Silica Spray Showdown: McKee's v. Gyeon v. CarPro

[Eldorado2k]

This whole experiment has forced me to think about the question: "what is protection?" How do we really measure the level of protection? Does something that protects our clearcoat have to have perfect beads? Are disorganized beads a sign of protection? How fast does water sheeting have to be?

I would say that if a last step product exhibits any of these characteristics, it is protecting the paint. A perfectly rounded bead may be attractive to us, but that does not mean that an irregular water bead isn't a sign of protection.

*crowd chants* baggie test, baggie test, baggie test.

[kevincwelch]

*crowd chants* baggie test, baggie test, baggie test.

The thought had crossed my mind, and there is a mild case of bonded contamination...less than the rest of the car.

Now: I can take either a fine grade Nanoskin or Speedy Prep towel or some fine grade clay to the car, but I am concerned that I would take some of that coating with it. I'd be more afraid to spray it with an iron remover.

I've avoided doing those very things for fear of degrading the silica coatings.

But, maybe that's what I need to do...in sections.

[Eldorado2k]

Great thread. Appreciate you taking the time to answer everyone's questions and even taking requests + providing us with the honest results without shilling.

[kevincwelch]

Part of the reason why I didn't want to clay was that I was afraid it might degrade the silica coatings. Another reason why I didn't want to was that I couldn't fathom that the hood would be significantly contaminated.

Well, it wasn't as bad as the rest of the car (which hasn't been clayed in about 18 months), but it did "fail" the baggie test.

So, I divided the hood into a top section (near the windshield) and a bottom section (near the grill). The bottom section was decontaminated with N914 using their clay lube dilution (1:128 - same as the waterless dilution) and a Griot's clay. After everything was cleaned, the baggie test was performed again, and the hood was a smooth as a baby's behind.

Here are the pictures of the beading on the cleaned and clayed surface.

Panel A/Product A



Panel B/Product B



Panel C/Product C



Perhaps slightly better, but at this point, it's hard to judge whether they are in fact better. So subjective. What I can say is that the beads are not super tight and round like they were on Day 1. But, I still see protection.

Here is the video of the water sheeting test. Judge for yourselves, but I'm not seeing a whole lot of differences in the beading and the sheeting, but I would also ask anyone else to weigh in at this point. There are some small beads left behind after the sheeting, so I'm not certain what that is at this point...

[Cruzscarwash]

Looks like B has the most rounded beads and the others are more of the blob randomly shaped variety

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[WRAPT C5Z06]

Sheeting performance fell of real quick. Still plenty of beads. Regardless of shape, that still shows protection, IMO.

[kevincwelch]

Going through Week #5 now.

Update: the car traveled to Little Rock over the past week. Highway driving. Rain. Bugs. Outdoors 24/7 while in St. Louis and Little Rock. I removed the bugs and grime from the front with Gyeon Bug & Grime Remover. See my review here. I washed the rest of the vehicle with Rupes m101 and refreshed the REST of the vehicle with HydrO2.

Here are photos of the hood today.

Panel A/Product A



Panel B/Product B



Panel C/Product C





Frankly, I'm disappointed with the beads. The aren't tight. They're flat. They're irregularly dispersed. But, they are present, and this suggests some level of protection. To be practical, if my hood looked like this, I'd be reapplying a product at this point.


Here's the video of the bulk water sheeting. I'd take the time to make sure it is full screen and in 1080p.





To be honest, I'm really disappointed with the performance of all three products. The beading is subpar and the sheeting is simply horrible at this stage. Products A and C appear to be doing somewhat better than Product B in the sheeting department, but frankly all three are unimpressive at this stage.

[vobro]

I'd say you've reach the end point

[MattPersman]

Thanks for the update buddy ! On to coatings or 808 testing next ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Desertnate]

Thank you for doing this test and the follow through over the last few weeks.

I've always wondered about this class of product and how well it would hold up to daily driver use.