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Product Review and Application: CarPro Cquartz Protective Coating

Product Review and Application - CarPro Cquartz Protective Coating

Here’s an article that’s pretty much a carbon copy of the one on 22ple VX3, but with CarPro’s Cquartz Ceramic Quartz Paint Coating.  As I did in the other article, I wanted to show those not familiar with these paint coatings how they look when applied, when drying and when to remove them.  That said, here are some photos showing Cquartz…

I use the same amount of product with pretty much every coating, especially when initially priming the applicator pad…

When applied, Cquartz looks very wet as you would imagine a liquid would look like when wiped onto the paint…

Soon after application, usually within 30-45 seconds, it starts to “bubble up” or “sweat”.  This is not an indication to wipe off, rather you want to find the right time for the paint and temperature.  I’ll touch on that a bit later in the article…

After wiping it off, you get a nice and clean surface…

Also did some testing with Cquartz on the red Porsche…

Here you can clearly see the “sweating”…

After about 3 minutes I decided to wipe it off…

Cquartz, while a great product that offers really good protection and an awesome look (I believe it darkens the paint a bit compared to other similar coatings), is not a breeze to remove by any means.  It can be tricky and if you wait too long (sometimes if you remove too early) you can run into trouble and have to re-polish the panel.  When you initially wipe the coating, it leaves some streaks…

That is normal.  However, finding the right time as mentioned above means that when you wipe with a second side of the towel, the streaks should wipe off and you should have nice and clear paint…

If you keep wiping and the streaks are still there, you’re either wiping off too early or too late.  Unfortunately, Cquartz has a very short window of when it’s good to wipe off and with temperature ranges that window is harder to find.  For example, in warm weather, you should be removing it anywhere from 2-3.5 minutes roughly.  In colder weather, it can be 2.5/3 minutes up to 5-6, which makes it hard to get it perfectly right.  The best solution is simply using it on a small section, timing it and finding the time range that allows it to be removed in the easiest manner.

Keeping in mind that if you start removing too early, you’ll simply be wiping and wiping while it keeps streaking and streaking.  It will be easy to wipe as it is still mainly in liquid form.  On the other hand, if you wait too long to remove, you’ll still get the same streaking look after wiping a lot, but you’ll know you waited too long by feeling quite a bit of resistance or it being “grabby”.

Bottom line, CarPro Cquartz is a great product that needs a bit of a learning curve initially, but provides great looks and protection.

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