for 20 months.l

[richy]

I'll try this again:

[shoeless89]

Amazing work Richy, there is so much flake in that Lincoln paint color its CRAZY!